SME businesses can't boast about being bigger or more impressive than their larger competitors, but now they have hopes of outmaneuvering them with cloud telephony call management services.
And according to industry observer Ian Roberts, the latest weapon SMEs have is one that might surprise you: The telephone network. Not exactly what you think of when you're looking for a silver bullet, is it - "Hey, we've got a… phone network! We're winning!"
But as Roberts points out, network telephony "provides businesses the ability to operate with multiple telephone numbers, and forward them to as many different locations as they wish, or to a single telephone line if the business is a start up." Can that help your business? We thought so.
Roberts is writing from Great Britain, but the principle is the same here in America: With network telephony, "from a single line operated from anywhere the new business looks like it has local sales presence in London, Birmingham and Edinburgh, as well as a national freephone - 0800 number - and a national support number" for easy rental.
Why is this a big deal? "Even the most basic regional number capability was previously limited to actual number rental and call forwarding from virtual office businesses at many times the price of the network telephony services," Roberts explains, adding that "none had or have owners' Web control panels for real time call routing changes, which cloud telephony services offer."
Advance network call management systems, as Roberts points out, also have IVR, call statistics and call recording capability, "providing all the functionality of advanced IP PBX (News - Alert) systems for a fraction of the price."
Well, usually at a fraction of the price. Shop around, you can find one that is.
And even better, Roberts says, usually "there is no limit to the number of call management and routing options." The sky, your creativity and your business needs are the limit.
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David's articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.Edited by Juliana Kenny