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A recent Personnel Psychology study observes that telecommuters are generally more productive than office workers.1 Similar research shows the majority of managers believe telecommuting retains talent.2 Thus, in many respects, work-from-home employment models can contribute to business continuity and progress. Telecommuting programs help save businesses money, too. According to Global Workplace Analytics, unscheduled absences represent $1,800/employee in losses each year.3 Telecommuting…

Monitoring Phone Extensions from an IP-Device Most VoIP solutions include BLF (Busy Lamp Field) as a standard feature, though not all IP-phones support it. Sometimes, manufacturers refer to BLF as DSS (Direct Station Selection), so check your documentation for both. Devices with this capability make it easier on administrators to monitor several extensions within a…

One question that comes up a lot is, "How do I make and take calls online?" Really, this depends on preference. Most systems work with commonplace hardware like landlines and mobile phones. With that said, virtual phone solutions are compatible with a bevy of SIP phones. These devices send and receive audio over the internet rather…

Conference calls serve a variety of purposes. They allow for quick, democratic decision-making and last minute debriefing. Among friends and family, they make staying in touch easier. Regardless of the purpose, conference calls bridge big distances and save time. That is, so long as they run smoothly. The push towards virtualization in today’s modern office…

A toll-free number is a great asset to businesses with customer bases spread across a country. It allows callers to reach the company without paying long-distance fees. Instead, the business covers all inbound charges – an act of professionalism and gratitude. The per-minute fee is quite low, especially over VoIP, making it a small cost compared…

Hosted PBX adoption rates continue to climb year-over-year. Businesses recognize huge savings potential, along with myriad other advantages. Unfortunately, the misconception exists that hosted PBX satisfies only business needs. The truth could not be further from this. Hosted PBX benefits residential users just as much as businesses. The size of the phone system does not determine…

Music on hold reduces the perceived time waiting in a call queue. AT&T; found that a 30-second wait without background music feels more like 90 seconds. Considering wait times average 38 seconds, businesses should purge silence from their phone system. After all, most callers abandon queues around the 2-minute mark. Anything done to reduce the lengthiness—either…

The internet is one of the biggest culprits of bad VoIP quality. Factors like bandwidth, codec and security all affect audio data passed to and from a network. Likewise, the components in said network play a major role. Cheap hardware—although not always the case—often worsens VoIP performance. This is because there are few quality assurance…