Using Voip Telephony To Enhance Your Business

Using VOIP telephony to enhance your business Giles Sirett CEO, Octavia IT Services

So, who am I?
CEO of IT Management & Support company
Run the IT & telephony for over 200 organisations
I am IT Director for many organisations (including many SME’s)
Always having to select the best technology for our customers.....

Setting the scene -The perception of an SME
For Small Businesses, perception is key
Primary interaction through website, stationary, etc BUT...
telephone remains primary route into many organisations
The initial experience they get will affect their perception
To create a good perception
Well answered calls
Being dealt with in a timely fashion
Speaking to the right person
Leaving messages

Setting the scene - The role of a PBX
Essential
Handle inbound calls
Allows users to have extensions
Internal calls
Transfer of calls
Desirable (but becoming essential)
Unified Voicemail
Unified fax (to/from desktop)
Full remote working
Call attendants
Conferencing
Integration with other systems (Outlook, CRM, etc)
Tele-presence

What is VoIP?
VoIP is NOT Skype! (but Skype does use VoIP)
VoIP = Voice over IP = “sending of voice over an IP network”
Replaces traditional PSTN (which is “circuit based”)
Pay per circuit (line)
Call charges from PSTN
Circuits are for fixed locations
VoIP
No concept of circuits, data is packet switched = no charges for circuits
Pure VoIP calls are not charged
Use of “SIP Trunk” to connect in to PSTN
Geographic independence

Why VoIP?
The benefits of VoIP
Cost, cost, cost
Scalable
Portable
Productivity
Business Continuity
VoIP in use:
Used for international trunking & most corporate phone systems
Over half of UK (500+) businesses now use IP Telephony (58.8%) 1
An additional 27.2% of UK businesses are expected to implement VoIP solutions in the next three years 1
VoIP solutions now account for more than 24 per cent of all fixed-line telephone subscriptions in Europe 2
VoIP is expected to grow , reaching 74% of all businesses by 2012 3
Sources: 1) Dell’Oro Group 2) TeleGeography 3) Instat

How a business can tap in to VoIP
Use free online services (Skype, etc)
Free
Not “business grade”
Bad perception
Use subscription based services
Initially cheap
Can be business grade (if properly considered – but often not)
Quickly gets expensive
Implement a VoIP PBX
Business grade
Scalable
Configurable
Traditionally expensive.......

How a business can tap in to VoIP
Use free online services (Skype, etc)
Use subscription based services
Implement a VoIP PBX
Traditionally expensive.......

A traditional office phone system
Expensive hardware PBX
expensive ISDN & calls
call charges to remote workers
call charges to roaming users
call charges to branch offices
No choice (competition) for PSTN calls

A VoIP based office phone system
Software PBX 70 % cheaper
Free calls to remote workers
Free calls to roaming users
Free calls to branch offices
Take advantage of “Least Cost Routing” PSTN
Free soft-phones replace handsets

How to implement a fully featured PBX if budgets are tight
DO NOT buy a hardware based PBX
Go for a software based PBX such as 3CX
Leverage your IT infrastructure
Feature rich out of the box (no extra licenses)
Allows use of soft phones (saves on handset costs)
No “smoke and mirrors” easy to manage – reduces ongoing costs
Choose a good implementation partner
Avoid subscription based services– can be cheap initially but will charge for features

What you can expect from a software based PBX
“ Enterprise Grade” Features
Choice of desk phones or soft phones
Transfer of calls
Unified Voicemail
Unified fax (to/from desktop)
Full remote working
Call attendants
Conferencing
Integration with other systems (Outlook, CRM, etc)
Tele-presence

The Advantages of a software based PBX PSTN SIP VoIP VoIP Users Out of office Mobile workers In the office

How to avoid poor call quality with VoIP
There are no quality issues with VoIP (only with unsuitable or poor lines)
Perception: Most people associate VoIP with Skype, etc which are not considered business grade
bandwidth (c. 100Kbps / channel = ISDN quality)
Consider: QoS, network infrastructure, service providers
Get a good supplier/partner – (avoid cheap, pay per use services)

How VOIP will help with your business continuity plans
BC is not just fires and floods:
What would the effect be on your business?
SME’s traditionally couldn’t afford to mitigate risks
Traditional PBX/BT line = 20+ days to fully recover
Software based PBX/SIP = 20 minutes to fully recover
Staff easily tele-work if no access

Demonstration
Demonstration of 3CX phone system
Normal phones
Call attendant
Softphones
Mobiles

Q & A
Q & A
[email_address]
www.octaviais.co.uk

Using Voip Telephony To Enhance Your Business

by Octavia IT Services

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