How PBXDom connects depends on which Cisco platform you run. For Unified Communications Manager version 5 and later — including Business Edition and clusters still labeled Call Manager — collection uses Cisco’s own export mechanism: in Cisco Unified Serviceability you add the PBXDom collector as a billing application server, and UCM pushes CDR files to it over FTP or SFTP as they are generated. UCME and UC500 routers work differently because CDR lives in IOS: a handful of configuration commands tell the router to stream call events to the collector as RADIUS accounting records (default port 1612) or as Syslog messages. Cisco voice gateways use IOS file accounting (gw-accounting file) and deliver their CDR files by FTP in much the same way. For legacy UCM clusters before version 5, the collector connects directly to the Microsoft SQL Server database on the Publisher node and reads the CallDetailRecord table.

Raw Cisco CDR is famously hard to work with — epoch timestamps, dozens of fields, separate CMR files. PBXDom normalizes all of it in the cloud, so what you see is a live dashboard of call volume, abandoned calls, and extension and gateway activity, backed by historical reports you can filter by date range, extension, or site and schedule for email delivery. Alert rules fire the moment any phone dials 911 or another emergency number, and missed-call notifications keep managers on top of unanswered traffic. Multiple clusters, branch UCME routers, and gateways can all report into one account for consolidated multi-site reporting. The end-to-end setup is covered in How to Create a Cisco CallManager Dashboard in 10 Minutes.

Coverage runs from UCM 4.x-era SQL deployments through current UCM releases, plus UCME and the end-of-sale but still widely deployed UC500 for small offices. A free 14-day trial is available on the pricing page.