Unified Communications and Mobility – The Death of the VOIP Handset Part 3

I’m very excited about ShoreTel’s mobility products.  Beyond a potentially very quick ROI, it has the following benefits:

• A client that runs on Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, and DROID (the DROID support coming soon).  This client allows you to set presence management (in the car, in a meeting, at home, at the office, etc) that all other users on your business phone system can see (regardless if they’re mobile or not).
• Your presence can automatically change depending on your physical location (accomplished by GPS technology).  You can turn this off (big brother?)
• The ability to dial extension-to-extension directly from your Smart Device. This “extension” can be an extension on your business phone system, another Smart Device, or both.  Does it really matter anymore?  You should only have one number or extension, the device you’re using for VOIP transmission is becoming a moot point these days.
• The ability to use the native dialer on your Smart phone, not have to launch a goofy VPN connection back to your corporate network, or not have to open a separate application on your Smart Phone.
• The ability to send corporate caller ID associated with your VOIP business phone system if you’re calling a work contact or send personal cellular caller ID if it’s a personal contact.

By the way, ShoreTel’s Mobility solution works with any business phone system – NEC, Cisco, Avaya, Mitel, etc.

This is all done with a ShoreTel Mobility Router that interfaces with your business phone system and a client that runs on the Smart Device.  If you have a VOIP phone system, we can integrate via SIP trunks.  If it’s a legacy phone system, we can integrate via PRI.

Incredible!

Travis Dillard is the President of Inflow Communications.  Inflow Communications is a Portland, Oregon-based company that designs, deploys, and supports enterprise-class VOIP, business phone systems, and Unified Communications solutions to businesses throughout Oregon, Washington, and California.

Unified Communications and Mobility – The Death of the VOIP Handset Part 2

ShoreTel has just released their “ShoreTel Mobility” suite of products. This provides the following functionality:

• Your Smart Phone becomes a secure SIP VOIP Extension off your corporate PBX over any Wi-Fi network (home, corporate, public hot spot, etc) or your mobile carrier’s data network. The “hand-off” between the cellular, 3G, or Wi-Fi networks happens automatically without dropping the call.

Think about the cost reduction opportunities here. How many mobile phones do you manage in your business? What if you could significantly reduce the mobile plans on each phone? What about employees whom travel internationally? What if they could become a SIP VOIP endpoint to your PBX and completely avoid international roaming? Do the math, it could be a lot.

Perhaps it’s enough savings to allow you to start migrating away from that tank of a legacy PBX to VOIP. Notice I said “migrate” and not “forklift”. Inflow Communications can integrate a VOIP phone system platform to your legacy PBX, deploy mobile integration to your smart phone users, provide Unified Communications tools to all your employees (regardless of what phone system they’re on), and we can do it at a pace that makes the most sense for your organization.

We’re happy to do a free technical and economic analysis / design for you.

Beyond incredible savings and a very quick ROI, ShoreTel’s mobility solution offers a lot of features. Tune into my next blog to learn more.

Travis Dillard is the President of Inflow Communications. Inflow Communications is a Portland, Oregon-based company that designs, deploys, and supports enterprise-class VOIP, business phone systems, and Unified Communications solutions to businesses throughout Oregon, Washington, and California.

Unified Communications and Mobility – The Death of the VOIP Handset Part 1

Nearly one-third of US homes don’t have land lines. 50% of those households, ages 25-29, don’t have land lines. A new Gartner Report says that, by 2012, 23% of workers using corporate mobile devices won’t even have a desk phone.

This makes sense to me. It seems as though corporate trends always follow household trends. I haven’t had a land line in my house for years. I’m deploying that same strategy here at Inflow Communications. Inflow Communications’ work-force is virtual and completely mobile. We use ShoreTel VOIP, Data Center Collocation, Terminal Services, SIP Trunking, Lifesize Video Conferencing, smart phone integration, Instant Messaging, and other technologies to maintain effective communication and collaboration with each other and our customers at all times. We use what we sell.

So back to the business phone system handset – I believe it will soon become obsolete. We have ShoreTel VOIP phones on our desks, but my extension, voicemail, email, and Direct Dial Number (DID) is always tied to my Smart Phone. I’m rarely at my desk. My employees, however, can “answer” calls into our business, see all other employees’ presence (on the phone, do not disturb, etc), transfer calls, conference, etc. It doesn’t matter if they’re on a VOIP phone, smart phone, IP Soft Phone, analog land line, etc. All telephony controls and tools are distributed to whatever device they’re on. Our engineers can answer ACD calls into our support queue and respond to our customers immediately anytime, anywhere in the world.

We’ve been doing this for a long time. But now the mobility story is changing again – and it will never be the same. Tune in to my next blog to learn about ShoreTel’s latest advancement in smart phone integration.

Travis Dillard is the President of Inflow Communications, Inc. Inflow Communications is a Portland, Oregon-based company that designs, deploys, and supports enterprise-class VOIP, business phone systems, and Unified Communications solutions to businesses throughout Oregon, Washington, and California.

ShoreTel releases the IPhone Mobile Call Manager Application in Release 11

It’s here and ready for deployment in ShoreTel 11. Download it for free at the IPhone app store.  However you MUST have ShoreTel’s Mobile Access license.  By the way, for new customers over 50 phones, ShoreTel is giving its Mobile Call Access License and Professional Call Manager License away.  Get the following now on your IPhone:

Access to corporate ShoreTel voicemail

The ability to reassign your extension / DID to your IPhone

Configure your Call Handling Mode settings

Outlook contacts and quick dialing

Propagate your presence settings to other users throughout the organization

You’ll need a VPN connection from your ShoreTel-enabled IPhone or a reverse proxy server.

Need help or interested?  Call us.