Reporting 2.0 – The Reporting Roadmap at 3CX

What we are doing – and when – to make reporting great at 3CX!

Reporting 2.0 is set to revolutionize analytics at 3CX. Although still in development, when it’s ready, it promises to be a game-changer. Here’s an update on what we’ve been working on and what you can expect from this highly anticipated feature.

We’re building dedicated call telephony tables and database views designed to capture advanced call metrics and statistics. These enhancements include in-depth call tracking, call journey analysis, and more accurate data on metrics such as call durations, hold times, and queue performance. These improvements aim to provide invaluable insights to help businesses enhance operational efficiency.

Historically, reporting hasn’t been a top priority for 3CX, as our focus has been on real-time call processing, with advanced analytics left to third-party solutions. While initial backend improvements in Version 20 laid the foundation, they were not sufficient – hence the need for Reporting 2.0. Although we initially aimed for release with Update 5 this year, the timeline has shifted to ensure we deliver a truly exceptional and best-in-class solution.

In this blog post, we take the opportunity to outline the timelines and exact changes we’re doing to make 3CX reporting best-in-class.

A New CDR Table – Better Data, Better Reporting

One major decision we took is to make a new improved CDR format. Currently we have a CDR and a call log database – but it’s complex. Some data is not there or is derived from other data. To be able to build a solid reporting engine we’ve decided to go back into the core of 3CX, log calls better and create an improved CDR record per call that allows for proper in-depth reports. The new CDR format requires reworking of the core for better logging of calls and converting the old call record table to the new format.

After that we can proceed to update current reports to use the new CDR records. This will mean more accurate reporting, two new reports for Inbound and Outbound Calls per Trunk / DID and somewhat faster generation of reports.

Inbound and outbound call reports will show: Date, Time, CallerID, TrunkID, DID (if inbound), CallStatus (Connected or not), RingingTime, TalkingTime, TotalCallDuration, AnsweredBy, RecordingUrl, and BillingCost (if outbound).

We expect to finish development of this step before the end of the year and to deliver this early in the new year.

New CDR format: Key Metrics for Deeper Telephony Insights

The new CDR format captures a wide range of call center metrics, including caller details, call flows, termination reasons, and performance indicators. Here’s a sample of the information available:

• Call Details: Unique identifiers like cdr_id and call_history_id for seamless tracking and cross-referencing.
• Participant Information: Detailed fields for both source and destination participants, such as source_participant_id, source_participant_name, destination_participant_id, and destination_participant_name, covering names, phone numbers, trunk DID, and connection details.
• Call Flow and Termination Reasons: Fields like originating_cdr_id (the initiating call) and creation_forward_reason provide insight into the call’s journey and termination with fields like termination_reason and terminated_by_participant_id.
• Timestamps: Key metrics on call timing, including cdr_started_at (start time), cdr_answered_at (answer time), and cdr_ended_at (end time), enabling precise calculations of hold times, talk times, and durations.
• Connection Details: Fields like source_participant_is_incoming and destination_participant_is_already_connected show connection status, such as whether participants were incoming or already connected.

Third party reporting solutions will need to rework their product, by pointing visualizations to the new BI ready database tables.

A BI-Ready Database Schema

Separate to the new CDR format that captures more and more accurate data, we’re working on a separate database that will report on call data in a call-analytics friendly way. This involves taking the CDR record -post processing it – and storing the data in a summarized format as Business-Intelligence-ready tables to allow for in-depth reporting via reporting solutions such as Grafana or Power BI.

These BI-ready tables are organized into a dedicated data mart – a structured analytics layer derived from real-time raw call data. This setup isolates essential fields and metrics, transforming raw data into cleaned, normalized formats optimized for fast querying. The Datamart empowers BI tools with ready-to-use data views, delivering actionable insights with minimal SQL knowledge for your business analysts and supervisors.

We expect to deliver these BI-ready tables shortly after the new CDR format.

This BI Ready Database Schema will be an Enterprise Edition feature.

Report Templates for Grafana and Power BI

Another deliverable will be a set of reporting templates in Grafana and Power BI giving you out-of-the-box call analytics views based on those BI-ready tables. These templates will include the current report layouts – now also including graphs – as well as new views and reports. Examples of these reports will include:

Importantly you will be able to edit these templates and very easily create your own reports on the data.

Security of the New BI Tables

These new BI-ready tables will be housed within a separate database schema, accessible via a dedicated port different from the main PostgreSQL port. This allows you to connect directly to the BI-ready tables securely.

3CX administrators won’t need to expose the main production PostgreSQL port to the internet. The 3CX Admin will generate private keys for BI users, to be imported into Power BI and Grafana for authentication. Port forwarding can be configured to allow only authorized BI users access to these analytics tables, separating them from core telephony tables.

Scheduling

Within the Grafana and Power BI platforms you will have many scheduling and formatting options.

Power BI or Grafana

We will support both Power BI and Grafana out-of-the-box. Grafana has a free edition which allows you to get started at no cost. Power BI also has a big user base and many Microsoft based companies might already have licensing in place for Power BI. The choice is yours.

Conclusion

It’s envisaged that a beta of the new reporting will be available in January 2025. So sit tight, enjoy the holiday knowing we’re working full steam ahead to deliver Reporting 2.0!