Hosted VoIP Lite: Getting Your Feet Wet

Making the move to a new business phone system can be downright scary. The communications technology that a company chooses has become so critical to business efficiency, that one IT misstep can easily set you back weeks in terms of productivity.

This is just one of the many reasons we’ve seen businesses turn to a hosted VoIP phone system. With hosted VoIP, there’s no big upfront commitment. No massive equipment or servers to finance, no infrastructure changes, no heavy wiring. You are free to try out the system with as small of an initial deployment as you’re comfortable taking on – even just a single phone – before deciding if it’s right for your business.

The Way It Used to Be (Traditional PBX)

Before the days of hosted VoIP, your IT decision maker’s best friend was research. They’d spend hours reading white papers, watching presentations, or attending webinars on why they should choose one PBX vendor over another. The prospect of trying out a phone system live on your premise with little to no commitment was laughable. There was simply too much that needed to be done to get it to work, and no vendors that would do that work without expecting to be paid in full.

It’s not the vendor’s fault, really, but a problem in on-premise technology itself. All premise-based PBX systems require equipment and wiring that takes a solid investment of time and money. If things don’t work out, whether the technology simply isn’t a good fit, the service isn’t reliable, or the customer support is lacking — it’s too late. You’ve already signed on the dotted line and there’s no going back.

But over the past few years, hosted VoIP has changed the game. Speculative research and sales fluff has given way to live on-site demonstrations, demo phones, and the advent of the phased-in VoIP phone system.

The Phased-In VoIP Phone System

As businesses become more savvy about VoIP phone system technology, we’re seeing more and more opting to get started with a small set of VoIP phones (or even just one). These phones use your business’s existing data connection, requiring no invasive wiring, no premise hardware, and can be up and running in the course of a single visit.

This way, your key players like the head of IT, the CEO, or even a small department can serve as guinea pigs without impacting the day-to-day operation of the entire business. These limited roll-outs can often be fully integrated with your existing business phone system for a seamless phasing-in of phones over time.

And it doesn’t take long. As you experience important factors such as call quality, reliability, potency of features, and ease of use, the decision largely makes itself. If you’re not happy with the technology, it’s easy enough to pull the plug. If you’re confident in the technology, the ability to add new phones anywhere at any time helps you ramp up your deployment to include additional departments and even additional locations.

Are you ready to try hosted VoIP for yourself?  Give our consultants a call at 888-955-3520 to have a risk-free, no-obligation conversation about how you can test out FreedomIQ for yourself with a small deployment.

How to Convince Your Boss to Try Hosted VoIP

IT managers working for an SMB have a tough gig: maximizing the return on every IT dollar spent. With tech budgets shrinking across the nation, there’s an urgent need for every IT product or service a company chooses to deliver higher value at a lower price. Fortunately, this need has resulted in the emergence of a host of cost-effective, productivity-enhancing technologies. Among them, the hosted VoIP phone system leads the charge for smart business communications.

But, if you’re an IT manager, you already knew that. You’ve done your homework. Now it’s time to convince your boss, who may be coming from a different perspective and have different priorities. Here are some tips on how to present a hosted VoIP solution that will get the C-level to sign on the line that is dotted.

1. Easy on Cash Flow

Why not lead with the knock-out punch? Hold the pretty explanations and come out of the gate with the fact that the upfront capital expense of a hosted VoIP PBX is tiny compared to any other professional phone system. For equipment, you’re paying for the cost of your VoIP phones and maybe a couple VoIP routers. There’s no $10k+ box-in-the-wall or clunky on-site server to worry about financing. Hosted VoIP is the professional phone system your boss can afford even if he or she can’t afford a professional phone system.

2. Conserve Your IT Staff Resources

With a managed service like FreedomIQ, you don’t need to squander your precious time wondering what the blinking light on your PBX means. You don’t have to thumb through manuals or search for tech guides online should a phone go on the fritz. Your boss can keep you and your IT staff on business-critical development full-time because you have a hosted VoIP service provider to take care of these things (or prevent them from happening in the first place).

3. No Investment Risk

Remember when we were talking about the minimal investment required (#1) to get hosted VoIP service? Well, not buying that wall switch or server in the first place means you and your boss don’t have to worry about what to do with it a year or two down the road. You know, the time just after its hardware warranty has run out and it’s either a) quickly turning into a steaming pile of junk or b) you’ve outgrown it to the point where it’s practically tinkertoys relative to the needs of your business. Hosted VoIP’s equipment-free nature provides an ease of scalability that saves your boss from the embarrassment of a 4- or 5-figure PBX paperweight.

4. Strong Productivity ROI

Saving money is great, but what about your employees? Won’t somebody think of the employees? Enhanced productivity is where you’ll find that hosted VoIP is no slouch. Even though you’re paying a fraction of the price, you’re getting all of the advanced features and functionality of an enterprise phone system.

You get unlimited local and long distance calling, a professional auto attendant, call forwarding with ACD routing, voicemail service, Internet faxing, web-based settings and call reports – the list goes on. But the real productivity kicker is when you show your boss how FreedomIQ integrates into the programs his or her employees already using, like Outlook and Salesforce CRM. With this feature, FreedomIQ works seamlessly with your existing business environment, helping employees be as efficient as possible.

Virtual PBX Honored to Receive its Seventh Award for Open VoIP Peering

Virtual PBX, the pioneers and market leader of the virtual phone system, was honored to received their seventh award from Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) for their innovative Open VoIP Peering service. This particular award was presented by TMC’s NGN Magazine, the leading resource for communications service providers.

The NGN Leadership Award recognizes the growth and evolution of applications and services designed for next-generation networks and the enabling technologies that make them possible. Virtual PBX was recognized in the Services category.

“This recognition of Virtual PBX’s Open VoIP Peering service is a testament to the company’s continued commitment to providing customers with innovative solutions that meet their demanding business needs,” said Paul Hammond, CEO of Virtual PBX. “Being selected as an NGN Leadership Award winner is truly a mark of distinction and further validates Virtual PBX’s leadership in the VoIP market.”

So far Virtual PBX has received 3 product of the year awards, 2 leadership awards, 1 Product Innovation award and 1 telephony excellence award for the Open VoIP Peering solution they released in November of 2008. No stranger to winning awards, Virtual PBX’s 7th win comes on the heels of their impressive ‘2010 Best Telecommunications Services in San Jose’ award.

The many accolades that Open VoIP Peering has received truly are a testament not only to the company’s strength and dedication in bringing to market the most innovative product conceivable, but also the products immense popularity with Virtual PBX Customers everywhere.

The Open VoIP Peering Solution stands out from the masses, being the only VoIP solution to allow users to choose which option they like on a call-by-call basis to meet their individual needs. In addition, unlike competitors who charge extra for proprietary digital-enabled phone extensions, with Virtual PBX there is no additional cost for accessing soft phones.

“Virtual PBX was recognized for its exceptional work in advancing NGN services and technologies. Open VoIP Peering has proven exceptional and its innovation has contributed to the transformation of the industry,” stated Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. “Congratulations to the entire team at Virtual PBX, and I look forward to more innovations in the coming year.”

The 2010 NGN Leadership Award winners can be found in the May/June 2010 issue of NGN Magazine.

Virtual PBX Adds Call Recording – For Free!

We are excited to announce every Virtual PBX system now includes call recording in all standard plans at no added cost for customers.

“This is the latest in a series of enhancements that Virtual PBX has rolled out this year,” said Greg Brashier, COO of Virtual PBX. “We’ve had requests for call recording from our client base and felt it was something a majority of our SMB clients could use. Since we innovated the entire hosted PBX space, we feel it is necessary to lead by example and continue to enhance the service.”

With the newest Virtual PBX call recording feature, any or all calls can be recorded, saved, and played back later. There are infinite ways companies of all sizes can utilize this tool to enhance their business such as capturing calls for later review, assisting in employee training, monitoring customer service agents, as well as meeting legal requirements.  Greg adds, “we’ve found that many call centers love this feature since it’s a free and effective tool that allows them to improve company performance.”

In addition, the call recording feature is greatly customizable and easy to use. Every user with a Virtual PBX extension can record all calls automatically or select calls to record manually by simply pushing #9 during a call.  Furthermore, the built-in selective recording architecture allows calls to be recorded for pre-selected extensions and/or departments.

The recordings can be sorted by date/time, length, caller ID, user name, or extension number so they are easy to locate when needed. Recordings can be played back or deleted at the convenience of the extension owner, or downloaded them to a computer for future playback.

Administrators can also decide to control call recording for all users or give each user the ability to manage his or her recordings.

“With the addition of call recording, Virtual PBX extends our leadership in providing clients with the most diverse set of features at the lowest cost,” continues Brashier.  “This announcement gives users the ability to improve their own customer satisfaction and ensure that high priority calls are properly managed.”

This announcement adds to a long list of service enhancements that have been provided by Virtual PBX during 2010. Previous upgrades have included unlimited extensions and more free usage, open VoIP peering, free conferencing, and international numbers. The company promises more to come.

A Mobile Minute with Brian Dally

We decided to take some time this week to introduce one of the newest members of the Bandwidth team, Brian Dally. As our VP of Product Strategy and Mobile Solutions, Brian spends the majority of his time planning Bandwidth’s delivery of the next generation of services and solutions. Previously, he served communications in a variety of global product management and operational roles at high growth technology companies, including Motricity, Openwave and broadband pioneer Excite@Home. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a JD from Harvard Law School. With “Mobile Solutions” in this title, we decided to grill him about Bandwidth’s mobile aspirations.

Sean Rivers - Why would a business voice service provider like Bandwidth be interested in mobile phone service?

Brian Dally - Mobile phones have become critical productivity tools for owners and employees of the small- and medium-sized businesses that Bandwidth serves. We see significant opportunities to help these companies achieve gains in productivity combined with significant cost savings while minimizing the hassle. All of this while enabling businesses to communicate on-the-go.

SR - How do small and medium business take advantage of the mobile technology previously only available to larger corporations?

BD - Smartphones are rapidly becoming the exception that swallows the rule! Just look at the volume of phone calls, emails and web traffic flowing through mobile phones today versus our desktop phones and computers. Fortune 500 companies can afford to integrate solutions into their telecom and IT infrastructure, but for smaller companies, each mobile phone is an island unto itself.  Bandwidth wants to fix that.

SR - With your vast mobility experience, why Bandwidth.com?

BD - I started off my career in mobile by building early generations of embedded micro-web browsers for feature phones, such as Sprint’s LG5350. Back then, mobile was about voice, but as screen sizes and resolutions increased, input methods improved and phones became more powerful - the game changed. Now, it’s all about data - to the point that even voice service is moving that way! Bandwidth is perfectly positioned to create enormous customer value in this market.

SR - What is next for the business mobility industry?

BD - The past several years have yielded an incredible amount of mass adoption of core mobile data technologies. At the same time, some interesting new possibilities have developed for VoIP technology in the mobile context. Just as the [mobile] industry did with mobile email, web browsing and applications, it’s time to separate the mobile VoIP (voice over IP) science projects from the customer-relevant innovations.

SR - What is next for Bandwidth.com?

BD - Suffice to say, @Phonebooth has some really worthwhile mobile tricks up its sleeve.  Stay tuned!

Photo credit: Milica Sekulic

Tags: bandwidth, Bandwidth.com, Brian Dally, Interview, medium businesses, mobile, mobile solutions, Phonebooth, product strategy, small business, SMB, Telecom Advice

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Capacity - Team Bandwidth’s Race Across America Story

After months of planning and intense training, Team Bandwidth took the country by two wheels this last June on their Race Across America (RAAM). Not only did the team finish the 3,004 mile event in 6 days and 3 hours, they also ended up winning the event (4 person team category).

I went along for the ride in the media vehicle and from the footage gathered, I put together an 8-part video series called “Capacity”. The movie is a mixture of story, scenery and intense cycling footage that outlines the highs and lows of crew and riders as they struggle to stay in the front of the pack.

We congratulate riders and crew on their amazing race from Oceanside, California to Annapolis, Maryland, and commemorate the experience through film and photography. See it for yourself….

Capacity - Team Bandwidth’s Race Across America (YouTube)

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Elastix

This is an open source Unified Communications Server software that is offered with IP PBX, email, faxing and collaboration functionality. The Web interface includes capabilities such as Call Center software with predictive dialing. Elastix integrates several software packages each including their own set of features. Elastix adds new interface for controlling and reporting. Elsastix offers Call recording, Voicemail and Voicemail-to-Email functionality, flexible IVR configurable by web interface, voice synthesis support, extension batch tool to generate large number of extensions using CSV files, integrated Echo Canceller. Phone provisioner, configurable via a web interface. It allows configuration of a large number of IP phones in a short time for supported phones.   It features a web interface and includes capabilities such as call center software with predictive dialing. The Elastix functionality is based on open source projects and offers PBX, fax, instant messaging and email functions.