SIP Trunking: VoIP Line Replacement

You may have heard the term SIP trunking or SIP trunk thrown around by tech heads. The fact is it's not a friendly term and most business owners, managers, or decision makers have a clue or care to have a clue what a SIP trunk is. Simply put, a SIP trunk is a VoIP telephone line. It allows for one concurrent phone call to come either in or out of your office.

The reason this VoIP telephone line is called a SIP trunk is because "SIP" stands for Session Initiation Protocol, which is a specific type of VoIP. In essence you could call a SIP trunk a VoIP trunk. Now the word trunk in this case means line; however, the word trunk was invented because there are 2 types of phone line services: analog and digital. There are analog lines which we have all been used to having in our homes and offices where you have an actual copper pair wire and that copper pair wire has just one telephone number that belongs to it. With lines you cannot receive multiple calls on one telephone number because there is only one line that actually belongs to that telephone number. This is why line hunt groups were invented so if line 1 was tied up the phone call would jump to the next line in the group and so on. Now, what is a trunk? The difference between a line and a trunk is that a trunk is digital. It is not associated with a specific telephone number, and it does not come in to your building on a copper pair. It comes into your office via your internet connection. The beauty in this is that lets say you want to move your operations. With a regular phone line you would have to call your common carrier, and schedule a move where the carrier would have to come to the new location and install new copper lines. You'd have to wait for them to come out and then you'd have to pick a very specific day for this all to happen, making it almost impossible to move seamlessly. With a SIP trunk, all you need in the new location is an internet connection and you are all set! The digital world is a better, more flexible world!

So when you hear the word SIP trunk, just think of it as a digital phone line, or a VoIP phone line.

VoIP Service Continues to Dominate

While it's apparent that many industries, businesses, services, and models are suffering during economic and psychological downtimes, VoIP service is not. If this isn't a testament to the fact that VoIP service is the present, and the future, then I don't know what is. Any product or service that can grow through these times, by definition, is a product that adds tremendous value to its end user. It's a simple concept really: growth during what our own president has called a crisis numerous times, indicates a darn good product!

The fact is businesses small, medium, and large, all need VoIP service. Whether it's a SIP trunking service or a hosted PBX, or a virtual office, these services are all going to help the end user tremendously. More business organizations are starting to figure this out, but it is happening slowly and steadily. As with any business technology, decision makers are weary of doing more harm than good, but ultimately, the proof is in the pudding! Business VoIP service continues to grow and business VoIP providers continue to thrive during what's been called the worst economy since the early 80's.

Critical VoIP features: Monitor, Listen, and Coach

The ability to monitor, listen, and coach live phone calls is imperative to any business who wishes to improve the quality at which their team operates. How can a manager or owner possibly know if his or her team is missing opportunities or representing the business in a manner that is just not good for business? How can a manager or owner expect to be able to make a new hire and trust that new hire to deal with customers at the level that is expected without the ability to monitor calls? The answer is pretty simple: it's physically impossible!

Could you imagine if a baseball team all practiced in isolation without being monitored by their coaches? The team would be horrible, and never improve. That is what will happen to your team if you do not monitor it. You can only run your business at the maximum level of efficiency if you have the best tools to operate with. If your business phone system does not allow you to keep control over your team, then it's simply not good enough! Kick it to the curb, put it on ebay, or keep it in a closet for a rainy day, but do your business and your customers a favor, and get some phones that actually allow you to improve your team's operations.

With the advent of VoIP phone systems and the hosted pbx, many businesses are left without this feature and then they realize they've signed some sort of a long-term agreement and can't even upgrade! This is a sure fire way to shoot yourself and your business in the foot. At Xpander, we recognize all of this! It's crystal clear to us. That is why an Xpander VoIP hosted PBX offer these features and more, all without any sort of contract or binding agreement. It's a thing of beauty, and all businesses should enjoy it!

Xpander VoIP Named MyVoipProvider.com Provider of the Month

Xpander Communications recently received MyVoipProvider.com's provider of the month award for March 2009. Xpander Communications is proud to receive this award from such a high profile and independent source. MyVoipProvider.com is an independent Voice Over IP analyst website that examines VoIP phone providers and provides the general market with information and ratings across the VoIP industry. Here is the entire write up: (You may also view the write up on the web here: http://www.myvoipprovider.com/provider_of_the_month/xpandercommunications)

Xpander Communications - Provider of the Month

Xpander Communications offers a comprehensive suite of VoIP phone solutions for businesses only. Our mantra is: "Not just a phone system... A better life for your business" which means we provide whatever businesses need, whenever they need it! A true VIP treatment of our business customers means we focus first on making sure our existing business customers are happy before we invest any energy in bringing on new customers. Xpander has its own software development team in house which allows us to execute our mantra and also allows us to meet the needs of small & medium business, sales centric call centers, customer service based call centers, and medium to large enterprises. What this means in telecom terms is that we provide the “phone lines” with unlimited calling, DID phone numbers, PBX/key telephone system functionality via Hosted PBX, and CRM call center applications that can be added a’la carte.

What are your best features?

* The ability to see who is on/off the phone directly on your telephone screen, even across company locations.
* The ability to set yourself to: Busy, Be Right Back, Away, Out to Lunch, Do not Disturb directly from your phone so the rest of the company can see on their phone or on our web portal if you are available or not. This is especially useful because you can view this information from across company locations.
* The ability to monitor and listen in to live calls as well as enter a “coach” mode which aids in the training of new team members. This can be done from the web so you can literally listen and coach people across locations.
* The ability to record phone calls on the fly, or use a record all mode to record any call you want.
* The ability to setup voice mail boxes that belong to not just 1 person, but groups of people with email notifications going out to the whole group.
* The ability to search through half a year worth of call logs, and click 2 dial phone numbers directly from the web portal.
* The ability to compare organized call statistics on your team members that tallies how many total calls, total talk time, inbound calls, inbound talk time, outbound calls, outbound talk time, with visual rankings over any desired period of time.

Which of your services are you most proud of?

We are most proud of our CUSTOMER services. The ability to make VoIP work in a business environment requires the highest level of customer service the telecommunications world has ever seen. A complete VoIP solution, including a hosted and web enabled multi-location PBX phone system, requires elite customer service at all phases of the customer relationship, it never stops, and Xpander never stops!

What sets you apart from other VoIP Providers?

The fact that we are not just a phone system or phone solution, we are a better life for your business! Our web and software tools that come with our hosted PBX phone system are all designed in house, which means we can literally wrap custom features around our customers until they’ve got everything they’ve ever dreamed of and running at the maximum level of efficiency. We are every bit as much a software company as a VoIP phone company!

What is your best plan? What comes with that plan?

We don’t have confusing plans or up charge for features. If you’re an Xpander VoIP customer, you get it all by default! Unlimited US and Canada calls, along with every feature in the book, with no contracts or commitments. We like to make things very easy for our customers!

Which area do you provide your service to?

We provide phone numbers in the entire 48 contiguous US states along with unlimited calls within the US and Canada. We have customers as far as Nepal, Southeast Asia who want to have an American telephone number and do business with the US and Canada, so in that scenario we are also global. Our VoIP phone network is so good, that even customers half way across the globe experience nothing but the best voice quality.

What advice would you give new VoIP users considering switching from POTS to VoIP?

Do your homework, and don’t go with the cheapest provider. Voice over the internet is a completely different ballgame and requires one of 2 things. Either a very knowledgeable I.T. person on staff or a provider that will bring you aboard in a stepwise manner that promotes quality of service. The best advice I can give is to ask for 3 customer references of companies that have at least 5 telephones in their office location. Speak to them about the installation and service and hear it from the horse’s mouth!

Can you name 3 advancements that greatly enhance VoIP? Or 3 advancements that could/would enhance VoIP?

* An internet router/firewall that is built for VoIP. If you are looking at VoIP, and you have a significant number of phones, you must have an awesome router or firewall that is built for VoIP use.
* A network switch that is built for VoIP use. If you are looking at VoIP, you must have a network switch that was designed to operate with VoIP phones plugged into it.
* Fiber optic and high speed internet lines such as Verizon’s FiOS or the new aDSL2+ technology. Basically, we are all seeing a nationwide boost in internet connections to business offices that are going to allow for literally hundreds of VoIP phones to operate behind just one internet connection.

Also, what are your latest and greatest products?

Stay tuned for this, we are about to release a new version of our software that is going to include features that nobody else has!

Do you have any exclusive promotions for VoIP Review, MVP users?

Yes, currently, for a limited amount of time, we are offering brand new FREE Polycom IP320, IP330, and IP501 VoIP phones, with no contract or commitment required. Contact us for details and mention the VoIP review or My VoIP Provider with your inquiry! This has never been done before, no other provider has ever given away free phones. We feel we need to do something in this economy and this is what we have come up with! Contact us ASAP to capitalize on this.

Nimbus VoIP feature highlight: The Buddy List

Nimbus VoIP is a turn key business VoIP solution that provides a business with a PBX so that they can take advantage of call transfer, ring all phones, extension dialing, all without having to actually purchase a PBX phone system! Nimbus VoIP takes it a step further through features that go beyond typical and become super practical. Since Nimbus VoIP is developed entirely by Xpander, feature releases come quicker than the rest.

One cool feature that serves a purpose is the buddy list feature. The buddy list displays to you a list of the extensions in your office with the person's name and an icon that displays in real time whether or not they are on the phone. The buddy list is viewable directly from the VoIP phone itself. If your caught away from the office the buddy list is also present in your Nimbus VoIP web control panel. By using a web browser you can login to your account and the buddy list will automatically pop up. Convenient click to dial allows you to mouse over a person's name, click on their name, and connect to them immediately.

VoIP phone systems are about practicality and convenience. Nimbus VoIP continues to take it a step further than the rest by implementing unique features that matter in the actual line of fire of daily operations. If your VoIP phone system isn't living up to expectations, there's no reason you should suffer any longer.

Business VoIP Solution: How to choose wisely

Every year there are going to be more providers offering Business VoIP solutions and like any booming industry you're going to have many companies in it to make money off the boom. Companies that see VoIP as a buzz word that generates revenue rather than a technology that must be perfected at all costs. The problem is how do you know which company is perfecting their business VoIP solution and which company is just trying to ride a wave? There's a few clear cut factors I will discuss here briefly that should help you spot important tells in the world of business VoIP.

The first tell, which is a major tell, is the software they use to power their feature sets. A business VoIP service provider can go down one of 2 roads. They can buy a pre-packaged software that limits them to those feature sets or they can custom develop their own software package that is infinitely adjustable. If a business VoIP provider uses pre-packaged software chances are it's going to be either Broadsoft or Sylantro. You should ask your business VoIP provider what software they use to power their feature sets, and if they say broadsoft or sylantro, it's a clear sign that they have purchased a pre-packaged solution designed to bring them to the market as quickly as possible. The problem is with a pre-packaged solution you the customer are at the mercy of NOT your business VoIP service provider, but really you're at the mercy of Sylantro or Broadsoft. In essence the Business VoIP service provider is simply "reselling" Sylantro or Broadsoft with no control or power to really make changes to the system. Think about it this way, would Google ever dream of buying software that powers search, or do they want to perfect search by constantly developing their own? The answer is clear!

A business VoIP solution that has it's own custom software developed for the purpose of long-term perfection is going to be a company who has inifinte control over every aspect of the VoIP system. When you deal with a business VoIP provider who is developing their own software you are dealing with the actual source, not a reseller of some pre-packaged stuff designed to allow companies to jump into the VoIP boom as quickly as possible and start billing people. This means support will be better, knowledge over the system will be better, and future features and customizations will be infinitely possible. Aside from these obvious benefits of dealing with a Business VoIP provider that is a master of its own product, there is a clear tell that a company who has the staying power to develop their switch from scratch, as opposed to buying a pre-packaged and re-sold solution from a bigger company, is in it for the long-term and the ultimate perfection of business VoIP systems. Which kind of company would you rather have your phone service with?

Customer Connect = Customer Love

Customer Connect is an advanced phone messaging system that calls people and plays an important message for them, and then allows the caller to be connected to directly to any phone in the world. Customer Connect achieves all of this without a business having to purchase a PBX, phone system, dialer, or any kind of software system. That's why there's no upfront costs!

A completely virtual solution where end users can log on to our web portal and submit the details of their desired phone messaging campaigns within minutes. End users sit back as our interactive phone messaging dialer does all of the legwork. Whether it be appointment reminders, coupon specials, or pay your bill reminders, Customer Connect puts you in front of your customer more often, without any busy work.

If you're looking into purchasing an expensive dialer, call center software, or call center PBX, don't! Why take on a huge capital expenditure when you don't have to? No contracts, no upfront costs, pay as you go: for more information.