IP Phone Systems: A Remote Possibility

A Customer Center entry from May 4, 2007
by Erik Linask - Associate Editor, Internet Telephony magazine

Like any business operator, you’re looking to get the most out of your employees — doesn’t everyone? But, you’re also smart enough to realize that you need to consider work/life balance. After all, a happy employee is a more productive employee.

One of the problems you have when you consider your options is that your phone system is old — perhaps not from the stone age, since it does have voice mail — but it’s certainly not modern by today’s standards. And while that phone system includes features like call forwarding, it is hardly reliable (sometimes it forwards calls and other times not), and the call forward feature cannot be accessed remotely. That means that if someone finds she needs to be out of the office suddenly, she cannot forward the calls from the office phone system to her home phone. Instead, she needs to periodically call into the old phone system’s voice mail system to see if anyone has called.

So, in order to address both issues — productivity and flexibility — the first place to look should be the phone system. With a legacy phone system, a business’ options are rather limited, but if they are willing to make the investment in a new IP phone system, the benefits greatly outweigh any initial investment.

With a new IP-based phone system, not only will your business gain productivity enhancing tools for everyday work in the office, but mobile employees and remote workers will also be able to continue working as they would in the office — even if they need to unexpectedly stay home to attend to unforeseen situations.

First and foremost, a new IP-based phone system will allow any staff member to remotely modify their settings, so that calls can be forwarded to home phones, cell phones, or to any other endpoint. Making and receiving calls from outside the office can be just as simple as picking up the office extension and dialing or answering. In addition, with the messaging capabilities including with today’s phone systems, users can receive text notifications of new voice mails, or they can have email sent letting them know a new voice message has arrived, or they can even have the voice mails delivered as email attachments and listen to them without dialing into the voice mail system at all.

A new phone system enables users to present the outward appearance of being in the office, regardless of whether they are at the airport, in a hotel, or at home, so that your business always is presented in the most professional light possible. And with the features incorporated into the phone system — conferencing, Outlook integration, mobility options, auto attendant, unified messaging, presence features, and more — your employees, regardless of what line of business you are in, will be able to continue to work effectively from anywhere in the world.

As far as the capital investment is concerned, IP phone systems are available for any size business, from small SOHOs to large enterprises — from highly scalable enterprise class phone systems, to smaller, for affordable on-premises IP PBXs for SMBs; to software-based solutions; to hosted opportunities that work in conjunction with your current phone system. Whatever your company’s budget, a new phone system is within reach.

So, as you look for ways to ensure your workers have the resources at their disposal to work efficiently — which keeps you happy — and while maintaining a flexible environment — which keeps your employees happy — the obvious place to look is your existing phone system. If that system is unable to meet the demands of today’s business environment, regardless of what measures you take, you will find it difficult to meet all your needs until you replace that aging phone system with a new IP-based phone system.

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Erik Linask is Associate Editor of INTERNET TELEPHONY, IMS Magazine, and SIP Magazine. Prior to joining TMC, he was Managing Editor at Global Custodian, an international securities services publication. To see more of his articles, please visit Erik Linask’s columnist page.

— May 4, 2007