You know it’s time for a change, and you’re aware that Hosted PBX is the ideal path to take – but you face a hurdle. You need to get your directors/staff/IT department on board first. Where do you start?

The answer is developing a business case, and in this article we’ll walk through some steps that will, hopefully, set you on the right track.

1.First, develop a list of needs. What are the critical components that are currently missing from your phone system, and that a Hosted PBX service could provide?

Some examples could include:

• Ability to ring alternate numbers, such as cell phones, if staff don’t answer their desk phones

• Option to ring additional staff (hunt group/call queue) if a given extension does not pick up

• Ability to receive voicemail any time, anywhere an Internet connection is available

• Easily customizable menu system/autoattendant, to better direct customer call flow and present customized voice prompts and music-on-hold

The above are examples of very important functions, the lack of which may represent a clear and direct loss of revenue. Take the time to really talk to your staff – the only way to know for certain what your phone service is missing is to properly survey the people who use it day in and day out.

2. Develop a list of wants. This will consist of features/functions that would be very “nice to have,” and that would likely increase productivity, but that are not necessarily must-haves. Think of this list as “value-added” – you will be able to use it as a further enticement for any wavering decision-makers.

A few examples might be:

• Option to have calls recorded

• Tracking and reporting features, to better understand call flow and employee phone productivity

• Ability for staff to work remotely/from home offices

When you’re ready to present your case, you’ll first use the data you gathered in Step 1 to prove that your Hosted PBX proposal will solve the organization’s immediate needs, and then you’ll take your pitch to the next level by demonstrating using the Step 2 data that you’ve envisioned even more ways to enhance productivity and improve customer experience.

3. Estimate real-world, dollar-figure savings. Here’s where you’ll start tying together needs and wants into a “package” that busy executives and decision-makers will readily understand.

Use simple, easily explained, and logical metrics to arrive at your figures. A prudent approach could be the following:

1. Develop an estimate of how many sales are potentially being lost in a day (due to missed calls, delayed callbacks, inability to reach a desired representative, etc.).
2. Make a realistic estimate, again by consulting with staff, of the average value of each sale
3. Multiply this value by 30, or 365, or whatever time period you wish to represent, in order to make an impactful and well-supported statement on lost revenue using your current phone system/potential revenue gain with a Hosted PBX service.

4. Estimate your switching costs – and amortization periods for them. This is the part that can cause decision-makers to hesitate or even balk, so be sure to accurately calculate how long your organization is likely to take to recoup these costs using the data from Step 3. Remember, payback periods are relatively short with Hosted PBX, for a number of reasons:

• No PBX “system” to purchase – only phones and/or adapter
• No initial on-site PBX installation
• No ongoing maintenance/upgrade costs – manage your account directly via the web

You will likely be able to show that, with a minimal initial outlay, your organization can quickly recoup your startup costs and begin saving money month-over-month.

5. Finally, present your choice of Hosted PBX provider. The most important factor in this step is to look at more than just monthly cost! Yes, your Hosted PBX service should be competitively priced, but be wary of unusually cut-rate prices. You need to ensure that your selected provider offers excellent voice quality, well-trained and knowledgeable support staff, and network redundancy. Very inexpensive providers may be cutting corners in some or all of these areas in order to deliver artificially attractive prices.

Ultimately, choose the provider that offers the best value based on a combination of cost-effectiveness, support, capability, and scalability.

We wish you luck in your research and presentation!

We’ve previously covered:

• the advantages of a virtual call center configuration as compared to the traditional alternative
• how to develop an estimate of your Internet requirements
• how to choose the right software for your application

If you have not read these previous posts, you may wish to do so before continuing with this entry.

Today we’ll discuss how to choose the right phones for your particular virtual call center application. The first step, as usual, is gathering enough information to make a decision. We suggest you begin by making a list of your staff, their job titles/roles, and their expected amount of phone usage throughout an average day. By “amount” we don’t necessarily mean a specific figure for how many hours a day your staff will be on the phone (this is of course a great figure to have at your disposal if you can calculate it accurately), but rather just a simple categorization such as “moderate use” or “intensive use” based on the particular employee’s role in the organization.

Yes, this will take you some time, and it may seem arduous, but remember: at a conservative estimate of $150 per employee for a high-quality VoIP office phone, your initial hardware costs will add up (although they’ll be far less than a traditional PBX alternative). You’ll be glad later that you went through this exercise!

As an example:

Name: Anna
Role: Lead Inside Sales Representative
Expected phone usage: Very Intensive

In this example, Anna is expected to be using the phone almost constantly throughout the day. Based on this, you know that she will need a phone that meets her more stringent needs. Once you’ve done this exercise for each employee, and made a list accordingly, you can begin to determine which features each employee needs, which will give you the information you need to make your ultimate decision: which phone models to choose.

Let’s take another example to help illustrate the decision-making process. It’s obvious that Anna will be using her phone extensively and therefore will need a robust, reliable unit that will stand up to constant use. However, we also need to consider specifically what features she will need. The criteria will of course vary by call center, and thus the following list may not be comprehensive or exhaustive, but here are some of the common factors to consider.

Number of lines: if the employee will be making and receiving a large number of calls, it is virtually certain that he/she will at some point need to juggle two or more simultaneous calls. This is a critical factor and you need to be sure that the phone models you choose offer enough lines to meet the needs of each staffer. As an example, Easy Office Phone offers models that provide anywhere from two to 12 lines. The key is to make a selection that offers enough lines to satisfy any reasonable estimate of what an employee will be expected to handle – but don’t overbuy.

Programmable keys: VoIP phones coupled with an intuitive web interface offer users a great advantage – the ability to quickly and easily program keys to common functions, such as speed dial keys, voicemail checking keys, etc. Consider these elements for each user. Some examples:

• an employee who often makes internal calls to other staff will likely want enough speed dial keys to allow them to quickly reach the person they need to speak to.
• A sales person who receives a large number of incoming calls, some of which go to voicemail, will want to program keys for voicemail speed-dialing
• An employee who serves in a receptionist or administrative position and who manually directs calls to staff will likely need to know which staff are available vs. which staff are currently occupied on calls. For a person with these needs, be sure you buy a phone model that offers “Employee Indicators” – the ability to “see” co-workers and their current status (available, ringing, busy)

Screen size: Not all phone displays are created equal. Some phones can display only one or two lines of data, which will be of limited use in an environment where an employee needs to see the external caller’s phone number and name, the internal queue name the caller came through, and also to see which co-worker might be available to take the call. Such an employee will definitely need an executive-class model that offers plenty of display space to accommodate all this information.

“Passthrough” capability: Many VoIP phones offer two Ethernet ports. There can be a considerable advantage to this configuration when your phones and computers are sharing a single network. If you already have network cabling running to each workstation, you can add a VoIP phone at each employee’s desk without changing any wiring. This is possible due to the phone’s second Ethernet port. In this scenario you would:

1. disconnect the existing Ethernet cable from the computer
2. Connect the existing cable to the “LAN” port on the phone
3. Connect one end of the second cable (which should have shipped with the phone) to the “PC” port on the back of the phone, and the other to the computer

After following the above instructions you will have both your VoIP phone and your computer sharing a single Ethernet cable to the router, and therefore using only one router port. This can save on rewiring costs and prevent the need to buy more routers and/or switches. As we have stated in previous entries, separate networks and Internet connections are the ideal for most virtual call centers, and should be implemented wherever possible, but when this is not an option you should consider phones with dual Ethernet ports.

Easy Office Phone offers a wide range of VoIP phones, including models from Aastra, Linksys/Cisco, and Polycom. We recommend these three brands in particular in terms of compatibility with our own service; always buy phones from your service provider if possible, as they will be known to be compatible and should also come pre-programmed, which will save you valuable time. Alternatively, if you are sourcing your phones from elsewhere, be certain to check the specific make and model with your service provider to ensure compatibility before committing to the equipment purchase.

In our next entry, we will look at possibly the most important step in setting up a virtual call center: choosing the right phone service provider.

If you read our first entry in this series and worked through the steps, you’ll have a good idea by this point of your bandwidth requirements and hopefully have chosen a router suitable for your application.

The next step is ensuring that you have the appropriate virtual call center software. There are many packages available on the market, but you typically have to integrate them with your phone system and service, which may be challenging. In addition, software of this type can often carry a high price tag, which is another barrier.

Easy Office Phone makes the step of software selection very simple – when you set up a virtual call center with our company, you’ll get a robust, web-based call center software solution fully integrated with our service and ready for use!

Let’s take a look at the elements of our virtual call center software.

1. Call Queues: Queues are one of the key elements of your virtual call center. Easy Office Phone’s built-in software gives you sophisticated options for creating and managing multiple queues. You can set ring strategies, determine timeouts for your agents, decide what should happen when no agents are available to take calls, and much more.
2. Agent tools: Your agents need to be able to manage themselves. Our software allows them to sign in and out of queues, set themselves to “break” status, and also see what other agents are doing so that they can make informed choices about how they handle calls.
3. Tracking and Reporting Tools: Ultimately, you need to know how your virtual call center is performing. Our virtual call center software provides you with a vast range of tracking and reporting tools. You can track: how many calls came into your virtual call center; how many of those calls were handled by agents vs. how many were abandoned; your average hold time; total time your virtual call center agents spent on the phone; and much more. Finally, you can create reports in spreadsheet format for further analysis.

Let’s quickly recap the advantages of Easy Office Phone’s virtual call center software:

• Fully integrated with our phone service and ready to use; no need to purchase and integrate a separate software package
• Because our software is web-based, setup is very easy and can be done from anywhere
• Robust tracking and reporting tools are included with the software

In our next entry, we’ll look at phone hardware options and how to choose the right phone models for your virtual call center.

The first requirement to consider for your virtual call center implementation is high-speed Internet service. This will be required for both your voice calls and your computer data (such as e-mail, communicating with colleagues, web browsing, etc.). There are many different types of high-speed Internet connections, and we will list several below.

• DSL
• Cable
• Fibre Optic
• T1

Any or all of the above may suit the needs of your virtual call center, depending on how many staff you have and how many simultaneous calls you expect at any given time. For larger deployments, with a higher number of simultaneous calls, consider a more robust Internet connection. To determine which type of Internet connection might be suitable, first work out your approximate voice and data bandwidth requirements. We do not recommend satellite or wireless Internet connections for a call center application.

For voice requirements, take the maximum expected number of simultaneous calls at a given location. For example, assume that the main call center location will have seven employees, and that each employee may have up to two calls active at any given time. This gives us 14 active calls at a time. Next, multiply this number by the bandwidth required for each call. Using Easy Office Phone’s Hosted PBX service, the required bandwidth is either 87 kbps (maximum-fidelity) or 35 kbps (standard fidelity) per call, upstream and downstream.

In the above example, the requirement for voice calls would be 1.2 Mbps or 490 kbps, depending on desired fidelity.

Next, work out an approximate figure for data bandwidth. Consult with your staff to get a good picture of how they will use the Internet on their computers. E-mail and browsing typically do not use a great deal of bandwidth whereas sending and/or receiving large files may require more. Work out an approximate total for data usage.

For the best results, you should consider having two separate Internet connections for your virtual call center – one dedicated to your voice traffic, and one to your computer data traffic. This helps ensure the highest level of performance for each application.

We next recommend consulting your IT/networking firm and prospective Internet provider to obtain precise details, once you have generated approximate requirements for your virtual call center. You will need to ask the Internet provider for the approximate speed of the connection they are able to provide you to ensure that it will fit your expected requirements. Again, look for a provider able to supply you with separate connections (one for voice and one for data).

In addition, we recommend a business-class VoIP-compatible router. You can see some recommended models at our Router Compatibility page.

In our next entry, we will look at the type of virtual call center software you should consider for your deployment.

In essence, a call center is a group of people who make and/or receive calls for a given business or non-business purpose.

What is a Call Center Designed to Do?

Call Centers can be used for many purposes. Business uses for call centers include: telemarketing such as placing outbound sales calls; receiving inbound sales calls; making and receiving inbound and outbound customer support calls; connecting and assisting employees; and more.

However, call centers are not used only by businesses. Many non-profit organizations, hospitals, emergency personnel and various other parties use call centers to manage their call flow and ensure that urgent calls are quickly attended to and routed to the proper party.

If you have ever had reason to call 911, you’ve spoken to call center staff. You most likely heard “911, what is your emergency” or a similar question. This is an excellent example of a call center at work. You were briefly in a queue, your call was routed to a call center employee, they quickly gathered the information, and they then dispatched your information (hopefully!) to the appropriate party.

Survey and statistics organizations also employ call centers to gather useful data on a wide range of subjects. Employees in call centers such as these might be placing outbound calls to gauge public opinion on important issues, collect general demographic information, perform market research, and more.

Even political parties use call centers. During election seasons, hundreds of call centers spring up across the US and Canada. The call center staff place canvassing calls to constituents, hoping to elicit voter support for a given candidate.

What is a Call Center’s typical setup?

Call Centers can be organized using many different methods. A call center does not even have to consist of one location – with a Hosted PBX service such as Easy Office Phone’s, call center staff can work from many different locations and still be tied together under a single phone service account.

In terms of call flow the options are equally extensive. Incoming calls can be sent to an auto-attendant, which can present callers with several options (e.g. Sales, Support, Billing, etc.) and then route calls to the appropriate staff member(s). Another option is to ring all or some of the call center employees, using a choice of different ring strategies such as Ring All, Round-Robin, Random, etc. Outbound call centers in some cases do not accept incoming calls at all and are set up strictly to place calls quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively.

I have a call center or am organizing one. How can I learn more?

Easy Office Phone’s friendly and knowledgeable staff can assist by discussing your needs and determining the best solution for you, using our highly customziable Call Center Software and Reporting tools. Give them a call today at 1-866-671-0111!

Dictation or transcription is used by professionals in many industries. Authors and journalists use it for writing, lawyers use it to formulate arguments and pleas, and doctors use it to document their research or work with patients.

Gone are the days of cassette tapes and clunky machines that can break down and wear out. Now, you can use your fixed or mobile telephone to call in from anywhere and leave your dictation in the cloud for processing later.

Dictation companies find this technology to be extremely useful. With Easy Office Phone’s Digital Dictation service your dictation company can have clerks located anywhere and other then a computer they won’t need any special equipment to play back the recorded message for transcription.

Their are plenty of benefits to using Easy Office Phone’s Digital Dictation service. Give us a call at 1-866-671-0111 and ask our sales team for more information.

The auto attendant interface lets you easily define menu options by selecting how calls should be routed when those options are selected. For instance you can direct callers to a specific extension, mailbox, hunt group, call queue or even a business hour rule. A business hour rule makes it easy to define different actions depending on the day of the week or the time of day.

Auto attendants are great for directing callers to the right department or staff member and can even be used to provide callers with important information about your company. Often auto attendants are used to provide callers with the hours of operation or directions to the office.

The acronym PBX is short form for “Private Branch Exchange”, which is often referred to as a business phone system or office phone system. A PBX is a system which connects the internal business phones in the office to the outside telephone company. If you have ever peered into the back room of your office and noticed a server with lots of telephone lines running into it, what you are looking at is the office pbx system.

Purpose

The purpose of a PBX is to allow employees within the office to make/receive calls that originate from outside the office. You can think of this as your home phone service except that employees within an office have many different phone numbers and several phone lines which need to be shared amongst everyone in an organized fashion.

Common Features

A PBX will often deliver a number of features to the employees within an office. These common features can include:

• A voicemail system with multiple mailboxes for each employee
• Virtual receptionist or auto attendant to direct callers to different departments
• Paging or intercom features for broadcasting message amoung many phone sets
• Hunt groups which ring multiple phone sets at once such as a “sales department”
• Call transfer and conference calling features
• Dial by name directory for finding employees within an office
• Handle calls differently depending on the time of day

New Trends in PBX Technology

One of the newest and most exciting trends in pbx technology is that of the hosted pbx service which replaces the need for businesses to maintain a pbx system at their office. Instead the pbx system is run remotely from a data center which reduces the costs and maintenance common with on premise pbx systems.

PBX Usage

Typically a pbx has been associated with large corporations who can afford expensive telecommunications equipment. However, recently many small pbx devices and hosted pbx offerings have made a pbx system affordable for small businesses.

Teleworking affords employees, employers and society many benefits. What is teleworking? Put simply, teleworking uses technology to allow employees to work away from traditional office places. For instance this often refers to employees who work from home and may include people working part time or full time with flexible or standard hours. Telework often refers to a non-traditional work arrangement which leverages improvements in information and communication technologies such as virtual phone services. Easy Office Phone provides many virtual phone services that can benefit both businesses and employees when teleworking.

Here are some examples of telework:

• Home based employees work from home and completely eliminate their daily commute to the office
• Working from a satellite office
• Working from a virtual office on a pay per use basis
• Working from virtually anywhere using mobile communications technology

Benefits

Teleworking benefits employees, employers as well as society as a whole. Lets review some of these benefits:

• Cost Savings – The cost savings to both employees and employers can be substantial. Businesses can reduce their cost for office space and related work space costs. Employees benefit from reducing their commuting costs.
• Time Savings – There is no doubt that the savings gained by not having to commute to work is substantial. This time gained could benefit both the corporation and the employee.
• Opportunities for the Disabled – Employees with disabilities can benefit by being able to work from home where their needs are better addressed.
• Balance – Teleworking can afford employees more control over their working hours. This flexibility is especially important for working mothers and fathers.

Suggestions To Making It Work

• Separating Work Time From Personal Time – Because of the nature of telework it is often difficult to distinguish between working time and personal time. If employees working from home designate a room in their house as the office, this can help. It shouldn’t be a room that they regularly use, this way they have to make a choice to work and there is no mistaking that they are working when in that space. When it is a separate room, like a guest bedroom, the possibility of feeling compelled to work is reduced because you are less likely to run into work while doing something else. When the employee is in this room it sends a signal to those in the house that work is being done. Teleworkers should start and finish work at the same time each day and eat lunch and take breaks at scheduled times.
• Staff Interaction – Having meetings once or twice a week in a central location with other employees is recommended. Teleworking affords less interaction with other staff members and supervisors. This can make it difficult for employees to become acquainted with each other. Meeting with other employees on a regular basis will help with this.
• Hire The Right People – Not all employees will flourish in such situations where independence is required. The potential employee should have the resources to telework properly. Most importantly they need the desire, they also need the private space at home, a good quality computer, high speed internet, and an IP phone to connect to the companies hosted PBX telephone system. The expenses for these resources should be covered by the company. Lastly, they also need a clear and concise job description that includes goals and objectives with timely expectations.

Teleworking can take some time to get used to. In the end though, teleworking in full or in part can greatly increase the quality of life for you or your employees.

First, the basics – what exactly is a virtual office, anyway? Well, as the name suggests, it’s not a physical place. Rather, a “virtual office” comprises a mix of technologies and services that enable entrepreneurs and business people to:

• Present a professional, polished image
• Stay constantly connected and avoid missed calls
• Reduce or even eliminate dependency on traditional office space
• Reduce or eliminate physical commuting
• Realize cost savings and a smaller environmental footprint thanks to the above

Easy Office Phone’s Hosted PBX technology allows you to achieve all of the above, while still saving money over traditional telecom options. Let’s take a look at each of these benefits of a virtual office and how our service can fulfill them.

Image: we all know how important image is. To help customers feel confident buying your products or services you need to present an image that depicts your company as established and credible. Here’s the catch – even the most solid, dependable companies in the world were small and unestablished when they first started. We all have to start somewhere.

With Easy Office Phone’s virtual office technology, you can deliver the right impression the moment your customers dial your phone number. With our customizable auto-attendant (also known as virtual receptionist) feature, your customers will immediately hear a polished automated greeting welcoming them to your company and presenting them with a list of options. You might choose to have several departments serving your customers, such as Sales, Support and Billing – even if all of those options go to just one or two people. Remember, it’s not misleading – you know your company will do a great job for its clients, but when you’re trying to get a foot in the door you’d better make sure the foot you’re putting forward is your best.

Connectivity: Our world is a fast-paced place in which to live and do business. Your customers are just as busy as you are; if they can’t reach you when they need your help, they’re likely to become frustrated and perhaps even move on to another supplier. As a result, you just can’t afford to miss calls due to outdated technology.

As part of your virtual office solution, consider find-me/follow me and voicemail to e-mail from Easy Office Phone. Both of these powerful features are included standard with our monthly service packages, and greatly increase your odds of getting those important calls. With find-me/follow-me, you can choose to call additional numbers (such as cell phones) when a caller dials your extension. Our service can dial these numbers either sequentially or simultaneously. Voicemail to e-mail provides you with further assurance – even if you do miss the initial call, we’ll immediately send you a digital recording of the voicemail message your customer left. You can download and listen to the message on a desktop or laptop computer, on your smartphone, or anywhere else that you have e-mail access. Complete your communications suite with our Electronic Fax service, which allows you to send faxes through the web and receive them via e-mail.

Office Space: If you’ve seen the amusing film from Mike Judge, you know that traditional offices can be overrated. Even if your red stapler isn’t missing, your job is still tied to the building you work in, meaning significantly increased operating costs. This can be a killer for startup businesses! Easy Office Phone can route your calls to you via a number of devices – a Business VoIP phone, a soft phone running on a computer, a smart phone or even a traditional landline. As a result, you can work from anywhere – your home, the road, a hotel – and still get all of your customer calls, without anyone realizing that you’re not sitting in a traditional office.

Commuting: We all dread it – and we envy those who don’t have to endure it. Why not beat the rat race and work from where you choose, as described above? When you’re able to work from the location of your choosing using Easy Office Phone, you can eliminate thousands of dollars a year in fuel costs, vehicle maintenance, licensing fees and parking tickets…not to mention the intangible cost of losing your sanity due to wasting time in traffic jams.

Environmental benefits: After setting up your virtual office, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’ve done your part for the Earth by significantly reducing your environmental footprint. Cutting out a few round trips to the office per week means greatly reducing your carbon footprint. Go even greener by getting rid of the need to run those fluorescent office lights eight hours a day, eliminating messages scrawled on memo pads, and doing away with those annoying fax machines!

That’s all for today. We hope this post answers the question of “what is a virtual office?” and demonstrates how you can use Easy Office Phone’s service to set up your own virtual office solution and start enjoying its benefits.