When was the last time you saw an answering machine laying around your office or home? Most likely, it is tucked away in a closet, covered with dust and no longer of use to you with the advent of automated voicemail.

 

When voicemail was first introduced, it was in the form of an answering machine. There were long, complex manuals to follow for set-up. Now voicemail is an automatic feature included in digital desktop phones, cell phones and now even e-mail.

 

Voicemail to e-mail works like this:

 

When a call comes in and the recipient is unavailable, a message is sent to their e-mail saying they have a new voicemail. To retrieve the message, they just check it as they normally would with their office phone, home phone or cell phone.

 

The ability to customize greetings and access messages from a computer enables business professionals to stay connected even when they are on the road.

 

Not only is this convenient, but there is no extra equipment to buy, no worn-out tapes to replace and it doesn’t require additional electrical power. Voicemail answers your phone even when you’re on another call, and provides much more privacy.

 

With voicemail, users can retrieve, send and manage voice messages 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from any touchtone phone in the world. It can store an unlimited number of voice messages and record messages up to 5 minutes in length. In addition, incoming calls can be sent straight to voicemail.

 

Nextiva, a business VoIP solutions provider, incorporates voicemail to e-mail features in both of its affordable solutions, NextivaConnect and Nextiva Connect360.

 

In addition, Nextiva’s business VoIP solutions allow you to have all calls routed to your cell phone, home phone, a phone in your hotel, or all three. Calls can be sent to anywhere you choose, including department voicemail boxes that you set up. With this feature, you will never miss an important call, or a sale.

 

In today’s tough economy, many businesses are cutting costs by trading out their old ways of communication – standard telephones, fax machines, answering machines- and adopting Unified Communications (UC). Voicemail to e-mail is one form of UC, since it integrates e-mail, phone, mobile phone and computer into one simple stream of communication.

 

While older forms of communication are still used today by a few companies, as the economy continues to deliver its blow, the presence of Unified Communications in the workplace will only increase.

 

What are you waiting for?

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