With all of the sizzle surrounding things in the real-time communications world involving how companies are busy deploying new unified communications (UC) and collaboration tools, we too often forget about the plumbing challenges. This is a mistake.  In our homes, if we don’t have a sound plumbing infrastructure—which is true for all of our utility services like electric, gas and cable—having the water we need to bathe, eat and cool our homes, wash dishes, flush toilets, water the lawn, etc becomes a challenge. And, when it comes to UC, not being able to properly manage its underpinnings, e.g., telephone numbers, the same is true.

The context for this for those who may not be familiar is that one of the most difficult and costly voice and UC problems today is effectively managing large amounts of numbers in a dynamic environment across multiple and disparate voice and UC vendors and system types. It may be hard to believe but many organizations still rely on an error-prone manual process using spreadsheets. This means that databases can rapidly be filled with outdated numbers resulting in communication failures and unnecessary expense. It also means that organizations can easily run out of numbers or unnecessarily purchase more numbers than they need.

This raises the question, “Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a solution that could replace spreadsheets and other manual management techniques with a single application which automates the complex task of phone number management?”  The good news is that one exists from UC solutions provider Unimax and its state-of-the-art unified voice administration tool called NumberPro.

What NumberPro does is simplify the complex task of identifying, organizing, and reporting on phone numbers (such as DIDs, directory numbers and extensions) and voice mailbox numbers to determine if they are used, available, reserved or in the process of aging, regardless of the vendor platform, number of systems, system types or number formats. This translates into tangible benefits such as reduced operational expense, increased accuracy, improved work ticket resolution time, and greater capabilities for proactively solving problems and significantly reducing errors.

Since we all know that seeing and hearing is believing, you are invited to participate in the webinar, End Phone (News - Alert) Number Management Headaches!  To be held, Tuesday, September 22, 2015 11:00 AM EDT / 8:00 AM PDT / 9:00 AM MT / 10:00 CT, join me and Phil Moen, CEO, Teresa Dixon, Director of Product Management, Unimax (News - Alert) as we delve into a powerful way of managing, identifying, organizing and reporting on phone and voice mailbox numbers (such as DIDs, directory numbers and extensions) without spreadsheets, or other manual methods.

Participants will learn how to:

• Instantly find the next available number from custom ranges
• Automatically update telephone number and extension inventory each time a number is assigned, reserved, or released
• Synchronize with PBX (News - Alert), UC and/or voice mailbox systems to always provide the most up-to-date number inventory
• Provide client specific transformation rules which automatically transform numbers between E.164 format, 10-digit phone number format and variable digit extensions even in multi-vendor environments
• Get notified when you are running low of available numbers

As noted at the top getting the plumbing right with assured reliability is mission critical when it comes to our homes and in UC deployments. The last thing any IT administrator needs is spending valuable time and money dealing with numbering issues/crises. Telephone numbers despite what you may read are not going away any time soon. They are and will remain for the foreseeable future foundational to communications and collaboration whether on mixed or mobile devices. Running short or paying for numbers you do not need are both avoidable, and there are tools available to literally and figuratively eliminate the headaches associated with telephone number management.