Guide to How to Take Advantage of Intelligent Communications

Work easier with powerful telephony functions

By Andy Green

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You’ve maxed out the capacity of your aging phone system, and you’re now looking to upgrade or replace. Perhaps you’re interested in tapping into the new VoIP technology. In this article, we’ll take a look at advanced phone features that can make a difference to your business. It’s less expensive than ever to add intelligence to your communications infrastructure!

First, the good news. There’s been a trickle down of features from high-end phone systems into more affordable products targeted at the SMB market. The convergence of data and voice, which has already brought improved productivity and cost savings to larger enterprises, can do the same for smaller businesses.

Here’s a short-list of powerful features that you’ll want when you’re ready to move beyond vanilla telephone functions:

Find me/follow me -- At different locations depending on time of day? You can configure “follow-me” rules based on your schedule. The phone system then forwards calls to your current location. “Find-me” rules kick in when you’re not on a given schedule: it will try different work locations, mobile, and even use email to get the call to you.
Inbound routing –With configurable phone routing rules, you can give VIP customers a direct connection to the right person in your organization. More advanced Presence technology can ensure the call connects with an expert who is currently available.
Desktop telephony – One of the key benefits of convergence is the ability to control the call from a PC. It’s just easier to forward calls, create conferences, and manage voice mail from a desktop computer.
VoIP -- VoIP trunking lowers phone costs by using broadband connections (DSL or cable) to route calls between office locations. By working with a VoIP service provider, you can also make low-cost long distance calls. But you don’t necessarily have to buy a new VoIP-based phone system; instead, you can add external VoIP gateways to your current system.
IVR -- Interactive Voice Response or IVR no longer requires an expert to craft navigation menus. With intuitive interface software, any business can create and deploy “audiotex” files containing recorded answers to questions—for example, directions, office hours, and FAQs. And text-to-speech functions can automatically turn existing content into audio. Bottom line: IVR is an inexpensive way to improve customer service when you have limited staff.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Learn about Advanced Telecommunications

There's been a lot of changes since you've purchased your last phone system. The key trend has been the merging of telecom with IT. Since newer phone systems integrate with IT servers, like email, it is important to understand software technologies.

I recommend: Call Center Magazine.com is more than just about call centers. There are great resources on telephony, IT, VoIP, as well as ACDs, the core technology for contact centers. Enterprise users will find Network World and No Jitter go-to sites for current telecom news, trends, and issues.

Analyze Your Phone System

Before you make a change to your phone system, it pays to conduct an analysis of current call patterns. Every phone system produces a call detail record or CDR for each outgoing or incoming call. Special call accounting software reads the CDRs and generates reports that will enable you to better manage telecom costs. For example, a call accounting report can tell you by how much a VoIP connection will reduce your telecom costs.

I recommend: Call accounting packages from Micro-Tel, Metropolis Technologies, Avaya, and MIND analyze the call records from many popular phone systems. Running on a separate Windows-based system, the software produces standard reports, as well as customizable reports for your specific needs.

Check With Your Current Vendor

Phone system vendors offer cost-effective upgrade options that can add capacity to your system, as well as migration paths to new VoIP systems. Many phone systems support additional interface cards to handle extra phone and trunk connections. If there's no room for growth, vendors now make it convenient to move to VoIP-based system by supporting older phones and equipment.

I recommend: If you own phone systems from Panasonic, Toshiba, or Avaya, you’ll have options to expand capacity and add new features, including IVR, auto-attendant, and fax-back. While these vendors also have VoIP systems in their product lines that can leverage your current telecom investment, network capabilities can vary so it's important to check the spec sheets. But if you’re interested in adding only VoIP trunking to your legacy phone system, take a look at gateway products from Multi-Tech and Quintum.

Convergence: All in One

One of the benefits of convergence is a single box that combines both data and voice functions. Converged voice and data servers are less expensive to maintain and often can be managed by an IT specialist.

I recommend: If you’ve decided to purchase a new system, check out converged offerings from talkswitch, Zultys, Avaya, and Allworx. Embedded LAN ports support VoIP phones, messaging, and desktop telephony functions. These one-box-wonders also include routing functions and a WAN port to link to your Internet service provider.

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

If you're implementing VoIP trunking, be attuned to bandwidth requirements. A standard VoIP connection will consume 64 kbps (kilobytes per second) of your Internet connection.
An important productivity feature of desktop telephony is screen pop-ups. A call can trigger a data record that displays customer information, speeding your business's ability to respond to customer requests.
Adding VoIP phones may not involve any extra wiring. VoIP phones often contain an integrated hub that can link to your existing PC for a one-wire solution.
Speech recognition technology is the next-step in IVR. Found in many VoIP-based systems, speech software lets customers navigate menus using one-word answers

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