Primary storage is in Europe for South African and EU customers, North America for US customers, Asia-Pacific for APAC customers. All customer data is encrypted at rest with AES-256. See Security & Compliance.
Are call recordings encrypted?
Yes. AES-256 server-side encryption in object storage.
Who can access our recordings?
Only users in your workspace with the correct role-based permission. Support staff do not have routine access to customer recordings. Access events are logged.
Is consent captured for recording?
Recording can be disabled per agent. If recording is on, most customers configure the agent’s first message to disclose it. POPIA and GDPR acceptable with appropriate notice.
How are credentials managed?
SIP trunk passwords are stored in a hardware-backed secrets vault. Never logged. Never visible to support staff. Rotatable on demand.
Do you have SOC 2?
SOC 2 Type I is in progress. Type II is on the roadmap. Compliance attestation available to Enterprise customers on request.
Are you HIPAA compliant?
Not currently certified. Medical practice customers in the US should consult their compliance team. SA medical customers are typically governed by POPIA plus HPCSA guidance, which SmartAlex aligns to.
Is PCI scope a concern?
No. SmartAlex does not process or store cardholder data. If your AI agent captures card information for a separate payment flow, design that flow with PCI scope in mind.
Can you provide a pen test report?
Yes, under NDA on Enterprise plan. Third-party penetration tests are commissioned annually.
G.711 u-law first, G.711 A-law second, G.722 HD third. G.729 available on request.
Is there echo cancellation?
Yes, built into the SIP ingress. Works in conjunction with your PBX’s echo cancellation; usually only one side should apply it to avoid double-processing.
What's the expected MOS?
Above 4.0 in normal network conditions. Measured per call.
What's the typical mouth-to-ear latency?
Under 250 ms for most paths. South African customers connecting to European ingress: typically 180 to 220 ms.
How much packet loss can it tolerate?
Up to 1% packet loss is compensated via PLC (packet loss concealment) with no audible degradation. Above 3% becomes noticeably choppy.
Does the AI handle accents?
Yes. The AI is trained on a wide range of English accents and handles South African, British, Australian, American, and Indian English naturally. Very heavy regional accents may require prompting tweaks.
10 to 15 minutes for the technical integration if you have PBX admin access. 2 to 4 weeks for a production rollout including pilot, parallel run, and cutover. See Migration Playbook.
Can we pilot before committing?
Yes. Most customers run a 2-week pilot on a test DID or after-hours routing before cutover.
Can we parallel-run?
Yes. Common patterns: after-hours only, overflow from busy, or single-DID test. See Migration Playbook.
Can we port our existing numbers?
Yes, subject to carrier cooperation and typical porting timelines (7 to 21 business days in SA). Bring your own carrier if you don’t want to port.
What if we want to roll back?
30-second rollback: revert your PBX inbound rule to the previous target. The SmartAlex trunk stays configured but idle.
No. Customer calls, transcripts, and knowledge bases are not used to train any shared or public model. Your data is yours.
Where is the knowledge base stored?
Encrypted at rest in the same region as your other data. Scoped to your workspace.
How does the AI stay current?
Knowledge base can be updated any time. Changes take effect on the next call. Google Search grounding is available for external facts.
Can we opt out of AI features?
AI is the platform. The telephony layer is the PBX integration and routing. Those can run without AI via simple scripted flows, but that’s not the primary product.
