With the economy in a shaky state, many businesses are clamping down on purchases to ensure that they are able to weather tough times.  But there are some good reasons to forge ahead with a new phone system, and to buy sooner rather than later:

(1) Tax benefits. This year, Congress passed the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 to help individuals and businesses and to spur economic growth.  You’ll want to consult your tax professional for all the details, or check out the IRS website here, but in brief the following benefits are among those in the Act:

• increases the limit up to which a business can expense property purchased and placed in service during its 2008 tax year;
• provides an additional 50 percent special depreciation allowance for property acquired and placed in service during calendar year 2008.

To take advantage of this, the equipment you purchase:

• must be new equipment;
• must have been acquired in calendar year 2008; and
• must have been installed in calendar year 2008.

(2) Special deals. Many phone equipment manufacturers and resellers are now offering very good deals on the purchase and installation of new phone systems and voicemail in an effort to get your business.  In general, you can expect lowered prices and added value to work in your favor.  (Check out our current specials for phone systems in Phoenix or surrounding areas.)

(3) Opportunity Costs. Phone system technology has improved significantly in the last few years, and now provides efficiency gains that you may not be enjoying on your current system.  Increased ease-of-use, tightly integrated and more responsive and powerful voicemail, flexible auto-attendant, and other productivity-enhancing features such as Unified Messaging, phone control via your PC, and Voice Over IP are all things that businesses with new systems can enjoy and use to their advantage.  In economics, opportunity costs are the value of an alternative foregone as the result of making a decision.  In this case, you should evaluate the cost to your business of staying with your current phone system and foregoing increased efficiency, competitiveness, and client satisfaction.

(4) Doing your part. While placing tight restrictions on spending is becoming more common for many businesses, experts agree that this actually exacerbates the country’s economic woes.  Making an important investment in your company’s future not only strengthens it in the long run, but makes your company part of the country’s economic solution.  And, because both Telco Ltd. and ESI (our phone system manufacturer of choice) are U.S.-owned and operated companies, you can feel good knowing that the majority of your dollars will continue circulating in our economy long after you have spent them.

VIP (or Visually Integrated Phone) software is something ESI (our phone manufacturer of choice) has been offering on its phone systems for awhile.  It’s essentially Unified Messaging on steroids: in addition to being able to play voicemail messages via your Outlook Inbox, it allows for other neat things, such as controlling your phone from your computer, and programming your own phone.  You can go here to read more about VIP.  You can see an introductory video here.  We will do a future post on it as well.

We have, for awhile, been offering a VIP training video on CD to our customers.  We just recently put the video online here for convenience.  While not professionally produced (and also doesn’t reflect the graphical facelift VIP has undergone), I hope that it will be useful to our customers, and those who may be considering purchasing VIP, who want a more in-depth idea of how it works.

VIP training video

There has been a real buzz over Voice over IP (VoIP) during the last couple of years.  We get asked about it often by businesses looking to purchase a new phone system, who want to make sure they’re not being “left out”.  How does it work?  Will it save money on long distance?  What other benefits does it provide?  In many people’s minds, the concept is a bit undefined; they’re not sure exactly what it will do for them, but they do know that their next system should support it.

First, a small explanation of what VoIP technology is, and the basic reason it’s so promising.  In traditional telephony, voice conversations take place over a dedicated line.  This is generally a pair of wires that carry your voice to the other person you are speaking to, and their voice back to you.  Granted, there is sophisticated equipment that routes your call from point A to point B, so there are usually a number of sets of wires that are actually being connected, but the point is that you are using a dedicated connection when you are on that call.  Since there are a limited total number of connections that can be made, even the phone company can run out of connections, and this is why you can sometimes try to make a call and hear the “all circuits are busy” recording.

VoIP technology is more sophisticated.  When you are on a conversation using VoIP technology, your voice is broken out into many small bits at lightning speed and sent to the other end very quickly, where it is reassembled and played to the person at the other end.  These small voice bits, or packets, have several pathways they can take to their destination and will take whatever path is the most efficient at that millisecond in time.  As long as they can be reassembled properly at the other end within a reasonable time frame (on the order of milliseconds), it does not matter what path they take to get there.  Because a dedicated path does not need to be established in this scenario, certain things can be done to make calls more efficient, such as cutting out the parts of the conversation where no talking is happening, like between words, and voice compression can also take place.  The net effect is that the same resources that could once carry say, 24 calls simultaneously, may now be able to carry triple that number or more.

It’s important to note that, while all VoIP technology is the same in a basic sense as has been described, there are some different applications  that take advantage of this technology.

VoIP Dialtone

Dialtone providers have learned early on the tremendous efficiency gains (and cost reductions) that could be had with packet-based calls, and most carriers have upgraded their equipment so that, at least behind the scenes, they are using this technology.  Most are also now offering VoIP-based phone lines to both business and consumer customers.  In some cases, the interface to your home or business may not even be any different, but they can offer more competitive dialtone rates to you because of this technology.

Some companies, such as Vonage, deliver dialtone over the Internet, and they provide you with a special box called an ATA (or Analog Terminal Adapter) that converts the IP technology into an analog signal that will work with your phone or business phone system.  Companies that provide dialtone via the Internet in this manner are called ITSPs, or Internet Telephony Service Providers, and they can usually offer very aggressive rates in the form of lower monthly rates or free long distance.  Some newer phone systems have circuitry that can understand IP dialtone natively, and in such a case an ATA box is not required.

Phone System VoIP

Phone system manufacturers have also realized that they can do some fantastic things with VoIP technology.  These applications offer tremendous benefits by taking advantage of two things: (1) the fact that most Internet connections are based on a monthly fee, and that you are not charged based on the amount of traffic you generate, and (2) the global nature of the Internet.

• Local IP Phones: these are used instead of traditional digital phones, and rather than requiring separate cabling can use the same cable that your computer uses on your office LAN (Local Area Network).  Their functionality is usually the same as a normal digital phone by the same manufacturer.
• Remote IP Phones: these can be used off-site, such as at a home residence for telecommuters or executives.  While remote IP phones from most manufacturers offer a more limited feature set than a local IP phone, remote phones from ESI (the manufacturer whose phone systems we sell) offer exactly the same experience that a local IP phone does, meaning that a remote user can see who is on their phone in the office at a glance, intercom, answer incoming calls to the business, act as a customer service agent as part of an ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) group, and more.
• Remote “Soft” Phones: this is software installed on a computer, such as a traveling sales rep’s laptop, that, when used in conjunction with a headset, allows the user to have similar functionality to a Remote phone, without the phone’s footprint.  This is extremely beneficial for “road warriors” and can be used anywhere in the world there is a decent broadband Internet connection (wired or wireless).
• Site-to-site VoIP: this is beneficial for businesses with multiple locations.  These locations can be virtually connected together to make it as if the users in all offices are together in one large office.  In addition to bringing everyone together without having to dial outside phone numbers from one site to another, this can eliminate long distance charges between offices.  ESI’s implementation of this is called ESI-Link, and supports tying up to 100 phone systems together.

ESI offers all of the above-mentioned types of phone system-based VoIP in their Communications Server phone systems, and does so with a very rich feature-set and high-quality voice codecs, making it an outstanding investment value.

There’s a feature offered on all ESI phone systems called Virtual Answer.  It’s so simple, but so useful, that it deserves it’s own mention.

I’m constantly on the phone.  With clients.  With vendors.  I’m in demand.  I might not get much done if I were constantly playing phone tag with people.  Thanks to Virtual Answer, phone tag is cut down dramatically.

Here’s how it works.  Say I am on a call, chatting away.  Another call comes in to my number via Call Waiting, and I can see from the Caller ID that it’s someone I’ve been waiting to talk to all day; however, I can’t quite get off my current call yet.  I press one button on my phone, and the second caller hears, “Hi, this is Stephen.  I see that you’re on the other line and I would like to talk to you.  Please wait just a minute and I’ll be with you shortly.”  This caller is then placed on hold.  The first caller has not been interrupted at all, and is completely oblivious to my second call or that I have put it on hold.

At this point, I can take a minute or so to wrap up my current call, and I can get to the second caller rather then him having to leave me a message.  Bam!  The vicious cycle of phone tag has ended.

I could also have given the caller an option to dial another extension, or go to my voicemail, if I so chose to record my Virtual Answer message that way.  There is also another type of Virtual Answer button (which can either be used instead of the first type mentioned, or as a second button in addition to it), in which instead of playing the recording and putting the caller on hold, it plays a message like, “Hi, this is Stephen.  I see that you’re on the other line and appreciate the call.  Please hold on while I transfer you to my assistant.”  The call is then automatically transferred to my assistant, who takes the call from there.

I’m not sure why no one else has this feature, but it’s amazingly useful, and I’m not sure what I would do without it.  It’s just another way in which ESI has shown innovation in its products.

When looking for a new phone system, one should realize that not all phone systems are created equal.  While, on the surface, it may appear that most phone systems have the same basic level of functionality, this could not be further from the truth.  All phone systems are based on unique technology and designs, and, when you take a close look, you will find vast differences in one manufacturer’s system to the next.  The three broad questions to ask yourself when evaluating a phone system should be:

• Does it have all the functionality, robustness, and capacity my business needs?
• Are the phones intuitive and easy to use?
• Can I see a live demonstration of the phones and their operation?

Here are some questions that you’ll want to make sure to ask as part of your checklist:

• Caller ID. Does the system support Caller ID on all lines?  Does this capability cost extra?  Do all phones have displays so that I can take advantage of Caller ID?  Can I add a caller’s Caller ID to my personal electronic “Rolodex” with one button press?  Will Caller ID be stored with voicemail messages?  Can Caller ID of the original caller be relayed on calls forwarded outside the office?  Can I review a list from my phone of recent calls’ Caller ID, along with whether I answered the call or it was missed, went to voicemail, or was redirected?
• Voicemail. Does the system support voicemail?  How many ports (simultaneous connections) does it have, and will this be sufficient for my needs?  Is it built-in, or added on?  Will my phone display show me how many messages I have? As I am listening to a message, will a counter on my display count down the time remaining in the message?  Can I transfer callers to voicemail in 2 button presses or fewer?  Can I easily send a message to multiple mailboxes on the fly without having to go through a menu?  When listening to a voicemail message, can I return the call by pressing one button?  Can I allow callers who reach my voicemail to be forwarded to me off site?  Can I be notified of new messages by pager or phone?  Can employees without an office phone still have voicemail?  Am I charged based on the number of mailboxes I use, or are as many as I need included?  Is Unified Messaging available?  Can I save a copy of a message to my computer for archiving or email?
• Auto-Attendant. Does the system have an automated attendant with the ability to provide multiple options to the caller?  Can the menus be several deep if needed?  Can callers be transferred to extensions, mailboxes, departments, overhead paging, remote IP extensions, off-site branches via VoIP, or to outside phone numbers?  Can I have multiple answer modes (such as day, lunch, night, and holiday), and can I either activate them on demand or have them follow a schedule?
• Call Recording. Does the phone have a dedicated Record button for one-touch recording?  Will the recording begin without a delay?  Can I record a call with or without notifying the caller?  Can I record a live conversation directly to my own or another user’s mailbox? Can I record a conversation to multiple users’ mailboxes, on the fly?  Can I save a copy of the recording to my computer for archiving or email?
• Automatic Call Distribution. Does the system support Automatic Call Distribution (ability to let caller stay on hold for the “next available agent”)?  Can calls be escalated if the caller has been in the queue for a certain amount of time, or if the number of callers in queue reaches a certain threshold?  Can the type of routing be flexible (i.e. longest idle extension, uniform distribution, or in-order distribution)? As an administrator, can I silently monitor calls for quality assurance purposes?  When monitoring calls for quality assurance, can I record the conversation for later review and employee feedback?  Is computer software available to facilitate communication between agents and administrators, and to allow administrators to keep track of activity (both real-time and historical)?  Can off-site users (i.e. telecommuters) be part of an ACD group?  Can I monitor them as well?
• Music On Hold. Is music on hold capability built-in to the system, or does it require additional equipment?  Are there pre-recorded tracks so I can hit the ground running?  Can I load custom tracks that will loop automatically?  Can callers dial an extension from hold?
• Built-in Help. Does the system have built-in help?  Does it have a built-in verbal tutorial on phone and voicemail features?  Is there a dedicated Help button?
• Conferencing. Does the system have built-in conferencing?  How many parties can be conferenced together simultaneously?  Is it easy to initiate a conference and add parties?
• Voice over IP (VoIP): Does the system support both local (on-premises) and remote IP (off-premises) extensions?  Do IP phones have all the same features and functionality as non-IP phones?  Can remote IP phones be moved from location to location geographically and plugged into practically any broadband connection, or does this require extensive configuration?  Do the remote phones use high-quality compression for the best voice quality?  Are SIP phones supported?  Are “soft” PC phones supported (local or remote)?  Can multiple, geographically distant sites be connected together?  Does this linking capability include robust features such as one-touch intercom/transfer, auto attendant or DID routing between sites, or ability to see when users at other sites are using their phone, in Do Not Disturb, or available?
• Presence Management. Does the system support door phones/security access readers using RFID technology (with security cards or keychain fobs)?  Can designated phone users unlock doors for guest entry from their desk?  Can I tell at a glance, from my phone, whether or not someone is in the building?  Can building or secure area access be limited based on a schedule?  Can a security card or fob be disabled quickly if it is lost or stolen, so that locks do not need to be changed?  Can the security readers also be used as time clocks, and can this data be reported on or imported into payroll software?
• Wireless Integration. Does the system support digital cordless phones in addition to standard analog cordless phones?  Do the digital cordless phones support a wide range of features, such as line and station appearances, transfer, conference, voicemail access, call record, do not disturb, overhead page, and more?  Can these features be accessed with one button rather than memorizing a code or button sequence?  Can users utilize a wireless Bluetooth headset of their choice with their office desk phone?  Can I automatically redirect cell phone calls to my office phone while I am in the office, without having to remember to forward and un-forward my cell phone (if that’s even an option)?  Can I run a cell line through my phone system as a backup line in case my regular lines ever go down?
• Expansion. Can the system be expanded easily without having to replace the entire phone system?  Can new capabilities be added to the system via a software upgrade?  Can software upgrades be done remotely?
• Support. Does the company I purchase the phone system from have extensive experience with this brand?  Do they have multiple technicians that are fully certified on the equipment?  How long have they been in business?  Are they a local company?  Do they have the ability to diagnose most issues quickly, without dispatching a technician?  If a technician needs to be dispatched, and it’s an emergency, will I get a response within a few hours or less?

Most people plug their electronic devices directly into a wall outlet, not knowing how sinister the electricity flowing into it can be, and how badly and easily the devices can be damaged.

On every phone system we sell, we provide, at a minimum, a good surge suppressor.  This isn’t the lightweight type you’ll find most places, that claims to be a surge suppressor but really isn’t much more than a power strip.  The ones we provide are able to withstand, at a minimum, 1600 joules of energy.  I have been in some office equipment stores and seen ratings as low as 80 joules, which is woefully inadequate.

I can hear some saying, as I write this, that power in the U.S. is pretty good, and in most cases it’s not necessary to worry too much about power protection. They claim that their other equipment like computers works fine and doesn’t need anything special, so why would a phone system?  The two answers to this are (1) not all electronic equipment is created equal or has the same sophistication or requirements; and (2) you really can’t be sure that electricity is not harming your other equipment (not all of those unexplained glitches you encounter are due to poor software, the Windows operating system, or a defective copier).

What many people don’t realize is that electricity is often a silent killer, damaging sensitive electronic equipment over a period of weeks, months, or even years.  High voltage, noisy power, or power that’s not ideal in any one of several other ways is very common–almost universal–and is a bit like the fatty foods we eat.  They won’t kill you right away, but make no mistake, they are harming you.  And like a heart attack, damage building up over time will suddenly manifest itself without warning.  But unlike fatty foods, electricity doesn’t take 50 years to take its toll.  Spending a little money (as a percentage of the phone system you paid many thousands of dollars for) is an investment that’s well worth the effort.

So, what are the best ways to protect yourself?

First, make sure that your phone equipment is plugged into a dedicated electrical circuit.  The more things you have plugged into the same outlet (or other outlets on the same electrical circuit), the greater risk you run into of having power that’s not reliable and clean.  We have seen many times where a customer had issues because of a refrigerator being on the same circuit, and when the compressor kicks on, it can cause trouble anywhere from subtle glitches to outright havoc.  Likewise, we are amazed at times when we see a phone system that’s plugged into the same outlet that over a dozen other devices are plugged into.  If you are unsure whether your outlet is on a dedicated circuit, or need this set up, you can hire any competent electrician.

Second, get yourself a good Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), which provides not only surge protection, but has a built-in battery so that if you building loses power, your phones will keep running.  The amount of time your system will keep running in an outage depends on several factors, including how many phones you have, the model of your phone system, and the particular model and VA rating of the UPS.  In general, the higher the VA rating, the longer your equipment will last in an outage.  Most UPSes found in office supply stores have a fairly low VA rating and are designed to keep equipment running for only a few minutes.  Statistically, most power outages last a few minutes or less, so this is usually fine.  However, you may wish to get a higher VA rating to protect your equipment during longer power outages (we use one internally with a rating of 1400VA).  Whatever UPS you get, it is recommended that you obtain one that has “true sine wave output”.  And, because standard UPSes protect against only severe power sags or power outages, it is recommended that you get an “online” UPS, which additionally helps regulate the voltage and ensure that your equipment is getting clean power.

Finally, don’t forget that electrical spikes can hit your phone system in ways other than through a power outlet.  Many a phone system has been damaged or destroyed from electrical surges coming in through the phone lines (or, if your phone system is network-enabled, through a network cable).  All of our customers have the option of purchasing phone line surge protectors for their phone systems, and they’re not very expensive.

The ESI 48-key and 24-key office phones, which have been around for several years (but still look as sexy as ever), have been fitted with a backlight on the display:

ESI 48-key backlit phone

ESI now offers a backlit and non-backlit version of each phone, with the backlit version costing slightly more than the non-backlit version.  The good news is, they will work on any ESI phone system that supports either 48-key or 24-key phones.  This includes not only the newest Communications Servers models, but the IVX Gen I and Gen II models (48-key Remote IP phones for the Communications Servers only).

Apparently, some people have been clamoring for this.  For my part, I never gave it a second thought until they came out.  Then, I remembered that I have a 48-key Remote IP phone at home, which gets a bit dark at times.  I think I may need to beg for one….

We recently sent out a mailer to some of our customers whose phone systems’ ages ranged from 5 years old to 30 years old or more, highlighting some of our current technology and our current special (free 5-year warranty for new systems installed by 12/31/08).  For a bit of fun, we put in a section entitled, “You know your phone system is old when….”  It’s repeated here, for your viewing pleasure:

You know your phone system is old when…

10. Your phone model is the “Jurassic-100.”
9.    Your calls get dropped more often than a hot potato.
8.     Your cleaning crew does a ritual dance before dusting off the phones.
7.    You try to make a call and your phone display says, “Ask me if I care.”
6.    It becomes eligible for Social Security benefits.
5.    Someone visiting your office tipped off the Guiness Book people.
4.    Your phone has become a Zen master (it has been there so long it became one with your desk).
3.    When you pick up your phone handset, the lights in the room go dim.
2.    It has less memory than you do.
1.    You have a weekly budget for duct tape.

When ESI announced the availability of their Cellular Management product, we were pretty excited around here.  Now that we have had a chance to take it for a spin, we’re still excited!

(If you’re not familiar with ESI, check this out.  And see our web site for more information on ESI products in general.)

In a nutshell, Cellular Management is a way to tame your cell phone while you’re in the office.  If you’re like many people who split their time between working in the office and outside the office (for example, an outside salesperson), you’ve had the experience where you’re in the office and, while you’re talking on your office desk phone, you get interrupted by a call on your cell phone.  It rings in the background, and you lose your concentration and have to either try to ignore the cell call while it rings a few times, or you interrupt your desk phone call to get your cell phone.

Enter Cellular Management.  This is an ESI-exclusive device that works on any ESI Communications Server phone system, and, using Bluetooth technology, allows your cell phone calls to ring on your office phone when you’re within range of your desk phone (about 30 feet).  There are multiple advantages to this approach: (1) You no longer have to juggle cell calls versus office phone calls, because both types of calls now ring to your office phone.  If you are already on a call, the other will come in via Call Waiting, and you can choose whether to take the other call, have the other caller hold via ESI’s exclusive Virtual Answer technology, or have the second caller go to voicemail; (2) You can now do a number of things that you couldn’t do before on a normal cell phone call, like record the conversation, transfer the caller to another phone in the office, easily conference the call, or anything else you could do on your office phone; (3) You can make outbound calls via your cell line by pressing a button on your office phone.  Not only that, but you can even optionally put a button on other office phones to use your cell line, if desired!

This is the device that makes Cellular Management work (it’s called a Cellular Management Access Device, and one is required for each cell phone that will be used):

CMAD using Bluetooth technology

It’s not much to look at, sure, but it’s pretty powerful.  We set up two of these in our office, one for a salesperson and one for a technician, and were pleased with the results.  We installed one near each user’s desk phone and configured each one; we had to decide a few things such as (1) when in the office, if a cell call comes in and it’s not answered, whether it will go to the cell phone voicemail or office phone voicemail (you can choose either option); (2) Whether to have the cell phone sync up automatically when it’s within range, or whether to allow the individual to press a button when he wants for Cellular Management to be active; (3) whether to have incoming cell calls use a distinctive ring (we note that the desk phone display already indicates whether a call is a cell call); and (4) whether to place buttons on other office phones to allow them to access the cell line to make calls (in our case, we opted against this).

The cell phones we used for our testing were a Samsung flip phone and a Motorola Razr phone.  Both had no trouble syncing up with the ESI access device.  Because ESI uses industry-standard Bluetooth technology, it can be used with practically any modern phone with Bluetooth capability (even the least expensive phones on the market are now Bluetooth-enabled), so there is no need to get a different cell phone unless your current one is fairly old.  Bluetooth version 1.2 or 2.0 is supported, but 2.0 is recommended because of higher quality in general.

Both inbound and outbound calls over the cell line using the office phone worked just fine.  We did note that the quality of cell phone calls did not improve to land-line quality merely because we were handling the call on our desktop phone; after all, the call is still taking place in the background over a cellular network, so this is to be expected.  We were thrilled to be able to do all sorts of things with cell calls that we were never able to do before, as ESI phones have a rich feature set.

A couple of extra “bonus” features included by ESI in Cellular Management are (1) The ability to press a button on the desk phone and utilize the cell phone’s “voice dial” (speech recognition) feature to make calls; and (2) When you are on a cell call using the desk phone, if you need to leave the office while you’re in the middle of a conversation (who hasn’t had that happen to them!), you can press a button on the desk phone and have it instantly and seamlessly transferred back to the cell phone so that you can walk out of the office and continue the call.  This is so seamless, in fact, that in most cases the other party won’t even know you’re switching phones, unless you tell them.

Overall, we were very impressed, and can see a lot of useful applications for this technology (for example, as backup lines in the case of problems with your phone company land-lines; or to save money by utilizing your cellular company’s free cell-to-cell minutes for frequent calls to field technicians).  I anticipate that other phone system manufacturers will eventually try to play catch-up in this area, but for now, as in a number of other areas, ESI is a true market leader.

Video on Bluetooth Cellular Management