Moonstone Monitor 7 July 2008 : Cell Phone Voice Logging

To voice-log or not; that would be the question if the bard was a modern day financial service provider.

While the recording of telephonic data is useful, there can be practical problems, as illustrated recently in a determination published by the FAIS Ombud. We quote from the actual determination:

Respondent telephoned Van Rooyen to confirm that his insurance was ‘in order’. He alleges Van Rooyen assured him that it was. He then told Van Rooyen of the damage to the trailer and that he wanted to institute a claim. After a long silence, Van Rooyen exclaimed that the trailer was not covered as he was still sourcing quotes for it and that there was no signed contract in place as yet. He then said he ‘ “...didn’t think that the trailer would fall over that quickly” ’.

Van Rooyen denies having told complainant that cover was in place as contended by him. He says he told complainant that ‘everything was recorded and that I would be able to listen to the voice-log to confirm our conversation on the 23rd of August 2006. Afterwards I realised that Mr Van der Walt contacted me on my cell-phone, and was therefore not voice-logged by our system.’

For the record we need to clarify that the Ombud found in favour of the broker as a result of a number of discrepancies in the testimony of the complainant, but this could have had serious repercussions for the broker if this is all he had to rely on.

There is new technology available for those wishing to include voice logging of cell phone conversations. A provider that we are currently testing is Xelnex. Their Voice Logging Solution allows you to record a mobile conversation or message which is encrypted and securely stored on a remote server, and safely retrieved in seconds through the easy to use web interface.
The Xelnex Voice Logger records your telephonic conversation and instantly encrypts the message, tags it with a time stamp, the serial number of your mobile phone as well as your mobile number and the caller's mobile or telephone number. It is then streamed to a secure vault or storage environment for immediate access via a web interface. You or any other authorised person can access this mobile conversation or message as a secure voice file, decrypt it and listen to it again.

The Xelnex Voice Logging Solution now allows financial advisors, and any other advisory professionals to significantly extend their secure and legal transacting ability away from their desk or office, any time and anywhere in the world.