Toshiba Phone Systems and More

Are you SIP yet? My research  has shown that interest in SIP Trunking is high. According to Eric Krapf of No Jitter ” The most-attended breakout session at VoiceCon was the one on SIP Trunking, which surprised the heck out of me. SIP Trunking has become one of the most popular topics at the show, but the biggest? I wouldn’t have expected that.” But users are only just starting to solicit proposals for SIP based carrier services.

Part of the issue is a real fustration with customers about SIP Trunking. They have heard about it,they think that they can save money by going to it and yet they can’t seem to get a SIP service that works.

Another issue is trying to match a carriers services with a phone system, most carriers want to connect to PBX’s that have been certifed, and the same is true for PBX manufactures, they also want to only connect to SIP providers that have been certified. The problem is that there is no ONE standard for SIP Trunking!

So is SIP Trunking main stream technology? The answer is yes. Some carriers have already started delivering services to customers in SIP form and then converting back to traditional forms to interface with the customers equipment. SIP Trunking will become the standard as time goes on. It is more cost effective for the carriers to deliver services that way.

Customers that are looking to go to SIP should start by looking at there phone system. Old equipment will not be able to interface with SIP Trunks. As I mentioned earlier PBX manufactures will have a list of approved carriers. Need more help? We offer PBX solutions from Toshiba and carrier services from several SIP providers including Paetec. Contact Pilothouse Communications at 866-887-5792.

Do you use your cell phone for business?

Many people are using the cell phones for business, would n it be nice if you walked in to your office while talking on the cell phone and were able to transfer the call to your desk phone without skipping a beat? Or maybe the reverse, start a call at your desk and want to continue the call as you leave? Well now you can!

With a  (smartphone) you can connect through and be switched between the phone system (wired networks) and wireless (cellular) networks. This includes the ability to  provide roaming and hand-off between networks, pretty cool right?
Instead of giving out your office number and your cell phone number this feature enables callers to dial the PBX DID extension number and reach the person regardless of whether they are in or out of office, so employees only have one number to give out for
business purposes. One number access what a concept!
Missed business calls go to the phone system (PBX) voice mail to leave messages, rather than the smartphone voice mail, so employees have only one place to check for all business calls.
PBX features are extended to the smartphone including one number reach, the ability to dial ext’s from your cell, call hold, call transfer,  message waiting indication and many more.

This feature called Fixed Mobile Convergence is now being offered by Toshiba who is partnering with Varaha Systems Inc. It is available thru authorized Toshiba dealers, like Pilothouse Communications.

Want to learn more? contact Pilothouse Communications at 866-887-5792

How do you buy Telecom? I want  to know! Imagine this, you have been put in charge of buying a new phone system for your company, your boss gave very simple instructions: make sure it has all the features we need, that the company will provide great service, and that most importantly you get the BEST price! Sounds simple right?

I ask customers all the time what is the top three things your going to base your decision on when you buy your new Telecom system? Lately the number one thing is price! Is that how you buy your Telecom?

Let’s  break down all your needs into three buckets, Quality, Service, and Price. I am going to suggest to you that you can get two out of three of these but the third will have to suffer.Makes sense doesn’t it? How can you get the best service with all the best features for the lowest price?

So what should be the priority? Should price be the number one factor? Will you be happy with less than all the features you need or with a company that doesn’t support the system the way you expect? I want to know! How do you buy your Telecom?

What does your email inbox look like? Mine is a mess! So many messages so little time, so many other things to be doing besides cleaning up my in box! What is the best way to handle all those messages? I try to archive things and that gets crazy, it feels like I’m a pack rat and can not throw  anything out! That still leaves all these messages that I should do something with or act on or what?

So what do I do, I leave a large number of messages in my in box, go back from time to time and delete some, act on some and the rest just sit. Then some where along the line I will say enough and go thru the inbox and do something with everything in it. That takes ALOT of time! There must be a better way but I have not figured it out yet, any ideas?