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PhonePresence Small Business Edition Feature Details
PhonePresence Small Business Edition provides powerful PBX style features with the additional flexibility of comprehensive online administration. Where appropriate, links to more detailed Small Business Virtual PBX feature descriptions are provided.
Feature Categories
Capacity
Call Handling
Voicemail
User Control
System Administrator Control
Capacity
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| PLEASE NOTE: Any numbers used within the virtual PhonePresence framework should not have any other PBX features enabled via any existing system. Hunting, Forwarding, Call Waiting, Call Transfer etc. should all be switched off.
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Call Handling
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Voicemail
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System Administrator Control |
By Phone |
By Web |
| Override Auto Timer |
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| Change Timer Settings |
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| Record System Messages |
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| Administer Groups and Members |
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| View Inbound Call Traffic Reports |
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| View Outbound Call Traffic Reports (from VoIP Phones) |
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| Change Control Panel Visual Settings |
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| Change User Details and Passwords |
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| Users |
1 - 10 |
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Each user of the PhonePresence system can be allocated a set of existing phone numbers which the system will try and contact them on - this could be their mobile number, home number etc.
A user also gets a voicemail box, a unique logon to the web interface and they can also have their own VoIP phone. When someone calls your main number, the user can be selected from a menu, by name, for example or they may be called as a member of a group. |
| Groups (Departments) |
1 - 8 |
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When a caller rings your main PhonePresence number, they may choose to go through to a particular department, "Sales" for example. One or more of your users can be logged in to receive sales calls and PhonePresence will attempt to distribute calls to the users, either starting with the first person in group each time, or using an even distribution. Any user can be a member of any groups.
PhonePresence SBE has four groups with predefined names - Sales, Support, Accounts and Operator, and four that you can create names for during the sign up process. If you do not want to use menus, you can simply have all your users in the Operator group, for example. |
| Inbound Main Number |
| PhonePresence gives your company a choice of inbound numbers depending on your policy, budget, and how you would like to present yourself to your callers. |
| Target PhoneNumbers per User |
4 |
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Each PhonePresence User can 'register' several contact numbers which the system will use when it tries to connect a call to them. By default, these are labeled a 'mobile', 'work', 'home' and 'temporary' number, though in practice you can put any phone number in these slots. Users can log-in to the number that they are nearby at any time. This will affect both direct and group calls.
Logging in to a number can either be done using the secure area of the PhonePresence web site, for which each user has a unique account and password. Or, on the move, the current number can be quickly selected by calling in.
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| Simultaneous Callers |
30 |
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The PhonePresence servers have the capacity for thousands of simultaneous phone calls.
When you set up a PhonePresence Small Business Edition account, this will be limited to 30 to enable us to plan capacity.
If you expect peaks of call traffic to exceed this, advise our support team who will be able to adjust your account accordingly. |
| Greeting Message |
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When you set up your PhonePresence Small Business Edition account, you will be invited to record a greeting message that will be heard by all your callers, such as "Welcome to [your company name]". This gives a professional image to your company. We can also arrange for this, and other messages in the system to be recorded by a professional Voice Artist to further enhance your image.
The Greeting Message can be changed at any time by calling into the system or using the web interface.
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| Departmental Selection Menu |
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Depending on how you want PhonePresence configured, you can then present the caller with a list of departments to choose from, such as Sales, Customer Support, etc. You can have up to 8 departments set up, with the default option to be transferred to 'the Operator'.
Each department corresponds to a group of people who are logged on to PhonePresence - they will log on with the phone number they are currently using, such as their mobile.
A department can have as few as one person logged in, or as many as 5, and each person can be a member of any department on the system. So if you want to be Sales, Support and Marketing that's no problem.
Using departments, you can create 'skill based call routing' which transfers a caller to the person with the most likely skill to be able to deal with their enquiry - a feature usually only available on call centre systems costing hundreds of thousands of pounds!
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| Personnel Selection Menu |
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If you wish, you can also give callers the option to choose people by name, so they can reach the person they want to call directly, without having to know which phone number they are currently using.
Individuals can choose whether or not to be included in this list of people to be accessed directly. |
| Automated Attendant |
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Another option is 'Automated Attendant' which invites the caller to enter the extension number of the person they wish to contact. Each user will be allocated a 2-digit extension number.
This gives the impression of a larger organization and means you do not have to give out everyone's name. |
| Call Transfer Advice |
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When a user receives a call from the PhonePresence system, they will hear a brief introduction message, sometimes known as a 'whisper' message, before the caller is transferred. By default, this will be the name of the department that the caller has chosen (e.g. "sales call") or, if the caller has selected the user directly, "direct call". You can re-record the Call Transfer Advice messages as you wish.
Where staff are taking business calls on phones that are also used for domestic purposes, this feature is very useful so that the correct response can be given to the caller. It also allows one person to be both the Sales and the Support department, for example!
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| Call Queuing to Departments |
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If all the people logged on to a department are busy on other calls when a call arrives, you can allow callers to be queued.
While they queue, they will hear music on hold and you can limit the maximum wait before the caller is sent to voicemail.
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| Hold Caller (Mute) |
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Whatever type of phonethe caller has been taken on, the caller can be put on hold (and taken off hold) using the star key.
The caller will hear music on hold and not be able to hear you until retrieved.
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| Call Transfer |
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There will be times when a call is best handled by someone else. As you would expect with any phone system, you can transfer an incoming call. And, unlike most phone systems, you don't have to remember their extension or phone number.
When you press a key to make the transfer, you will get a list of personnel or departments just as the caller did originally - PhonePresence knows which phone they are logged in with. PhonePresence supports 'blind transfers' (when you make the transfer and hang up before waiting for the outcome) and 'supervised transfers' (when you speak to the person you are transferring the caller to first).
A list of valid transfer extensions is automatically created, which includes people (logged on at their current extension) and departments.
Unlike most systems, the transfer mechanism is exactly the same whether the call has been answered on a landline, mobile or VoIP phone.
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| Timers |
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PhonePresence can be programmed to switch into a night time mode automatically with a seven day auto timer. The options you give callers in this mode can be different from the day time, and may be just as simple as giving a "we're closed" message or taking a voicemail message.
You can also program holidays in advance, so the system doesn't automatically go in to day mode on Christmas Day, for example.
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| Speech Recognition |
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Callers can use voice commands to help move through your phone menu. This makes menu navigation even easier for your callers and enhances your business image with increasingly professional customer call handling.
Callers to PhonePresence Small Business Edition can use any of the following commands: "0-9" | "Accounts" | "Support" | "Marketing" | | "Sales" | "Service" | "Operator" | "Reception" |
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| Departmental Mailboxes |
1 - 8 |
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Each department can have a voicemail box. Calls may be diverted to the box when it has not been possible to find someone to transfer them to, or outside hours, for example.
A group of people are responsible for listening to 'departmental' messages, which will appear as new messages in their personal voicemail boxes. Messages will be identified separately from personal messages, so a sales message will be prefixed 'sales message', for example. Once one person has heard the message, it will appear as 'saved' in the other mailboxes in the group.
All the features you would expect in a voicemail system are included, including the ability to save messages, hear when they arrived etc. |
| User Mailboxes |
1 - 10 |
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A personal voicemail box is available for each user on the system, for when they cannot be contacted. A personal mailbox can be used to replace the standard voicemail available on a mobile phone, for example, and work in the same way.
Users can record and change their personal mailbox greeting via the phone or via their personal web login. |
| Email Paging of New Messages |
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Messages can be sent as email attachments to a predetermined email list for each departmental or personal voicemail box. They are .wav or .mp3 files which can be played on any PC with a sound system, through Windows Media Player for example.
Once you've listened to a message, you can click on a link within to accept that you've heard it, which will flag it as saved - particularly important for Departmental Messages which may be sent to a number of people.
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| Login and out of Numbers |
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By phone, users can quickly log in to or out of a previously assigned number, such as a mobile. If the calling number is available, the user does not have to enter it and can just opt to 'use the current number'. A temporary number can also be entered.
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The same can be done by logging in to the web site. All changes have effect in real time:
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| Login and out of Groups |
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Each use has the option to make themselves a member of the groups on the system:
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| Access Voicemail Messages |
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You can dial it to check voicemail messages and change your greeting at any time through the special PhonePresence access number.
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Messages can also be played directly from your PC after logging in: |
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| View Recent and Missed Calls |
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All PhonePresence reports can be downloaded to a variety of formats including PDF's and exported to Word and Excel compatible formats.
A recent call report is available to each user: |
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| Send SMS to Users and Groups |
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This is a useful feature whereby a quick text message can be sent by logging on to the PhonePresence web site.
The same message can be sent to a group of users: |
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| Auto Timer Settings |
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The administrator can set the auto timer which controls how calls are processed: |
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