Ask FirstNet about Voice
Telephone Management & Cost Control
Gain visibility and control over telecom usage, policies, and spend across the enterprise.
The Challenge
Telecom costs can balloon without clear visibility and governance.
Shadow services, unused lines, and policy gaps drive waste and risk. Finance and IT need a single source of truth for usage, costs, and policy enforcement to keep budgets in check.
Quick answers
Will this work with our existing PBX?
Yes. We support data ingestion from a wide range of PBX and UC platforms.
Can we allocate costs to departments?
Yes. Chargeback models are supported, with flexible tagging and reporting.
Do you provide alerts for unusual usage?
Yes. Thresholds and anomaly detection highlight potential issues quickly.
How much effort is needed from our IT team?
On FirstNet Hosted PBX the call data feed is native. For Microsoft Teams, your Global Admin grants Graph API permissions once during onboarding.
Our Expertise
TMS platform unifies call detail records.
At FirstNet, our TMS platform unifies call detail records, reporting, and policy management. Identify anomalies, enforce rules, and allocate costs accurately across departments or sites.
Dashboards, alerts, and scheduled reports keep stakeholders informed and accountable.
- Cost Optimisation: find waste and right-size plans and add-ons.
- Policy Enforcement: apply rules to reduce misuse and risky behaviour.
- Chargeback & Allocation: fair distribution of costs to business units.
- Operational Insight: usage trends to inform procurement and planning.
How We Deliver
Connect to PBX/UC systems and carriers data.
At FirstNet, we connect to your PBX/UC systems and carriers to centralise data and automate reporting.
Data Integration
Ingest CDRs and billing data from multiple sources.
Dashboards & Alerts
Real-time insight and anomaly notifications.
Governance
Role-based access and auditable policy enforcement.
Onboarding
Quick setup with templates for common policies.
Explore the details
Case studies: University and retailReduced telecom spend by 25% through policy enforcement and plan optimisation. · Identified under-used…
University
Reduced telecom spend by 25% through policy enforcement and plan optimisation.
Retail
Identified under-used lines, consolidating services across
branches.
FirstNet Apex BI ClarityClarity is Apex BI's Telecom Management System, delivered by FirstNet as a co-branded service. It turns…
The platform
FirstNet Apex BI Clarity
Clarity is Apex BI's Telecom Management System, delivered by FirstNet as a co-branded service. It turns PBX call records and Microsoft Teams calling data into cost-centre chargeback, call analytics, live wallboards and audit-grade reporting on one contract.
Clarity for PBX
Tracks call costs by department or cost centre. Native on FirstNet Hosted PBX; legacy PBXs supported where CDR or SMDR data is available.
Clarity for MS Teams
Uses Microsoft Graph API for inbound and outbound PSTN reporting deeper than Teams' built-in reports. Works with Operator Connect, Direct Routing or Calling Plans.
Live wallboards
Real-time queue, longest-wait, agent availability and calls-in-progress views for contact-centre and customer-facing teams.
Mobile and IoT
Adjacent Clarity modules allocate mobile voice and data costs and give visibility across IoT sensors and trackers.
One view across PBX and TeamsVendor portals usually report per PBX and per site. Clarity unifies data from FirstNet Hosted PBX, legacy…
Mixed estates
One view across PBX and Teams
Vendor portals usually report per PBX and per site. Clarity unifies data from FirstNet Hosted PBX, legacy PBXs and Microsoft Teams, so the same chargeback model and dashboards apply wherever a call landed, including during a PBX-to-Teams migration.
- Spend by department, cost centre, project, site or extension
- Abandonment, call duration, agent performance and queue statistics
- Threshold alerts and exception reports to prevent bill shock
- Immutable call-activity record for POPIA, FSCA, healthcare and education audits
From data feed to dashboardsAgree your cost-centre model and wallboard viewer count · Connect the PBX CDR feed and grant Teams Graph…
Getting started
From data feed to dashboards
- Agree your cost-centre model and wallboard viewer count
- Connect the PBX CDR feed and grant Teams Graph API consent
- Build dashboards and calibrate chargeback rules with a pilot team
- Tune reporting over 2 to 4 weeks after data starts flowing
- Train supervisors and finance, then roll out fully
We’ve got every call covered. Choose us as your long-term partner.
Why Choose FirstNet
Quick savings assessment
How long before reports are useful?
Dashboards and chargeback rules are typically tuned to your cost-centre model within 2 to 4 weeks after data starts flowing.
What savings can we expect?
Customers commonly find recoverable spend such as mis-billed extensions, under-used services and out-of-policy usage. The first month's report quantifies it for your estate; no fixed percentage is promised.
Can't we build this ourselves in Power BI?
You can, but ongoing data engineering, Graph API schema changes and chargeback rule maintenance are where DIY projects stall. Clarity is a productised platform with Apex BI's roadmap behind it.
Where is call data stored?
Clarity stores call metadata in the Apex BI cloud. Access controls, audit trail and retention settings are documented in FirstNet's service terms to support your POPIA programme.
How are wallboards licensed?
Wallboards are licensed per concurrent viewer, so confirm how many screens or supervisors need live views up front.
What is a telecom management system?
A telecom management system collects call records and usage data and turns them into cost, activity and performance reports. FirstNet Apex BI Clarity reads call detail records from your PBX and Microsoft Teams calling data through the Graph API. It shows spend by department, cost centre, project, site or extension, call analytics such as duration and abandonment, live wallboards and threshold alerts to prevent bill shock.
Can we report on Microsoft Teams calls?
Yes. Clarity for MS Teams uses the Microsoft Graph API to report on inbound and outbound PSTN calls, call duration, abandonment, agent activity and cost-centre chargeback, going deeper than Teams' built-in reporting. It works whether you call through Operator Connect, Direct Routing or Microsoft Calling Plans. Your Microsoft 365 Global Admin grants the Graph API permissions once during onboarding.
Can we see PBX and Teams calls in one report?
Yes. Where you run a PBX at some sites and Microsoft Teams at others, Clarity combines PBX call records and Teams Graph API data in a single tenant. You get one view, one chargeback model and the same dashboards, wherever the call was made or answered. This helps organisations moving from a PBX to Teams that need consistent reporting during the transition.
What do live call-centre wallboards show?
Clarity wallboards give contact-centre and customer-facing teams a real-time view of their operation, including calls in the queue, the longest wait, agents available and calls in progress. Supervisors can spot pressure points as they happen. Wallboards are licensed per concurrent viewer, so it helps to know how many screens and people need live access before setup.
FirstNet ensures dashboards, alerts, and scheduled reports to keep stakeholder informed and accountable.
Request a TMS demo and a quick savings assessment based on your current billing data.
From the Knowledge Hub
In-depth answers about Telephone Management & Cost Control
- Does FirstNet Apex BI Clarity alert us to unusual telecom usage?
- How much IT effort does FirstNet Apex BI Clarity need to set up?
- Why use FirstNet Apex BI Clarity instead of building telecom reports in Power BI?
Your place in the stack
Voice is layer 4 of 5.
Enriched by Sovereign AI Turn call recordings into structured, searchable data on the AI Factory; the recordings never leave South Africa. Explore the AI Factory →