Raw 02 - September 2008 - (Page 64)

RAW SolwiSe telephony a talent for telephony Martin Stephenson is Managing Director of Solwise telephony limited and has over 20 years experience in the telecoms industry Telecoms is no longer just about making and receiving phone calls . It is about organising your business to • minimise communications costs, • maximise staff effectiveness • ensuring you are in control of communications within your business. That means flexibility to expand (or contract) easily, and being able to put things right quickly if something goes wrong. Getting it right can enable; • home workers to be effective • customers to contact you 24/7 • poor advertising to be ceased • lower costs • much greater flexibility Get it wrong and your customers could move to a better organised competitor. What are the topics you should you be thinking about?? Traditional BT Lines Traditional systems use BT analogue or digital (ISDN) lines. Competition legislation allows you to buy BT lines (maintained by BT Openreach) from companies other than BT Retail. Savings of around 10% on rentals and up to 80% on calls are available and there are no number changes to worry about. It usually takes under 21 days to change supplier. Do not sign up for a ‘minimum term’ agreement companies such as Solwise Telephony have no minimum term and rely on their competitive prices and good service to keep your custom. Traditional BT lines are much less flexible than using IP telephony, but most existing office switchboards and systems have been built around these services. Inbound call flexibility is achieved using 0800 or 0845 numbers (see below). IP Telephony This technology has been established for over 10 years. Calls are transmitted over data linesmeaning one line can carry many calls. It is often called VoIP • Voice over Internet Protocol. IP telephony has advanced features as standard such as • call recording • inbound call management • call conferencing • voicemail with messages forwarded to email • FREE calls between sites • Records of inbound and outbound calls. These features are usually expensive ‘extras’ with traditional systems. Unfortunately the standard ADSL (Broadband) in the UK is not of good enough quality to support this technology. Banks and other large businesses have historically overcome the problems using expensive leased line solutions. Solwise Telephony Limited is one of very few companies in the UK to offer an IP telephony solution with assured call quality and high reliability. It uses a specialist data connection that can handle up to 16 simultaneous calls, and the system is called Sipswitch. It has all the benefits of an IP system with assured call quality, high reliability and is competitive for systems with as few as 4 handsets. Numbers Controlling your inbound numbers is critical. The ‘phone and an answering machine’ may have been good for the 1970’s but your competitors will certainly be doing better! Consider using 0800 Freefone numbers on an advert to prompt customers to give you a try. 0845 numbers cost the ‘local rate’ to dial and the call can be delivered FREE to any UK land line. For under £2 per month you can have a standard 01 or 02 number from a 64 millionimpossible.com http://www.millionimpossible.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Raw 02 - September 2008

Raw 02 - September 2008 Contents Scott English Rachael Elnaugh Colin Stroud Heidi Weir Chris Wright Million Impossible Emma Thompson

Raw 02 - September 2008

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