VoIP. UC. PSTN. SIP. POTS. The acronyms associated with the telecommunications industry have become so prolific that it’s a challenge to just sort through all the clutter. Loosely interpreted jargon also contributes to the confusion. In this post, we’ll attempt to work through the clutter and simplify the myriad choices that are available for today’s business environment.

To simply understand how one product or service intertwines with another can lead to conniptions. Just knowing where to start is a challenge even for larger enterprises with a deep bench. For smaller businesses, the experience of selecting the system that best meets the company’s needs is often an exercise in sheer frustration. The best place to begin your journey through the telecom landscape is by boiling it all down to the basics and building from there.

VoIP Integration Into Modern Telephony Platforms

We all remember Plain Old Telephone Systems(POTS). Although still in limited use, POTS is a dying telephony model. Advancements in digital technology have made VoIP-based platforms the standard with more robust platforms such as Soft phones and Unified Communications (UC) suites. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages involving price, implementation, maintenance costs, ease of operation, and the platform’s capabilities.

VoIP Soft Phones- These are essentially a virtual phone system.  Usually, they are apps that appear on a computer screen and mimic the capabilities of more traditional phones via a computer screen

Advantages

• Greater Performance Over POTS (Plain Old Telephone Systems)- Soft phones are more powerful and versatile than traditional landline phones.
• Enables office to stay connected to off-premises employees and vendors via VoIP.
• More user-friendly for workers in an office setting.

VoIP-enabled Unified Communications (UC) Systems is a category of “as a service” or “cloud” delivery mechanisms for enterprise communications.

Advantages

• Better prioritization of Information- Due to its improved functionality, UC offers multiple ways to connect to staff. According to data gathered by Chadwick Martin Bailey, a research consulting firm, 49% of user organizations save up to 20 minutes per employee daily by reaching workers on the first try via a UC solution.
• It offers more tools for enhanced productivity. The platform includes communication tools like IM, voicemail-to-email, shared calendars, and direct fax to an inbox, that helps to integrate and consolidate your data.
• The platform is engineered to function as a centralized communication system.  This allows for phone calls, emails, video conferencing, calendars, and the like to be accessible on one system alone.
• Makes it possible to receive phone calls through a mobile phone, and by sending and receiving copies of voicemails on the computer. Essentially, it can communicate through a number of iterations encompassing the IoT’s arsenal of tools.
• It becomes a conduit of mobile technologies that can more easily be used to organize work groups and improve productivity on-premises and off-campus. This means that virtual conference calls can be an important tool in the process of doing business. UC also saves employees and other business associates a great deal of time and wasted effort.
• Scalability- The platform grows with your business. The system is an ideal solution for growing companies.
• Cloud Solutions-Allowing for a mobile workflow that enhances efficiencies and retains the new generation of workers. This allows for remote work, hot-desking, improved collaboration, and the ability to work from their mobile phones and phablets.

VoIP Driven CX (Customer Experience) Systems

A CX System is most often found in a call center environment. It is a closed-loop system that performs where customer management is the primary function.

Advantages

• Improves Customer Satisfaction
• Manages all customer-centric communications
• Integrates with CRM platforms such as Salesforce (collect data, create business analytics, etc.)
• Delivers an Omni-Channel customer experience

About SystemNet

SystemsNet is an certified provider of comprehensive IT managed services encompassing everything from on-site support to hardware and software implementation. Located in Horsham, PA, our service area stretches across the tri-state area including Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties. 

For more information on how SystemsNet can solve your IT issues, contact us.

Every industry has a busy season, of a sort. The holiday shopping season, the tax preparation season, the summer construction season; these are just a few examples. Some businesses fluctuate more than others, and many bring on seasonal staff to help tide over the busiest time of year. You may also be the type of business that occasionally welcomes interns, sponsors job training programs, and other types of temporary staff.

Of course, one of the biggest challenges of bringing on temporary staff, whether interns or seasonal, is the constant task of onboarding. Helping your new staff get adjusted to the office and dive into the workflow quickly is the key to optimizing your time with temporary staff members. And VOIP is the perfect aspect of your stack to make onboarding and integration a smooth process.

The Intern Number

If you bring on a set number of interns each year, every time they come in they occupy the same desks. They do the same tasks and they answer the same phones. One thing you can very easily do with VOIP is to set aside a special number, or set of numbers, just for the interns. This can keep your records clean and help your clients or vendors that work with the interns always calling the same numbers when it’s intern season.

Whether you have your interns calling vendors, performing customer service, taking care of follow-ups, or updating inventory; setting aside numbers for your interns means that interns can come and go but the job stays exactly the same.

Scale Up or Down with Seasonal Staff

Businesses that hire seasonal staff often find themselves investing in too many phone lines most of the year in order to have enough during the one part of the year when your staff size swells. But with VOIP, this isn’t necessary. VOIP scales easily with the size of your company, allowing you to reserve as many active lines as you need at any given time. When your staff is small during most of the year, you can pay for and manage only the phone lines you need. And when your seasonal staff members arrive to help carry you through the busy season, you can expand your plan to as many phone lines as you need.

This not only means that you save money and logistical time during the non-busy season, but also that you can scale to however many numbers you need if a particular year is especially busy. Then, if you hold onto some of your best seasonal workers by making them permanent, you can easily hold onto their lines and release the rest when the seasonal team moves on.

Fast and Smooth Onboarding Every Year

Finally, VOIP makes it incredibly easy to onboard new team members whenever they join and no matter how quickly they leave. VOIP communication platforms have team members automatically joining your phone network, chat network, and cloud communication. No need to worry about providing devices or asking your employees to use their personal numbers for BYOD workplaces. Whether you hire remotely, in-office, or your seasonal team members are out in the field, the VOIP number will work on whatever devices are used. No SIM cards, no new phone lines, and an easy-to-access platform that any new staff member can get the hang of quickly.

All they have to do is install the VOIP app on their phones, laptops, or tablets and they are instantly able to access their assigned phone number while keeping their personal contact information completely private.

VOIP is one of the best possible tools for any business that hosts interns or hires seasonal staff because it is so easy to scale and manage. Whether you keep a few numbers on the back-burner for interns or scale as-needed for impressive changes in staff-size throughout the year, VOIP is the key to smooth onboarding and efficient cost-effective cloud communication. If you’d like to explore how VOIP plans can scale with your seasonal staffing needs, contact us today!