/UTSOURCED)0"ENElTS In addition to the costs saved when organizations benefit from fixed rate bundles for local, national and international calls, outsourced IP offers improved effectiveness with features like voice mail and unified messaging. Outsourced IP telephony also offers the flexibility enjoyed by in-house IP telephony, in that employees can log in to any phone make and receive calls as if it were his or her desk phone. Voice mail can be retrieved remotely from any phone, including cell phones, and it can be retrieved via e-mail. Costs are more predictable because of price bundling, and quite often the system is more reliable because call re-routing for business continuity and disaster recovery is automatic. For a monthly fee, the hassle of managing your own telephony solution can be offloaded and a provider deals with the headaches plus the monitoring and management of your IP telephony system, in line with the service level agreements you’ve discussed. Now SMBs have access to a cost-effective, feature-rich alternative to on-premises IP PBXs and traditional analog phone systems. Hosted IP offered by service providers specifically targeting SMBs offer modern features, scalability, and ease-of-use designed to give small and mid-sized businesses the competitive edge they’ve been looking for when it comes to their telephony systems.
9OU VE'OT#HOICES Service providers understand the importance of being a one-stop shop for customers, providing data, voice and video services to customers, which is why they’re building tremendous multi-service networks to support it all. Customers now have all kinds of choices—they’re no longer locked into voice services only from their incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC). The competitive landscape has changed and competing service providers (SPs) offer multiple services over a converged network. Companies can now look to a variety of sources for IP telephony services, including ILECs, competitive LECs (CLECs), Internet SPs (ISPs), and Value-Added Resellers (VARs). The competition has opened up the opportunity to all kinds of business, large and small, and provided competitive pricing and advanced capabilities to make IP telephony the right choice for many companies.
)0ÂŹ4ELEPHONYÂŹ&EATURESÂŹ/FFEREDÂŹBYÂŹ3ERVICEÂŹ0ROVIDERS ÂŹORÂŹ DIGITÂŹDIALINGÂŹ
#ALLÂŹWAITINGÂŹÂŹ
ÂŹ
(UNTÂŹ'ROUPSÂŹ
WAYÂŹCALLINGÂŹ
#ALLERÂŹ)$ÂŹÂŹ
ÂŹ
)NTERNATIONALÂŹCALLINGÂŹ
ÂŹ
!UTOMATICÂŹCALLÂŹDISTRIBUTIONÂŹ !#$ ÂŹ
#ONFERENCEÂŹBRIDGEÂŹ
-USICÂŹONÂŹHOLDÂŹ
!UTHORIZATIONÂŹCODESÂŹ
$IRECTÂŹINWARDÂŹDIALINGÂŹ $)$
/PERATORÂŹCONSOLEÂŹ
!UTOÂŹATTENDANTÂŹ ÂŹ
$ISTINCTIVEÂŹRINGÂŹTONESÂŹ
6OICEÂŹMAILÂŹ
#ALLÂŹFORWARDINGÂŹ ÂŹ
% ÂŹCOMPLIANCEÂŹ
7EB BASEDÂŹMANAGEMENTÂŹPORTALÂŹ
&OLLOWÂŹMEÂŹ
ÂŹ
#ALLÂŹPARK CALLÂŹPICKUPÂŹÂŹ
ÂŹ
ÂŹ
ÂŹ
ÂŹ
-ANAGEDÂŹ)0ÂŹ4ELEPHONY In the managed IP telephony model, the company owns the IP PBX, either on-site or in the provider network, while the carrier provides oversight and maintenance on it and offers bundled services (caller ID, auto-attendant, call redirect, and other voice-related applications). The service provider also supplies the
)0ÂŹ4ELEPHONYÂŹFROMÂŹ! :ÂŹE"OOKÂŹ\ÂŹÂŹ