Manage Call Recording with Webex Calling in Webex for Government

Overview

Calls made to and received on a desk phone or Webex App are recorded using Webex call recording functionality. As an administrator, you can enable call recording for all incoming and outgoing calls for specific users or virtual lines in your organization. We support On-demand recording, Always, and Always with Pause/Resume recording modes.

You must meet the following requirements:

Partner must enable a call recording service for your organization. By default, this service is on, so you can configure it for certain users.
Users have a Professional or Basic Webex Calling license.
Workspaces have a Professional Webex Calling license.
Consult your legal department about regulatory requirements for recording calls.

All Webex Calling customers have access to Webex Call Recording. Webex Calling customers can record calls with these options at no additional cost.

Webex is available to all users and gives access to unlimited recordings. Webex recordings are currently configured with a retention period of one year, and the storage per organization is 100GB. Compliance officers can access and manage call recordings for a selected storage location. Administrators can configure and manage a user's access to their call recordings. Users can manage their recordings using User Hub and Webex App.

Webex

When you select Webex as the call recording provider for an organization, no additional terms and service are required for the customer or partner administrator.

Select call recording provider

Enable call recording at organization level

1	Sign in to Control Hub.
2	Go to Services > Calling > Service Settings.
3	Under Call Recording , select Webex as the preferred call recording provider from the drop-down list for your organization.
4	Click Save. If a partner administrator is enabling call recording for their customers, the partner administrator user isn’t allowed in multiple customer accounts. The location level settings override the call recording provider selection. For more information, see the Override call recording at the location level section.

Disable call recording at organization level

1	Sign in to Control Hub.
2	Go to Services > Calling > Service Settings.
3	Under Call Recording Provider, select None from the drop-down list for the call recording provider for your organization. The Call Recording information window appears.
4	Check I understand turning off call recording will remove this feature for all users.
5	Click Save.

Enable compliance call recording announcement

You can enable the compliance announcement settings separately for inbound and outbound PSTN calls. On enabling the announcement, when the PSTN call is made or received, the caller (PSTN user) hears the announcement “This call is being recorded” only once at the beginning of the call. The recording starts after the user with call recording enabled answers the call. Once the compliance announcement is played, the start/stop recording announcements are suppressed for the Webex Calling user. Even when the midcall operations such as transfer are initiated on that call, announcements aren’t played multiple times. The visual indicator displays in the Webex App or on supported phones to indicate that the call is recorded.

When a user receives a call directly, the compliance announcement is played in the language that is set for the user in Users > Calling > Announcement Language.

When a workspace receives a call, the compliance announcement is played in the language that is set for the workspace in Workspaces > Calling > Announcement Language.

If an Auto Attendant, Call Queue, or Hunt Group feature receives a call directly, the compliance announcement is played in the language that is set for the Auto Attendant, Call Queue or Hunt Group in Calling > Features > Auto Attendant/Call Queue/Hunt Group > General Settings > Language.

The list of supported languages is in the respective setting's drop-down menu. If a call comes directly to a virtual line, the compliance announcement is played in the language that is set for the virtual line in Calling > Virtual Lines > select a virtual line > Calling > Announcement Language.

The compliance announcement audio doesn’t get recorded in the recording. However, if the call was recorded, the metadata sent to the call recording provider includes information about whether the compliance announcement or user/workspace announcements were played or not.

The user/workspace level announcement settings take precedence only if the compliance announcement isn’t played, and this applies only for the inbound calls. For more information, see Enable call recording for Webex Calling users and workspaces section.

We recommend that you enable user/workspace level announcement setting for all users/workspaces who have call recording enabled. This serves as a reliable alternative to play the regular announcements in case the compliance announcements fail to play for the inbound call.

You can enable the compliance announcement at the organization level and override it at the location level.

Enable compliance announcement at organization level

The compliance announcement is disabled by default at the organization level.

1	Sign in to Control Hub.
2	Go to Services > Calling > Service Settings.
3	Under Call Recording, enable any of the following compliance announcement options: Play announcement for inbound PSTN calls—Plays the compliance announcement to the caller before the call is answered. Play announcement for outbound PSTN calls—Plays the compliance announcement to the caller after the call is answered. Delay announcement —Turn this on to set an announcement delay time in seconds. The compliance announcement is played only after the time specified. This prevents the announcement from playing at the same time as a user or agent is greeting the customer. The maximum allowed announcement delay time is 60 seconds.
4	Under Call Recording Failure, you can choose the recording failure behavior. Proceed with the call, no announcement—Select this option to proceed with the call and make no announcement when the call recording fails. Proceed with the call, with announcement—Select this option to proceed with the call and make an announcement when the call recording fails. End the call with announcement —Select this option to end the call and make an announcement when the call recording fails. This configuration applies to all the recording platforms.
5	Click Save.

Override compliance announcement at location level

When a new location is created, the compliance announcement settings default to the organization level. You can override the settings at the location level.

1	Sign in to Control Hub.
2	Go to Management > Locations.
3	Select the location for which you want to modify the compliance announcement settings.
4	Go to Calling > Call Handling.
5	Click Call recording settings and enable any of the following options under the compliance announcements. Organization’s default—Select this option if you want to use the organization compliance announcement settings for the selected location. By default, this option is selected when a new location is created. Location specific settings—Select this option to override the organization announcement settings. Play announcement for inbound PSTN calls—Plays the compliance announcement to the caller before the call is answered. Play announcement for outbound PSTN calls—Plays the compliance announcement to the caller after the call is answered. Delay announcement —Turn this on to set an announcement delay time in seconds. The compliance announcement is played only after the time specified. This prevents the announcement from playing at the same time as a user or agent is greeting the customer. The maximum allowed announcement delay time is 60 seconds.
6	Click Save.

Enable call recording for Webex Calling users and workspaces

Before you begin

Ensure that users have a Professional or Basic Webex Calling user license assigned.
Ensure that workspaces have a Professional Webex Calling license assigned.

1	Sign in to Control Hub.
2	Go to the respective path: For Users: Go to Management > Users > select a user > Calling > User Call Experience. For Workspaces: Go to Management > Workspaces> select a workspace > Calling > Call Experience.
3	Turn on Call Recording. The user's call recording settings are cleared. Any calls that were recorded before this change are still maintained on the call recording provider platform. If a partner administrator enables call recording for their customers, the same partner administrator user isn’t allowed in multiple customer accounts. For a user with a standard license, Control Hub shows the call recording option when the location associated with the user has Webex as the call recording provider. The call recording option displays for the user only when the location call recording provider is set to default org call recording provider, and the org call recording provider is set to Webex call recording provider.
4	After enabling call recording, if a user is still having issues with recording calls, you can contact the call recording support providers with the information available in the Show call recording platform information section. From the Users page, go to Calling > User Call Experience > Call Recording > Show call recording platform information to find support. From the Workspaces page, go to Calling > Call Experience > Call Recording > Show call recording platform information to find support.
5	Configure any of the following settings: On Demand—Choose this option if you want to grant users control over when they can start and end recordings. You may also choose the pause and resume notification, if applicable. Always—Choose this option to record all incoming and outgoing calls. Always with pause/resume—Choose this option if you want to grant users control over when they can pause and resume recordings. Never—This option is selected by default. Record voicemail—Choose this option if you want to read voice messages sent and received. If storage space is a concern, you may not want to select this option. Recording start/stop announcement—Choose any of the following options to manage the audible announcement played when recording starts or stops for PSTN calls and internal calls. Play recording start/stop announcement for PSTN calls—Choose this option to play a standard announcement at the beginning of all incoming and outgoing PSTN calls notifying all parties that the call is being recorded. You may require this announcement to comply with the legal requirements based on the business needs. If the compliance announcement is enabled at the organization or location level, then the PSTN user won’t hear the start/stop announcement even if you enable this option. This option takes precedence only if a caller receives or makes a PSTN call to a user who is in an organization or location where the compliance announcement is disabled or failed to play. For more information, see the Enable compliance call recording announcement section. Play recording start/stop announcement for internal calls—Choose this option to play a standard announcement at the beginning of all incoming and outgoing internal calls, notifying all parties that the call is recorded. This announcement isn’t included in the call recording. When an announcement is played during start, stop, pause, or resume operations, Webex Calling sends SIPREC metadata information to the call recording provider indicating that an announcement was played. Using this information, some call recording providers have indicators to show if an announcement was played for that call. Pause/Resume Notification—Choose this option if you want to receive pause and resume notifications. You can choose a beep option or an announcement option that plays the following: Pause—Plays an announcement indicating that it’s paused successfully. Resume—Plays an announcement indicating that it’s resumed successfully. The user/workspace level announcement settings for Pause/Resume are always played when the user pauses or resumes the recording. Repeat tone every—By default, a tone is played every 20 seconds reminding all parties that the call is being recorded. You can change this to a value from 10–90 seconds. Choose the View and play call recordings option for organizations and locations using Webex as the call provider. For all recorded calls, a user can choose to Download recordings or Delete recordings. If the administrator has turned View and play call recordings OFF, then the user can’t access the call recordings. Show call recording platform information—Displays the following information related to the call. Service Provider External Group External Identifier
6	Click Save.

What to do next

If an issue arises for users from the call recording administration portal, ensure that the following information is correct:

Product—Choose your product.
External Type—Enter BroadWorks.
Service Provider—Copy and paste the corresponding value from Control Hub.
External Group—Copy and paste the corresponding value from Control Hub.
External Identifier—Copy and paste the corresponding value from Control Hub.

Then click Save Changes.

For additional support, contact the support team for your call recording provider.

Access recordings for Webex call provider

To access the call recordings, complete these steps.

Before you begin

To view the Recordings tab under Calling, ensure that the organization is entitled with the Webex Calling license.

If the organization has Webex Calling entitlement but Recording is turned OFF, the Recording tab appears with a message that the Recording is OFF.
If a location has Call Recording, then no results display.

1	Sign in to Control Hub.
2	Go to Services > Calling and then select Features.
3	Select a Recording tab, and the recording landing page displays. Use the search field to find the recording of your choice. The landing page initially doesn’t display any records until the administrator initiates the search. You can choose from the two search modes: Simple Advanced Use the simple search field to look up recordings that are associated with a user based on the name or email ID. This search retrieves all recordings for the owner, but only displays the first 100 records. Scroll down to view the remaining recordings. Hover on the Calling Party to view the PSTN number or extension used for calling.
4	Click the Advanced options to refine your search. Ensure the Recordings repository is checked. Specify the following using the Advanced options: Use the Date Picker field to select the recording timeline. Date picker control offers various time frames and custom range. Use the Owner name or Email ID to search. Choose a label such as calling/called number. File size Last accessed (with a specific time line) By default, the call records stored in the last seven days display in the Advanced search option. The Webex call recordings are available for a year from the date it is recorded. By default, the location field is set to All Locations
5	Click Search to search the recordings based on the selection.
6	Select a recording from the list and the Actions bar displays. The supported actions are: Delete deletes the recordings from the list and is no longer visible to the administrator. These recordings are stored in the trash bin. The administrator can view the recordings from the Deleted recordings option. However the recordings aren’t purged until the retention policy of 30 days is met. Cancel dismisses the Action bar and deselects the recordings. Restore moves the recording from deleted back to active recordings, and is no longer show under the deleted recordings. Use the Select all option to select multiple recordings. If there are more recordings, then the first 200 recordings are selected.
7	A warning message displays for the action. You can choose to delete or cancel the request.

Manage recordings as a compliance officer

As a Compliance officer, you can Download and Play the recordings from the Call Recording screen. This capability is for Webex call recordings. You can cross-launch and use the Unified Player from the Control Hub to play the recordings.

To verify if a role has Compliance officer permission, follow these steps:

1	Sign in to Control Hub.
2	Go to Users under Management. The Users window displays. Select a user from the list to view the access details.
3	On the Summary tab, scroll to Administrator roles. Click on Administrator role to view the permission. Under Functions, if the Compliance officer option is checked then the user has permission to play and download the recordings. Partner Administrators can’t provision for the Compliance officer role. Hence, the experience as a Partner administrators isn’t the same as an Administrator.

Download and play call recordings

As a Compliance officer, you can download and play the recordings.

1	Sign in to Control Hub.
2	Go to Calling under Services. Click Features > Recording > Manage. The Recordings window displays the Topic name and title of the recording, owner details, duration of the call recording. As a Compliance officer, you can click on the recording and play it using the Unified Player.
3	Click the icon in the row corresponding to a recording to access the Delete, Download, Play, and Reassign options. As a Compliance officer, when you select Download from the menu or hyperlink, the recording is downloaded. Depending on the browser, the administrator is notified about the download. When you select the Play option, a new window in the browser opens with the call recording and a summary of the recording. When you select the Reassign option, the Reassign recording owner window appears where you can select a user whom you want to assign as owner of this recording. Administrators without the Compliance officer permission can only see the Delete and Reassign options. They can’t see that the Topic Name is hyperlinked, as they can’t play the recordings, nor can they see the information icon explaining the Play interaction. To reassign or delete multiple recordings, you can select the recordings and click Reassign or Delete. You can also use the Select all option to select multiple recordings. If there are more recordings, then the first 200 recordings are selected.

Generate a transcript for calls recorded by Webex call provider

You can configure automatic transcription for recorded calls. Users can see the transcript in the player when they play the recording from Webex App or User Hub.

Before you begin

Transcripts are available only for calls recorded by the Webex call recording provider.
Transcripts are available only when the call is in English.

You can enable this feature at organization level and override it at user, workspace, or virtual line level.

Enable transcripts at the organization level

The settings configured at the organization level are automatically set for all existing and new users who are enabled with Webex call recording and whose announcement language is English.

1	Sign in to Control Hub.
2	Go to Management > Organization settings.
3	Go to the Cisco AI Assistant & AI features section, and click Customize AI Assistant & AI features.

Enable transcripts at user, workspace, or virtual line level

The individual user, workspace, or virtual line level settings override the organization-level settings. On configuring these settings for user, workspace, or virtual line, you can make further modifications at those levels. These individual settings won’t automatically return to the organization’s default setting.

1	Sign in to Control Hub.
2	Go to the respective path: For Users: Go to Management > Users > select a user > Calling > User Call Experience > Call recording. For Workspaces: Go to Management > Workspaces> select a workspace > Calling > Call Experience > Call recording. For Virtual lines: Go to Services > Calling > Virtual Lines > select a virtual line > Calling > User Call Experience > Call recording.
3	Turn on call recording.
4	Turn on Generate Transcript.
5	To allow a user, workspace, or virtual line to view, download, and delete the transcript, enable View and play call recordings, transcripts, and then select Download recordings and transcripts and Delete recordings and transcripts. The options to view, download, and delete the transcript appear only if you enable Generate Transcript. If you disable View and play call recordings, transcripts, then the user can’t access the call recordings and transcripts.
6	Click Save.

Call recording behavior

Key behaviors related to call recording in Webex Calling:

Users see an icon on their Multiplatform phone (MPP) and the Webex App showing that a call is being recorded.
Users and workspaces with On-demand recording mode see a Record soft key (button) to initiate the recording.
Users and workspaces with On-demand and Always with Pause/Resume dynamically see the soft key (button) to pause and resume the recording if the settings are enabled for the users.
When a call is being recorded, dual streams are sent to Call recording provider.
When an announcement is played during start, stop, pause, or resume operations, Webex Calling sends information to the call recording provider that an announcement was played as a SIPREC meta-data message.
ICE (Media optimization) and Call Recording features independently introduce a small audio delay at the beginning of the call and, when used together, the audio delay is slightly longer and more noticeable to customers.

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