Phone system advice - Auto Attendent

drunkmonkey

can anyone give some advice on setting up a phone system with an auto attendent feature...what options do I have?
tks

probe

drunkmonkey wrote: »

can anyone give some advice on setting up a phone system with an auto attendent feature...what options do I have?
tks

In terms of business telephone systems - VoIP is the way to go. Cheap phone calls - often free (eg someone working from home can call your place of business and transfer calls free - or they can be in your New York office and transfer a caller to your Cork office - all over the internet).

Independence for eircom and other monopolists. All you need is a broadband connection. If you have multiple locations - be they employees working from home or branch offices anywhere on the planet where there is an internet connection, you can plug everyone into the same "corporate" VoIP network. Each VoIP phone plugs into your existing PC network just like a new PC. Take the same phone home, plug it into your home broadband, it logs into the network and retains the same number and provides the same services. Old fashioned phone systems are like mainframe computers in the 1960s. VoIP is network based, like PC networks.

Many VoIP providers provide auto attendant features.

The Blueface page here explains their automated attendant service:
http://www.blueface.ie/business/ivr.aspx

I don't know how reliable this service is - perhaps others who use it might offer their twopence.

Call quality is excellent if you have a good broadband connection and VoIP phone - as good as ISDN - better than a regular analog eircom phone.

The Snom 300 is a good VoIP phone and would recommend it.
http://www.snom.com/en/products/snom-300-voip-phone/

The Snom phone also offers CTI - a free download....
More: http://www.snom.com/en/products/software/cti-solution/
It links to Outlook, Salesforce.com and other contact management applications.

VoIP is totally scalable whether you have a need for one phone or a thousand.

drunkmonkey

thanks for that, i'll give blueface a call tomorrow, it looks like it'll work out a lot cheaper all round....i've seen those snom handsets for about €80, a tad cheaper than the broadlink:)

VO

drunkmonkey wrote: »

can anyone give some advice on setting up a phone system with an auto attendent feature...what options do I have?
tks

Do you have an existing phone line, switchboard etc or is it a totally new line rental etc. .

if you pm me I am sure I can help you

drunkmonkey

i've 2 lines at the moment, Broadband & Phone line and Just a phone line for the CC machine...

I've just called the bank and they'll swap out my terminal for a broadband one so I can ditch that line....so there's one line rental saved.

What I think i'm going to do then is drop eircom and get a broadband only line from BT and run everything through that.. So i'll end up with 2 bills one from BT and one from Blueface but it should still be less than half of what i'm paying now and i'll have a lot more features...

I'm just wondering will 7mb be enough to handle everything...

Is there any other companys like blueface I should be looking at, they don't seem to have a phone number to contact them, only the web forum contact...

probe

While VoIP is the way to go, I wouldn't "throw the baby out with the bathwater"!

You need to get the broadband installed and test it before dumping your existing working solution - unless your phone lines are not mission critical for your business. The quality of VoIP is very dependent on the quality of your broadband connection.

I have no experience with blueface - I just came across the page on the auto attendant, and linked to it. I have experience with with the Snom phone and have no problem recommending that.

If you are moving from eircom to BT, and you are not unbundling your line, eircom will effectively be providing your broadband - you will just get the bill from BT (wholesale bitstream)! If you are unbundling the line, BT will be providing the broadband, and there could be a period where you have no phone service or internet when eircom dumps your connection and before BT sets up your new service.

You also need to be happy that your broadband won't be cut-off willy nilly because your ISP accuses someone of downloading music or videos which they haven't properly licensed using your broadband connection. France is in the process of implementing a legal disconnection of internet services for periods of 2 to 12 months from "offenders" - despite the law being thrown out and running into opposition in the European Parliament. The same European Parliament that was against data retention a few years ago - and since then the EU has rolled out mandatory data retention for all EU states for 6 to 24 months. Ireland and Britain has permanent data retention with no requirement to destroy traffic data ever - and no doubt they will go for permanent disconnection of internet services too when the local branch of the RIAA makes the required contributions!

I would never get rid of all my existing PSTN or ISDN lines when moving to VoIP - in the same way I would never depend on just one phone company. If you do get VoIP you can make all your calls on VoIP to get the call charge savings. If your VoIP fails for whatever reason, you still have the PSTN line(s) to resort to, to keep the show on the road. Most VoIP providers give you a web based control interface allowing you to divert calls to other numbers (eg your working PSTN line) - which you could access from an internet cafe if your broadband is down.

probe

drunkmonkey wrote: »

I'm just wondering will 7mb be enough to handle everything...

You need at least 64k of upstream bandwidth per VoIP phone line - which isn't a lot really. Credit card machines use a tiny amount of bandwidth. Ideally you should have a broadband router that prioritizes VoIP traffic so people downloading from the internet and web surfing do not reduce VoIP call quality.

drunkmonkey

Thankfully my broadband has never gone down to my knowledge yet, It seems pretty consistent. If it did go down i'd probably divert the lines to my mobile until it's repaired. It's the auto attendant feature i'm after the most.
I'm looking at about €1700 for the eircom proposal which includes 2 broadcom handsets, and the additional dd number which takes my monthly rental before calls to over €100. With the VOIP solution my rental is down to about €36 plus whatever the blueface may charge me, I think it's in the region of €350per year..
In the first year I should save about €2,200 and about €700 a year after that...

bladespin

I can recommend Blueface, primarily on their support, have thrown a few probs their way (our making) and it's always been sorted quickly and courteously.

It's full of helpful features like instant forwarding, international local numbers, messaging etc.

Once you have a stable BB connection you'll be fine.

probe

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Thankfully my broadband has never gone down to my knowledge yet, It seems pretty consistent. If it did go down i'd probably divert the lines to my mobile until it's repaired. It's the auto attendant feature i'm after the most.
I'm looking at about €1700 for the eircom proposal which includes 2 broadcom handsets, and the additional dd number which takes my monthly rental before calls to over €100. With the VOIP solution my rental is down to about €36 plus whatever the blueface may charge me, I think it's in the region of €350per year..
In the first year I should save about €2,200 and about €700 a year after that...

While I don't use Blueface, I have had the odd problem on VoIP - even though it works 99.99% of the time. Scenario - one might be talking with someone and the call goes dead. Broadband still working fine. Attempts to call them back fail. That is when I am glad to have at least one ISDN line to fall back on.

VoIP service providers use alternate carriers - that is how they offer the cheap call rates. The monopolists don't like that and many of them have a long history of dirty tricks against competitors. Call it part of their "switch back to us again" marketing. Only more sinister perhaps.

All I'm saying is that you will need a "plan B" to call your customer back when VoIP fails during a call. Even if it is only your mobile phone.

Another solution you might wish to consider is Asterisk - the free open source VoIP software system that features auto attendant. You can download Asterisk from http://www.asterisk.org and run it on an old PC on which you have installed Linux. If you are into Linux etc... Most of the VoIP service providers are running their platform on Asterisk.

A simpler solution is the Asterisk appliance - which is like a broadband router in a box http://www.digium.com/en/products/appliance/. It can be configured to connect to a VoIP provider (eg Blueface) and to one or more PSTN lines which you have as backup. It puts you in control and gives you a plan A and a plan B. I just did a quick google and found it on sale for 999€ inc VAT, which you could probably recover. http://www.voipsupply.ie/products/Digium-Asterisk-Appliance-AA50-S800i.html

When VoIP service providers can provide 99.999% uptime, perhaps one can dump the backup. (Five nines is the telco industry standard)

antoinolachtnai

I use a crowd called connectit to do the auto-attendant. It has a couple of recorded messages and if you press a certain button, you're connected to a mobile, or to an office. You can try it at 01-529 2277. A company called silvertung did the voices for me.

Best,

Antoin.

drunkmonkey

Antoin that sounds good, just gave it a call there now, do you mind me asking was it expensive for the voice actor? It's something like that i'm after.

thanks for all the advice lads, went with blueface, Impressed so far, call quality is on par if not better than my eircom line...

One last question, is it possible to get a broadband only line from any of the telcos, currently giving eircom €65pm for a 7mb connection and a phone line i won't be using....

antoinolachtnai

give silvertung a shout and ask Mike for a quote. Say that Antoin sent you.

I don't think it's too expensive, if more than 5 or 6 people are going to listen to it every day. It will probably cost you in the hundreds of euros for something not-too-complex (like I have). If you need to do re-takes or a lot of changes, that's when the cost adds up. Still, as these things go, it's not a lot.

VO

One thing to consider is using a Virtual Repeptionist Serivce to take your calls. They answer calls in your business name and can transfer calls through to you on a landline or mobile. It has a number of benefits, your phones are answered professionally in your business name, It makes you appear larger than you are, you never miss an important phone call, you only pay for the service as you use it.

People hate using automated systems and from experience they often will hang up. They can also be torublesome . Using a Virtual Receptionist is just as cost effective and can help you create a professional image of your business.

drunkmonkey

VO have you any idea of the costs of a Virtual receptionist? Any links, tks..

on another note, i'd swear eircom are screwing with my 7mb connection for the last week or so....



what do I do, move to BT?

FusionNet

I see a lot of talk here about blueface, VOIP and Virtual systems but they are all completely different systesm for completely different situations.

Voip is cool no doubt and is excellent for multiple stores or branch offices etc but we still dont have great SIP options here. As for virtual systems ConnectIT do good stuff alright and their nice to deal with.

I might be a bit bias but I like the old box on the way that you own, you can chop and change etc etc. Any good PBX would give you a hybrid option meaning you can set it up as an analogue/digital system and then in a few years you expand you slap in a VOIP card and away you go. System costs have come down dramatically in the last few years and the market is flooded with options so you should have no bother getting some good quotes..