Tips on How to Choose the Right TPV & Call Recording Partner

- Gregory Carter, CEO of Billing Services Group (www.bsgclearing.com), says:

TPV (third party verification) solutions allow companies to confirm, record and document customer orders and interactions. BSG's VoiceLog helps businesses to certify the integrity of every customer order, as well as customers’ satisfaction after every call regarding their service.

Whether you’re looking to increase consumer satisfaction, create a more efficient sales process, or simply improve quality control and in-house training, your TPV partner can make or break your data center. Below are some tips on how to choose the right TPV and call recording partner.

Flexibility
Your TPV partner should be willing to tailor their products and services to quickly and smoothly integrate with your business needs. Your ideal partner should offer:

• Customizable reports (daily and/or weekly) with electronic delivery options
• Expandable system engineered to handle above normal call volume
• Direct access to an assigned technical team to facilitate quick changes
• Fast implementation – in as little as 48 hours

Affordability
A competitive rate structure is crucial to a successful partnership. You need a TPV partner that lets you maintain your margins and deliver the range of services and support you need. A few things to pay attention to include:

• No separate charges for: recording retrieval, web reporting, 24/7 help desk, FCC required storage
• Low initial set up costs
• Multiple languages at no additional cost

Ability to Grow with You
Take the time to understand your TPV partner’s full range of products and services – even if you don’t need them all right away. Here are several to consider:

• Various product offerings
• Live Operator TPV
• Automated Scripted TPV
• Call Recording
• Agent review, callback and confirmation services
• Staff fully dedicated to TPV

Innovation
A good TPV provider has a track record of smoothly and consistently delivering cutting edge solutions to its clients. If your potential partner offers these fairly recent advances, you are on the right track:

• Seamless integration
• Redundant IVR servers
• Digital recordings accessible via dial-in or Web

Dependability
This should go without saying in the call center world, but you would be surprised. Make sure the TPV partner you depend on can check off these boxes:

• Secured server room protected with waterless fire suppression
• Dedicated management and IT resources with 24/7 availability

VoiceLog’s TPV services are optimized for many industries, including energy, cable and telecommunications, credit card processing, and health care, as well as other traditional call center settings. The BSG VoiceLog team’s experience, capabilities and history of innovation allows it to work with companies to find the right combination of services that meet their individual needs at an affordable price.

Must-Have Smartphone Apps for IT Professionals

- Blake Sanders technology writer for Broadband Expert (http://www.broadbandexpert.com), says:

The development of viable smartphone apps has grown to a level where they are beneficial to more than general consumers. Mobile internet providers and hardware developers have put remote working tools in the palm of our hand, and now data center and IT professionals have dozens of versatile and robust apps they can use to perform their day-to-day duties without being chained to the traditional desktop or laptop computer. We have sorted through the smartphone marketplaces to bring this list of must-have smartphone apps for IT professionals.

FTP On The Go (iPhone)

FTP On The Go is one of the best FTP apps available for the iPhone. The app includes a built-in text editor that has a find and replace feature that also allows configuration of the file permissions (CHMOD). Document files on the FTP server can be viewed, as FTP On The Go supports Excel, Word, Powerpoint and PDF formats. Even image files are supported. Files can be downloaded to the iPhone or uploaded from the iPhone photo library or directly from the camera. Many other features are available that make accessing the FTP server a snap. This is definitely an iPhone app worth purchasing if you are an IT professional or even a regular user that needs server access.


MySQL Database Client (iPhone)

This iPhone app is a streamlined MySQL client that can handle basic queries. Users can browse database tables and view server content. The app works in both landscape and portrait modes and is a very easy-to-use app.


MySQL Editor Pro (iPhone)

This is a more robust MySQL editor that provides a wealth of features that IT professionals will love. It gives iPhone users the editing power that is typically found on a desktop computer. Database tables can be created, managed, viewed, and triggered directly from the app with ease.


Prompt (iPhone)

Prompt is a universal app that works on both the iPhone and iPad. The SSH client provides remote access to servers and has a number of useful features. It has customizable special keys, keyfile support, autocomplete, Bonjour server detection and much more. The app supports DSA/RSA keys and can run in the background. All in all it is a versatile app for IT professionals to have in their virtual toolbox.


Ping A Majig (iPhone)

For IT professionals that need an app to check the ping status of their hostnames, Ping A Majig is the app to have. Multiple hostnames can be checked at the same time and its use as monitoring tool puts it well above the other apps that offer a ping status feature.

bMonitor Server Monitor (Android)

This app for Android smartphones is a very useful tool for keeping IT professionals abreast of their servers when they’re on the go. The app provides server status by using ping, web page or port monitoring. The user can receive a phone call if a server problem arises and multiple phone numbers can be dialed at once. To minimize phone battery usage, the app provides customization options that include the frequency of how often it checks the server status.


Fing (Android)

Fing is a free Android app that provides ping monitoring. Monitoring includes basic ping, traceroute, DNS lookup, and TCP port scan. Fing can be run in multiple scans and the results of the information can be output in several popular formats such as HTML, plain text and CSV logs. The output can be viewed in the app’s console window or through other applications available on the smartphone.


PdaNet (Android)

PdaNet is a useful app for tethering an Android-based smartphone to the phone’s 3G network. IT professionals can avoid costly monthly tethering fees or having to root their phone by using PdaNet to connect their laptop to the smartphone. PdaNet can connect via USB tethering or through Bluetooth dial-up networking. Speeds in excess of 35Mbps can be obtained through the use of the app.


AndFTP (Android)

AndFTP is a free FTP app that gives IT professionals a convenient way to access FTP servers. AndFTP features an FTP services manager, an FTP file browser and a device file browser. In addition to these features, the app can download, upload, set permissions, create folders and perform many other helpful functions.


AndroidVNC (Android)

For IT professionals that desire a way to remotely connect to their LAN and run systems, the AndroidVNC smartphone app gives them a versatile tool to do so. With the use of this app, their Android phone becomes a direct link to VNC servers that include Apple Remote Desktop, TightVNC, RealVNC and others. This is a great app to remotely use to control actions on the desktop and that of users connected to the network. Best of all, this app is free.

Note: Photo courtesy of nerdsoncall via FlickR Creative Commons.

Hosted Telephony: Cost Effective Services

- Greg Brashier, COO of Virtual PBX (www.virtualpbx.com), says:

The first hosted PBX was introduced to the market in late 1997 by Virtual PBX. Instead of buying on-premise telephony hardware, users contract for PBX services from a hosted PBX service provider.

Hosted PBX customers don't buy, install, or maintain any PBX equipment. Instead, the PBX equipment is kept by the service provider, who then shares access to the system among many users (customers). Key functions that can be provided by a basic hosted PBX include:

• Present a single business number that gives access to all company employees and departments
• Answer calls with a custom business greeting
• Allow employees to take calls and work anywhere they have a phone instead of needing to be centralized in one main office
• Offer Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) queuing (ie: a menu of options for directing the call, such as connecting to a specific extension or to a department)
• Provide a directory of employee extensions accessible by inputting digits corresponding to employee first or last names
• Place callers on hold when they are waiting for an available department or employee
• Play music or custom messages whenever callers are waiting on hold
• Take voice messages for any employee extension, for a department, or for the company in general
• Allow transfer of calls between extensions
• Conference multiple incoming calls with employee extensions
• Provide detailed call records and real-time system management

In today’s down economy, businesses of all sizes are looking for cost-effective services and tools that will allow them to deliver a professional phone experience. Hosted telephony lets businesses get high end telephony features without spending a lot of money for phone switch hardware.

Hosted PBX services are traditionally more affordable since customers don’t need to make any major up-front investments. Additionally, because the service is hosted, customers don’t have to manage expensive hardware or worry about technology refreshes.

In addition, the better hosted PBX providers continually add to the capabilities and features of their systems and pass along the new features to clients without charge. Coupled with the virtually unlimited scalability of hosted systems, this means no added cost for upgrading systems for added users or new feature requirements.

The main impact on data centers and the IT department will be the potential need for added bandwidth and quality monitoring for telephony needs. Infrequent packet loss in data streams has little effect on users, but packet loss in voice streams can cause lines to drop or voice quality to diminish. Also, IT personnel will have to learn some new terms and technology associated with telephony.

There are two types of hosted PBX systems.

If using a hosted IP-PBX, you use the Internet to make and receive phone calls. Depending on the size of your business, you’ll may need to implement T1 lines to handle the additional bandwidth. If you use this same line for your company network, you may need to keep a closer eye on servers to make sure the network is performing optimally and you are still getting the quality of service from your servers and systems.

Traditional hosted PBX’s leverage the PSTN, therefore there is no real disruption to the data center. Since all the equipment is hosted offsite by your provider, IT managers don’t need to worry about the equipment and software.

Why is hosted telephony gathering so much attention?

- Robert Poe, chief analyst with VoIP Evolution (www.voipevolution.com), says:

Why is hosted telephony gathering so much attention?

Several reasons:

- It alleviates the need for companies to shell out a lot of money up front to buy phone equipment.
- I makes it unnecessary for companies to pay for in-house or outside technical expertise to install, operate, manage and maintain a phone system.
- Flexibility: It allows companies that are expanding, relocating or otherwise changing their work forces and facilities to make rapid changes without having to buy or move equipment. It allows them to precisely match their expenditures to their needs.

It will make it less necessary for corporate IT departments to host, manage and otherwise handle enterprise phone systems. It may require additional bandwidth in the data center/IT space's broadband Internet connections to handle the higher traffic volume that adding IP voice calls to their existing data traffic entails.

Hosted Telephony: True Multi-tenant Architecture

Tomoko Shimizu, chief operating officer at Brekeke Software (www.brekeke.com), says:




The concept behind hosted telephony.

To provide enterprise level telephony functionalities in affordable pricing and minimal administrative cost and training in regardless the size of the telephony system.

Why it is attracting attention.

There are few factors that contribute to the popularity for hosted telephony:

• Recent rapid growth in high-speed internet access infrastructure
• Popularity of having employee at remote/home office
• Minimize hire/training of IT staff at company premise
• Availability of superior and up to date IP-PBX feature
• Increase in popularity/availability in cloud computing infrastructure

Expected impact on the data center/IT space.

• Greater demand for secure internet/data network
• Increase in demand for superior data infrastructure

The hosted telephony may also be attractive option for larger enterprise customers with same reasons for SMB segments. The new type of telephony system will allow more scalability of the service, and increase efficiency of their employees. But they need to be aware of the different kind of security threat that they may not have experienced before as hosted telephony become more popular.

Brekeke PBX Multi-Tenant Edition is build with true multi-tenant architecture that allows service providers to host multiple tenants under one server. By allowing service providers to combine resources into one server, they can minimize cost for the operation and increase the efficiency of the system. By providing better solution for service provider, the consumer will benefit lower price of the telephony service without compromising the quality of the service.

Hosted Telephony: Gaining Ground in the Enterprise

- Adam Simpson, chief technology officer at Easy Office Phone (www.easyofficephone.com), says:

Why is hosted telephony gathering so much attention?

In short, the Hosted PBX concept offers a great deal of power, flexibility, and scalability to end users at a very cost-effective price point. Compared to traditional phone service options, the Hosted PBX is revolutionary. The end user requires comparably little new on-site equipment (none at all, in some implementations), reducing capital expenditure, ongoing maintenance/upgrade costs, and staff time commitments. Equally important is the powerful feature set available to customers - our hosted PBX system delivers an advanced set of features such as free North American long distance calling, main menus (autoattendants), ring groups, after-hours call routing, and much more. Employees can work from any physical location, allowing for decentralized offices which can produce a variety of cost savings and related benefits.

A Hosted PBX implementation generally assumes Ethernet connections at each seat. If these are already in place, rewiring is typically not needed - many VoIP phones offer dual Ethernet ports, allowing the phone to act as a gateway for the computer. Implementation of a VoIP Hosted PBX service over a wireless local network is not typically recommended, however.

Picking The Perfect Enterprise Phone System

- Aron Aicard, senior director of product management with Fonality (www.fonality.com), says:

Why is it hard to weigh the options when selecting an enterprise-class phone system?

It's because the vendors who have been in premise telephony for decades have dominated the market. They have a history of a slow pace on invention and a low amount of differentiation. By design, vendors seek to be different in the way they name and implement features, package and price their goods, position and sell their value. Enterprises are forced to become telecom experts in order to see through the smoke and mirrors. The incumbents intentionally make sure their solution favors an apples-to-oranges comparison, since apples-to-apples drives prices down.

What do you need to look for?

For most organizations, driving revenue up will trump the cost reductions multiple times over, but an enterprise will never be able to understand this if the sales management is left out of the equation. Enterprises who get the most from their purchase often do a few things well:

1. Clear articulation to the vendor of the goals of the enterprise and each of its departments (i.e. how are you measured for success; where are your pain points in the business, etc.). This leads to an effective consultative process.
2. Have each major department head (sales, ops, finance, support, IT) get their own / separate needs analysis and informal proposal from the vendor.
3. Let each department head estimate their department’s ROI in terms of labor improvements, cost reductions and revenue growth.

How do you begin sorting through your options?

The leader in each major department needs to drive the estimation of ROI for his / her respective area. Think of the shopping experience as a series of small decisions. Let each leader prioritize top features and estimate the return they would see. Let a financial person aggregate the numbers, then work with IT to account for operational issues like support / maintenance / warranties. In the end, enterprises will have to pass the vendor through gates (like quality / reputation of the vendor), but usually land on a financial comparison as the means to make final selection. Therefore, a financial analysis that focuses on the improvements (revenue, employee efficiency, etc.) and the reductions (lower operating costs, lower capex, etc.) will likely reveal the right vendor choice.

Choosing An Enterprise Phone System: Weighing Your Options

- Pierre Kerbage, Senior Vice President at Zultys (www.zultys.com), says:

It is difficult to wade through available options when you’re in the market for an enterprise-class phone system because there are many brands of PBX Systems that are out there. Furthermore, the terms that each brand/manufacturer use is dissimilar to another brand. While the industry is starting to agree on a common open standard protocol (SIP), the development of individual features can vary drastically from brand to brand, and even systems within the same brand.

Look out for the following when weighing your options:

1. Value (not price) and ROI
2. Features that are STANDARD into the system (and what can be added)
3. Complexity v/s Simplicity of installation
4. Complexity v/s Simplicity of administration
5. Internal training and the evolution of the staff to learn the new systems’ features
6. Reliability, high availability and failover
7. Open standards (Pure SIP WITHOUT Gateways) v/s proprietary/defunct protocols (i.e. H.323, or MGCP)
8. Interface with EXISTING applications
9. Mobility and interface with existing cell phones (Such as RIM’s BlackBerry or Apple’s iPhone)
10. Adaptability

To sort out your options, start from the list above and establish what is most important to you to the least. What we are finding today, is that most Enterprise businesses are mostly interested in investing into systems that are effective, reliable, easy to deploy, do not require multiple servers, and that does not take multiple pieces and a complex puzzle to make it work. Elegance and simplicity of the Hardware (1 Appliance – not 5 or 6 or 7) – Elegance of the SOFTWARE: 1 application that works NATIVELY on Macs and Linux and 64 as well as 32 bit PCs that has ALL the functionalities – NOT 3rd party applications that are NOT integrated. 1 application, 1 appliance, heterogeneous environment and enterprise functionality (meaning scalable, reliable, and vastly deployable).

To decide which features are most important to your enterprise, first you must realize that no enterprise and no two firms are alike. Establish what is important to YOU first. Then ask to SEE the product – understand the complexity of the product, what it will take to deploy it, ask to see the software, ask for a hands on demo, and understand the total cost of ownership (Will this new system require additional servers – how many ? And how do I backup these servers, who maintains them, how much Electrical will I need to add , cooling, ports into my Switches, KVM, Rack Space, Management and much more).

Here is a list of the most common options out there:

1. Unified Communications
2. Mobility
3. Find Me Follow Me
4. Twinning
5. Interface with common apps (Such as Microsoft Exchange) and others
6. Fax Server
7. Call Recording
8. Contact Center
9. IVR
10. Reporting