What Kind of Communications Solution Do You Need for Your Small Business?
You have enough to do with your daily activities
for your small business. Yet, you know you need to research communications technologies
to help your business connect with customers and give employees access to their
phones from anywhere. Or maybe the number of Voice over IP (VoIP) and voice
mail call forwarding solutions feels too overwhelming making it hard to figure
out where to begin your research.
More all-in-one telephony solutions are
available to simplify things so you don't manage multiple solutions, providers
and bills. For example, you want to route calls, set up a small call center and
allow employees to stay connected when they're away from the office. VoIP
solutions exist to combine all of these features so you don't have to look for
a call center solution from one provider and voice mail call forwarding from
another.
Most of the popular VoIP services don't
offer anything beyond providing your employees with a way to make calls and
stay connected. Several emerging VoIP solutions offer converged voice and data
services for use over one network. One of those is the Business Communication
Manager (BCM), which combines unified messaging, interactive voice response,
multimedia call center, IP routing, firewall and wireless. BCM can also provide
the following benefits for small businesses:
Stay
connected from anywhere: Employees set up their
phones to forward voice, text and fax messages to their cell phones. They can
change their greetings and access their messages from any phone, handheld
device or over the internet. Employees can make and receive calls as they were
at the office without incurring charges.
Manage
messages through one application: Solutions that integrate
voice, fax and email messages on computers and handheld devices allow employees
to manage them through one application like Microsoft Exchange or Outlook.
Route
calls to the right department and people: An automated
feature contains personalized greetings and menu options for directing calls.
This saves time for customers and ensures customers reach the right people. Even
callers can leave a message for an entire department or a group of users.
Secure
your connection: Some solutions come with features that
can secure your connection with authentication, firewall and virtual private
networks (VPNs).
Create
a call center: Route incoming calls to 10 employees
to handle orders, reservations or support. Some can open two queues based on
agent skills so callers go to the right agent and receive the best service.
These features were once only available to
large businesses because of the cost and they were too much for the small
business. BCM has flexibility so you can scale it and activate new features
plus it can work with businesses with just three employees. These BCM50 case studies show how
the product works for small businesses. Also, several models are available, so here's
a comparison of BCM products to get an idea of the different types of solutions available.
Small businesses have options that cover
all of their telephony needs without feature and product overkill.
Meryl
K. Evans is a freelance writer. You can reach her at merylk@gmail.com or stop by www.meryl.net.