Your essential Guide to Hosted VoIP Hosted VoIP for Schools 1
Table of Contents Hosted Desk- 3 VoIP today 3 What is Hosted VoIP? 4 How does Hosted VoIP work? 4 Is Hosted VoIP Reliable? 4/5 Some Key features of Hosted VoIP 6 Summary 2
VoIP today Most people are by now familiar with VoIP which means Voice over Internet Protocol or in simpler terms - using your internet connection to make and receive phone calls rather than a traditional phone line. Skype is an example of a VoIP solution although its mainly for consumers and has fairly limited functionality. However enterprise VoIP PBX solutions can offer significantly more in terms of features and benefits, flexibility and capacity. Researched conducted in 2012 by Ofcom proved that awareness of VoIP in the UK has increased drastically over the last few years and although there is significantly more data surrounding consumer VoIP e.g. Skype etc, without any doubt, the adoption of VoIP in the education sector has been increasing substantially, in most part due to the cost efficiencies and the sheer flexibility it delivers to the school. This guide has been created for schools and academies that are looking to adopt more innovative and flexible ICT solutions to improve usability, increase productivity and enhance communication with less budget drain. It gives some answers about VoIP, particularly for those who rely on traditional telephony and are unsure what the benefits of VoIP are, particularly for academy trusts with multiple sites. systems including Windows, Apple and Android. What does that mean for your School? It means you can turn almost any device into your office phone and call between multiple devices in any location at little or no cost. You can also tightly control call routing even based on different times of the day. So with VoIP, the chances of missing that important call are greatly reduced! Hosted VoIP provides a huge range of features that will benefit your School. Many small and midsized organisation use the flexibility that VoIP and IP phone systems offer to thrive in this challenging economy CornerStone, 2010 What is Hosted VoIP? A Hosted VoIP PBX is a cloud based phone system that costs less to adopt and can help reduce phone bills by up to 30%. A hosted phone system can also make your schools communications more flexible and mobile by offering intuitive features that support todays increasing mobility requirements. VoIP can be deployed on lots of devices to make and receive calls from, all forming part of your internal network. From a traditional desktop handset to softphones and applications for all your preferred mobile smartphones and tablets on operating 3
How does Hosted VoIP work? A Hosted VoIP PBX is a complete enterprise phone system available for a low monthly fee, continuously developed without you having to keep upgrading phone system or licensing. You can choose from a range of packages that suits your schools needs and amend these are required. VoIP can save you money compared with traditional systems of initial cost, and then some schools have experienced up to 50% in savings on calls and services over their traditional PBX systems and plans. So it reduces your phone bills, cuts line rental costs, typically has a far lower cost of entry than a traditional on premise phone systems with lower costs of maintenance and support to. sure they have a proven track record, are hosted in the UK and also read client reviews or speak to other schools they have deployed their system in to provide you with important feedback about the VoIP provider. Some Key features of Hosted VoIP If you have ever wondered how some of your fellow schools have such sophisticated phone systems, the answer may well be that they discovered a Hosted VoIP. Providers will offer different features and benefits with their systems but at Octagon, we want to make sure the VoIP gives both your school and your users all the extras you might expect from a full scale enterprise level phone system for a simple monthly subscription. Features including: Keep your number The Hosted service is delivered from the Cloud bringing your team together, it can connect multiple site together including SMT s home s giving flexibility for senior leaders. Is Hosted VoIP Reliable? In short yes. Although it will vary from provider to provider, VoIP has made huge strides forward in reliability and security over recent years and in comparison to traditional fixed line solutions, it is now with correct planning and deployment just as reliable. These days you should expect a quality VoIP service to be at least 99% as reliable more traditional services. While choosing the right provider, make Using a Hosted PBX does not mean losing the old telephone number. It is a simple as transferring the existing number in as little as 10 working days, with a simple process and a cost of just 25 (excluding VAT) per number. Our team sets everything up, checks that everything is in order and seamlessly moves you to a Hosted PBX service. Get your Voicemail in your Inbox Never miss those important messages even on the move with Voicemail Email. Set your system to automatically forward all your voicemails directly to your email inbox so you can listen to them instantly on your PC, Laptop, smartphone or tablet devices wherever you are. Create voice menus Efficient call routing is simple using the Hosted PBX voice menu options. A facility for directing customers efficiently to the team or person they need, for example asking callers to press 1 for the office, 2 for learning mentor etc, gives the experience of 4
professionalism and simply means that callers do not have to be transferred 2-3 or more times to reach the right department. Management is all via the Hosted PBX web interface so setup is extremely straightforward. Set up call queues Invaluable for busy departments, support or those early morning busy periods, call queues hold your callers in call order, with calls passed to your team as they become free. Callers hear music as they are holding and you also have the ability to set up advanced options such as breaking out of the queue and informing callers of their position. Manage your voicemail Making sure that messages do not get lost is a critical issue for any business. The hosted PBX allows callers to leave messages at individual extensions. You can then manage and listen to it online, on your desktop phone or even via your inbox by email. Pick up other extensions If someone in the office spotted another ringing extension that needs answering, it is easy to pick up the call from another phone. Key features of VoIP with Octagon: Keep your number Get your voicemail in your inbox Create voice menus Set up call queues Manage your voicemail Pick up other extension Re-route calls by time of day Call Recording Conference rooms And more. For more information about what Hosted VoIP can do for your school, contact the team today free on 0800 802 1992 Re-route-calls by time of day There will always be different priorities at different times of day in your school or some staff members may only be available at certain times. Re-routing calls automatically is easy using the Hosted VoIP online control panel and by adjusting settings, whenever the requirements change. These are just a few of the main features and benefits of Hosted VoIP, there are lots more value added features your school gets free with a hosted VoIP solution to help you improve communication and flexibility. Features that would cost extra with a traditional phone system but are free with a Hosted VoIP provider. 5
Summary By using the right provider who can tailor a service that suits your school, hosted VoIP will deliver a quality, reliable, scalable and cost effective phone solution to you, school. Hosted VoIP is simple to adopt and some providers will even fully pre-configure your system and handsets for you, ready to plug in and start using quickly. When you weigh up traditional telephony vs VoIP, currently the advantages of moving to a VoIP system by far outweigh those for staying on an ISDN / PSTN service. They also give all the flexibility to make your business more mobile and responsive to the changes it needs to adapt to sooner rather than later. Used in conjunction with other online services such as Hosted Exchange email for example, VoIP solution will give you a complete hosted communications solution that will save you money and improve your school. At Octagon Education our passion is supporting your school s ICT journey, while improving the way you access and use new and traditional technology solutions and services. We ve not only developed a class leading range of cloud based ICT services including hosted exchange email, online backup, online file sharing and hosted servers, but we can plan and deliver a complete range of ICT solutions from PC, server and network solutions to complex managed WiFi systems or the latest interactive touch screens from the world s leading vendors. All professionally planned, installed and supported by our experienced, friendly team. Contact a team member today to get more information about Cloud Solutions and determine which Cloud Service would best fit your needs and requirements Helpline: 0800 802 1992 enquiries@octagoneducation.co.uk Connect with us on: 6