Year two thousand has come and gone. Yet referencing
dates is an integral part of telephone management, and so
how TeleMarshal addressed those issues is still relevant,
and it illustrates some useful features...

The Year 2000 solutions did not impact users, since all
changes were made to the programs, not the data or the
procedures. The updated programs were sent to all
customers under Support Service at no additional charge.

There are three sources of dates within TeleMarshal
(discussed below):
     (1) the dates on the call detail records that come from
the PBX or telco billing file
     (2) the dates internal to TeleMarshal , such as the
beginning and ending dates of the current reporting
period and operating period.
     (3) the computer's run date

All these dates have been maintained within TeleMarshal
as six digit numbers in YYMMDD format, such as 031002
for October 2, 2003. At the point where a user encounters
these dates, such as on reports and screens, they continue
to appear as six digit numbers, usually displayed as
MM/DD/YY. Internally to the programs, some of them
now are stored as eight digit numbers in YYYYMMDD
format, such as 20031002.
 

Dates on the Call Detail and Telco Billing Records:
The formats of the dates supplied by the PBX in the call
detail records, or by the carrier on computer readable
billing records, vary considerably from supplier to supplier.
Some PBX's already supply dates in YYYYMMDD format;
most do not. In fact, many call detail records do not include
a year at all, just a month and day  (MMDD), or a day of
year (DDD).

For call records that do not supply the year, TeleMarshal
determines the year by comparing the date in the PBX
record with the computer run date. If the month in the PBX
record is the same or earlier than the run month, then the
record  is presumed to be for the same year; if the month in
the PBX record is later than the run month, it is presumed
to be for the previous year, such as when December call
records are processed in January.

The information within the call detail records is placed in a
standard traffic file format, and stored in an Image
Database, keyed on  the date of the call in YYMMDD
format. Records continue to be stored this way, so a file
conversion was not necessary. When the records are
retrieved for processing, the programs convert dates into
YYYYMMDD format as required.

TeleMarshal retrieves records for online display by a
number of other fields besides date, such as by extension,
department, called number, etc.; but these secondary keys
and the addresses of the corresponding records are kept in a
file constructed and maintained by TeleMarshal outside of
the traffic database.

 

Dates Internal to TeleMarshal:
From the beginning--TeleMarshal was first installed in
1984--the processing of dates within the TeleMarshal
System has been automated, so the user does not have to
enter any dates in the normal course of routine daily or
monthly processing. Each TeleMarshal computer program
reads today's date and time from the computer, and from
today´s date determines where it is in the monthly cycle.So
programs that create monthly reports, for example, know
without being "told", what are the beginning and ending
dates of the most recent reporting period.

A date control record, set up at the time of installation,
establishes how the system is being operated datewise. It
might run on a calendar month, or say from the 20th of the
month to the 19th of the next so as to conform to a
telephone company's billing cycle; or on a cycle of thirteen
week quarters with some combination of four and five week
accounting periods totaling thirteen weeks; or if necessary
the user can supply a table of  reporting period beginning
or ending dates. The latter is avoided if possible, since it
requires semiannual updates to the list of dates. Thirteen
week accounting periods need to be adjusted every few
years, typically by introducing a six week period, and that
adjustment can be entered in the date control record before
that period arrives.

The control records have not been changed; only the
internal processing, which distinguishs the twentieth from
twenty-first century years.

The Computer's Run Date:
Of the three sources of dates, the Computer Run Date is
the simplest one to address. If the computer's operating
system has been updated for Year 2000, the TeleMarshal
System correctly receives today's date in whatever format
is appropriate..

Hewlett Packard did not upgrade for year 2000 in computer
models it was no longer supporting, and so users of these
older, "classic"computers may have beeen inclined to
abandon them. However, TeleMarshal can function in
these unsupported computers by adding 28 years to the
computer's run date after 1/1/00.  The days of the week in
1972 correspond with the days of the week in year 2000
(January 1 is a Saturday in both years and both are leap
years). So if the user wishes to run TeleMarshal on one of
these older computers, using a 1900's date, TeleMarshal
will still run correctly with a 2000's date, and do so with
the same level of automation.