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What phone system do you use for virtual offices?
We're having trouble with our current phone system. I want something that's easy to install and use and ideally can roll to cell phone, home office, etc for key employees.
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7 Answers
A hosted pbx might be a good choice for a virtual office.
These systems are perfect for business that don't have a dedicated IT Staff or department because they are very easy to implement and use. The administrator or the person in charge of the phone system logs into his or her account online to control the system's functions, like auto attendant, music on hold, transferring of extensions, etc.
Many Hosted PBX vendors offer a function called "find me follow me." This allows the call to be routed to the user's defined list of numbers, be it a virtual office, a home office or a cell phone. When the original call is placed and the employee doesn't pick up, the call is then routed to the next number on the list until the employee is tracked or voice mail is reached. You can even choose to call the assigned numbers simultaneously or sequentially.
I agree with Patricia. Hosted pbx might work great for your office, but check out this buyers guide for smb phone systems.
www.focus.com/research/buyers-guides/phone-systems/buyers-guide-smb-phone-sys...
This buyers guide covers all the essential facts about purchasing the right business phone system. It will hopefully give you some of the answers your looking for.
If you are a larger firm equipped with the internal staff to own and maintain your own phone system (as in an on-premise solution), you might take a look at Shoretel IPPBX. I know they provide very compelling and from what I hear in surveys, easy-to-use administrative functionalities for Virtual Offices and Remote locations. The downside to this is it wouldn't necessarily be as easy to install, depending on your infrastructure requirements. To their credit, I will say many of the people I survey about their interactions with vendors claim Shoretel's demonstration of their product is ideal; short and to the point-- they literally bring the system to you in a box-- while clearly and comprehensively presenting its architecture and features in the context of your company. So, it could be worth the demo, just to get a feel for everything that's out there. Good luck!
I work for Officeexec. We provide hosted PBX. All you have to do is plug in our phone into a broadband connection anywhere in the world and you will be able to receive phone calls on that phone with you number. It takes us about 1-2 days to set up, plus the time it takes for you IVR to be recorded. We try to keep it really simple - phone should not be a worry.
My partner and I started a company and we both work out of our home and our Virtual PBX service helped us sound more professional and enabled us to provide 1 phone number to our clients that connected the both of us. We have been using http://www.iTeleCenter.com for a few years and we have been very happy with the service.
The OnState virtual solution (http://www.on-state.com) does exactly what you're asking for. You can use whatever device you'd like with it (home phone, office phone, mobile phone, PC phone, etc), and also layer on business presence (see "Improving Customer Communications with Business Presence at http://www.on-state.com/blog/?p=299) intelligence that makes sure customer calls find the right person at the right time. We also have a blog post on "Extending Cloud-based Communication Solutions to Branch Offices" (http://www.on-state.com/blog/?p=345), which is essentially the same issue you're inquiring about. With this solution, not only is presence extended externally, but you also don't have to worry about managing or setting up anything, as it is a SaaS service.
I guess virtual pbx is the key to your problem. With Virtual PBX, you don't need to worry because of its whole lot phone systems feature, with its instant activation and with one system it could provide multiple locations. As of now, there are many providers of Virtual PBX that offers different features and benefits.
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