incovo incovo Guide: Top 10 Phone System Features for Business September communicate smarter, interact better

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1 incovo Guide: September 2015

2 Introduction Thank you for downloading the incovo guide to The Top 10 Features for a Business Phone System where we will run through the quintessentials requirements to consider when looking to upgrade or switch your business phone system. Below you ll find a very helpful list and accompanying explanations of the top phone system features required by customers across a diverse range of industries. It provides an excellent starting point and should help you discover which features are relevant to you and which aren t. This will ultimately help you choose your new phone system to be able to get the most from it. 1. Out of Hours Greetings Why have we chosen this as our number one feature? Well, day and night greetings ensures that your business never misses a call (day or night) and do a great job of presenting your business in a professional light, especially when you consider the alternatives like: unanswered or ringing out calls - leading to frustration and hanging up. A practical example of this is: if your receptionist hasn t picked up after 5 rings the system will pick up the call for you and greet them with your own customised message. Thank you for calling YOUR BUSINESS, your call is important and we will be with you in just a moment... Additionally, most mid-sized business phone system solutions also allow for the ability to answer multiple callers at once. While other phone systems allow you to present callers with options to choose from such as press 1 for sales, Press 2 for admin etc. This is great for very large companies with multiple divisions or for small companies without a receptionist. Both options will ensure that you will never lose another opportunity, compromise professionalism or hurry through one call simply to take the next! You will now give every caller the best impression, every time. With an incovo solution you can also programme the system to answer with time specific messages at different times of the day, week or year. That s intelligent call management! Some phone systems charge for this whereas many now include it at no charge. Make sure you do your homework if this feature is important to your business.

3 2. Voic (and Voic to ) Again, another really simple and easy one but when you consider the alterna tives: Handwritten messages - they can often lead to miscommunication and distortion of information. Just like your mobile phone voic , phone system voic allows callers to tell you exactly what they want, while maintaining their privacy. Voic saves unnecessary return calls and allows you to prioritise call backs. Further flexibility within this feature is the ability to choose which staff members actually receive voic , allowing you to opt to only give it to key staff, or everyone - it s your choice. Many of the latest phone systems also allow you to get voic to . Anywhere you can access your you can now receive your voic , ideal for companies where staff are on the move. You could be 1000km away and receive notification on your smart phone seconds after a customer has left a message for you on your office desk phone. Similarly, receiving your voic by is the biggest advance in voic since, well, voic . Forget having to dial your provider s access number, and listening to each voic in sequence. Each time someone leaves you a message you receive it by on your smartphone or computer so you can listen to it whenever you want. You can save it, delete it, forward it, listen to it again. If you regularly have to get through 5 messages before getting to the one you really want, then you really really need this. 3. Transferring calls in and out of the office In spite of the fundamentally basic nature of this option, transferring calls can be a major contributor for choosing to switch or upgrade a system. The ability to do so with minimal fuss and the least amount of opportunity for mistakes is a key factor in driving business efficiency. Different brands achieve this in different ways and you need to understand how the system you re looking at actually works (not just looks). It may not be the right option for you. If you are looking to transfer calls from your office to staff mobile phones or directly to remote workers IP handsets or softphones you will need to ensure you have ISDN lines for the former and an IP platform for the latter. In the right environment transferring calls can send productivity through the roof. This is particularly relevant for sales environments and companies that have remote workers or home workers.

4 4. Speed dialling and CTI The are a large percentage of workers out there that, through the nature of their job call the same 5 or so numbers on a daily occurrence that being able to utilise speed dialling and CTI functions can be a fantastic feature for certain staff. Further testimony to this is when you use a database, ACT, Goldmine, Microsoft Outlook, or just a list of your customers or associates, phone systems can make calling people as easy as clicking a mouse button. If you are running a computer database or CRM then you should look at how you can tie this into your phone system. Imagine if when a customer calls their whole file could pop up on your screen ready for you. This is logically called screen popping and can save your staff an incredible amount of time. Some systems charge for this feature whereas others include this at no charge. Make sure you don t pay for something unnecessarily. 5. Mobile Twinning For the forgetful of us out there, that are pretty bad for remembering to divert their calls to my mobile when they are out of the office and thus benefit immensely from this feature. However, with the ability to mobile phone twinning, you are able to pair your desk phone to your mobile phone at the same time - with both ringing at the same time and both answerable to the same call. You can even have the call though to the employee for free if you use a GSM gateway. The best thing about this function is that this is becoming more of a standard feature so feel free to ask about it with your current/potential future supplier. This is a brilliant application for large warehouses that may not have great wireless coverage for DECT or cordless solutions, for It staff that are always moving around troubleshooting, for sales people and some people just want to be contactable all the time without voic .

5 6. Virtual Numbers Remember when your phone number was tied to your physical address? Well those days are well and truly gone. It is now possible to have as many numbers as you like all directed to the same single physical phone and that can be a fixed or mobile phone. Imagine you want to open a London office but you re stuck in sunny Edinburgh. Get a virtual London number and have the calls delivered to your mobile phone useful so you can answer them wherever you like. You can have as many numbers as you like from anywhere over the world. 7. VoIP phone calls and IP phone systems Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) is the latest but established technology to help reduce costs. Any reputable phone system can integrate with cheap VoIP calls but not every system can actually offer VoIP phone system features or SIP trunking (the best type of VoIP available for ultimate call quality and cheapest services). VoIP system features are used for linking multiple sites, or remote workers. They allow other users on the phone system to see, transfer, and receive calls, from other sites and staff no matter where they are located. If you re only after cheap calls then it really won t have any bearing on the system you buy (unless you want to use SIP trunking).

6 8. Conference calling (how many parties can you link?) To be clear, this is different from a conference phone and just making calls. Here we are referring to the phone system capabilities. You see some phone systems will only allow you to have a 3 party conference call while others like Avaya allow up to 64 party conferencing. The number of conferencing parties means how many independent people you can call/conference at once (it is not how many people you can fit in one office). If conferencing is important to your business then it pays to know a system s limitations. Some phone systems also offer sophisticated conference bridging etc while others only offer basic functionality. Conference bridging is where the phone system will call and connect to parties at a predetermined time. Imagine a scenario where you want to initiate a conference call at 1pm tomorrow. You tell the phone system what time, who the conference parties are and their contact details. At 1pm the system automatically calls and tells the participants that they are being connected for a conference call. You didn t have to do a thing. Conversely you can tell people to call a phone number at 1pm and the phone system takes care of the rest. If conferencing is important to you then make sure you also ask about full duplex conference phones. Full duplex makes a massive difference to call clarity and quality.

7 9. Linking Multiple Sites & Remote Workers When you have more than one location VoIP can be the single greatest phone system addition you can do. Not the cheap VoIP calls referenced before but intelligent VoIP system features that are used for linking multiple sites, or remote workers. They allow other users on the phone system to see, transfer, and receive calls, from other sites and staff no matter where they are located in the UK or even around the world. For example: Having a person log on with a laptop and automatically be able to make and receive phone calls just like they could in the office Have staff work from home and be able to make and receive calls just like they were in the office Be able to see all staff on the phone at a glance no matter where they are in the world 10. Call recording Call recording is a fantastic addition to any sales orientated company. You can spend countless hours trying to train staff and improve call quality but none of this has the same effect as playing a call back to a staff member. They can hear first hand exactly how they sound and respond to callers. This is one of the most effective training exercises you can do and is brilliant subject matter for sales meetings. Some phone systems will even allow you to WAV. files (sound files you have recorded). This means you can other staff members to illustrate a great call and is especially beneficial when you have remote workers or staff in other locations. It is important to note that call recording functionality does come not as standard with Avaya IP Office and must be purchased as a supplementary product.

8 About incovo incovo is a communications technology integrator of category leading unified communications, infrastructure, integrated network solutions and document management solutions to small and mid-sized organisations throughout the UK. Our focus is creating dependable, cost effective business communications solutions for businesses that ensure a variety of methods of collaboration to meet the ever changing market conditions. At incovo, we provide fast and effective support to all of our customers through our multichannel support network allowing our customers to feel the benefits of compelling solutions that will enable their businesses to grow, tailored to their needs. Want to know more? We hope that you have found this short guide informative and helpful but as always, it is often advisable to speak to an expert to clarify any questions or reservations prior to looking to acquiring a new business telephony solution. Feel free to speak to one of incovo s trained and fully accredited Pre-Sales staff for free, helpful advice. To discuss your business telephony requirements please get in touch with us for a free consultation. Business Telephony Systems Advice Call incovo today or us at info@incovo.com