The telecommunication system of a business contributes a lot to its overall productivity and growth. Likewise, with hosted IP PBX phone service, small offices can easily reap greater benefits in terms of productivity and revenue. The system comes with several advanced functionalities and is specially tailored to meet the unique demands of small offices.
Hosted IP PBX enhances Professionalism
A hosted IP PBX phone service functions over a public switched telephone network. The system can be implemented in any setting with a broadband Internet connection and a dedicated phone line. This single phone connection can easily and efficiently handle several extensions within the small office network.
The hosted IP PBX phone service has several value added features including automated attendant, call conferencing, automatic call distribution, find-me/follow-me call forwarding, voicemail, music on hold, call waiting, voice to email, fax to email and much more. The auto attendant provides callers with a professional communication experience. They are greeted professionally and presented with menu options such as dial by name, dial by extension and so on. Based on the option selected by the caller, calls are instantly routed to the appropriate extensions. It manages numerous calls incoming together with superior efficiency.
Managing Business from Distant Locations
The find-me/follow-me call forwarding facility enables business calls to be transferred to alternate numbers, including home landlines, and cell phone numbers. Unattended calls are directed to the voicemail system, enabling the callers to leave voice messages. Voice messages are forwarded to email accounts as audio file attachments and new message arrivals are instantly notified on cell phones as well. Therefore the small business can keep in touch with its customers round-the-clock and from even distant locations.
Hosted IP PBX Lowers Small Office Expenses
Since the hosted IP PBX phone service fully functions on server-based platforms, installation chargers and maintenance costs can be avoided. It carries no upfront investments, infrastructure expenses or maintenance costs. The service provider maintains the necessary hardware and offers the full featured PBX virtual telephone solution using broadband Internet or telephone networks at an affordable monthly rent.
Hosted PBX – AccessDirect, a renowned hosted communication service provider, offers small business phone systems including: voice mail, toll-free and local phone numbers, fax-to-email service, and more.
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It is common knowledge that workforce management is a necessity for call centers of all sizes. For larger centers, automated software programs calculate and forecast scheduling. For most small centers, however, many workforce management systems are cost prohibitive. There are alternatives available for small centers.
The principle behind workforce management software is the same for all programs; however, there are subtle nuances that can make or break your efficiency as well as your budget. Before purchasing a hosted workforce management solution, look for these features to ensure you are getting the most benefit for your money:
Pay as you go, and grow. You need predictable costs for budgeting purposes.
No long-term commitment required. You shouldn’t have to sign a contract for the long-term when your needs are certain to change over time. Look for scalability to meet your growing needs.
Little or no IT required. Being required to have IT personnel to manage your software defeats the purpose of the low cost benefit.
No hardware to install and maintain. You should be able to access your software anywhere and at anytime with an internet connection. It should also offer complete integration with your ACD.
The same features as an enterprise solution. You should receive the same benefits that a fully implemented system would offer.
Customizable access to only the functionality you need. Don’t choose a one-size-fits-all solution. You choose the features and functions needed for your center and don’t pay for features you can’t use.
Thorough security and access privileges. Rest assured that your software is available only to authorized users.
Advanced proven forecasting and scheduling algorithms. Don’t purchase a hosted solution from a company that does not offer the best forecasting and scheduling software. Their hosted solution will be no better than their complete enterprise solution.
Bob Webb, VP Sales, Pipkins, Inc. http://www.pipkins.com
The running of contact centers has undergone a sea change in the past couple of years and the prime reasons for this have been offshoring of contact center work and the necessity of running a contact center.
Offshoring has occurred primarily to cut down on operational costs and having a contact center has become a necessity in order to stay competitive in a business environment where service is often the only factor that distinguishes one business from another. Although contact centers are a vital cog in the CRM efforts of a company, very often they are viewed as cost centers that are major resource guzzlers – mainly because of high attrition rates with employees that increases the training and H.R work required to maintain adequate staffing and technical requirements to process large amounts of data, maintain security of data, networking, hardware costs, etc.
For a contact center to deliver real value to the business, it has to succeed at two ends. It should keep the customer happy and at the same time achieve its objectives at a low cost. Today, a fantastic low cost contact center management opportunity in the form of hosted contact centers is available for businesses.
Technical requirements necessary for the success of a hosted contact center include fast connectivity that factors in latency and additional capacity. Ensure that your new hosted contact center is provided with sufficient bandwidth so that calls from precious customers do not have to compete with email and other applications for priority. This can be achieved by segregating call center traffic from internal traffic and putting it on a separate WAN or increasing existing bandwidth capacity.
Ensure that the network infrastructure can take peak loads and still maintain smooth and fast data transfer. Latency is another problem with IP-based networks. Aim for a latency of around 50 milliseconds (ms) or less. Remember lower the latency better the communication. The quality of your call, especially if you plan to deploy a VoIP solution, is highly dependent on the latency.
Any hosted solution raises the issue of data security, with a contact center the issue is of particular significance since the data is not yours; it is information about your customers. If you are in the finance sector or banking then your contact center data needs to be hosted on a separate server at the host’s end and you should ask for a dedicated network connection. Check for the different levels of data differentiation, these should include database, server rack, network routers, and network switches. Before your hosted contact center goes live you need to ensure that the hardware at your end is up to the task. This means up-to-date processors, RAM, and size of the hard drive. Your hosted applications will perform to the extent permitted by the agent’s PC.
Sherman Hsieh is founder and CEO of Gate58 Marketing. Prior to founding Gate58 Marketing, Sherman was a marketing executive with Siebel Systems. Sherman is also founder and CEO of VendorDemo.
Natterbox, a provider of telecommunication solutions, has said that businesses should choose a voice service that is as versatile as email, available on any device in order to stay connected.
The company aims to make life easier for businesses, providing versatile telephone systems that allow users to be reached anywhere, on any device.
Natterbox’s hosted voice system permits users to receive telephone calls similar to the way people can check their email inbox from a computer or phone anywhere in the world, said company officials.
With Natterbox, multiple devices can ring at the same time or the service routes the call to any specified place, whether that is to the home, office, mobile, a computer station or a hotel room, within a certain number of rings.
Moreover, organisations can access mobile voicemail or transfer any telephone call in the same way, to a single user or to multiple devices at once, anywhere in the world.
Neil Hammerton, CEO at Natterbox, said that businesses rely too heavily on email for being the only way they can stay in constant contact. “However with Natterbox’s hosted PBX (News – Alert), those people who are overseas, out of the office, or moving between several locations can still be instantly contactable.”
Hammerton said that particularly beneficial for business executives who are always on the move, users can receive calls on their office, mobile or home number without the caller having to dial one number after another. “In addition to this the hosted voice platform from Natterbox requires no hardware or software installation.”
Based in the southeast of England, Natterbox ensures the “resilience” of its services by providing 24-hour-a-day monitoring by expert engineers. With many additional features available from the Natterbox service such as call recording, clients are able to deal with telecoms in a “hassle free” manner.
Last month, Natterbox suggested that businesses within the financial services sector should embrace call recording services, as a matter of precaution as well as protection.
Anshu Shrivastava is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anshu’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Erin Monda
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Businesses such as estate agents, never need miss a call again, says Natterbox, a pioneer of cost effective telecommunications solutions within the hosted voice sector and business pbx service. Understanding businesses requirements from those that are on the go, Natterbox aims to make life easier by offering a service that can program any device as an additional extension.
Natterbox’s small business PBX service enables professions such as estate agents to route any telephone call, whether it is an incoming external or an internal call, to a single user or to multiple voice devices at once. Mobiles, landlines, even computers can be used as an extension of a telephone network, meaning calls can be answered anywhere in the world.
When several staff members are out of the office and others are speaking to customers or already taking calls, the Natterbox service can route an inbound call to the next available person in another branch, ensuring business isn’t lost due to an engaged line or delayed answering. Understanding the business needs of active trades such as estate agents and others, who constantly move locations during the day, Natterbox’s hosted voice business PBX service means that a user’s office extension, mobile phone, home line and PC can all ring at the same time, helping to make sure a call is never missed.
The hosted voice platform from Natterbox requires no hardware or software to be installed, ensuring it is also a cost effective service for the business. In addition to this Natterbox also provide mobile voicemail, a service which is aimed for those who are often out of the office but require access to their information and messages. This feature can be dialed from any phone line across the world.
Neil Hammerton, CEO of Natterbox, said: “Testament to the advancements made in the telecoms sector, businesses now have access to a wide range of features helping to make communicating simpler and more efficient. With many occupations facing the daily challenge of being unreachable, services such as hosted PBX mean companies no longer have to worry about missing calls and potentially losing business.”
For more information, please visit natterbox.com about their business pbx service
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