Hosted VoIP Featured Article

It’s a good question: “Is VoIP right for my small business?”

That question is answered in a white paper from hosted VoIP and unified communications provider Aptela. Too much good stuff to fully detail here, the paper itself is well worth a read. Highlights:

Traditional Phone (News - Alert) Networks Are Not Designed for Small Business. Even in a robust economic environment, traditional phone services are rarely the best fit for a small business. In tighter times, the consequences of this poor fit become even easier to see. Traditional phone service can hurt a small business’s prospects for growth or survival by draining money and hampering productivity. Small business owners who are looking to squeeze every last measure of savings, efficiency and productivity from all of their office systems can ill-afford the drawbacks of traditional phone service.

VoIP: Changing The Way Small Businesses Do Business. Small businesses no longer have to “make do” with phone systems that were designed for fundamentally different enterprises. Hosted Voice over IP (VoIP) networks are changing the way small businesses respond to today’s communication challenges. VoIP technology uses the internet to transmit voice data instead of traditional phone lines.

Top Five Productivity Features. Using its own hosted products as an illustration, Aptela (News - Alert) lists:

--Find Me/Follow Me is a personal locator that allows users to define how incoming calls are routed or forwarded to them, ensuring important calls are not missed.

--Virtual Transfer lets users press ## to access call management features while on a call, including transfer, call recording and send to voicemail.

--Voicemail to Email Integration allows users to receive voicemails as email attachments in a .wav or mp3 file format.

--Aptela Dashboard displays records of a user’s most recent incoming, missed and outgoing calls, and lets users click-to-call any number, listen to voicemails, read faxes and more.

--Auto Attendant greets callers and directs them to the appropriate party, eliminating the need for a live receptionist and ensuring an efficient calling experience.