Embarq (News - Alert) Corporation, the fourth-largest local exchange carrier and the largest independent local provider in the United States, today announced a partnership with IPcelerate (News - Alert) to offer interactive desktop phones, IPsmartSuite, for small and mid-sized businesses.

 

IPsmartSuite officials say their company helps businesses manage day-to-day activities, reducing the costs of infrastructure and human resources and increasing the accuracy of services.

 

The IPsmartSuite runs on VoIP-based telephones that are part of Cisco (News - Alert) Smart Business Communications System. Like wireless smartphones, IPsmartSuite is provided with a visual display screen with touch capabilities.

 

IPsmartSuite finds the best application in healthcare, legal, retail and general office environments, according to the company.

 

For example, IPsmartSuite can make employees of healthcare organizations to automatically dial each patient and remind them about appointments, according to the company. Doctors can use the system to arrange visual video collaboration with other doctors, log patient codes for phone calls for accurate billing, initiate live text and audio messaging and record phone calls, company officials say.

 

Legal firms can use IPsmartSuite to inform clients about appointments through automated dial-out and view uploaded video, photos or general advertisements, according to the company. Lawyers can enter client codes for accurate billing, record and archive phone calls, company officials say.

 

IPsmartSuite can be set to manage the activities of a retail business or a typical office, according to the company. Using the interactive phone, customers can view advertisements, corporate messages and promotional offers from the company, company officials say. Within an office, employers can create an automated account of employees’ work schedules, responsibilities and recognition awards and activate E911 alerts in case of emergency.

 

IPsmartSuite software has the ability to customize applications based on the job title of each employee. For example, an IPsmartSuite phone set up in a hospital gives different set of service options for patients and staff. Again, depending on the requests for different people such as “doctor” or “nurse,” the phone further customizes the options.

 

Embarq Business works in association with its business customers to develop customized solution suitable for each of them, company officials say.

 

“IPsmartSuite will improve the way many of our small- to mid-sized customers run their businesses,” said Susan Sarna, vice president of marketing and product management for Embarq Business. “It will help them be more productive, streamline many time-consuming processes and improve the way they interact with their own customers.”

 

“This is an off-the-shelf business solution that is pre-configured based on the business’ industry,” said Kevin Brown, president and chief executive officer of IPcelerate. “Business owners need only to answer one simple question that identifies their specific industry and the software automatically loads the appropriate applications. It’s designed for smaller businesses that may not have a dedicated IT department, so we purposefully made it very easy to set up and use immediately.”