Six Myths About Cloud Phone Systems Debunked

Unless you want to reach out and hug your phone system, here are six myths that I would like to de-bunk once and for all about a premise system versus a cloud or hosted solution.

Cloud Phone System Myth # 1
If my old phone system works OK, isn't it cheaper to stick with it until the old system dies?

When you factor in PBX maintenance, increasing carrier fees, and the cost of changes made during expansion and relocation, as well as being unable to exploit many new VoIP features that integrate with office productivity tools, you might be losing money by sticking with outdated systems.

Waiting for a forced change, such as discontinued equipment or the closing or merging of your current telephony provider, can result in a rushed changeover and possible costly downtime. By switching to Cloud Phone System, you can stay ahead of the game and remain competitive without hitting a bump in day-to-day operations. Making the switch can be easy and far less painful than propping up an old, outdated system.

Cloud Phone System Myth # 2
Isn't VoIP just a consumer solution? I see ads for Vonage on TV all the time.

Today there are business-class VoIP providers with solutions specifically tailored for business use with high-quality IP phones and PBX features such as extension dialing, auto attendants, ring groups, conference calling and more. These solutions can now deliver crystal-clear audio anywhere in the world.

Integrating voice, video and data on a single, secure network keeps employees productive from wherever they work, without compromising security or quality of service.

Cloud Phone System Myth # 3
Why do we need a Cloud Phone System service? Can't we all just use our cell phones?

The best VoIP providers already have apps that connect your cell phone into the office phone system, giving you mobility and all the advantages of a full business phone system. You can then use your smartphone as a business extension whenever you want to, and reroute the calls when you don't. You never have to give out your personal cell number for business, and you can get business calls on your smartphone when you travel.

Cloud Phone System Myth #4
We can manage our system fine by ourselves. Won't it cost us less and be more reliable?

Actually, most premise based systems now are sold with almost mandatory maintenance agreements. The agreements cover software patches and hardware defects. They don't cover upgrades. They don't cover moves adds and changes. In most cases, they don't cover the labor involved to make basic changes. When you take a look at the total cost of ownership of a system, over the course of ten years, you will probably be paying as much in maintenance as procuring another whole system! If you factor in the cost of the labor involved, you are looking at a much larger cost of ownership.

Reliability is really where a cloud phone system shines through. Cloud companies house their systems in data centers. A data center has multiple forms of redundancy- power redundancy between multiple grids and failover to back up generators, multiple redundancy to backbone carriers, and proper ventilation and cooling. An average business cannot even begin to approach this level of redundancy economically. Additionally, data centers are secure from unauthorized physical access with sophisticated biometric security systems and manned 24.7.365 professional security personnel restricting entrance and egress.

As a result cloud service providers can provide a service level agreement that will guarantee quality of service to you- in writing and enforceable.

Cloud Phone System Myth #5
Won't I have to re-cable my premises to accommodate a cloud phone system?

Most IP phones today have built in pass through hubs so that you can install phones wherever you have a Category 5 or better network computer cable. Additionally, most cloud providers now have apps that you can install on smartphones like the iPhone or Android platform that will make your network enabled smartphone operate as a cordless set-frequently at no extra cost.

Cloud Phone System Myth #6
A phone system is a phone system. They're all the same. If they go down, I am out of service, right?

If your premise based system goes down for whatever, you will have to redirect your main number to a cell phone from your carrier. If you experience a cable cut, you will be down. If you experience a equipment malfunction from hardware or software, you will be down.

On a hosted platform, with 99.999% reliability in writing from the cloud service provider, you can have your extension ring to a cell phone and frequently that is either done through an online user portal or via a quick call to customer service. On many hosted systems, you can log in remotely via an app on a smartphone or via a dial in from a plain ordinary telephone line. Net result: you are never down.

VoIP and Simultaneous Ring Phones

Today's employees have a large number of devices at their disposal. In addition to the office phone, they have their own personal mobile device, a tablet, and several laptops. No longer is a traditional 9-to-5 job the only time when a person is in contact with their office. Unfortunately, the PSTN phone system has not kept up with this changing environment. Telephone numbers are still tightly connected to single devices with each having a separate one. Migrating from one to the other is not seamless and there's no getting around the 1 to 1 ratio of telephone numbers to devices.

What we need is for our telephone addressing system to be as flexible as that used by e-mail. It should be accessible from any device anywhere in the world and not be tied down to any single network. Your e-mail depends on the Internet and doesn't care about which telecom carrier you're obtaining service from. It works seamlessly over Wi-Fi, Ethernet connections, and mobile data. It's high time we brought regular phone calls into the 21st-century and imbued it with the features that we've come to expect from an advanced communication network.

While it'll be a long time before the telecom carriers themselves change the model, businesses have the option to jump into this new system right away using the power of VoIP. There are many different types of VoIP service - the well-known ones are geared towards the retail customer instead of the professional. Business organizations will need to obtain service from an SIP provider. Once they do so, each user will be allotted what is known as a "SIP address". This looks very similar to a regular e-mail in structure and indeed the architecture of the two systems bears many similarities.

Since these will be paid accounts, your SIP addresses can be identical to your e-mail so you will have your own domain name for branding purposes. Depending on the specific provider and their pricing plans, you can link several devices to a single SIP address and have them all ring simultaneously or one at a time as per your preferences. This allows your employees to always be available and answer any calls using the most convenient device instead of being shackled to just one. It also means that clients need keep track of a single telephone number. In short, it simplifies and streamlines the entire calling process.

Simultaneous ring functionality is also known as "SIP forking". It is one of the key differentiating features of a VoIP system. Make sure that your SIP service provider offers it before signing up with them.

Determining The Correct Phone System To Secure Business Growth

The kind of phone system you have for internal company communication is essential in making you have smooth business operation. Various factors should be considered when choosing the kind of system to install. You should consider both your current capacity and plans. Including only what you have currently might turn out to be expensive in the long-term. After a few years or even months your whole system requires an overhaul.

Similarly, your system can give you problems and give you unnecessary costs if you overestimate future prospects. The right system is found in getting the right balance for your company and one that is within your budget.

Current factors to consider include the number of employees you cater for, the kind of internet and hardware connections you have, how much your budget can accommodate, the phone system expenditure and how much you or your staff understand the technology.

Prospective factors include how many employees you want to add in the next five years, how much business growth your project, the call volume you intend to get or capture especially for a contact centers. Note all these factors and write what you want before you make a purchase and contact a service provider.

You should also carry out research on the phone system available to know what is suitable for both your current and future needs. The most common include the VoIP, PBX and Key phone systems. PBX known as Private Branch Exchange system in full are systems suitable for an employee capacity of more than 50. They allow one to customize the system to get a unified messaging service and are highly advanced. Maintenance costs tend to be high hence should be factored in the overall purchase cost.

Key systems are simple and applicable for small upcoming enterprise that has all its employees in one place. It works effectively with a small number of 30 and uses routing technology using the PTSN. It resembles a typical office system and though quite basic is highly effective for internal communications only.

VoIP, which is the most popular of the three, uses an internet connection to place and route calls. It is cheap and effective and can manage a huge number of employees. The only thing is that you have to ensure you constantly have sufficient bandwidth to support the system.

Large companies can use a mix of two of the above systems, each with its own area of operation. For instance, one can be used for management and another for routing calls both in the company and outside.

Reaching Out to Hundreds of People Through Voice Broadcasting

Voice broadcasting has been used as an advertising method for a long time and it is a tried and true method that has many benefits to its credit. Using a simple phone messages and an attractive audio advertisement, you can communicate with potential and established customers to your business, while make others aware of specials or new services and products, or contact business leads without wasting hours out of your day cold calling.

If your business is looking for a way to reach out to hundreds of people in an extremely fast and efficient manner, voice broadcasting is the best option. Services offering voice broadcasting make it possible to deliver pre recorded audio files that are to the point and attention grabbing and then send it out to a huge number of people at same time. If you have a lengthy list of prospective clients or have accumulated a list of people who have shown an interest in learning more about your business or services, then you can have all of those people hit with your broadcasted telephone message at the same time.

Prospects can find out more information or take advantage of a special deal presented in the broadcasted message, customers will be able to simply press a number on their phone or call a given toll free number directly to your agents or company. Many communities have found voice broadcasting software to be especially beneficial when alerting citizens to emergencies. For instance, in a fire or other disaster, sending a signal over the telephone or the Internet can alert a building's residents. Alert messages can be sent to tenants in a building if there is a fire or disaster. Sensors that initiate an emergency phone broadcast by sending a signal over the internet or by phone can trigger this automatically. Other applications may be as simple as wake-up calls or weather alerts that are triggered automatically from your own computer systems or websites.

The VB software has the capability to detect busy signals and wrong numbers. Broadcasting programs enable inclusion of customized information into the message piece and allow an outstanding voice session through IVR mode. The modern version of VB setup comes bundled with telephony boards that can detect answering machines. The intrinsic logic of the voice broadcasting software, upon being executed by an answering device, will observe and recognize the exact moment when to initiate the message; or will disconnect if the company prefers to call the number later when the customer will potentially be available.

VoIP and Bandwidth Management

In the early days of the Internet with dial up connections, VoIP was something of a luxury. The latency and lag associated with slow speeds made voice calling an extremely scratchy proposition. Very few people used VoIP for anything and it was only a last resort when all other modes of communication over the PSTN phone system failed.

How times have changed! Broadband speeds in the US today are more than sufficient to handle the paltry traffic that VoIP generates. To give you an example of the speed comparison, some of the most high quality audio codecs used with VoIP in HD voice require around 128 kbs upload and download speeds. To put this in perspective, most people today have well over 2-3 Mbps connections if not more.

Under some circumstances however, bandwidth can still be a problem. For example if I'm downloading a large file that fills all of my available bandwidth space to capacity, the quality of the VoIP call will degrade. To compensate for this, most routers on the market today have inbuilt settings that prioritize real time traffic such as VoIP above all others. This allows regular Internet activity such as web browsing to take a backseat. This makes sense. No one really minds if their page takes 20 milliseconds more to load. But when you're talking to someone over the phone, that short period of time is enough to create a poor quality experience.

Perhaps the one place where we still face a bandwidth crunch when using VoIP is the mobile data scene. Even here, 3G technologies provide more than enough bandwidth to allow for a seamless VoIP experience. The limiting factor in this case is not the speed of mobile Internet, but the latency and lag associated with wireless connectivity. Wi-Fi so far has proved to be an excellent substitute as it is backed up by a regular ethernet connection and is much more reliable within its area of operation. Emerging 4G technologies however are proving to be ideal for VoIP giving rise to a new acronym - VoLTE - Voice over LTE.

Perhaps the biggest threat to mobile VoIP is not the technology itself, but the data caps imposed by carriers. While VoIP itself will probably not put a dent in your usage rates, it's a mindset that might prevent people from using it for fear of overshooting their data limits.

Putting Telemarketing Into High Gear Using Predictive Dialing

The best way for a business to increase its sales is through telemarketing. With telemarketing campaigns, a business can reach millions of prospects that are using telephone. However, the biggest obstacle for the business is to set up a facility where calling activities can be done effectively. Setting up a calling facility as well as maintaining a team of sales representatives, is not cheap by any means. For such a situation, a predictive dialing system could prove to be an ideal solution.

A predictive dialer is a sophisticated solution that makes use of a computer and a telephony system to dial out a list of telephone numbers effectively. It can dial out numbers in such an automated manner that it can predict the likelihood of the telephone user picking up that call. Although, a little expensive solution, involving big one time cost, predictive dialer, in the long run, can level out the costs by enabling the business to achieve better efficiency and productivity.

These days, with the advancement in technology, some contact center solution providers even offer hosted predictive dialing solutions. Hosted dialer is similar to predictive dialer, but is available in the form of Software as a Service (SaaS) over the internet. With SaaS predictive dialing solution, a business need not need to maintain the dialing infrastructure, including servers and ISDN lines. Furthermore, a business need not need to worry about maintaining and updating the dialer system itself since it lies in the responsibility of the contact center solution provider. Such hosted dialing system, indeed, can prove to a cost effective solution.

One of the core features of a hosted predictive dialer is its ability to provide call access to the sales agents even if they are not at the facility. Sales agents, no matter where they are, can connect to this system and proceed with their regular telemarketing activity. All that the sales agents require is a computer, calling equipment, and a simple internet connection to connect with the hosted system and perform their duty. Furthermore, the hosted system, just like a native predictive system, can effectively detect unproductive calls like an answering machine, busy tone, fax tone, and so on. These features can certainly improve the efficiency of the dialing process and productivity of the sales agents. The system even has the ability to eliminate the National Do Not Call Registry numbers. This indeed can eliminate unnecessary complaints and legal actions against the business.

Effective telemarketing is the key to improve sales, and intelligent dialing system can certainly put the telemarketing efforts into high gear.

Voice Broadcasting, Key to a Successful Business

Voice broadcasting has proven itself as a major tool in promoting and advertising a business. It allows your message to reach hundreds of people through their phones in an easy and effective way. Easily available in the market, this technology has become popular in promoting businesses. Marketing companies use this technology to promote and sell their products and politicians use this to conduct a campaign or win votes. It has made it possible to reach people within a short period of time that in turns save energy and time.

On average you can expect to see about 1%~2% return on the calls made by this technology. That may not seem like a huge percentage but you need to think of it in terms of numbers. If your voice broadcasting system is calling 100 people every minute in 5 minutes you may expect to see 20 people get in touch with you for business. That is 10 to 20 customers that you didn't have before, and you should think about it as getting two clients for every minute. That is actually a great return on your venture. Voice broadcasting is a unique technology that you can control the use of in any time zone. You can program the system to adjust for time zones, which means that you can actually increase your customer base to more of a national client. Moreover, if your voice broadcasting system runs into calls that are busy or go unanswered it will automatically reschedule the call to ensure that your potential customer is reached.

For a campaign that leaves messages on answering machines or voicemail, the numbers will be significantly lower, because the prospect must have enough interest to write the callback number down and then call it back, taking much more effort than simply "pressing 1" during a live message. These numbers are impossible for us to track, since the calls back to the broadcaster don't utilize the broadcast system, but marketers who use this method have informed us that the call back ratio is probably one fourth to one third of the live transfer rate for a similar message.

Many companies in the world are offering broadcasting related programs. Any businessman can afford this service to run his business successfully. Downloading, recording, saving calls and messages are some of the main aspects of video broadcasting. Most companies normally give introductory offers off certain number of phone calls for free. To get this offer, the company will request the customer to fill out the online application form that asks for some basic details to submit. Some trial versions are also available and we can make use of these to know about the product before purchasing to get some idea on their usage.

The Role of Voice Broadcasting in Your Business

When your organization or business needs to make hundreds of important telephone calls on a regular basis, it's time to consider the enormous benefits of voice broadcasting. These systems link computers and telephones via components and software to send voice messages to hundreds, and even thousands of people in a short period of time. Some people shy away from automated calls as intrusive, but in reality, voice broadcasting software has a tremendous value for both businesses and social services.

The major advantage of using voice broadcasting is that you don't need to hire a lot of people for marketing. You can simply program a system which can be operated with a click of button and it will then send messages to you contact list. It is quite easy to use and it saves an enormous amount of time and money. If the calls are not answered, the program can reschedule calls automatically to be redialed for the dispositions of choice. Voice broadcasting has invoked the technique of multiplication of power and resources. The advantage of using this software lies in the fact that it can make almost limitless calls at the same time within a short timeframe. To make these calls manually in the same time is virtually impossible.

There is not a call center big enough that can reach hundreds of people simultaneously at the same time. Hence this method works as an added advantage when you are about to start your own business. The average return on the calls made through voice broadcasting is about the same as direct mail and has been observed to be approximately one percent. This important percentage counts when the business is new in the industry. Voice broadcasting detects answering machines automatically and can leave the message on the machine or can be programmed to skip over the machine. As always, it is important to follow the rules and regulations of telemarketing.

Voice Broadcasting has gained popularity in recent years for community and commercial ventures. Standard usage includes sending alerts, messages, notifications, product or service upgrades, promotions, events, and much more. The pre-recorded message can easily be dispatched, within seconds. A company using voice broadcasting can have pre-scheduled marketing campaigns that have the messages sent out as needed at any time. It has gradually evolved as an effective form of communication, giving a competitive edge to business groups. Many companies also use voice broadcasting to coincide with direct mail, radio, billboard, or television ad campaigns. Nothing gets the word out faster than a message over the phone, and there is no better way to follow up on your other marketing efforts.

Resource Optimization With VoIP

It's always difficult for a service organization to make optimal use of its resources. A restaurant for example needs to decide in advance how many chairs and tables it will have. If it overestimates, it's a waste of space and capital. Underestimating demand however might cost even more in terms of lost business. Alternatively, an organization that uses manpower to make and receive calls can find itself plagued by both underutilization as well as overutilization in various areas. If you are a store for example that has several branches, you want to make optimal use of all your resources no matter where they are. With a traditional PSTN phone system, this can be impossible to achieve.

VoIP on the other hand is flexible enough to treat all of the locations and branches as a single unit. This is because it is based off the Internet which in itself is a large virtual network. Geographic locations become meaningless and a VoIP device in another state is every bit as fully featured, interoperable, and capable as one that is in the same building.

The immediate application of a call center comes to mind. In many ways, the call center exemplifies the flexibility and extensibility of VoIP. Calls can be routed to different branches depending on demand and expertise without the customer having to call another number. If you have a marketing team, VoIP can truly revolutionize the way they interact with clients and can help you maintain control over the accounts that your employees are in touch with.

It's always difficult to ensure that if an important employee leaves, they don't carry off some of your best clients with them. One of the ways to avoid this is by ensuring that all communications between employees and clients takes place using VoIP telephone numbers. This way when they choose to part ways with your company, you can immediately transfer those numbers to an existing employee to ensure that contact isn't broken and that your client doesn't need to change their calling habits.

This easy configurability has made VoIP one of the most powerful communication technologies on the market today. More and more businesses are seeing its advantages which is probably why it accounts for the highest percentage traffic growth on the Internet today. Different SIP providers have different pricing plans and features. Test out the VoIP system on a noncritical part of your operations first before finalizing your choice of service.

Voice Broadcasting, Key to a Successful Business

Voice broadcasting has proven itself as a major tool in promoting and advertising a business. It allows your message to reach hundreds of people through their phones in an easy and effective way. Easily available in the market, this technology has become popular in promoting businesses. Marketing companies use this technology to promote and sell their products and politicians use this to conduct a campaign or win votes. It has made it possible to reach people within a short period of time that in turns save energy and time.

On average you can expect to see about a 2% return on the calls made by this technology. That may not seem like a huge percentage but you need to think of it in terms of numbers. If your voice broadcasting system is calling 100 people every minute in 5 minutes you may expect to see 20 people get in touch with you for business. That is 10 to 20 customers that you didn't have before, and you should think about it as getting two clients for every minute. That is actually a great return on your venture. Voice broadcasting is a unique technology that you can control the use of in any time zone. You can program the system to adjust for time zones, which means that you can actually increase your customer base to more of a national clientele. Moreover, if your voice broadcasting system runs into calls that are busy or go unanswered it will automatically reschedule the call to ensure that your potential customer is reached.

For a campaign that leaves messages on answering machines or voicemail, the numbers will be significantly lower, because the prospect must have enough interest to write the callback number down and then call it back, taking much more effort than simply "pressing 1" during a live message. These numbers are impossible for us to track, since the calls back to the broadcaster don't utilize the broadcast system, but marketers who use this method have informed us that the call back ratio is probably one fourth to one third of the live transfer rate for a similar message.

Many companies in the world are offering broadcasting related programs. Any businessman can afford this service to run his business successfully. Downloading, recording, saving calls and messages are some of the main aspects of video broadcasting. Most companies normally give introductory offers off certain number of phone calls for free. To get this offer, the company will request the customer to fill out the online application form that asks for some basic details to submit. Some trial versions are also available and we can make use of these to know about the product before purchasing to get some idea on their usage.

Google Voice - How to Receive Calls Without Using Minutes

There are many ways to implement VoIP. Perhaps the closest we have come to having a standardized system is the Session Initiation Protocol or SIP, but many different Internet service providers implement their own flavor of VoIP. Google Voice is one such example and it is notable because it is able to provide people with a free US telephone number as well. This means it is possible to both make and receive calls using Google Voice. There are many ways to go about it.

It easiest to set up your Google Voice number with Gmail calling. By default, the settings page already routes all incoming calls to GTalk. And using the inbuilt calling functionality, you can even make calls to anyone having a US or Canadian telephone number. All over the Internet - for free.

Making and receiving these calls from a mobile device is more problematic. One way is to download an app that mimics the GTalk protocol such as GrooveIP. It's one of the more popular applications and converts your phone into a Google Voice powered device. Incoming calls will ring your phone and you can make outgoing ones as well. Talkatone is an example of an app found on the iOS store.

But one of the disadvantages of using these services is that you do not have true "SIP forking". In other words, multiple devices will not ring at the same time since Google doesn't seem to support that functionality. It means you can't just carry around whatever device you want and have the assurance that it will ring when you receive a call. For that, you need to jump through a few more hoops.

In essence, you have to first get a US telephone number that redirects all calls to an SIP address. One such service is IPKall. They give you a telephone number but if you don't use it for 30 days, it disappears. A classic "use it or lose it" implementation. The second step is to sign up with an SIP provider to obtain an SIP address. There are many free services and paid ones as well. Of course, if you're willing to shell out some money, the service provider will give you a US telephone number and you can do away with Google Voice entirely. Or if you want some insurance, just redirect all incoming Google Voice calls to your new SIP telephone number.

Ultimately it depends on how you want to go about it. The system has enough flexibility to adapt to your needs. If you want a pure SIP service, contact one of the many service providers to find out how to get started.

Web-Based Predictive Dialer for Telemarketing

A web-based predictive dialer, as the name suggests, is a browser-based telephone dialer that primarily utilizes Software as a Service (SaaS) web technology. Such dialers are often known as hosted predictive dialers or cloud predictive dialers, as well. Some of the benefits of web-based predictive dialer include an increase in efficiency, reduction in costs and improvement of overall call center business. Sales representatives or simply agents need not need to waste time on monotonous task like dialing each phone number. With web dialing solution, they will simply have more freedom to focus more on marketing and/or support.

Predictive dialing solution can certainly make a good choice if your business is dealing in telemarketing for sales. Modern web-based dialer allows the business owners to configure the dialing system as per their varied business requirements. For instance, let us take a call center targeting prospects in different regions. The business owner can configure the system in such a way that it only targets prospects of a certain region at a certain time of the day. The agents just have to log in to a web browser interface and proceed with their marketing activities for the prospects of that particular region. No more monotonous task of obtaining telephone numbers and dialing them; just log in and focus on the prospect at the other end of the line.

As per the custom rules set, the system can efficiently eliminate calls that are unproductive. By eliminating unproductive calls such as fax tones, answering machines, busy calls, and so on, the efficiency of the agents can indeed increase to a certain level.

Small business owners need not need to worry about the costs and licenses associated with utilizing this web-based predictive dialing system. The entire predictive dialing infrastructure, including intelligent dialing software, rest in the secure server farm of a contact-center solution provider. A monthly subscription is enough to utilize hosted dialing service. With such set up, business owners can allow freedom to their agents to work remotely. All that the agents require is a simple computer with calling equipment and a reasonable internet connection. Agents can log in via web interface of the dialer and can be a part of the call center virtually. This, indeed, can cut down considerable costs related to maintaining a call center facility.

A predictive dialer can really become a crucial component of a business dealing in telemarketing activities. It is a cost-effective solution that can increase the efficiency and improve the overall business of a call center.

Increases the Revenue of a Business with Predictive Dialer

Predictive dialer technology is generally used by telemarketing companies and firms which are involved in business to business and business to consumer calling. Predictive dialers allow the agents more time to be in contact with the customer. Debt collection organizations and survey companies that need to contact and personally speak to people by telephone may also use these dialer services. To automate all sorts of calls, these auto dialers are used as a quick and easy way rather than manually by a call center, such as welcome calls for new customers or customer service callbacks. These systems have features such as interactive voice response, automatic call distribution and call recording are some of the added new features to the auto dialer and predictive dialer capabilities.

Deploying a predictive dialing system is an excellent approach to run your call center business effectively. It has the capability to improve and contour various functions as well as it can also increase the productivity of the managers and calling agents as well. It performs the major call center task of dialing your contact lists. The first and most important operation that a predictive dialer performs is to manage calls in an effective manner. With the built in artificial intelligence, it takes the calls and delivers them out to the agents. Hence, it will increase their efficiency and productivity.

Most auto dialer software generally allow sales reps to dial a huge volume of leads, but predictive dialers carry out this by calling more numbers than there are available sales representatives or agents. When a call made by the dialer is answered there is a chance that there will be no sales reps to talk to that lead. These calls are generally dropped and those leads are then wasted. Once you have a predictive dialer and get it all set up, you have to feed this dialer a list of phone numbers. Its primary function is to find people to answer the phone calls and let agents talk to them. If the software system does the dialing method, you will always be able to talk to more people in a specified time period.

The Inside Secrets of a Predictive Dialler

Predictive dalliers are a combination of both software and hardware which help large businesses and companies in administering customer calls. This technology is critical especially for big call centers and other communication related organizations. This dialer can handle multiple calls and automatically forwards them to available call agents. This effectively serves to minimize the time wasted in redialing by eliminating unresponsive calls. This system possesses automated voice detection capabilities in addition to caller blending capacity so as to maximize customer service.

Basically, the dialer works by redirecting calls of customers to available agents and ensures that minimal interruptions occur in the process. This ensures that agents are highly productive and that customer satisfaction is achieved. In order for a business to be successful, customer satisfaction is of paramount importance. Therefore, the dialer can help your business in achieving maximum productivity at the same time ensuring that your customers remain satisfied.

Another important function a predictive dialer performs is that it filters specific lists of telephone numbers. For example, it can screen out those numbers that are registered under Do Not Call Registry. Additionally, it can also filter those numbers such as busy tones, no answer, fax tones, no signal, answering machine, etc. This will ultimately increases the agents calling time to the potential customers. This can in turn reduce wastage of labor to a great extent.

This auto dialer system also skips the call if your call is ignored. It dials other numbers automatically in the given list and saves a lot of time. This is the system which has the ability to generate reports whenever you need. It can print out different reports like call codes, calling schedules, call reminders, etc. this system also remembers your data and informs you when you have achieved your particular sales lead target. In all this is the system that controls and facilitate your job and serves you brilliantly to give positive results. It definitely helps you in generating higher returns on your investments.

Back to Basics in SIP/ VoIP

There are two ways to use an SIP VoIP system: You can make and receive regular calls using the telephone number allotted to you by your service provider, or you can use an SIP address to make calls entirely over the Internet for free. The latter scenario is similar to a chat application or an e-mail client where it doesn't cost you anything to send and receive messages. After all, you already paid for your Internet connection. But in order to do this, the other person needs to be using VoIP as well. And not just any VoIP application. They need to be using an SIP compatible VoIP system with their own SIP address. This way, communication between two people can take place just like e-mail. Even the architecture is somewhat the same.

So what exactly is an SIP address? Again taking the comparison with e-mail just a step further, the address is composed of two parts - the username and the domain. Both are separated by the "@" symbol so the final form will look something like "somename@yourdomain.com". The latter part of the address will depend on whether or not you are a free or paid customer and if you want your own domain to be mentioned. For this, you need to have access to your domain tools including your DNS controls that support SRV records.

With this functionality, you will be able to maintain an SIP address that is visually identical to the e-mail ID that you provide your employees with. This makes it easy for them to integrate SIP calling into the contacts so that they can talk to each other entirely over the Internet for free. As a bonus, they can make use of specialized high-quality HD voice codecs that provide crystal clear voice clarity.

It's easy to see the benefits of merging voice calls with e-mail. You can create a business directory of employees and enable "one click calling" since the e-mail address is the same as the SIP address. Indeed, the goal is "Unified Communications" or UC where all of an organization's communications is presented and managed by a single graphical user interface.

An Internet Phone Connection Can Boost Your Business

One of your business expenses is the equipment that you use to run your day-to-day operations. You have stuff like your computers, fax machines, printers, filing cabinets, and many more pieces of valuable and expensive equipment that you need to run your business. The phone system in your building is also a valuable part of how you do business, and SIP trunking can help you improve the way your phone system operates and also benefit your business in many different ways you may not realize.

Benefits of SIP Trunking For Your Business
When it comes to your business, you spare no expense. However, you do not always have unlimited money to be able to install a bunch of wires all over the town. SIP trunking can help your business by taking the internet and using it as though it were a typical wired system.

SIP trunking as a way for your business to improve:

• Saves your money: You do not need to worry about having to order more equipment because unlike regular phone lines, SIP trunking deals with the internet, which really has no physical equipment like wires and poles. The trunking is going to use the existing internet connection, which is going to save you money from having to worry about investing even more money into your business.

• Get rid of 800 numbers: If your customers have an issue, and they need to get in touch with your employees that handle questions, you may have paid a lot of money for an 800 number for them to call. Though 800 numbers are very hand for your customers to call, they can end up costing a lot of money for you every single month. With SIP trunking, you can get rid of costly 800 numbers and have local numbers set up for your customers to call, which will mean you can say goodbye to those expensive 800 numbers. Your customers will still be able to get in touch with you and your customer support whenever they need to, but now you will be have one less thing to worry about every month. You pay enough as it is for your business, and being able to save some money can really add up, and you can easily take that savings and put into another aspect of your business that could really use an improvement.

Every business office is filled with both equipment and people. You have spent thousands of dollars to get everything you and your employees need to run the business. However, one thing that you have also invested a lot of money in is your phone system. Now that technology is changing, you can use SIP trunking to make your phone system work better for you. The trunking can help you reach your customers without having to add more equipment, and you can also save money by getting rid of expensive 800 numbers because you can have local numbers now instead, which will make it much easier for your customers to get in touch with you if they need to.

How VoIP Saves You Money

We're all trying to save money these days and taking advantage of VoIP technology is one painless way of doing so. Not only is it financially painless but it can be more reliable than analog phone service.

If you look on your phone bill and you'll see taxes, fees and regulatory charges. One of those is undoubtedly the FUSF, or Federal Universal Service Fund. The FUSF is a charge the government levies on phone companies in order to help provide phone service to everyone, even those that cannot afford it. Most phone companies pass that cost along to their customers. Recently the FUSF has taken upon itself to help pay for cell phones for low income people. That's a noble goal since cell phones have saved many lives but why in the world should another tax be levied on you? VoIP saves you money partially because it does not have a FUSF tax. Sure, it's only about $3.50 per month but that's $42 a year!

You don't need special equipment with VoIP, no telephone handsets or headsets. You may need an Analog Telephone Adaptor (ATA) which is usually provided to you by the service you sign up with. Use your standard phone if you like; it converts your analog voice into a digital signal that the internet can understand and transmit along the internet through your broadband modem. ATA is a small, thin box that blends right in with your other hardware. It can be used with cordless phones so that you can use any handset in the house or office. If you have more than one computer just connect a router to the ATA instead of the PC.

If you don't want an extra piece of hardware hanging about you can download software like Skype and then you won't need any type of telephone paraphernalia. You'll simply make and receive calls from your PC in a separate window. You'll still get caller ID, voice mail, contact lists and all the other features you can have on a landline or a cellular phone.

Traditionally, analog phones only allowed 2 people to speak unless you set up conference call with all the charges that come with it. VoIP allows you to set up a conference with a whole team scattered all over the world. It won't tie up your regular phone line, if you have one, so you can surf the web and take care of communications while your teen blissfully monopolizes your regular phone line!

VoIP - Before You Implement

With VoIP becoming the preferred method of transmitting streaming conversations during a phone call, it is essential that a network be properly configured for optimum audio quality. VoIP provides flexibility and versatility as well as lower operating costs, however if the conversation isn't clear or at all understandable then the benefits to VoIP are lost.

Prioritizing voice traffic on a network is critical to quality audio during phone calls. The network will simply try to resend data during times of network congestion when transferring or sending data. Data is usually very forgiving and will pick up where it left off when the bottleneck clears. In the case of a voice conversation, this particular strategy results in garbled conversation because of latency, delay, and jitter. The voice data packets must be reassembled on the receiving end in the order in which they were transmitted. Since data is sent over multiple channels by choosing the best route based on current network traffic, it is essential that the data packets be reassembled on the receiving end in a specific order and that they are not subject to the time delays seen during times of heavy network congestion.

This is accomplished through network prioritization. All voice traffic is given priority on the network through the use of QOS. This configuration acts in much the same way as a police officer directing traffic in a busy city. When the amount of data comes close to or exceeds the available bandwidth on a network, QOS will stop all data traffic while allowing voice traffic to continue on. In this way, you're telling your network data packets that are designated as voice packets are always given priority for routing.

Before introducing VoIP technology into your network, it is essential that a network assessment be completed prior to implementation. Depending on the expected call volume and the current level of utilization on the network, it might be necessary to add additional bandwidth to accommodate voice traffic. Depending on the average number of calls per day, you could see a significant demand on network bandwidth. If the amount of bandwidth is inadequate, voice quality will suffer with garbled audio and poor performance.

Although inadequate bandwidth is a common problem with VoIP audio quality, there are other factors in the network that can affect the quality of a VoIP call. Some networks simply have too many hops or transfers from router to router. Each of these hops can create delay because each router has to read the packet to determine its destination and then route to the next point in the route. Obviously, the greater the number of times that this occurs the greater the delay the packet will experience before reaching its destination. Whenever possible, VoIP traffic should be routed in as direct a line as possible with a minimal number of hops. This can be accomplished by designating a VLAN or virtual local area network exclusively for VoIP traffic. The VLAN can be configured to route voice data in a more direct line than the rest of the data being transmitted on the network.

An additional consideration is the codec used for audio compression. Generally, the standard for voice signal compression is a codec of G.729. This is the most widely used codec to maintain as much audio quality as possible while minimizing the amount of bandwidth needed. Another codec commonly used is G.711. Since this codec has a higher rate of sampling the audio quality is equivalent to that which you would hear for a standard analog signal. However, this particular codec requires a great deal of bandwidth and some networks simply cannot afford the bandwidth required.

Another consideration is connectivity to the phone system itself. Another advantage to VoIP technology is the elimination of the need for dual wiring. Since both the phone and the computer can share the same network connection, only one cable is required at each desk or station. This minimizes infrastructure cost when implementing a VoIP solution. Older digital phones require their own wiring to a telephony backplane. This usually involved "punching down" on an old-style 66 block or 110 block to provide connectivity to the phone system. IP phones can be plugged into the cat 5 patch panel just like a computer. Additionally, having a POE enabled data switch negates the need to have external power supplies to power the phones. POE, or power over Ethernet provides both power and network connectivity to the phones.

VoIP technology has many advantages for large and small businesses alike. However without proper implementation and configuration VoIP technology can suffer from poor audio quality and overall poor performance. This is why it is important to review your current overall infrastructure configuration and capacity prior to implementation. If this important step is left out, your experience with voice over IP technology won't be as successful as you hoped.

Can VoIP Be Reliable?

VoIP has many advantages that make it an appealing solution for many business owners. The idea of transmitting voice traffic over an existing data network at a significant reduction in cost has become too hard to pass up for most business owners. However, few realize the potential limitations or issues that can arise with call quality when using VoIP.

This is not the fault of VoIP itself. In a perfect world voice and data traffic are happily traveling through the network side-by-side without interference or interruption. This can work, however this utopia is not achieved without careful consideration and network analysis. This is because when you start sending voice traffic over the data network it now has to compete with other data to reach its destination. If the network does not have enough bandwidth, or has too many hops, the speed with which the voice packets reach their destination can be slowed down considerably. Each hand-off of the packets takes extra time and slows the overall transmission speed of the packets. With a voice conversation, this delay is unacceptable and results in a garbled conversation that is difficult to understand, often sounding like a cell phone out of range.

Two key components of an optimal performing VoIP system are capacity and redundancy. Obviously, the network should be able to accommodate the current call volume as well as the bandwidth requirements that are used for data transmission. Determining the required bandwidth requires taking a careful look at the current call volume as well as the utilization on the network. If the network is experiencing issues or slowdowns without the addition of VoIP traffic, it stands to reason that these issues would need to be resolved before adding the demand of VoIP. Any additions or enhancements would need to have an estimate of bandwidth needed for voice traffic. Without the proper capacity on the network, the VoIP quality will suffer leading to frustrated employees and customers alike.

Redundancy allows for a backup to be in place in the event that any component or piece of the production system should fail. This could be hardware in the phone system, hardware on the network as well as the trunks that lead to the outside world. Any failure could result in an a major outage that takes down communications. This is why redundancy is such an important aspect of network configuration and setup. Having a single point of failure can be quite costly when you consider loss of revenue due to business grinding to a halt.

Most phone systems have dual hardware to handle the processing of VoIP calls in the event that one of the components should fail. Theoretically, failover should occur without much fanfare. However, there is always the possibility that calls could be dropped during the failover process. If any calls are being processed by the failing hardware, the call would be unable to proceed. Any new calls however, would automatically be processed by the redundant hardware.

This same concept holds true for the data equipment where one router or switch will pick up where the other failed. This essential for maximum system availability for any network and doesn't just apply to VoIP traffic. Any company that does not have backup hardware in place may find themselves in a tough spot should the data hardware go down. Not only does it stop the transmission of data, but halts all VoIP calls as well, effectively leaving the business with no way to communicate.

Some communications outages are due to a loss of connectivity with the carrier. Weather or some other disaster can bring outages to the carrier's network. Fiber cuts are common where construction is occurring and have been known to take down communications for a large number of the carrier's customers. For this type of scenario, having an alternate carrier is a good way to insure that your business always has a connection to the outside world. By using multiple carriers, the business is not at the mercy of only one carrier and you will have options in the event you have to reroute your network traffic. Since VoIP travels over the network, the familiar expression "the network is down" takes on a whole new meaning. Not only will you not be able to communicate via email, but your phones are dead in the water as well. To resolve this issue, you configure your data equipment to begin routing traffic over the backup carrier's communications if the primary is inaccessible. Having this setup insures that you always have communication and that data and voice traffic will continue to route.

System availability is the key to any successful IT solution. VoIP traffic is dependent on network availability as well as capacity. Additionally, configuring the network to properly handle VoIP traffic is essential for a successful outcome. VoIP technology can be a lower cost reliable solution when the proper measures are taken to insure maximum availability.

What Is a VoIP Gateway?

VoIP technology is fast becoming the new standard for communications. Although there are still a number of people using the standard analog signal over copper wiring, there are many people venturing into VoIP with the hopes of cutting costs on their phone bill.

This is because VoIP technology converts the analog signal to data packets that are sent over a broadband network in the same way that data is sent. This bypasses the PSTN which bases its cost on the distance between where the call originated to its destination. Data does not have these restrictions and in most cases the data packets are sent on different routes and reassembled on the receiving end. Since many data packets from many data transmissions can occupy the same trunk at the same time, the cost of using the trunk is spread out over many users. With standard analog phone conversations, the line is limited to one call and is not available to any other calls until the conversation ends, so the person initiating the call is shouldering the entire cost.

Using true VoIP is when the caller initiates a call and the destination number is also using VoIP so that the entire call is transmitted over the data network in the form of data packets. But what happens if you were to call someone still using a standard analog phone? This is where a VoIP gateway comes into play. A VoIP gateway essentially acts as a translator between the old PSTN network and newer VoIP technology.

If a call comes into the gateway and is in the form of voice data packets, the gateway will decompress the conversation and convert the voice signal to digital and then to analog to be sent over the PSTN. If the call comes into the gateway as an analog signal, it is then converted to digital and then compressed using a codec to break up the conversation into packets to be sent over the data network. The gateway in simplest terms is nothing more than a media converter that transitions the call to whichever format is needed to be understood on the receiving end. As more and more people convert to VoIP technology, there will be less need for this conversion process to take place.

The codec used is dependent on the audio quality desired and the amount of bandwidth for voice data transmission available on the network. There are several, however the most common are G.711 and G.729. The G.711 usually provides a better audio quality but also requires a much larger amount of bandwidth to support. The G.729 is probably the most popular because it provides the best compromise in regards to audio quality with minimal bandwidth requirements. The G.711 takes 64 Kbps versus only 8 Kbps for the G.729. Most VoIP gateways support both codec's.

There are also various VoIP protocols supported by most gateways with the most common being the H.323 and SIP protocols. However, H.323 is on the way out as the newer and more flexible SIP takes its place. SIP or session initiation protocol is a text-based protocol that controls the initiation and break down of a VoIP session. It allows for multiple technologies to be present in one session and is making the convergence of different multimedia such as video, voice and instant messaging possible.

In most cases, the gateway is used in one of two ways to allow intercommunication between VoIP and non-VoIP hardware. One way is to use a gateway to convert incoming calls from the PSTN to VoIP calls so that they can be received on a VoIP system. Another way is to connect a standard phone system to the network so that calls can be made via VoIP. In both scenarios, they are generally setup using the protocols and codecs described above.

Gateways can come in either software or hardware form. Hardware based gateways are more popular and can either be a standalone box or could be a card or module added on to existing equipment. Software versions are set up on a server where existing servers can be leveraged to run the gateway software in addition to other services. As a general rule, the software solution is a bit cheaper than its hardware counterparts.

The gateway is only part of the equation and performance is based on many factors such as available network bandwidth, security, protocols and codecs. All of these different aspects of VoIP configuration are going to play a role in the quality and reliability that one could expect. Since most VoIP calls today still interact with the PSTN, a VoIP gateway should be included in any VoIP communication solution. Before deciding on a hardware or software solution, determine if there are already resources available that can be leveraged to keep costs down. This way you can you still take advantage of VoIP while waiting on the rest of the world to catch up.