What Kind Of Communications Solution Do You Need For Your Small Business?

What Kind Of Communications Solution Do You Need For Your Small Business?

You have enough to do with your daily activities for your small business. Yet, you know you need to research communications technologies to help your business connect with customers and give employees access to their phones from anywhere. Or maybe the number of Voice over IP (VoIP) and voice mail call forwarding solutions feels too overwhelming making it hard to figure out where to begin your research.
BCM 50 and HandsetsMore all-in-one telephony solutions are available to simplify things so you don't manage multiple solutions, providers and bills. For example, you want to route calls, set up a small call center and allow employees to stay connected when they're away from the office. VoIP solutions exist to combine all of these features so you don't have to look for a call center solution from one provider and voice mail call forwarding from another.

Most of the popular VoIP services don't offer anything beyond providing your employees with a way to make calls and stay connected. Several emerging VoIP solutions offer converged voice and data services for use over one network. One of those is the Business Communication Manager (BCM), which combines unified messaging, interactive voice response, multimedia call center, IP routing, firewall and wireless. BCM can also provide the following benefits for small businesses:

Stay connected from anywhere: Employees set up their phones to forward voice, text and fax messages to their cell phones. They can change their greetings and access their messages from any phone, handheld device or over the internet. Employees can make and receive calls as they were at the office without incurring charges.

Manage messages through one application: Solutions that integrate voice, fax and email messages on computers and handheld devices allow employees to manage them through one application like Microsoft Exchange or Outlook.

Route calls to the right department and people: An automated feature contains personalized greetings and menu options for directing calls. This saves time for customers and ensures customers reach the right people. Even callers can leave a message for an entire department or a group of users.

Secure your connection: Some solutions come with features that can secure your connection with authentication, firewall and virtual private networks (VPNs).

Create a call center: Route incoming calls to 10 employees to handle orders, reservations or support. Some can open two queues based on agent skills so callers go to the right agent and receive the best service.

These features were once only available to large businesses because of the cost and they were too much for the small business. BCM has flexibility so you can scale it and activate new features plus it can work with businesses with just three employees. These BCM50 case studies show how the product works for small businesses. Also, several models are available, so here's a comparison of BCM products to get an idea of the different types of solutions available.

Small businesses have options that cover all of their telephony needs without feature and product overkill.

VoIP Phone: a means to start a small business

VoIP Phone: a means to start a small business

by Kristen Kiya

The need for making long distant calls at cheaper rates led to the introduction of VoIP. This secondary means of connecting people proved very fruitful. Using this technology, people were able to make calls at very reasonable rates, while simultaneously viewing the person at the other end on a web cam. Over the years, this technology has proved itself in more ways than one. It is easy to use, reliable and the cost involved is comparatively less than traditional telephony systems.
Many a times, all that is required for getting connected using VoIP is an adapter. The process is simple. Voice sounds get transmitted using data grams on the IP network. When this is done, telephony gains the same characteristics of a data network connection. So, these data grams can be used by different software to perform tasks such as conference calling. Equipment such as routers support the proper functioning of the system. So, Voice over IP performs better when the switches, routers and network links are faster. Ethernet is usually the means of connecting networks that are Voice Over applications. The servers therefore fulfill many telephony roles such as call switching and connection management, call recording and auto-attendant function besides call conferencing. This thus gives the traditional phones access to VoIP. It also facilitates making calls to end points with varying audio capabilities.

The VoIP phone calls can connect a server that can be used for call management. The Voice over IP server can be connected to a PSTN without any hassles. Once connected, it becomes very feasible for making calls at reasonable price rates. As long as a WAN connectivity exists, a VoIP server can act as a PSTN gateway for IP phones. So, now you need not worry at all if you have made up your mind to start a small business. The DSL or cable network should work nicely to meet the needs of one to two people. So, it is possible for you to run an office from your home itself. If the number of employees is more than two, then you should opt for a different Internet telephony service. What you should always check is the bandwidth of the connection that you are opting for. So, with greater bandwidth the number of users who can access the IP telephony also increases. Supposing if you have a small PBX system or any other business telephone system, then simply purchase a media gateway. This will directly connect you to the internet without replacing any of your phone parts.

So, the internet telephony service has turned this world to a high tech place. Hassle free communication at cost effective rates has increased productivity in business. At a personal level also, cheap telephone calls have become the norm in different parts of the world. To avail the best of the VoIP service, one needs to have the best hardware device supported by software. The factors that become indispensable in this context include an Analogue Terminal Adaptor (ATA), a high speed broadband connection, and an IP phone service.