Voice

VoIP and IP Telephony

IP telephony enables voice communication over internet protocol (IP) networks. It unites an organisation's many locations - including mobile workers - into a single converged network. It promises cost savings by combining voice and data on one network that can be centrally maintained, as well as by eliminating toll expenses for calls between locations.

With a wide range of IP based and IP enabled telephone systems from globally recognised manufacturers including; Avaya, Shoretel, Intertel and Panasonic, our partnerships mean Solar are ideally placed to supply, install and commission a system that best suits your requirements. This could be anything from a small office system for a handful of users, to a linked network of multiple systems in different locations that operate and feel as if they were on a single site. The benefits to be gained from the deployment of IP Telephony handsets will vary depending on your users' requirements. For instance, the role individuals perform in an organisation, where they are situated and what type of connectivity they have access to. Typically, you will require a mixture of different handsets to create the most cost effective solution without compromising on the functionality to which users have become accustomed.

IP telephony works by converting voice communications into data packets. Telephones are connected to data ports on the IP network. But the function of a telephone can easily be provided using a device that is already connected to the network - the PC.

Terms such as client-server telephony, telephony-enabled LAN, pure IP telephony, converged telephony, and LAN telephony all describe the same fundamental, distributed IP telephony architecture. Simply put, Solar supports both distributed (client-server) IP telephony and IP-enabled PBXs without forcing customers to compromise on either approach.

Instead of a separate, multi-line phone beside the PC at each desk, IP telephony allows software on the PC to serve as a "soft" phone. Software, unlike telephone hardware, is easily upgraded and enhanced, without work disruption, without equipment cost? without even visiting every desk.

The concept of transmitting voice over a data network is exciting to companies that are maintaining intranet connections for all of their branch offices, while paying for voice circuits to PBXs in those same locations. The cost savings alone are appealing - although security, reliability, and quality questions can make network managers apprehensive about IP telephony. That's why Solar offers comprehensive solutions for delivering secure, scalable IP telephony across the enterprise.

Solar combines these solutions with services to ensure that the network will handle voice with the utmost quality and reliability. Solar helps companies select the right solutions, assess the readiness of the LAN to carry voice traffic, implement the solutions, and maintain them after installation.

Unified Messaging

To stay competitive, businesses require fast and dependable communication. Employees need to be able to receive urgent phone, e-mail, SMS and fax messages, no matter where they are. They should be able to respond to customers and co-workers from any location, with or without Internet access. Best yet, employees should have the means to quickly manage and prioritise the flurry of messages they receive each day in the form of voice mail, faxes and e-mail.

Unified Messaging is the answer, offering your company the most effective way to receive, send and manage messages of all types. Solar offer award-winning, best of breed solutions, combining voice, fax, e-mail and SMS messages into one in-box and making them accessible via telephone, wireless device or computer.

Your employees don?t have to be in the office or logged onto a computer to access their e-mail, they can receive and respond to messages anywhere, anytime. Customers aren?t left waiting, mobile workers are accessible, and urgent messages are available right away.

Unified Messaging increases productivity inside the office, too. The software displays all voice, e-mail, SMS and fax messages together within the familiar e-mail inbox, making it easy to quickly prioritise and retrieve messages of all kinds. Employees spend less time managing messages and more time acting on them. Plus, simplified system administration and lower telephone charges reduce costs for your company.

Unified Messaging systems can be extended further by speech recognition, which lets you use voice-activated commands to manage phone calls, e-mail, SMS and fax messages.

Unified Messaging offers higher productivity, lower operating costs, foolproof message delivery and improved customer satisfaction - it's the one solution that can meet and exceed the real demands of any business environment.

Principle Benefits of Unified Messaging (UM)

Improve Customer Satisfaction

Your employees never have to miss a call, e-mail, SMS or fax, no matter where they are.

Increase Efficiency

With all message types presented in a single in-box, UM cuts message management time by 50 to 70 percent.

Reduce Costs

With Global System Administration, UM takes less time to manage multiple messaging systems, lowering the cost of administration, training and support. UM also reduces long distance costs by routing voice messages and faxes over the Internet.

Realise a Fast ROI

Through increase in productivity, lower cost of management and reduced long distance carrier charges, a company with 200 UM seats can gain back the cost of implementation in an average of 28 days.

Call/Contact Centre

Many people tend to think of a call centre as people neatly organized into rows, sitting beside their phones, answering customer calls. So what is a contact centre?

Contact centres are more than headset-wearing switch-board operators. The modern contact centre handles phone calls, email, and online communication ? including instant messaging.

Traditionally, contact centres have been called call centres. The newer name ? contact centre ? reflects the fact that more than just phone calls are being handled. Many call centres have evolved over the years to do much more than just answer phones.

Some companies choose to separate the handling of customer contacts by medium. For instance, a company may establish a department for inbound calls, one for outbound calls, and a group for email. Some companies, especially smaller ones, opt to create ?universal agents? who handle all contact types. Companies create universal contact agents for reasons of efficiency and service, and often because they find it easier to train agents in multiple communication methods than to train multiple agents in product or service information.

Bottom line, it?s up to the customer to decide how they want to communicate with your company, and it?s up to your company to respond appropriately through its contact centre.

Telecommunication is a vital tool in building customer relationships and its importance cannot be overstated. A Contact Centre Manager needs to know what's going on in real time, and have the power to adjust operations immediately. With the right tools, agents can have access to information that enables them to more efficiently manage customer contacts calls and serve all their customers - whether they are making contact by phone, e-mail, fax, or via a web site.

Standard call centre and computer technology has included automatic call distribution (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR) and computer telephony integration (CTI), which allows the actions of the computer to be synchronised with what is happening on the phone. In addition, customer relationship management (CRM) technologies are now being employed. Telecommunications is now undergoing a migration to converged voice and data networks using Voice over IP. The advantages of IP are: ubiquitous access, converged network cost efficiencies, and strategic new IP-enabled voice, multimedia, and web-based applications. Migrating to Voice over IP also allows "virtual" call centres to be established across a company's telecommunications network without physically putting all the people in one office.

Voice Recording and Call logging

Callers can sometimes be distressed and what they actually say isn?t necessarily what they mean to say. This sets the foundation for inaccuracies that can often result in litigations.

In emergency situations, fast and accurate retrieval of information cab be the difference between life and death. Voice Recording narrows the margin for error by giving the call handler the peace of mind that each conversation can be easily retrieved and replayed at any time.

After a situation has been handled, there are sometimes questions regarding the sequence of events, the procedural actions taken, or the timeframe between the initial call and the response, etc. For this reason, voice recording, especially in the Healthcare, Financial and Professional sectors; has become an imperative, part of everyday business life.

Implementing a voice recording system in your business, can help with:

• Protection against liability and incident investigation
• Auditing purposes
• Regulatory concerns
• Employee training
• Performance monitoring

and starts from as little as ?39.99 per week.

A well managed telephone system is vital to the efficiency of any organisation, regardless of its size. From the conventional call to the transfer of electronic information, whether internal communication or off-site, the performance of your company?s telephone system is key to efficiency.

Compliant with any telephone system or network, Ai CMS provides up to the minute management information, statistics and analysis is essential to finding the most economic carrier. Ai CMS gives the breakdown of information to put you in control. Ai CMS will also monitor the response to incoming calls in detail. The speed of answer can be logged, as can time spent transferring and dealing with any call. Outgoing calls from any extension or department can be listed and costed. Such information enables management to determine optimum utilisation of all lines and staff.

From ?7.99 per week, Ai CMS can provide:

• A user friendly interface (Easy to use Menu Driven front end)
• A comprehensive range of reports, graphs and statistics
• Automatic on-demand analysis of calls (Inbound and Outbound)
• Exportable reports (CSV standard)
• Updateable carrier call charges (Serviced Office, breakdowns?)
• Support for any switch type CCILE/SMDR
• Single-site or multi-site network analysis

Hosted Telephony

Depending on the size and type of your organization, it may be beneficial to consider a managed telephony service from Solar.

Solar can deploy voice handsets to your teams which link back to a hosted telephone switch at a remote data centre. This means we can provide you with the latest technology, including messaging and video without you having to manage the back bone infrastructure. If you are a small business we can get you up and running quickly. If you are a large organization we can reduce your infrastructure overhead. There are countless opportunities available with VOIP and a hosted approach to voice.

Solar?s consultative approach will ensure your deployment is balanced, well thought out and resilient. Our aim is always to reduce your costs, wherever possible, and to work with you so you phone system will grow with your business. If you are keen to consider an Opex approach to your new phone systems, as opposed to a Capex purchase, talk to Solar on 0117 901 6000.