With a Cloud Phone System, ‘The Office’ is Wherever You Are

A confluence of technological innovations has transformed the workplace and the way we connect with customers and co-workers.

Thanks to the internet, mobile technology and cloud hosting, “the office” is now wherever employees are located – at home, at a customer’s business site, in the car or at the local coffee shop.

Small and medium-sized businesses that leverage communications and collaboration technology can find themselves successfully competing with companies many times their size.

Technology Helps to Level the Playing Field

Consider the case of Consuela Shorter, a learning systems consultant who openedBlue Skies Performance Solutions in downtown Kansas City, Mo. in 2013. Today she helps employers of all sizes nationwide to select and implement learning management systems to provide their employees with training that ranges from industry-specific skills to management and compliance training.

Shorter is one of those tech-savvy business people who have harnessed technology in a way that enables her small company to compete with major players in her industry.

“Although our headquarters is in Kansas City, I can virtually attend a meeting in Nashville or Chicago or Orange County as if I am right there in the board room with my client,” says Shorter. “The technology I use in my small business is no different than that used in much larger or global companies.

“The way we connect depends on the need,” she continues. “If it’s a conversation, we’ll have a conference call. If we need to share a PowerPoint we’ll use a webinar. If the issue is related to administrator navigation or use of a functionality or feature and I need to see things from the user point of view we’ll use screen sharing. If there’s a reason for us to come together in the office, then we’ll meet.”

Business Features Sealed the Deal

As you might imagine, when Shorter went shopping for a business phone system there was no question in her mind that she wanted an internet phone system. Ever been in Kansas City in the winter?

“With old-school phones, if a storm comes, you could be wiped out for days. With internet phones you’re backed up,” Shorter says, referring to the data centers with redundant power that cloud-hosted phone systems like Vonage operate. These phone systems can remain in operation even when the customer’s location is out of commission.

But, what sealed the deal was a host of features offered by Vonage Business that work particularly well – because Shorter and her employees rarely work from the office. Mobile phones are their key method of connecting with each other and with clients.1

Integrated Mobility – Another Level of Mobile

With traditional systems, mobile phones aren’t integrated within the office phone system as they are with cloud-hosted systems. As a result, Caller ID reveals that a personal mobile number is being used when making business calls. That forces some to use a separate office and mobile line to work remotely, racking up additional costs for a company or forcing an employer to limit the number of workers assigned a mobile account.

In the business VoIP environment, mobile devices can be made to be just another end point within the same phone system, integrating with many of the same system calling features. Workers can access their company’s phone system on their mobile devices while on the go and they can keep their business and personal accounts separate on the same device.

Also, calls are recognized on Caller ID as calls from the company, extending a professional business presence for those making the calls outside of their office. An additional advantage is that Mobile Apps often come free with the system, as they do with Vonage Business.

A Sampling of Favorite Features

Shorter had a hard time paring down Vonage Business phone system features to a few favorites but here’s her short list:

• Call Continuity: Blue Skies selects backup numbers for automatic call rerouting in the event it loses power or internet at the business
• Virtual Receptionist: This customizable feature allows the company to create custom call pathways and even set specific routing for holidays, lunchtime and after-hour calls.
• Voicemail Transcription (VMT): This feature helps employees stay in touch with incoming calls, even if they’re in meetings or away from the office. VMT transcribes the voicemail and delivers the text, as well as an MP3 audio file, to the employee’s email inbox.

The features that Shorter’s company utilizes today are important, she says. But the ones she intends to add as her business expands will be a critical part of her growth strategy: “Best of all, it’s scalable so that as my company grows the technology will grow with me.”

1Calls made from mobiles use airtime and may incur surcharges, depending on your mobile plan.

How ‘Growth Features’ Can Be Pivotal to Business Success

Business growth isn’t just about increased revenue or headcount. It’s often about doing more with less staff, or even finding new ways to evaluate and train employees. However you define growth, your business VoIP phone system should be able to help you build your business the way you want.

Let’s talk about this: First, think about the core capabilities of your business and what it takes to succeed. Then, ask yourself if some of the features on your business phone system could be helping you move operations to the next level. These “growth features” may differ from business to business, but they’re used every day to help companies pursue a competitive edge. Just ask Mark Krassner, founder of Knee Walker Central:

“If you’re considering using a VoIP phone system, my advice would be to dig deeper,” he says. “There are a lot of companies out there that might be able to meet your basic needs, but if you really want to grow a business, scale a business, Vonage has so many tools at your disposal to help grow with you – and it’s such an important thing.”

Here’s a sampling of how businesses can harness the power of our phone system calling features:

For Improving Operations

• Call Logs: With this feature, customers can access analytics and reporting to evaluate productivity and trends which help streamline business and staffing decisions.
• Call Continuity: This feature allows customers to set up automatic call rerouting in the event of lost power or Internet – helping the organization maintain business continuity.
• Desktop Plugins: Plugins help employees integrate the business tools they already use (e.g., Salesforce.com®, Google Search or Intuit QuickBooks®) within the business phone system, allowing greater intelligence with every call.

For Employee Evaluation and Training

• Company-Wide Call Recording: Managers use this customizable feature to evaluate the on-phone performance of their teams. It’s ideal for coaching and recommending specific improvements.
• Call Monitoring: Particularly for newer sales or service employees, this feature enables management to “monitor” live calls, “whisper” advice or reminders to operators during calls, or “barge” into a call as appropriate.

For More Efficient Call Routing

• Virtual Receptionist: Many businesses quickly benefit from this robust auto-attendant feature, allowing them to set custom call pathways and even set specific routing for holidays, lunchtime and after-hour calls.
• Call Queue: Sales and service teams use this feature to better manage call volume and enhance the call-in experience with a combination of customizable prompts, directional messaging and on-hold music – helping to minimize unanswered calls.
• Voicemail Transcription (VMT): When employees are in a meeting or otherwise away from their phone, they don’t have to be out of touch. VMT transcribes the voicemail and delivers the text, as well as an MP3 audio file, to the employee’s email inbox.

For Business Expansion

• Work from Anywhere: Setting up a new extension on the Vonage system can be done quickly and virtually. This feature lets employees gain access to the phone system simply by plugging their office phone into high-speed internet … at home, on the road, or in the office.
• Local or Geographic Number: Adding a number in a new region is easy, allowing the business to develop a local presence in a new market.
• Toll Free Numbers: For your sales or service department, or even in support of a special promotion, a Toll Free Number is easy to purchase and set up quickly.

For Mobile Employee Empowerment

• Mobile App: Our Vonage Business Mobile App for iOS® and Android®integrates your remote employees into the full phone system. And when they’re using the Mobile App, personal and business calls are separate, and calls are registered on Caller ID as a call from the office.
• “Never Miss a Call”: This suite of five mobility features gives employees the option to choose how they want their calls routed when they’re away from their desk or out of the office. Includes: Call Forwarding, Follow Me, Simultaneous Ring, Voicemail and Do Not Disturb.
• Softphone: Many customers choose to access the business phone system through their computer – particularly when travelling – which is no problem with our Softphone.

The Vonage system features above include some of its 40+ standard features, as well as specialized add-on features. While customers may not use all the available features, it’s certainly a worthy goal to explore the ones that can truly enhance the way you do business. That’s what we mean by “growth features” – those calling features that help you enhance efficiency, better serve customers, streamline processes, expand your business, and develop a competitive edge.

See how Vonage Business customer Knee Walker Central leverages calling features to help them grow and build a better workforce.

Infographic: Cloud-based Business Systems on the Rise

he dramatic rate of adoption of cloud-based business systems is a true “What’s in it for the business?” story. In fact, a 2015 Microsoft study1revealed the top reasons businesses are making the shift are to: (1) improve technology quality, (2) help grow our business, (3) improve availability, and (4) better business service.

Confidence in the Cloud. Over 75% in the Microsoft Study said that nearly half of their applications will be deployed in cloud environments within three years. This includes everything from CRM solutions such as Salesforce.com to business VoIP phone systems like Vonage Business. A Frost & Sullivan study2 showed a 32% increase in the hosted VoIP user base in 2013, with steady growth anticipated through 2020. Perhaps not surprisingly, the study also pointed to support for a mobile workforce as a key driver for adopting cloud-hosted communications solutions.

Why the Rise of Cloud-based Business Phone Systems? Just think of the difference between traditional phone service – with its in-office PBXrouting calls and delivering calling features – and today’s cloud-hosted systems. Hosted VoIP systems have removed the hardware and technology limitations of traditional phone systems. Instead, the feature-enabling PBX is delivered by software running in the cloud that providers can deliver efficiently to an entire customer base. That cumbersome “closetful of wires” is no longer necessary, nor are phone vendor visits for maintenance, feature upgrades or adding lines. Hosted VoIP solutions like the Vonage Business system are maintained virtually, which customers often find more liberating and less expensive than traditional service.

Learn more about the rise of cloud-based phone systems over traditional systems in the Inside the Business VoIP Revolution eBook.

Sources:
1 Beyond Infrastructure: Cloud 2.0 Signifies New Opportunities for Cloud Service Providers, a Microsoft Corp.-commissioned study conducted by 451 Research LLC and published in March 2015

2 Analysis of the North American Hosted IP Telephony and UCC Services Market was published in August 2014 by Frost & Sullivan

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Trend Insights: More Businesses Moving to Cloud-hosted Services

The business world’s rapid and widespread adoption of cloud-based business services, including phone service, will continue for the foreseeable future, according to a recent Microsoft-commissioned study called Beyond Infrastructure.1

The study found that more than 75 percent of businesses surveyed expect approximately half of their applications will operate in cloud environments within three years.

The study also found that top applications being adopted include voice services such as hosted phone systems, database, email, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM), virtual desktop hosting, personal productivity documents, analytics including business intelligence and e-commerce website hosting.

Why the Dramatic Shift to the Cloud?

The top reasons survey respondents gave for shifting to cloud-hosted services were led by the desire to improve the quality of their technology, to help grow the business, increase the availability of their applications, scale to demand, lower cost, increase their speed to market and add capabilities that they can’t build internally.

Cloud services have been a boon to small businesses in particular, enabling them to utilize sophisticated technology without having to deploy physical infrastructure, software and IT consultants or employees. The anytime, anywhere nature of cloud services also makes collaboration among an increasingly mobile workforce and business partners easier than ever before.

What Businesses Want in a Cloud Provider

The top criteria for selecting cloud service providers are trust, uptime, security, performance and technical expertise, according to the Microsoft survey. “Enterprises are looking for a trusted end-to-end solution, and ultimately this will involve multiple partners,” said Michelle Bailey, a senior vice president with 451 Research, which conducted the study for Microsoft.

One of the top cloud services identified by respondents is Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), a range of voice and telephony, chat and video conferencing that encompasses voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phone service.
In 2013, the hosted VoIP user base grew by 32 percent to five million users. Small and mid-sized companies looking for telecommunications systems that are affordable, flexible, and scalable are currently the heaviest users of VoIP business services.

A recent Frost & Sullivan study,2 found that more than 68 percent of the internet telephone services market was composed of businesses with less than 50 users in 2013, a trend expected to continue over the next five years.

In addition, mid-sized and large business use of the technology is also expected to increase. All hosted internet telephony and Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCC) services users will grow by a compound annual growth 27.4 percent from 2013 to 2020, according to Frost & Sullivan.

Support for the Mobile Workforce

The trend toward cloud service adoption is also being driven by the need to support a growing mobile workforce and the ability to gain faster access to advanced features and capabilities. Security, reliability and price are also important factors in system selection as are technology maturity, cutting edge features and a technology portfolio.

Learn more about the rapid adoption of cloud-based phone systems in our Inside the Business VoIP Revolution eBook.

Sources:
1 Beyond Infrastructure: Cloud 2.0 Signifies New Opportunities for Cloud Service Providers, a Microsoft Corp.-commissioned study conducted by 451 Research LLC and published in March 2015

2 Analysis of the North American Hosted IP Telephony and UCC Services Market was published in August 2014 by Frost & Sullivan

10 VoIP features that can benefit your small business

Many small businesses today are making the switch over to VoIP business phone systems. There are plenty of advantages to using such a service, but a lot of small business owners are overlooking some of the most valuable features. Beyond options like voicemail, call waiting, toll free numbers, call forwarding, and remote operation, you'll find a host of other features that can help your small business.

1: Door phone entry buzzer integration

This feature allows you to integrate an analog door phone so that you can have a two-way call with visitors and then unlock the door from your phone if you deem them worthy. A great way to upgrade the security of your building.

2: Find me/follow me call routing

Mobile workers will appreciate this feature. Find me/follow me call routing allows you to create a list of numbers where you can be found before the call gets pushed to voicemail. So, for example, you might have your office phone ring twice, but on the third ring, your cell phone starts to ring, and then on the fifth, your home phone. If the list is exhausted, the caller gets sent to voicemail.

3: Voicemail to email transcription

Voicemail to email transcription transcribes your voicemail messages to text and sends them to a preferred email. You don't have to worry about furiously scribbling names, numbers, and addresses. Take your time and read them in your email at your leisure. This also allows you to file, organize, delete, and search all your voicemails in a way that would otherwise be impossible.

4: Music on hold

If your company often has to put callers on hold, this feature is a necessity. Do not subject your callers to terrible elevator music — or worse, silence. This feature allows you to choose what your callers listen to as they wait. (Tip: You can't go wrong with Journey.)

5: Bandwidth utilization and inbound/outbound call detail reports

Data! As a business, data tracking is essential to figure out where to direct your company's time and energy. A managed, cloud-based VoIP service can provide bandwidth utilization information that allows you to view data usage over a period of time. Inbound and outbound call detail reports let you view details of your company's call history, including rate centers, duration, originator, destination, and cost.

6: Call screening

Call screening is an often-forgotten feature of the VoIP business world that can come in handy. It allows you to look at a number on the caller ID and choose how to treat it. For example, if your spouse is calling, you can redirect the number to your cell phone. Or if it's a caller that keeps trying to sell you energy supplements, you can disconnect them.

7: Coaching tools

Instead of giving your employees advice after they've hung up the phone, give them advice while they're on the call. Two features can help you train and monitor your employees' on-phone performance: barge and whisper. Barge allows you to listen to a conversation between an employee and a client without interrupting. You can alert them — or decide not to. Whisper allows you to provide advice, tips, and information to your employees while they are on the phone with a client without the client being aware.

8: Auto attendant

An auto attendant is one of the hidden gems of premium VoIP services. This feature allows callers to interact with a menu to choose an appropriate extension. Your business will suddenly seem more professional and impressive. It's like having an electronic receptionist!

9: Conferencing

Most people know about conferencing with VoIP services, but not everyone takes advantage of all the features that might come with it. Often, you can set up a conference floor monitor. This allows you to manage invitations, "hand-raises," muting individuals, etc. Online conferences can get messy and confusing if not managed correctly, so this is a great tool to learn how to use.

10: Do not disturb

This feature does exactly what its name implies: leaves you undisturbed.  You can turn it on to temporarily stop incoming calls to your phone. This becomes especially useful during conferences, lunches, and meetings. Best of all, you can program it so that it does not just ignore callers, but directs them toward voicemail or another destination of your choice.

About the author

Amber Newman is a marketing professional with many years of experience in business-to-business software, including VoIP and business phone systems. She is currently working for ShoreTel, providing marketing services for its Skyproduct.

Alternatives to Small Business Loans for Women

According to a recent study from the Small Business Administration, small business loans for women are harder to come by than those for male business owners even when controlling for factors like industry and credit score.

Many female business owners are well aware of the challenges of obtaining loans and choose to rely less on outside capital than do men. Because of the difficulties of obtaining business loans for women, female operated businesses often have less working capital and tighter budgets. Women are also more likely to utilize non-traditional forms of lending such as peer-to-peer financing or alternative business loan providers such asKabbage.

According to the SBA, the “level of startup capital is a strong predictor of business success.” Having access to capital is essential for women to have the same opportunities as men to achieve success.

When looking at the statistics on women-owned businesses published by the Association of Women’s Business Centers, it’s clear that small business loans for women are essential to helping fuel the overall economy.

• Women owned businesses account for more than 40% of all privately held firms
• One in five firms with revenue of $1 million or more is woman-owned
• 10.1 million firms are owned by women, employing more than 13 million people and generating more than $2 trillion in sales each year.

4 Tips for Obtaining Funding for Your Female-Owned Small Business
While small business loans for women may be limited, there are plenty of other ways to obtain working capital. If you’re a woman who is launching a new business or who needs funds to grow an existing business, the following strategies can help:

1. Find Out Your Options
   There are plenty of alternatives to traditional bank loans. It can often make financial sense to consider lines of credit, SBA microloans, and credit cards depending on your particular situation. Cash advances can often be a good choice if you need a quick source of funds to purchase inventory or to hire help during a busy season.
2. Build Your Business Credit
   Even with a good personal credit score, it can be hard to obtain business loans for women.  Establishing credit for your business is always a good idea even if you choose not to work with banks. Your good business credit can be beneficial for obtaining desirable terms with vendors and for getting lower interest rates on business credit cards.
3. Make Your Business Plan a Dynamic Document
   Your business plan shouldn’t be just pre-launch homework that you tuck into a desk drawer. It should be your blueprint for the growth of your business. By keeping current with your financial projections, marketing, and development efforts, you will always have the backup to show potential lenders what you’re doing now and where you’re headed in the future.
4. Look Better on Paper
   Many small business owners make the mistake of not depositing cash into their business bank accounts before paying themselves or their vendors. Making those deposits is your proof of cash flow if you want to obtain funding. Paying vendors on time and filing taxes before the deadline can help, too!

Finally, it’s important to not get discouraged. Small business loans for women may not be the easiest thing to obtain. But, there are plenty of successful female business owners who have never borrowed from a bank. Stay focused on your goals and be open to a variety of lending opportunities. With a little research and a good plan of action, you can get the resources you need to achieve your goals. 

Your Seasonal Employee Tool Kit: Everything You Need to Know About Seasonal Hiring

‘Tis the season to hire seasonal employees. In fact, according to the National Retail Federation, retailers are expected to hire between 700,000 and 750,000 seasonal workers during the 2015 holiday season. Hiring full time employees, managing them, and keeping them engaged is hard enough – but accomplishing all of that with seasonal employees, while running a business, is another thing to pile on top of the stress that comes with holidays. Here is a toolkit we assembled for you, full of tips and tricks to making sure you get the most from your seasonal employees.

Before You Start:

1. There are several rules and regulations about hiring seasonal employees and how you classify them.SBA.gov shares some important information to make sure you stay within compliance.
2. Before you start posting on Craigslist or local newspapers, you need to understand tax regulations.Review best practices for hiring and paying seasonal workers.
3. Hiring disabled veterans as seasonal workers is a great way to meet your high customer demand and receive several benefits, such as tax credits. Here’s a look at what those benefits are, and where you can find disabled veterans looking for jobs.

Hiring Seasonal Employees:

1. Sometimes, it pays to be creative with your hiring. Think beyond the basic job boards and target your key demographic.
2. Let’s be honest, one of the most nerve-wracking parts of finding seasonal help is finding quality employees. Here’s how to find seasonal workers who don’t suck.
3. Make sure your hiring game-plan is on point, and serves to help you staff up quickly. Consider these 11 approaches to fielding superlative workers when the annual rush is on.
4. Interview questions are very important, and they are not a one-size-fits-all prospect for full time and seasonal help. Here’s a quick list of interview questions aimed at seasonal employment candidates.
5. One of our favorite resources for seasonal hiring tips is this webinar from Adecco USA:

Training and Managing Seasonal Employees:

1.  Making sure your seasonal employees are well-trained is vital to ensuring that things run smoothly, and that your business ultimately meets its sales goals. Beyond how to work the register and the overhead music, here are 15 things every retailer must train their seasonal staff.
2. Of course, customer service is everything. You don’t want an employee who doesn’t reflect the values of your business when it comes to how they treat your customers. Check out these six ways to train your seasonal employees on customer service.
3. Engaging and motivating your seasonal staff goes beyond training. In fact, according to this expert, 70% of it comes down to the job their manager is doing.
4. Keeping temporary employees motivated can be difficult, consider competitive options to keep them engaged.
5. Choose motivation techniques that fit with your managerial style, the personalities of the seasonal employees and the industry.

Would you like more tips and tricks to get you through the holiday season? Our weekly holiday email course features unique advice from small business experts, advocates and influencers to help you survive and thrive the holidays. Click below to sign up. It’s free!