3 Keys in Choosing the Best Virtual Phone System Provider

June 19th, 2012 glynmb No Comments »

You have heard about the many promises of Virtual Phone Systems companies and you think all of them are true enough. That’s why knowledge is very important before engaging in any business opportunities waiting in line.

Virtual Phone Systems are very helpful when it comes to running a business whether small or big. The opportunity it will give you is better than having only one phone or having different kinds of numbers; this will give the clients the confusion in the end.

To look for a better provider you need to consider 3 important Keys. Try these in all different companies and compare which is better than the other.

Know the Reputation of the Service Provider. This is one important key feature since not all promising service provider are making a good reputation in the Virtual Phone systems world. So, how would you know that they have these excellent feedback from the customers?

• Research the company. In this way you will be able to find out their existence and their participation in the industry.

• Know the people subscribing into their service. It’s not bad to interview a few of their clients, in this way you will be able to get their opinion about the how the service works.

Know the Beneficial Features. The first thing that will come up in mind when it comes to buying a product is asking what benefits it will give you. Looking for the right Features is very important for you and the company. There are many offered features in Virtual Phone Systems, but always think if these features are practical or is it a waste of money buying them.

Follow your intuition. This is the most important key where you need to consider. Ask yourself if you really need this service. You hold your company’s reputation and it is in your hands the growth of your business.

Now, that you know the keys in finding the right provider remember that a good Virtual Phone System is a company’s goldmine. Your client will be happy if you have a good communication with them.

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Virtual Phone Systems: How a Toll Free Number can improve your Business

June 11th, 2012 glynmb No Comments »

As entrepreneurs ourselves we are thinking about how to grow or improve the system of our business. We might think that we have applied all the necessary methods of management but we realized there are still ways to make it better.  Having a good-run business is not enough we always seek of the best and here is the best way to enhance the status of our company.

One of the Virtual Phone System features is the Toll Free Number. When we think of Toll Free Number, we automatically think of 1-800. Yes, that’s right but did you know that there are already other numbers to choose from? Like for example, 855, 866, 877 and 888 these are the new numbers that can attract more clients in the future.

But how can this feature of the Virtual Phone System helps us to make our company grow?  We are all concern about the growth of our business that’s why we need something that we can rely onto. Here are some of the benefits of the Toll Free Number.

It can make a business sound more professional.  Having our own number that says something about our company clients can easily track our business’ services. Let’s say if a business offers a hauling service then the owner can choose the key word to make his number catchy for example 1-800-WEHAUL, this is what they call Vanity Numbers.  With this kind of approach our business shows itself to the public even better than before. Vanity Numbers are also like advertising our business and what makes it valuable is that it makes a lasting connection to our prospect clients.

Toll Free Numbers can save a lot of money. This tool is not only attracting customers to call us anytime this can also save us a fraction of cost instead of buying another phone and a local number. With its call routing feature, mobile employees can easily receive calls wherever they are located. They can even have the option to make a personal extension, call conference, and put the caller on hold with music and many other special features.

Telephones are used in businesses to receive incoming calls and make outgoing calls for important reasons. This tool is a way to make connections with the clients and upgrading the telephone system is the best way to extend that connection. Let’s try the usefulness of the Toll Free Number and experience a greater return in the sales of the business.

 

 

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Feature definition — Advance Detection and Forwarding

June 4th, 2011 Virtual Phone Service Review No Comments »

It’s been quite a while since our last post. In that short time, it is amazing how communication technology has constantly improved, especially in the hosted PBX industry.

Our usual readers may already know but for the benefit of the new visitors, hosted PBX or virtual PBX is an inexpensive alternative communication solution. Inexpensive in the sense that PBX features and functionalities are available even without procurement of the actual PBX hardware. Needless to say, the actual PBX equipment, together with its installation and maintenance are quite expensive. More and useful information can be found on our previous posts.

Moving on, as the title of this column, hosted PBX are capable of advance call detection and forwarding. If email uses a comma to separate multiple intended recipients, virtual PBX systems can be configured to act on a similar manner or concept.

As an illustration, imagine five very important persons in the company who should not miss any calls. How can the company’s communication system be configured to do this? If the particular organization employs a hosted PBX then this could be done with minimal effort. Virtual PBX systems may allow multiple numbers to be assigned to a single person. From this set of numbers, a primary (main) number can be designated, and so is the secondary number, and so on and so forth.

With this kind of method, if anyone will call the company’s hotline and is looking for one of the five VIPs, the system will automatically forward the call to the primary number. If the main number is unavailable, then the call will be forwarded to the secondary assigned number. If still unreachable, to the third, and again, so on…so forth…

One of the advantages of hosted PBX systems is its simplistic yet effective approach to communication needs of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprise). It is highly possible that large corporations employ the concept of advance detection and forwarding since they have the means with their deep pockets. But for SMEs a cheaper yet equally effective solution is available through the hosted PBX system.

Notes:
- Please be informed that not all hosted PBX providers offer the mentioned feature. Be sure to check-out the services offered by a hosted PBX provider before subscribing to their service.
- Multiple hosted PBX providers are available on the market. Most of these providers are reviewed on previous posts of our site.

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Inexpensive communication solution: Hosted PBX

February 19th, 2011 Virtual Phone Service Review No Comments »

For some time now, the site has been reviewing various hosted PBX providers and the products or services offered by these providers. Several people may easily grasp the concept and advantages of having a hosted PBX system, while others may not. This post aims to simplify the connection of hosted PBX with the telephone system, the many benefits it has to offer, and its importance to a business.

Simply put, a hosted PBX system is used by SMEs (small and medium enterprise) to easily manage communication requirement of their businesses. A hosted PBX system can route and transfer calls from a variety of sources to different destinations. It is also cheaper compared to traditional PBX system since it does not require the physical PBX equipment.

Still not getting the big picture? A good illustration would be the economy and the consumer market. For SMEs to survive against large corporations, it needs to acquire customers and keep the loyalty of these customers. Both acquiring and maintaining customers is already a difficult task. To attract clients and gain market share, its either you got an awesome product or a new innovative solution. If either of the two is lacking, then customer relations will play a big role. Clients, both prospect and existing, should be able to tell that your business is reliable and that they are important in the organization.

To do this, the organization should have a good communication system. Customers should be able to reach or call your company with no hassle, no waiting time. If they would like to inquire about a product or raise a complaint, your business hotline should be able to process the calls immediately. This is where hosted PBX service comes to play.

Hosted PBX is a cheap solution to manage communication traffic. Aside from accepting and routing calls, it has a variety of features like auto-attendant, voicemail to SMS, voicemail to email, conference calling, etc…

Many virtual PBX features has already been published on this site and explained in detail. Below are some useful hosted PBX’s features that can be found here:
- Sip Trunking
- Sequential ringing
- Call usage history
- Conference-call
- Voicemail
- Call-routing
- Auto-attendant

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FreedomVoice review

February 1st, 2011 Virtual Phone Service Review No Comments »

FreedomVoice, a hosted PBX provider focuses on four main points:
· 800 Numbers
· Virtual Phone Systems
· Competitive Plans and Pricing
· FreedomIQ Hoted VoIP PBX

For FreedomVoice 800 numbers is equal to business. Which makes perfect sense since 800 numbers are easy to remember, very common, and gives the notion that your company is within reach (easily accessible). 800 numbers have a stronger presence than 888, 877, or 866.

The first feature is to grab the customer’s attention, to entice the customer to subscribe. Next, it is important to maintain the relationship and trust of the customer. This is the reason why FreedomVoice’s 800 numbers is backed by a virtual phone system. This virtual office delivers automated attendant greeting, call forwarding, custom hold music, voicemail, etc… To manage the settings of the virtual office, a powerful web console is employed. The webtool can also be used to listen to messages, see detailed call reports, or add your email address to have messages automatically sent to your Inbox as audio files.

Next is FreedomIQ Hoted VoIP PBX. FreedomVoice boasts that this service is a fully-hosted VoIP PBX that can offer first class quality at a lightweight price tag. This service apparently has the following advantages:
- Call clarity
- Automatic updates for firmware
- New features are added frequently free of charge
- Easy implementation of new VoIP phones and locations
- Flawlessly connect remote offices
- Unlimited calling within the U.S.
- Does not require the traditional on-site equipment
- No call switch and IT staff to maintain
- Voicemail Transcription
- Softphone Software
- Advanced ACD & Call Queue
- Dynamic Auto Attendant
- Unified Voice & Fax Messaging
- Visual Call Reports

Lastly, per site information, the provider has been established on 1996 and is a pioneer in providing toll free numbers and toll free number service solutions in the country.

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Broadcore review

January 21st, 2011 Virtual Phone Service Review No Comments »

Interestingly, some websites of hosted PBX and virtual PBX providers still shows year 2010 on the bottom part or copyright portion of their webpage instead of 2011. A website is use to attract prospective clients and customers. Just imagine the impression or effect this tiny glitch will have on the possible purchaser. Good thing Broadcore’s main page is updated. Aside from being updated, the website is very professional and showcase the company’s channel partners, technology alliances, and media center.

As for the features, Broadcore apparently boasts that it provides hosted unified communications. Per website information, using their UC suite (unified communications suite) allows the subscriber’s business to increase employee productivity, speeds-up business methods, and improved customer care.

The following are some features bundled with the UC suite:

IP Telephony / Voice (VoIP):
Broadcore can deliver its IP telephony service by using open standard SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) technology which is of great benefit to the client since it eliminates the need for the traditional PSTN and its corresponding toll charges.

Messaging:
Using only a single inbox, the subscriber can access voicemail, email, and fax transactions at any place and any time. The company also offers a fully function IM solution that enables its users to interact with other members of the organization.

Presence:
This option allows the users to view live status and accessibility of other members of the organization, independent of location.

Video calling:
This feature allows video calling solution to be integrated on the voice telephony infrastructure allowing video calls to be as easy and reliable as normal voice calls.

Other solutions offered by the provider are contact center, call recording, call accounting, SIP trunking, broadband access, phones and hardware, customized integration, and service deployment.

Some of the solutions are industry standard, however, it is important to give some details on the call accounting feature. This feature allows the client to evaluate inbound, outbound, and intra-office calls. The feature can be use to assist in analyzing usage management and amplify organizational productivity.

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VoicePlus review

January 20th, 2011 Virtual Phone Service Review No Comments »

When looking or searching for a hosted PBX provider, it is important to choose one that is reliable and established. VoicePlus, a hosted PBX provider has been in the industry since April 2003. The company’s early offers include broadband phone service, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, and Call Return. With almost 7 years of experience, it has increased its features for the enjoyment and satisfaction of its customers.

The following are standard features offered by the company:
· CallerID with Name
· Call Waiting w/ CallerID
· Call Transfer
· Return Call *69
· 3-Way Calling

Privacy and Blocking features:
· Filters – option to select which calls can and can’t go through.
· CallerID Block – option used to disable your CID (Caller ID) when you make calls. When enabled, numbers you called will not see your CID.
· Do Not Disturb – similar to filter option. Allows you to block all calls except the important ones.
· Telemarketer Block – as much as we hate to admit it, telemarketing calls can be quite annoying. This option can block calls from telemarketers even before the phone rings.
· Anonymous Call Block – don’t want to receive calls from “unknown” or “private” numbers? just block them using this feature.
· International Call Block – option to disable international phone calls

Ringing and Dialing features:
· Speed Dial – some phones just allow 9 speed dial. This feature allows up to 99
· Contact Lists – option to customize incoming caller ID to say the caller’
· Distinctive Ring – option to assign ringing tones to specified callers. Similar to a mobile phone.

Extra / More features:
· Enhanced Voice Mail – feature that allows voicemail messages to be retrieved from email or through your mobile phone.
· Online Account Center – allows you to check your bills, remaining minutes, payments, etc… via a web browser
· Virtual Numbers – virtual phone numbers that when dialed, your primary phone will ring or receive the call. These numbers are added to your account and anyone may dial or call said numbers independent of location.

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All Call Technologies review

January 20th, 2011 Virtual Phone Service Review No Comments »

Stumbled upon All Call Technologies while searching the web for virtual PBX providers. The site seemed professional enough but surprisingly, the features it apparently offers on the welcoming page are quite few compared to other communication service providers. The opening page of the website only showcases three features which are voicemail to Email, virtual receptionist, and customized voice services.

Voicemail to Email –
You are most probably familiar with the voicemail feature. Voicemail has been around for a couple of years already and is used on both traditional and mobile phones. However, the voicemail feature of All Call Technologies is quite different. This voicemail seems to offer a lot more than just recording and retrieving digital messages. The provider boasts that their voicemail: can live transfer to voice mail, can be delivered to three email addresses simultaneously, can customize outgoing greeting or record your own anytime, text notification with Caller ID, can retrieve voice mail via email, phone or web portal, can change greetings to play automatically on schedule, etc…

Virtual Receptionist –
All Call Technologies’ Virtual Receptionist will seemingly answer all your calls with a consistent professional greeting. This will give out a professional expression to the callers and will provide the options they want. The greetings are proficiently recorded using either a male or female voice and will be programmed to your specifications.

Custom Voice Services –
Lastly, as per site information, this service appears to be made for five categories: medical office, apartment management, insurance office, franchise, and property management. For example, if you have a medical office, your patients can always reach your office for appointment or billing concerns. In case there is an emergency, the patient’s call can be routed to your on-call doctor. If you run a car insurance company, your clients are assured to always reach your office for claims service, auto club, towing, etc…

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Feature definition — SIP trunking

January 19th, 2011 Virtual Phone Service Review No Comments »

You may have noticed that some hosted and virtual PBX providers offer SIP trunking services. A techy person would probably know what SIP trunking or a SIP trunk is, but for the others, this is a big question mark. This unfamiliarity may affect their decisions to go for a provider thinking that the application is not needed or not a requirement for their business. So for the benefit of both provider and client of hosted PBX, here is a short article discussing SIP trunking.

SIP is the acronym for Session Initiation Protocol. The SIP trunk offered by communication service providers allows interconnection between existing on-site PBX system to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) using the internet. Unlike traditional PBX and PSTN connection that requires hardware installation of Basic and Primary Rate Interface, the SIP connection utilizes VoIP and the internet for its connection. Such method is advantageous in terms of cost. No hardware needed means cheaper cost. Simply, SIP connection eliminates the need to maintain, safeguard / safekeep, and possible repairs of the hardware. It is also beneficial in terms of expansion. Since there are no hardware that may cause some issues and problems during expanding, SIP connection can easily be spread out.

However, it is also important to note that with all these benefits and advantages, two issues normally associated with SIP trunking is connection reliability and security. You see, if the SIP connections uses the same internet connection as data, then call quality might be affected if there are heavy usage of other internet traffic sources (email, web browsing, downloading, etc…) Companies usually separates or uses two internet connection to solve this problem. One is for data communications while the other is for voice connections. Another method is to use traffic shaping and management.

The other issue for SIP trunking is security. Since the connection uses the internet, it can be used by hackers to attack the internal network of the company. However, advancement in encryption and security mechanisms is already available and employed by communication service providers to prevent such attacks.

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GlobalPhone review

January 18th, 2011 Virtual Phone Service Review No Comments »

With the advent of VoIP technology, it is not surprising that various hosted and virtual PBX providers will flood the communications market. As you may know, VoIP and the internet is the medium wherein PBX services can be offered or provided without the actual PBX equipment. This is the main benefit of subscribing to hosted PBX services. Enjoying PBX functionalities without the high-cost of buying, installing, and maintaining the traditional on-site PBX equipment.

Unfortunately, with so many hosted PBX providers to choose from, it is quite difficult to pick the right one for your business needs. If you are a SME (small and medium enterprise) operator or owner, using PBX services might be greatly advantageous for your business if the provider you have or subscribed to can deliver what your business requires.

GlobalPhone Corporation or GPhone (for short) is a hosted PBX provider that appears to be incorporated since 1995. As seen on the company’s website, the following are included to its hosted PBX service:
· Auto-Attendant
· Receptionist
· Music on Hold
· Call Center
· Voice to Text
· Call Recording

Aside from the hosted PBX service, the company also provides PBX support and gateways for SIP trunks, conference service, phonecards, and fax to email service. The company also sells different compatible phones to be used with their VoIP service. As per website, branded and popular phones offered by GlobalPhone are Polycom, Cisco, Linksys, CounterPath, and AAstra.

Lastly, some additional note on the conference service. From the word alone, you may have already guessed that the service refers to conference call or conference meeting. If your company demands multiple meetings and presentations, then this is the service for you. Online conference call eliminates the distance and place boundaries. Meetings are no longer confined inside a room where it is possible for participants to miss or be late. To know more about online conference meeting please refer to Conference Call feature (http://www.tollfreeservicereview.com/2010/12/feature-definition-conference-call)

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