Tech Tips
Technology Impacting the Financial Advisor
Where Are You When the Phone Rings? I did something incredible the other day. I decided to work from home instead of from the office. Like me, you have probably done the same thing and you’re now thinking, “So what?” This is the incredible part. I took my telephone from my office desk, carried it home and plugged it into my internet router connection there. Immediately, I could make calls from my office as if I was there. If you had called me — dialed the IARFC office and my extension — you might not have known I was lounging at home in my sweats! The technology that makes this possible is VoIP, Voice over Internet Protocol. This technology has been around for a while and at the most basic, it uses your high-speed Internet connection to deliver your voice transmission and reception. There are many vendors in the marketplace now and they are pitching services to everyone from home users to small and medium size businesses. Service used to be sketchy, erratic and generally not up to the Ma Bell standards. That has changed of late and our experience at the IARFC may lead you to consider a similar change for your office. Years ago, Lucent sold to us a sophisticated “Partner” system. It was probably state-ofthe-art at that time and it served our needs well. However, over the years our needs seemed to expand beyond the system capabilities. Lucent changed to Avaya, the vendor we purchased from migrated to a different firm and service was not as available as before. We had already lost some of the Page 8
“ports” on the system but the larger fear was that one day it could crash and we would be out of business for an extended time while we sought repair or replacement.
True cloud based system where the only equipment on premise is the telephones on the desk connected to internal Ethernet
No one ever wants to replace a fundamental system under duress, so we started examining options. The dedicated T-1 lines that supplied our telephone and our internet network were also up for review. We wanted to improve it all. The on premise PBX system that we were used to was option one. Not only had the technology made great strides — so had the price! When we started looking at VoIP, we were surprised at how inexpensive it is. Prices were so low that we were forced to ask ourselves how can the quality be anywhere close.
• M ultiple Virtual Receptionists — for every business in the building and for some envisioned for future expansion
Research, checking references and online reviews finally led us to realize that, yes, we can do more with less money, much less! Here is where we are now:
• D igital integration with other systems like MS Outlook or Google
• I SP Upgraded to Fiber Optic for more speed and reliability After all – our internet connection now carries data and voice • H osted VoIP System from Vocalocity with Cisco phones
• Unlimited long distance and local calls • A utomatic Call Forwarding (internal and external) • Unified Messaging Voice Mail to e-mail Integrated Digital Fax Call Follow Me
• D ashboard and Desktop for easy PC Integration and Monitoring • Conference Calling • Call history logs • M ore virtual phone numbers to use any way we want The Register | February 2013