What to do when your voice recording platform becomes obsolete
A dreaded moment for any enterprise technology customer is to be informed that a certain piece of computer software or hardware has been announced as “sunsetted” or “end-of-lifetime” (EOL). This triggers a hunt for an upgraded or alternative product, with the obligatory vetting, security review, deployment, migration, training, etc.
Voice recording platforms are particularly vulnerable to EOL due to frequent mergers and acquisitions within the industry. Examples include VPI Empower (acquired by NICE and discontinued), Interactive Intelligence (acquired by Genesys and renamed “PureConnect” and then discontinued), NICE NTR (replaced by NICE NTR-X), Racal Wordnet, Dictaphone Guardian, Eyretel Mediastore, and many more.
To complicate things further, some industries and agencies have a retention requirement for recorded audio (which might range anywhere from three years to forever), and the need to retain access to the recordings may extend beyond the EOL date.
For customers facing this EOL scenario, you have two choices: (a) follow the vendor’s recommended upgrade path for the discontinued product, or alternatively (b) open the procurement process and select a new recording vendor. Either way, you face a decision about what to do with the data from the obsolete system. Possible solutions include:
The pros and cons to each are summarized below:
| EOL OPTION | PROS | CONS |
| Continue to support old recorder in “playback only” mode | Simple | Expensive recurring costContinued need to host IT environment for old recorderProduct support could ceaseMedia degradation and failing hardware |
| Export all recordings from old recorder, import into new recorder | Single pane of glassNo dependency on closed file format for old recorder | One-time cost to export from old recorderAssumes that new recorder has import capability |
| Export all recordings from old recorder, import into new audio repository | No dependency on closed file format for old recorder | One-time cost to export from old recorderTwo panes of glass |
XOVOX can help you choose the best option and assist in its implementation. We have extensive experience extracting recordings from old recorders and preparing them for import into a new platform (be it your new recorder or another repository). We work directly with your old recorder’s audio archive, including hard disk storage, NAS, Centera, magnetic tape, or optical media. We transcode and transform the data as necessary for cloud storage or for any repository with a defined import specification. And we can often do it for far less cost than the ongoing support contract for your old system.
