|
| |
Bluetooth now poised to fulfill its promise
No question about it, Bluetooth is very handy thanks to its improved integration with computers, cell phones and automobiles.When Bluetooth first appeared about five years ago, the hype far outstripped its usefulness. The ability to eliminate the tangles ...
Change Your Word Docs In Record Time!
Anyone who has ever used Microsoft Word knows that it is a powerful word processing package. It’s loaded with dozens of features designed to make creating documents a breeze. And anyone who has used Word’s Find and Replace feature knows that this is one ...
The Calling Card Alternative
How many times have you complained about high long distance costs and phone companies overcharging you? Did you try to do anything about it? Did you search for alternate solutions? Calling cards might be the answer. Their low rates to any destination make ...
|
|
|
|
| |
The speed and effectiveness of your communication infrastructure is vital in today's marketplace, where clients expect instant results. In addition, your ability to virtualize your office is key in a decentralized and mobile environment. Assisting your customers and making them feel serviced is vital in a world where price comparisons can be retrieved in an instant. Service will set you apart. This is where advanced communication technology can help.
The following is an example of how Life Communications LLC assisted a business improve their communications effectiveness, work product and bottom line. Saran Importers Inc. (name has been changed) is an importer of many products, including clothing, undergarments and electronics. They have small offices in California, Michigan and Texas with their headquarters in Brooklyn, NY. The Michigan and Texas offices have two salesmen per location, while the California office has three operations people and one salesman. The Brooklyn headquarters has 10 operations people and three salesmen. For the sake of simplicity, the definition of "operations people" is people who don't travel extensively, while salesmen do.
They had a Lucent Partner system in Brooklyn and small SOHO (Small Office Home Office) Panasonic multi-phones in the remote locations. They communicated with the remote locations by calling them over a regular phone line and with the salesman by office number or cell phones, which they also gave to the clients. Some problems arose from this arrangement. The following are a sample:
- High cost of inter-office communications.
- Multiple places for voice-mail. Hard to manage.
- If the cell phone was dead or otherwise not available the calls went to voicemail or were lost.
- If a salesman was unavailable for extended periods (more than one day) it affected communications with clients.
- No call accounting. No management of remote offices.
Life Communications replaced their Lucent system with a customized PC-based advanced phone system. In the remote locations they put Voice Over IP (VOIP) phones that communicated directly with the VoIP phone system over secure private network DSL lines. This enabled the remote offices to have all the advanced features of the
main office.
They also setup a feature that enabled the salesman to manage where they can be reached. In doing so, they would be able to give out a single phone number that routed through the phone system. They would direct where the phone would ring or even the order of where they can be reached and the amount of times it would ring by each location. If the call would go to voicemail the voicemail would actually reside on the phone system and a voice file would be emailed to the salesman. Some salesmen chose to have a copy, of the voice file, also emailed to the operations person who handled their accounts.
This solved their problems by doing the following:
- Cut down, drastically, on the cost of inter-office communications. The costs of the DSL lines are marginalized due to their dual-use as data lines. All calls between offices are now as if they are in the same office, they communicate by calling the extension, not an outside number.
- One place for voice-mail, all located on the phone system. Cell phone calls are now called by the phone system and if the salesman is unavailable it puts it in the internal voice-mail. This allows for easier voice-mail management.
- Due to the advanced routing feature, calls can ring by multiple places to reach a person who can help the client.
- When salesmen are now unavailable the calls can be automatically rerouted to another salesman who can help.
- All calls, in all offices, can now be managed and kept track of. Client communications can be more effectively handled.
This is just a small sample of the improvements made to the business process. Another advantage to the VoIP system is; as new features, and advancements, come out they can be integrated into Saran's current platform. Expandability is also part and parcel of this VoIP experience; the system can grow as Saran grows. Cy Yablonsky is a realtor associate at Othello Realty,www.OthelloRealty.com. Cy has an extensive background in technology and communications and applies that to the real estate market. Feel free to reprint this article as long as all links stay live and no changes are made.
About the author:
Cy Yablonsky is a realtor associate at Othello Realty,www.OthelloRealty.com. Cy has an extensive background in technology and communications and applies that to the real estate market. Feel free to reprint this article as long as all links stay live and no changes are made.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Pennsylvania College of Technology graduatesReading EagleThe following area students graduated from Pennsylvania College of Technology, Williamsport. Honors are indicated as follows: ***with highest distinction; **with high distinction; *with distinction: Bachelor of science: *Ryan M. Conrad, Boyertown; ... |
|
New mammography technology offers enhanced views of tissueColumbia Daily TribuneThe technology not only allows radiologists a more localized view at sections of the breast but makes it easier to detect abnormalities in dense breast tissue. In the reading room, head radiologist Terry Elwing demonstrated how images obtained via ... |
|
Police: Human element can't be replaced by technologyDelmarva NowOCEAN CITY -- Many technological advancements have been made in law enforcement in the past decade. Some of the new devices and practices available may have helped police investigate the Joshua Ford and Martha Crutchley murders, but the key element is ...and more » |
|