The Cisco IP Business Phone System
A flexible phone system that grows with your business
- Is your business phone system configured in an optimum way for how your company works?
- Does your business phone system add value to your company?
- Is it easy to add extra phones and extension to your business phone system?
- Do you regularly make changes to your phone system because of changes in your company?
If the answer is no to any of the above questions then it is time to upgrade to the ultimately flexible phone system that grows with your business – the Cisco IP business phone system. I can guarantee that after you have read all about this fantastic state-of-the-art phone system, you will want to contact us.
What is a Cisco IP business phone system?
Cisco is one of the very few manufacturers that produce a truly IP phone system. Many claim their phone systems are IP but often they are hybrid system;, traditional PBX systems adapted to connect to an IP network.
What is IP? IP stands for Internet Protocol and has become the standard protocol for enabling computers to communicate with each other. The Internet is a global network where computers all over the world, made by different manufacturers and running different operating systems communicate which each other because they all use IP to talk to each other; IP is quite simply the language of computers. To discover more about the technologoy of VoIP, click here
With an IP phone system your voice traffic uses the same network that your computers use. The term VoIP or voice over IP is often used. Why is this a good thing you may ask? Because we have IP networks in our homes now, our offices and of course we have the Internet. Why create another network for our phones, let our phones use the networks we already have in place. This gives us options and choices. We now don’t have to use the incumbent telephone supplier like BT, we don’t have to re-cable the office for phones and we can integrate our phones with our computer applications. We can even use the wireless networks we have in place for wireless phones. This all leads to cost savings and improved efficiency.
When it comes to the technology that keeps your employees, suppliers, and customers securely connected, it just has to work. As the leader in networking and communications, Cisco is already helping small businesses around the world work better by solving everyday business challenges. You can rely on Cisco to help your business too.
Cisco was founded in 1984, employs over 70,000 personnel worldwide and has sales of over $40 billion. The Internet was literally built in large part using Cisco routers and switches so when it comes to networking, Cisco are the experts and world leaders. In fact other providers of phone systems often recommend using a Cisco network for their business phone systems so why not just use all the kit from a single manufacturer guaranteeing it will all work together seamlessly.
Hard phones, soft phones and even wireless phones
A wide selection of Cisco handsets are available for all purposes which are competitively priced so you can purchase the phone you need without spending out on features you don’t require.
The 7900 phones are the classic Cisco handsets as seen in movies and TV programmes like 24. Then there are the new ranges of SPA300 and SPA500 small business phones. If you need a conference phone for your meeting rooms then use the 7937 IP Conference Station. For those of you who need to be mobile in your company, the 7925 is Cisco’s Wi-Fi phone. With a Cisco IP Business Phone System you don’t even need a handset; you can use their IP Communicator PC-based soft phone which is especially good for running on your laptop when you aren’t in the office allowing you to literally always have your IP phone with you. Calls between your IP Communicator and other office extensions are free so you can talk with your colleagues, customers or suppliers as if you were in the office and even access your voicemail.
Analogue, ISDN2, ISDN30 AND now SIP
With a Cisco IP business phone system you have four choices of how to connect to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). The PSTN is the network you connect to if you want to make phone calls to people outside your company. With a traditional business phone system you have only three choices, analogue, ISDN2 or ISDN30. Analogue is the oldest of these technologies and would most likely be the technology used by your home phone if you have a BT line. The quality is not very good and each physical line allows only one concurrent call. ADSL or broadband is delivered over analogue lines so you will always need at least one analogue line if you have ADSL.
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) is a digital technology that provides higher quality phone calls with more lines. Almost all businesses will use ISDN. ISDN2 or BRI allows two concurrent phone calls per each physical line. Businesses that want to have more than six concurrent phone calls would use ISDN30 or PRI as it allows up to 30 concurrent phones calls.
A Cisco IP business phone system supports all three traditional ways of connecting to the PSTN. Moreover because a Cisco IP business phone system is an IP based phone system it also supports something called SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). SIP allows you to connect to other phone providers using the Internet and from there you can reach the PSTN. This gives you far greater choice about who to use as your phone provider and that means lower cost phone calls. In fact much lower cost phone calls.
Furthermore there is added flexibility because your geographical phone numbers can be answered anyway in the world when you use a SIP trunk. So you could have a London number starting with 020 which are routed to your Cisco IP business phone system in Milton Keynes by your SIP provider. This is something the big companies have been doing for years using expensive technology and now any size company can do it using much cheaper technology.
avecSys works in close partnership with Voip.co.uk which is one of the best SIP trunk providers in the UK. In the same way that you can move between mobile phone providers like Vodafone, Orange, O2, etc while keeping your number, you can move to using voip.co.uk while keeping your phone number. This is called number porting.
Video
Cisco’s Unified Video Advantage is a video telephony solution comprising an application which runs on your PC and a USB camera. When you make a call to or receive a call from someone who also has Unified Video Advantage installed, then a window will automatically open on your PC showing you the person at the other end of the call. If you then conference others into the call who also have Unified Video Advantage installed then they are all shown in the same window. Sometimes seeing the person you are talking to (perhaps they are at home) can add that extra level of communication. Not convinced that is important? Well did you know that 55% of all communication is in your body language?
Voicemail
All Cisco IP business phone systems come with voicemail as standard. We are all used to voicemail with our mobile phones if not with our current phone system. However Cisco adds a couple of extra benefits to their voicemail system (called Cisco Unity Express).
Cisco Unity Express or CUE provides something called “general delivery mailboxes”. These are mailboxes that are shared between several people. For example a sales team, an accounts team, or any other group of people working together. So rather than leaving a voicemail for someone who may be out sick and therefore doesn’t get back to a customer, the voicemail can be picked up and actioned by any member of the team. When a voicemail is left, a visual signal is displayed on the phones of everyone who is a member of that group delivery mailbox.
So how do you know when voicemail is left for you when you are not at your desk or even in the office? That’s the other benefit of using CUE. The voicemail is emailed to you and you can listen to it on your computer or even your iPhone ensuring you get back to the customer in a timely manner.
Auto Attendant
Auto attendants are those menu systems you get presented with usually when calling large corporations. They tell you to push 1 for this service, 2 for that service and sometimes all you want to do is speak to someone. When used judiciously they can be very helpful and a Cisco IP business phone system comes with an auto attendant.
They can avoid the need for a receptionist which saves a lot of money; in fact we have customers who have replaced their receptionist with an auto attendant. After all, whoever calls up to talk to the receptionist? With an auto attendant you can route calls to the department or individual who can effectively best deal with the problem so having an auto attendant that says press 1 for sales, 2 for support, 3 for accounts or 4 for any other queries can be helpful for all concerned. Furthermore having voicemail setup with general delivery mailboxes ensures that messages aren’t lost on postit pads.
A Cisco IP business phone system auto attendant can also be used to route calls differently at different times of the day, on different days and even knows when it is a bank holiday. You would be hard pushed to find such a useful and obedient receptionist that is willing to work 24 hours a day, 365 days per year for free!
Integration with other systems
A major benefit of using a VoIP phone system is the tighter integration between the phone system and more traditional computer systems. A Cisco IP business phone system integrates with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Outlook, Salesforce.com and ACT. This enables you to have relevant customer or supplier information to hand quickly and effortlessly when you are talking to them on the phone thereby improving productivity and customer service.
Conference calls
How many times have you been talking to someone on the phone and then wanted to bring someone else into the conversation? With a Cisco IP business phone system this is simple and is called ad hoc conferencing calling. You can also conduct more formal conference calls with more people where the participants dial into a pre-assigned number.
Music or marketing on hold
With a Cisco IP business phone system, your callers are played music when they on hold. You can use standard music that comes with the system or use your own music. Some of our customers provide a “marketing on hold” recording where callers on hold can hear about your products, services or anything else you would like to communicate to them. You will be surprised how many callers will then say to you “I didn’t know you offered that service” after listening to your marketing on hold recording!
Home workers
With a Cisco IP business phone system people working from home can still be very much part of the company. Using either a hard phone or a softphone, the home worker can answer and make calls using the company’s phone system as if they were in the office. Recently we had one of our engineers work from Russia over a two month period for personal reason without any of our customers noticing!
Presence server
Ever called someone and they didn’t pick up and wondered where they were? Perhaps they are on the phone, or perhaps they have popped away from their desk to go to the loo, or perhaps they are off sick, or… With presence server you can stop wondering because using an application that runs on your computer you can see the status of your colleagues (available, busy, on the phone, away, etc) before you call them and can even instant messenger them if they are on the phone. Especially great for remote or home workers.
Multiple offices
If you have multiple offices, even in different countries, then a Cisco IP business phone system can connect those offices together using the Internet. Calls between the offices would be free. If one of the offices is fairly small in size then the system can be set up to allow calls to be answered in the larger office even though the phone number of the smaller office was called.
A Phone System that grows with your business
Adding more IP phones and if necessary licenses to your Cisco phone system allows it to grow with your company. Of course each Cisco IP business phone system has its limits so what happens then? Cisco wants to make it easy for you to upgrade so you can trade in your old Cisco phone system and upgrade to one which has increased capacity for more users.
So what are you waiting for?
You would be hard pushed to find a business phone system rich will so many features at a similar price. In fact we know you won’t and so are even willing to match the price of a similar phone system quote you have already received. avecSys is one of the leading Small Business Cisco partners in the UK and can provide you with a bespoke solution to suit your company’s specific needs. We are looking forward to working with you and providing you with our outstanding service.
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