MELCO vs. DEES Service Observing

Also known as a Teletrainer, a Service Observing unit is designed to allow a supervisor to listen to telephone representatives.  A unit can monitor 30 phones and can be expanded to 90 phones.  Service observing is a simple and effective way to train, assist and evaluate employees.  Melco was a pioneer in service observing beginning in the 1970’s.   In the 1980’s the product was acquired by Thomas & Betts.  When component parts became unavailable in the 1990’s T&B simply dropped the Melco product line.

The units bridge the analog telephones and allow a single supervisor to select and listen in to any connected telephone.  With digital phones and VoIP phones, the service observing units are connected to the phone with a handset tap.  With the handset tap, the supervisor’s talk assist may only talk to the local person, not the party being called.  Also the tone alert is only heard by the local telephone.  A wire pair from each handset tap must be connected to the service observing unit, thus more wires throughout the office.  The handset adapter is also subject to misuse.  The EDAC, electronic digital to analog converter, was developed to bridge the digital phone pairs (not for VoIP phones) and provide the service observing unit the audio for monitoring.  The EDAC provides a more dependable interface, however using an EDAC does not allow talk assist or tone alert.

Fortunately, Dees manufactures an exact replacement for the Melco KMT-330AT 30 line unit and the KMX-333B 30 line expansion unit.   Dee’s product is called the CM-30 and the expansion unit is the CMX-300.  Dees uses a small power supply model 368 in place of the large regulated Melco MPS-120 power supply.  The Dees unit uses modern technology and is well received by the call center market.  The CM-30 will replace a Melco KMT-330AT with the same connectors with no changes in the input or output connections.  However, the optional talk assist and optional tone alert is addressed differently.  These options can be added later as the Melco wire plan does not prevent the system to disturb operations when a Dees unit is reconnected.  The VLR Communications web site has operation and installation manuals for Melco and Dees products.

VLR Communications suggests customers using Melco and Dees service observing units consider replacing them with a voice logging recorder.  Recorders were much more expensive when service observing was introduced.  At their own desks, multiple supervisors may monitor calls, search for recordings, and even email recordings, all this over the LAN.  A recording replaces notes and hearsay long after the observed call is completed.  Recordings can be used to train new employees, document issues, and recordings can be shared with the call center’s customer as proof of performance.  Recorders can interface with analog, digital, T1 and VoIP phone systems.  Existing EDAC units can be used with analog input recorders.