Category Archives: VOIP

What Key VoIP Features Are You Missing Out On?

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Voice to email transcription, conference calls, call screening – VoIP systems do it all.

Many small businesses have either made the switch or are thinking about making the switch to Voice over Internet Protocol(VoIP) services. VoIP has the ability to provide many benefits and advantages to your business over landline phones. Today, we want to provide more insight into VoIP, including the features you may not be aware of.

Voicemail to Email Transcription

Did you know that one of the ways VoIP could simplify your workflow is by translating your voicemails to text? It does not matter if you have been away from your business for an extended period of time or if you generally receive a high volume of calls on a daily basis, you can use this feature to make sure you never miss a voicemail message.

When you use this feature, you will be able to open your inbox, click the message, and listen to the message that was left for you. You will also be able to manage your email inbox by removing, saving, or forwarding the voicemails you have received. You will no longer have to worry about frantically looking for paper and pencil to write down phone numbers and names from the voicemail message.

Conference Calling

While conference calling may not be a feature that is necessarily hidden, this feature can be used in more ways than many business owners know about. When conference calling is used, audio meetings can be held with dozens or hundreds of attendants through any device that is connected to an internet network.

Conference calling can be of great use for businesses that have created remote teams. Conference calls will allow teams to work collaboratively even when they are miles apart.

Call Recording

If you want to record incoming and outgoing calls for training purposes or for reference purposes, we encourage you to use the Call Recording feature that is available. Depending on the type of service you are able to use, the calls can be recorded individually or on a company-wide basis.

There are some call recording solutions that will offer storage space in the cloud so you will not have to store every phone call on your network. There will be times when you will want to save some conversations for a variety of reasons, and call recording is a great feature that will allow you to do this.

Call Screening

If you want to feel in control of the calls you answer, you can make use of the call screening feature. As we all know, Caller ID provides information about who is calling so that you can make the decision to answer, decline, or send the call to voicemail.

The call screening process can also ask callers to state their name and any other identifying information. The information the caller leaves will be relayed to you. We understand that you are not always able to answer every call that comes in, so the call screening feature will allow you to answer the calls you feel are a priority.

Do Not Disturb

This feature probably does not need an in-depth overview. The “Do Not Disturb” feature can be put to great use when you do not want to be interrupted for an extended period of time. If you are in the middle of another phone call or if you are in the middle of a face-to-face meeting, this feature will allow you to turn the ringer off the phone during this time.

Do you currently have VoIP services? Are there any features you have not used because you were not aware they were available? If you would like to learn more about VoIP features that can improve your business, please do not hesitate to contact us today.

How VOIP Phones Can Secure Your Post-COVID Business

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VOIP technology can ensure a seamless transition for your remote workforce.

Every business on the globe is adapting to the need for post-COVID protocols and business practices. A big part of that is emphasizing remote and online working instead of in-office and face-to-face work. If you have been relying on meetings and phone line calls, or if your business does not yet have an integral phone system, it’s time to rethink your infrastructure.

VOIP offers fully remote phone services tailored to the needs of a modern business. From customer service pools to official office phone numbers, a VOIP system can do anything a traditional business PBX system can do and more. But what do virtual phones have to offer in the post-COVID era? Being able to communicate remotely and set up your offices anywhere in the world with the same numbers will come in handy in the days of remote business. Let’s take a look at some of the key ways that VOIP phones can secure your business in a post-COVID economy.

Turn Office Phones into Home Office Phones

VOIP phone numbers are assigned and accssed based on employee login accounts, not physical phone lines. This means that your employees can take their office phones home with them for remote work.

Clients, customers, and business partners will still be able to find each in-office contact as if they were still in the office, at the same phone numbers and often during the same hours, even though your team has gone home to work remotely in COVID-safety. In fact, companies already equipped with VOIP experienced some of the least shake-up when transitioning to work-at-home policies.

Remain Available During Phone-Line-Cutting  Disasters

One of the overlooked consequences of COVID is lack of preparedness for local disasters. Floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and wind storms are still happening this year, but services are slower due to the need for extra care when in public. This means that natural disasters that take out phone lines can be devastating for local businesses. Unless, of course, your business runs on internet phones instead.

Rather than being cut off from the rest of the world. your offices and employees at home can continue taking calls even when competition with landlines are out for repairs.

Install Phones in a New Location Without an Installation

Business doesn’t stop either just because there’s a pandemic on the loose. If it’s time to open a new location or relocate your current business, phones are a big part of that. Normally, you would need a team of phone technicians laying wire and installing handsets. Not so, with VOIP. Internet phones can be installed via software.

Simply have your VOIP handsets delivered to the office and you can set them up without the need for strangers to enter your workplace. This allows for no-contact installation and, of course, helping your team set up in home-offices without the need for any serious hardware or technician-led installation as well.

Make Your Company Remote-Friendly and Remote-Accessible

VOIP is the single most remote-friendly business communication software. You can transform a once-limiting phone system into a full-featured and API-ready network for communication. Every member of your team can have their own number, access to a pool, or multiple numbers that can all be accessed from any internet-connected device.

New team members can be easily onboarded. Clients and customers can always find you at the same phone numbers, with or without a landline in between. Allow your team to be remote, your customers to be remote, and even remote onboarding and installation with VOIP phones.

Relocate or Disperse Your Office With the Same Numbers

Finally, remember how easy it is to take one system of numbers and reorganize. You can send an employee to a new office location with the same number. You can put together teams of people with numbers that follow them or assign new numbers just for team use. You can send everyone home, still able to answer their office phones or move to a new location, keeping the phones, access, and numbers all exactly the same.

For remote communication at business class, VOIP is up to the challenge. Contact us today to consult on your business’ VOIP expansion.

Data Security Tips for Switching Your Team to VoIP

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Here’s how to ensure the safety and security of your data while using VoIP.

With every new great technology comes new levels of data security. Just as you upgraded your data security for your latest website update, for your cloud document manager, and your enterprise management software, so too will you need new data security measures when you upgrade the team to VoIP. VoIP, like any cloud system, has a few distinct points that hackers will try to attack.

Hackers will seek to crack someone’s login so they can start using your service and burning up your talk hours for free. They will try to hack into host devices so they can steal any personal data that is stored as a result of calls and communications. And they will try to use your need for Wi-Fi to set honeypot traps and hack connected devices.

The following five tips will help you prevent these hacks quite neatly with each workstation and device your employees use to connect their VoIP numbers.

1) Use Firewalls and Data Encryption on Every VoIP Device

Always, always, always start with firewalls and data encryption. No doubt, you already have firewalls and whole-device encryption on your business workstations, but now it’s time to expand that protection to employee mobile devices as well. Any device your team wants to use for VOIP should be reinforced at the same time that the app is installed. In emergencies, it should be okay to temporarily connect to the VOIP system via an unsecured device, but it will also be important to log out and wipe the install when the emergency is over.

2) Configure Auto-Logout at Workstations

Auto-logout ensures that no one remains logged into their VOIP number and company services after they have left the desk. For your workstations, it’s practical to assume specific times at which employees will be finished with their VOIP use and it is safe to auto-logout with the risk of bouncing a client call to email.

Start by encouraging employees to log out whenever they walk away from the desk. Beyond that, allows configuration for timed auto-logout which you can align with the end of each work shift. For employees who answer a service line, you can even disengage logins as soon as ‘business hours’ are through.

3) Screen Lock for Active VOIP Mobile Devices

Of course, employees using their mobile devices are a little more challenging to defend with auto-logout. Idle won’t work because they may be waiting for calls, and timing only works if their planned mobile work aligns with a predicted schedule.

So with mobile devices, you have two security options. Your first is screen lock. Screen lock is a professional’s best defense when they need to stay constantly logged into a secure app all the time. The second option is to invite your employees to set their own auto-logout times. This can be effective for both security and defending a healthy work-life balance.

4) Coach Employees on Building Secure Passwords and Protecting Those Passwords

Passwords are of utmost importance with VOIP, because they are the key to each universally available phone number. All the accessibility, all the versatility that VOIP offers, is exposed if their password is stolen. The last thing you want is for hackers to gain the ability to log into your VOIP network from anywhere just like an employee.

Train your employees to build strong passwords and to protect them. Not to write them down, not to email the passwords to themselves, and definitely not to load them into unsecure password management apps.

5) Provide Wifi Hotspots to Avoid Honeypot Wifi Traps

Finally, provide any employees who connect away from home or the office with a wifi hotspot. Hackers like to set up fake wifi networks pretending to be guest wifi from shops and restaurants that don’t have wifi. When people unwittingly connect to check their messages (or when phones automatically connect to the nearest network) they can be hacked through the honeypot fake network.

Securing your employees with their new VOIP numbers isn’t difficult, but a few steps are incredibly useful for keeping hackers off your network. Contact us today for more expert cybersecurity advice!

The Role of Telecom Businesses During a Crisis

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Telecommunication systems keep us connected when we need it most.

The one thing we know about people today is that when disaster strikes, we get on the phone. Communication has always been a critical part of handling a crisis. The bigger the crisis, the more communication is needed to cover the gaps in society crated by strife. Right now, the telecommunications industry is under a tremendous amount of pressure while holding up an incredible responsibility.

Telecommunications serve a vital role in times of crisis. In fact, they serve several vital roles:

Emergency Relief Coordination

The fist and most important thing telecommunications provides is emergency relief. With the communication network up, first-responders can stay in-touch, coordinate, deliver emergency services wherever they are needed. From fire trucks and ambulances to donated food, no matter the crisis, telecommunications are what brings the first-responders and relief teams together.

Helping Those Stranded to Reach Out for Aid

Telecommunications are also essential in connecting individuals in times of crisis. People who are trapped at home or even stranded in the wilderness can access the telecommunications network to reach out for help. Those quarantined in their homes, trapped in a structure, or lost away from home rely on telecommunications to connect them to much-needed help.

Spreading Vital Information to the Population

Depending on the crisis, it may be necessary to send out important safety information to the population at large. Through internet, television, radio, and phone calls, the organizations in charge can inform the citizens of what’s to come and how to stay safe. During earthquakes, these broadcasts are advice on how to take shelter. During the current pandemic, telecommunications have been essential in helping the masses determine how to stay safe and reduce infection spread.

Providing Digital Connection to Inaccessible Regions

Telecommunications can also go where vehicles can’t. If an area has been cut-off due to damage or bad weather on the road, often cell signal and buried communication lines can still make it out. Snowed-in towns, areas damaged by earthquakes, and islands isolated by rough seas can all stay in touch through telecommunications when they couldn’t be reached any other way.

Connecting Individuals To Each other

During a crisis, people tend to pull together. Families lean on each other and whole new communities form in response to facing the hardship together. While this can happen in neighbourhoods, recent events and cultural trends make telecommunications a central part of this banding-together. In the face of a crisis, people turn to social media and phone calls to provide each other support.

Maintaining Networks to Keep Businesses Open

However, telecommunication’s role in business is even more vital. Businesses today rely on the internet heavily to do their work and stay connected to customers. Some businesses are completely shut down without access to the telecommunications network, which is best evidenced in how well business is continuing with wireless internet, sans office environment. The telecommunications network is all that’s holding up many economies and everyday survival services during pandemic conditions.

Providing Swift Repairs Where Service Fails

Finally, the telecommunication industry’s role in keeping the network alive is absolutely essential. People, communities, and services need to stay connected. If one neighborhood’s service goes down, this affects hundreds to thousands of people. The impact is multiplied by how reliant our society truly is on internet and phone lines. So when a line breaks, it is telecom’s role to swiftly fix it before the cut-off has too negative an effect.

Telecommunications is, arguably, the most important single industry in crisis response because it allows response to happen. Through telecommunication, victims can reach out for help and emergency services can coordinate rescue. Communities can band together and businesses can keep the wheels of industry rolling. For more business tech and direction insights, contact us today!