Zultys Receives 2022 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award

SUNNYVALE, California — July 19, 2022 — Zultys announced today that TMC, a global, integrated media company helping clients build communities in print, in person, and online, has named Zultys Advanced Communicator (ZAC) as a 2022 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award winner.

Businesses today need their employees to stay productive and connected as the workplace evolves, whether they are in the office, working from home, or mobile and on the go. ZAC lets teams collaborate from anywhere and on any device with tools like call center integration, SMS texting, group chat, web conferencing, screen sharing, file and image sharing, video calling, integrated fax, and more, all from a single intuitive interface.

“I’d like to thank Rich Tehrani and TMC for recognizing Zultys with the Unified Communications Product of the Year Award for the fifth time,” said John Osgood, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “The Zultys platform is designed to be a truly all-in-one Unified Communications system that utilizes ZAC’s desktop application or our browser-based WebZAC version with a single pane of glass user experience, allowing us to bring the best possible UC experience to market.”

The Unified Communications Product of the Year Award honors the most innovative Unified Communications products and solutions available over the past 12 months, as judged by the editors of TMC’s INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine. Winners of the award will be announced online and highlighted in INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine.

“It gives me great pleasure to honor Zultys as a 2022 recipient of TMC’s Unified Communications Product of the Year Award for their innovative solution, ZAC,” said Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC. “Our judges were very impressed with the ingenuity and excellence displayed by Zultys in their groundbreaking work on ZAC.”

About Zultys

Zultys delivers an easy-to-use, secure, and reliable platform designed to streamline all forms of communications and increase productivity for businesses of all sizes. Please visit www.zultys.com for more information.

About INTERNET TELEPHONY Magazine

INTERNET TELEPHONY has been the IP communications authority since 1998™. Beginning with the first issue, INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine has been providing unbiased views of the complicated and converged communications space. Follow INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine on Twitter or join our LinkedIn group. Subscribe or visit www.itmag.com.

About TMC

Through education, industry news, live events, and social influence, global buyers rely on TMC’s content-driven marketplaces to make purchase decisions and navigate markets. As a result, leading technology vendors turn to TMC for unparalleled branding, thought leadership, and lead generation opportunities. Our in-person and online events deliver unmatched visibility and sales prospects for all participants. Through our custom lead generation programs, we provide clients with an ongoing stream of leads that turn into sales opportunities and build databases. Additionally, we bolster brand reputations with the millions of impressions from display advertising on our news sites and newsletters. Making TMC a 360 degree marketing solution, we offer comprehensive event and road show management services and custom content creation with expertly ghost-crafted blogs, press releases, articles, and marketing collateral to help with SEO, branding, and overall marketing efforts. For more information about TMC and to learn how we can help you reach your marketing goals, please visit www.tmcnet.com and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Zultys Contact
Jenny Matkovich
VP of Marketing and Communications
Zultys
P: 213-316-9966
jenny.matkovich@zultys.com

TMC Contact
Michelle Connolly
Marketing Manager
203-852-6800, ext. 170
mconnolly@tmcnet.com

Zultys Introduces MX-E

System Designed to Handle a Massive Number of Users and Calls All within One Single Server

Zultys, a leading provider of innovative unified communications solutions that empower businesses to collaborate effectively, today introduces the MX-E™ to their powerful MX series of SIP-based IP telephone systems. The latest addition to Zultys’ award-winning line of unified communication product line, is a powerful enterprise-class IP phone system designed to allow corporations with a large number of users to accommodate these users within a single physical appliance.

MX-E is available in three different models; the base MX-E model supports 300 users, while the MX-E+ can support up to 1000 users, and the MX-E++ is designed to accommodate businesses with up to 2000 users on a single appliance. The unit combines powerful UC functionality and high quality voice calling all in a single IP-PBX platform, featuring T1/PRI support and up to 300 SIP trunks on the base model, with the MX-E+ supporting 1000 SIP trunks, and up to 2000 trunks on the MX-E++ model. Functions such as integrated voice, fax, voice mail, presence, instant messaging, automatic call recording, Zultys’ Unified Communication client for Mac and Windows, as well as the Zultys Mobile Communicator™ for iPhone and Android come prepackaged with every purchase of the MX-E system and allow businesses to expand their communication and make them more efficient both when connecting fellow employees and for connecting with customers.

“MX-E is a valuable addition to our lineup of IP-PBX platforms, as it significantly expands the capacity of our line of appliances, particularly in trunking.  MX-SE, MX250, along with the virtualized platform MXvirtual, and now MX-E, have the advantage of all running the same MX software and therefore present a singular product.  No change in feature, function, or administration is a major benefit to both our end users as well as our channel partners,” said Steven Francis, chief sales and marketing officer for Zultys.

Scalable and Connected

MX-E, with its expanded user and trunking capacity also can be included in an MXnetwork interoperating with all other MX appliances and virtual instances.  Users can be seamlessly connected into a corporate MXnetwork, where all employees need to do is dial a coworker’s extension to make calls between offices on the opposite sides of the world—all without incurring long-distance calling charges. MXnetwork can connect up to 128 MX systems at different locations and can accommodate 10,000 employees.

Even workers on the go and in remote locations can be joined to the corporate phone system via the Zultys Mobile smart phone application. Zultys’ advanced suite of features are available anywhere and employees retain their own personal user identity regardless of whether they are using the office phone, the smart phone app, or are working from home and calling from the softphone using their laptop’s mic and speakers.

Unmatched Reliability

MX-E is ready for continuous heavy use by large corporations, with a major focus on reliability within the design. It features redundancy for major components such as power supplies, cooling fans and storage drives. MX-E boasts dual redundant hot-swappable power supplies. The system comes equipped with a total of four drives and, similar to the power supplies, the drives are hot-swappable. Each MX-E also includes three cooling fans. The fans can adjust speed to remove excessive heat if the unit begins to run too warm and the system is designed to be fully operational within an acceptable temperature range with only two working fans out of three in case of an emergency.

About Zultys
Zultys is the global provider of a true all-in-one unified communications solution. Innovative, reliable and scalable, Zultys IP phone systems integrate voice, video, data and mobility — in a single premise based appliance or in the cloud— to optimize collaboration for businesses of all sizes. Zultys delivers a powerful, feature-rich communications system that is easy-to-use, deploy and maintain. Zultys is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices around the world. To learn more, visit www.zultys.com.

Zultys Receives 2016 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award for their Innovative Zultys Cloud Services Solution

Zultys Receives 2016 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award for their Innovative Zultys Cloud Services Solution
Sunnyvale, CA, March 15, 2016 Zultys, a leading provider of innovative unified communications solutions that empower businesses to collaborate effectively, announced today that TMC, a global, integrated media company helping clients build communities in print, in person and online, has named Zultys Cloud Services, a fully-hosted turnkey Software as a Service (SaaS) office phone solution, as a 2016 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award winner. Zultys Cloud Services, the industry veteran’s fully-hosted offering that first launched in October 2014, combines the ease of deployment and management inherent to cloud solutions with a robust feature set and enterprise-class functionality at an affordable cost. Zultys Cloud Services features include: integrated voice, fax, voice mail, presence, instant messaging, automatic call recording, contact center and Zultys Mobile Communicator for iPhone and Android, Zultys MXIE UC desktop client, and built-in conferencing bridge enables businesses to collaborate, communicate and serve customers more efficiently. To bring their product to more businesses all over the country, Zultys offers their product line through a network of certified channel partner and has recently expanded their Agent program by signing on more Master Agents. “In 2016, there is no reason why your business can’t afford to have a flexible, ease-to-scale business phone system that provides all the necessary collaborative functionality at an affordable price point, regardless of whether you run a small shop or a multinational enterprise. We have positioned Zultys Cloud Services to be the solution that can be tailored to meet the demands of any user and it is a gratifying to see that the industry has recognized our efforts,” said Steven Francis, chief sales and marketing officer at Zultys. “It gives me great pleasure to honor Zultys as a 2016 recipient of TMC’s Unified Communications Product of the Year Award for their innovative product, Zultys Cloud Services,” said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. “Our judges were very impressed with the ingenuity and excellence displayed by Zultys in their groundbreaking work on Zultys Cloud Services.” Winners of the 2016 Unified CommunicationsProduct of the Year Award will be published in the April 2016 edition of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine. About Zultys: Zultys is the global provider of a true all-in-one unified communications solution. Innovative, reliable and scalable, Zultys IP phone systems integrate voice, video, data and mobility — in a single premise-based appliance, virtualized server or in the cloud— to optimize collaboration for businesses of all sizes. Zultys delivers a powerful, feature-rich communications system that is easy-to-use, deploy and maintain. Zultys is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices around the world and a global certified dealer network to provide local support and customer service. To learn more, visit www.zultys.com. About TMC Global buyers rely on TMC’s content-driven marketplaces to make purchase decisions and navigate markets. This presents branding, thought leadership and lead generation opportunities for vendors/sellers. TMC’s Marketplaces: Unique, turnkey Online Communities boost search results, establish market validation, elevate brands and thought leadership, while minimizing ad-blocking. Custom Lead Programs uncover sales opportunities and build databases. In-Person and Online Events boost brands, enhance thought leadership and generate leads. Publications, Display Advertising and Newsletters bolster brand reputations. Custom Content provides expertly ghost-crafted blogs, press releases, articles and marketing collateral to help with SEO, branding, and overall marketing efforts. Comprehensive Event and Road Show Management Services help companies meet potential clients and generate leads face-to-face. For more information about TMC and to learn how we can help you reach your marketing goals, please visit www.tmcnet.com.   Zultys Contact: Lina Agranonik 408-328-0450 x 749 lina.agranonik@zultys.com TMC Contact: Rebecca Conyngham Marketing Manager 203-852-6800, ext. 287 rconyngham@tmcnet.com
www.zultys.com

 

Zultys Introduces Cloud Services Offering

By Clayton Hamshar, Contributing Writer

 

Zultys, a leading global provider of IP phone systems and unified communications (UC) systems, has launched Zultys Cloud Services, an umbrella solution for enterprises that offers cloud-based IP hosted phone systems, UC options, SIP trunking services and contact center services. The solution is derived from the award-winning MX series of IP phone systems for enterprises and is easily deployable for businesses of all sizes.

With Zultys Cloud Services, businesses can improve communications and optimize productivity through a combination of UC functionality and high quality voice calling. The solution expands on the features and user experience available from the company’s well-established premise-based IP phone systems in a cloud-based format, in response to the growing demand for cloud-based solutions but lack of offerings that provide true enterprise capabilities.

“When selecting a business phone system, one size doesn’t fit all,” said Neil Lichtman, CEO of Zultys. “It’s about finding the right fit so you can focus on running your business, not worrying about your phone system. Many cloud phone systems are designed for the very small-office/home-office market and lack true comprehensive business functionality. Many don’t offer you the flexibility of either having it on your premises or in the cloud with the same exact user experience. Zultys hosted solutions are built upon over a decade of delivering powerful enterprise-class communications capabilities to thousands of organizations throughout the world.”

The long list of features includes integrated voice, fax, voice mail, presence, instant messaging, automatic call recording, access to a contact center and a built-in conferencing bridge. Also included is the Zultys Mobile Communicator, available for iOS and Android, and the Zultys MXIE UC desktop client. Companies have an option to choose, which features they need and only pay for those.

Zultys Cloud Services is quite flexible and can scale up to support thousands of users across over a hundred different locations. Companies can pay for the services on a month-to-month basis rather than sign a multi-year contract and adjust the features or number of users each month.

Modern data centers securely house the hosted IP phone systems and are monitored around the clock, with server-, network- and data center-level redundancy to minimize interruptions in a client’s service. Zultys’ network of Authorized Channel Partners handles day-to-day management functions so that employees can speak to a local representative rather than a third-party contact center.

MXvirtual™ Receives 2014 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award

Zultys, a leading provider of innovative unified communications solutions that empower businesses to collaborate effectively, announced today that TMC, a global, integrated media company, has named MXvirtual™, Zultys’ Cloud-based IP PBX,  as a 2014 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award winner. MXvirtual, a VMware® Ready virtual appliance, offers a comprehensive set of features such as: unified communication client, Integrated Contact Center Solution, smartphone integration, advanced call routing, conferencing, large scale call recording, advanced SIP trunking with integrated session border controller and much more.

“We are honored to have MXvirtual recognized with the 2014 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award by such a well-regarded publication,” said Steven Francis, chief sales and marketing officer at Zultys. “MXvirtual allows end users true flexibility in how they deploy their communications system. They have a choice of a cloud-based, premised-based or hybrid combination system with all the same functionality and applications. MXvirtual is running the exact same software as our premise-based system, making it totally transparent to the end users and channel partners and thus eliminating the need for additional training for management and technical support personnel. For multi-site organizations, Zultys offers versatile solutions that combine both premise-based and hosted components to guarantee disaster recovery and survivability in any situation.”

“I am excited to proclaim Zultys as a 2014 recipient of TMC’s Unified Communications Product of the Year Award for their innovative product, MXvirtual,” said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. “Our judges were very impressed with the ingenuity and excellence displayed by Zultys in their groundbreaking work on MXvirtual.”

Winners of the 2014 Unified Communications Product of the Year Awards are featured on TMCnet.com.

About TMC
TMC is a global, integrated media company that helps clients build communities in print, in person and online. TMC publishes multiple magazines including CUSTOMER, INTERNET TELEPHONY, M2M Evolution and Cloud Computing. TMCnet is read by more than 1.5 million unique visitors each month, and is the leading source of news and articles for the communications and technology industries. TMC is also the producer of ITEXPO, the world’s leading B2B communications event, as well as industry events: M2M Evolution; Cloud4SMB Expo; DevCon5; HTML5 Summit; Super Wi-Fi Summit, CVx; AstriCon; StartupCamp, and more. Visit TMC Events for a complete listing and further information.

For more information about TMC, visit www.tmcnet.com.
TMC Contact:    
Rebecca Conyngham
Marketing Manager
203-852-6800, ext. 287
rconyngham@tmcnet.com

Zultys Awarded a 2014 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award for MXvirtual, a Groundbreaking Virtual IP Phone System

Sunnyvale, CA, July 7, 2014 Zultys, a leading provider of innovative unified communications solutions that empower businesses to collaborate effectively, announced today that TMC, a global, integrated media company, has named MXvirtual™, Zultys’ Cloud-based IP PBX, a 2014 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award. Released earlier this year, MXvirtual is a VMware® Ready virtual appliance with a feature set that is identical to Zultys’ premise-based MX series of IP Phone Systems. Zultys offers its customers a universal experience regardless of whether they are deploying a virtual IP phone system or a physical appliance, eliminating the need for extra training and enabling features like unified communication client, Integrated Contact Center Solution, smartphone integration, advanced call routing, conferencing, large scale call recording, advanced SIP trunking with integrated session border controller and much more. “The key point of our solution is its flexibility; our customers have the option of deploying a cloud-based MXvirtual, a premise-based MX250, or even combining the two options in a hybrid solution with both physical and virtual components,” said Steven Francis, chief sales and marketing officer at Zultys. “It’s a great honor to have our solution receive the Communication Solutions Product of the Year award from such a well-regarded publication.” “Congratulations to Zultys for receiving a 2014 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award,” said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. “MXvirtual has demonstrated true innovation and is amongst the best solutions that facilitate voice, data and video communications brought to market in the past twelve months. I look forward to continued excellence from Zultys in 2014 and beyond.” TMC announced the 2014 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award winners via press release. About Zultys Zultys is the global provider of a true all-in-one unified communications solution. Innovative, reliable and scalable, Zultys IP phone systems integrate voice, video, data and mobility — in a single premise based appliance or in the cloud— to optimize collaboration for businesses of all sizes. Zultys delivers a powerful, feature-rich communications system that is easy-to-use, deploy and maintain. Zultys is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices around the world. To learn more, visit www.zultys.com. About TMC: TMC is a global, integrated media company that helps clients build communities in print, in person and online. TMC publishes multiple magazines including CUSTOMER, INTERNET TELEPHONY, M2M Evolution and Cloud Computing. TMCnet is read by more than 1.5 million unique visitors each month, and is the leading source of news and articles for the communications and technology industries. TMC is also the producer of ITEXPO, the world’s leading B2B communications event, as well as industry events: M2M Evolution; Cloud4SMB Expo; DevCon5; HTML5 Summit; Super Wi-Fi Summit, CVx; AstriCon; StartupCamp, and more. Visit TMC Events for a complete listing and further information. For more information about TMC, visit www.tmcnet.com. Zultys Contact:  Lina Agranonik 408-328-0450 x 749 lina.agranonik@zultys.com TMC Contact:     Rebecca Conyngham Marketing Manager 203-852-6800, ext. 287 rconyngham@tmcnet.com

Zultys IP Technology – Decreasing the Total Cost of Ownership

To state that IP telephony is becoming increasingly ubiquitous is a mathematical certainty. Companies need to leverage their existing infrastructure, do more with less, be more efficient. Prices on assets and goods are becoming commodities in some cases and margins can no longer be any tighter. What differentiates the level of success of one company over another is proportional to the level of CUSTOMER SERVICE that they render to each client, one transaction at a time, one customer at a time. This need must happen without significantly increasing costs of Human Resources, equipment or hardware to maintain high level of customer satisfaction, and raise the level of customer service which increases attachment and stickiness to the company’s goods and services. Delivering a sublime customer EXPERIENCE can eclipse the argument of price and restore margins, all while creating clients instead of customers that become ambassadors to the company’s goods and services. In essence, connecting with clients on a timely basis to deliver a better buying and servicing experience, is no longer a luxury, it is a hard necessity, it is a distinguishing differentiator, and if one is to maintain market dominance and increase their market share and margins, is becoming a significant method for gaining clients.

Servicing more clients with less, often depends on technology to be installed. Technology such as inbound call center and ACD. The ability to record conversations for training purposes so as to improve the customer service experience (and retain and archive these calls for compliance and reduction of litigation purposes), the ability to work from ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, without the need to install complex networks, VPNs or other sophisticated and pricey, viewing detailed reports on who called, when, where, how, etc… and what your people are doing has a direct impact on the bottom line. But these features are minimal when you consider the total array of features that can be had on today’s modern IP phone systems.

Consider the functionalities that are being requested and added to today’s Phone systems:

• Visual Voice Mail
• Unified Messaging
• Fax Server
• ACD (Inbound Call Center)
• Soft Phone
• Call Detail Reporting
• Call Record
• Tele-worker Support
• Presence
• Find me Follow Me
• Chat & Instant Message
• Cell Phone Twinning
• Advanced Computer Telephony Integration on your MAC, PC, 64 Bit Vista
• Conferencing
• The use of SIP, T1, PRI, Analog Trunk WITHOUT the need for gateways
• NAT/SIP Traversal (Wan / LAN)
• Make ANY phone an extension
• Remote Phones do NOT require VPN
• IVR

 

You could make a business case out of EACH of these features, such as the ability to take your phone home at anytime (without the need for a VPN) and plug it in and respond to any situation, even be a part of the call center. Collaborative work is no longer a word, it is a VALUE. Zultys can perform every one of these cited above WITHOUT the need of a SINGLE FILE SERVER.

This is NOT true for our competition, like Cisco, Avaya, ShoreTel, Mitel, 3COM and many others. In some cases, it takes as many as 4 or more complex and expensive servers to perform the functionality of what Zultys can do in a single 2U rack mountable secure appliance.

Our Zultys Linux based MX Platform starts at prices ranging from 10 to 30% below the competition. But when you consider the TRUE COST OF ADDING SERVERS that delta significantly increases and the VALUE of the Zultys platform significantly increases while theirs decreases.

So how do you reduce costs while at the same time driving BUSINESS VALUE?

When considering an IP system, shop carefully. Understand ALL the features. Ask questions like HOW MANY FILE SERVERS am I going to have to ADD to make this system work. Understand not just the immediate PRICE but rather the TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP of the system you are considering. If each function must add a server – consider the price of EACH server that you add:

1. Server ($1000 to $3000)
2. Drives (hundreds to thousands per array)
3. RAM (hundreds of $)
4. Windows 2003 or 2008 Server ($799 for Windows 2003 Server – more for 2008)
5. Client Access Licenses (CALs) for Windows 2008 Server ($30 per CAL for 2003 – more for 2008)
6. UPS for Server(s)
7. Cost for IT or IT Provider to install and configure Server
8. Cost for IT to MAINTAIN Server(s)
9. Don’t forget to install your Patches every Tuesday (Microsoft’s Tuesday Patch Day)
10. Don’t forget to REBOOT THE SERVERS ON TUESDAY! (Phone down??? VM Down? What goes down?) 99.999% reliability claimed by some vendors? I will challenge that!
11. Price for Electrical circuits forever after for EACH Server (Servers can consume as much as 700 Watts of power- and when you include cards, that can easily escalate from here)
12. Monitor?
13. KVM Port?
14. Switch Port
15. Cabling and patch panel ports
16. Electrical Outlet to be added
17. Cooling (don’t underestimate this one)
18. Rack Space
19. Real Estate
20. Another point of failure (or do you yet need to add ANOTHER server just to back this one up?)
21. Backups for the data that is on each of these servers – SAN? NAS? What else?

 

And this is PER SERVER – these are NOT soft costs either.

Zultys’ serverless environment is superb, reliable and secure. We packed dozens of Enterprise class features and scale to 10,000 users WITHOUT the need for added complexity and servers. Ease of deployment? You bet. Single administrative GUI to manage all locations? Absolutely! Compliance with existing SIP Phones : INDEED! (and no need to flash that “skinny” phone either and incur a cost of a firmware flash). Closed standards are over. Proprietary phones are gone alongside the CP/M Operating system and have given way to OPEN STANDARDS, connectivity and interoperability of platforms, hardware and Software.

Zultys

• Open Standards
• Compliance
• Superb Features out of the box
• High Availability
• Distributed N+1 Architecture with Failover
• Built to scale
• Built for simplicity
• Built to STAY affordable, regardless of scale
• Affordable and BUILT TO STAY THAT WAY!
• It is the VALUE that just keeps on getting better!

 

Do more with less! Consider ZULTYS!

Related Links:

• Products: Business VoIP Phone Systems
• Products: Zultys MX250: Business PBX Systems
• Products: Zultys MX30: Small Business Phone Systems
• Products: Business Telephone Systems
• Products: Best IP Telephony Equipment
• Solutions: VoIP PBX
• Solutions: VoIP Phone Systems Solutions
• Solutions: Call Center Solutions
• Solutions: Unified Communications
• Solutions: Multi-Site & Branch Offices Solution

 

About Zultys

Based on open standards, Zultys Inc., a Silicon Valley company founded in 2001, manufactures feature-rich VoIP Business Phone Systems that easily scale to thousands of users. Zultys makes your business needs our priority. Our solution supports Mac, Windows 32 or 64 Bit or Linux users and integrates features such as soft-phone, Find me-Follow me, Presence, Secure Chat, Tele-worker support, Inbound Contact Center, IVR, ACD, Call Recording, Fax Origination/Termination, Cell Phone Twinning and much more. Zultys delivers on the promise of Unified Communication from open interfaces such as SIP to rich applications and networking. Not only is our solution cost effective, it also provides the highest energy efficiency with its compact single server all-in-one design. Zultys’ distributed architecture also helps companies maintain high availability, while being simple to install, manage and scale. For more information, visit us at http://www.zultys.com.

 

Building a Better Communications System

When it comes to phone systems, the possibilities are nearly endless. Determine which one is right for you.

Small business phone systems used to be extremely basic. You’d have one or two phones, one or two lines and some notepads for taking messages. Things certainly have changed.

With VoIP and other types of IP-based telephony, your phone system can be integrated with your data network, providing advanced features. For example, if a store manager needs to replace a worker who’s called in sick, software running on an IP phone system can automatically call every potential replacement employee, one at a time. An employee who wants to accept the extra work shift simply presses a button on his or her phone.

If your phone system doesn’t offer much more than a dial tone, a few extensions and voice mail, it could be holding back your business. This month’s column provides an overview of small business phone systems, with an eye toward helping you decide what’s right for your company. Next month, I’ll explain the business functionality to look for in IP telephony (IPT) solutions.

Your Phone System Options
Savvy small businesses have traditionally had either a key telephone system or a private branch exchange (PBX). Both systems allow businesses to connect their phones through a limited number of lines to the public phone network.

A key system is typically used in small offices that need only a few extensions. A PBX is a switching system that manages calls between internal users and shares external lines among them. Historically, you could access an outside line directly with a key system, but you had to dial 9 to get an outside line with a PBX.

The introduction of VoIP has changed the landscape completely, allowing small businesses to get phone service exclusively over the internet. When it comes to VoIP-based systems, you have a number of options. You can use a free or inexpensive service, such as Skype or Vonage, in which you make and receive calls over the internet using headset-equipped computers or traditional telephones. Typically, these services are used when only a couple of phone lines are required. Alternatively, you can have a complete IPT solution that integrates voice, video and data. Or you can use a hybrid system that incorporates VoIP capabilities into your existing phone system. All key system vendors have introduced product lines capable of supporting VoIP.

The internet voice phenomenon began with VoIP, which referred to the ability to obtain a dial tone over the internet. Now VoIP has evolved into more advanced IPT solutions, which include dial tone with basic services that lead to enhanced communications technologies, such as unified communications. Today people generally mean the same thing when they refer to VoIP and IPT, even though technically there’s a difference.

Here’s a quick rundown of the various options for IP-based phone systems:

• VoIP is the most basic IP voice system , in which phone calls are carried over the IP network you use for data. An IP network that carries data and voice is referred to as a “converged” network. You can get IPT service through such services as Skype or Vonage, as mentioned above. These VoIP services can offer advanced features, such as the ability to receive voice messages as audio file e-mail attachments, in addition to the usual conference, transfer, forward, hold and other functions. These are primarily for businesses with less than five employees.
• IPT solutions offer VoIP plus a number of features similar to those offered by traditional PBXs for both small and large businesses on a converged network. These solutions can be tailored based on your needs.
• IPT solutions can be extended to include additional business applications, such as unified messaging, integrated contact centers, and rich-media conferencing that combines voice, data and video.
• Unified communications can take IPT solutions a step further with technologies, such as presence–the ability to determine the best way to contact others within your company, including voice, e-mail or IM–as well as mobility solutions. A unified communications system unifies and simplifies all forms of communication, regardless of location, time or device. Imagine going to one mailbox to retrieve all your faxes, e-mails and voicemails.Benefits of Converged Voice and Data
  An IP phone system can offer the following benefits to a small business:
  • Communication costs, such as long-distance toll charges, are drastically reduced.
  • Productivity and efficiency are enhanced through capabilities, such as having one phone number that rings on multiple devices simultaneously.
  • Phone connections and locations can be easily and affordably moved, added or changed.
  • Remote and mobile employees can use the IP phone system and its features in the office, on the go or at home, on various devices. For instance, they can use a softphone (a software interface to your IPT system) and a headset to make and receive calls on a laptop. Or they can use wireless IP phones, allowing them to tap into the phone system wherever there’s a wireless network available.
  • IP phone systems are flexible, scalable and customizable, so they can grow in step with your business.
  • An IPT solution can be tied into CRM software to enhance customer service.

  Hosted or Managed?
  Even though many IP phone systems are designed and priced for small businesses, you may find they’re still too expensive for your budget. Or you may lack the in-house technical expertise to manage an IP phone system. The good news is you don’t have to buy an IP phone system to take advantage of its features, and you don’t need in-house expertise. Instead, you can use a hosted or a managed IP phone system, depending on your needs.

  With a hosted service , the service provider–not you–owns the equipment that supports your IP phone system. And the equipment aside from the phones resides with the service provider, not on your premises. The hosted-service provider is fully responsible for your IP phone system, which is delivered to your business over an IP network, such as the internet.

  Because the service provider delivers the same services to multiple customers at once, you benefit from the economies of scale. Also, you don’t have to invest capital for your phone system; instead, you pay the hosted provider a fixed monthly fee. You don’t have to worry about supporting and maintaining the service, and you have access to technical experts when needed. You also don’t have to worry about disaster recovery. For instance, if there’s fire or other damage at your office, the IP phone system–because it resides off the premises–won’t be affected. Hosted-service providers typically deploy top-notch system security, too.

  A hosted IP phone system is a good option for small sites that don’t have an existing key or PBX system and don’t have the technical capabilities to support an IP phone system.

  With a typical managed service , you own the IP phone system, and the equipment that supports it resides on your premises. But the system is entirely managed by an independent service provider. By outsourcing the IP phone system, you don’t need in-house expertise to design, deploy and maintain it–a considerable task for any small business. At the same time, you can take advantage of the tax benefits of owning the equipment, while paying an affordable monthly rate for the managed service. A managed service is worthwhile if you already own a phone system but lack the in-house expertise to manage it or need more control over the phone system.

  Making Your Small Business Look Big
  You may be perfectly happy with a basic phone system, and that’s OK. But ask yourself this: Are your competitors relying on the same basic phone systems they’ve been using for years? Can your phone system easily support your company’s goals for growth? And, perhaps most important, wouldn’t you like your small business to look bigger than it really is–to your customers as well as your competitors?

See original article here.

Original article written by Peter Alexander.

Peter Alexander is vice president of worldwide commercial marketing at Cisco Systems Inc., the leading supplier of networking equipment and network management for the internet.

What Is A Contact Center And Does My Business Need One?

A contact center is a unified communications system that easily connects customers with the right agent at the right time. What does that mean? Really, what it means is that a company can leverage and manage a wide variety of customer relations across multiple channels including phone, business website, live chat, email, instant messaging and even video all with one “dashboard”application.

Why is this important to a business? This type of management improves the customer experience by providing answers to questions when they need them, which in-turn improves sale conversions. A contact center is proven to help a business become lean in operating processes resulting in lower costs and higher revenue.

What’s the difference between a call center and a contact center?

Most people are familiar with traditional call centers which route inbound and outbound calls for multiple companies, typically handled at a separate location from the company. A contact center is connect both internal and external customers to the right agent at the right time. Essentially, it’s a more robust form of call center that allows businesses to manage large volumes of different types of inquiries ranging from customer service calls, sales calls to website inquiries and integrate those inquires with a CRM or customer relationship management service.

There may not seem like much of a difference between a contact center and a call center, especially today, since most call centers are adopting contact center capabilities, but a contact center truly does provide a higher level of service.

Adept Networks partners with both ShoreTel and Allworx to provide the most robust and advanced premise based contact centers available. These contact center solutions have proven to help reduce operating costs by streamlining business processes. First, companies are able to eliminate costly third party conferencing services.Secondly, businesses are able to put critical information within reach of those who need it and that applies to both employees and customers. Lastly, businesses are able to eliminate missed phone calls and delayed responses, which is a serious problem for companies that handle large volumes of calls.

What is an example of how a contact center improves business operations?

Glad you asked. It’s one thing to say that a contact center provides an all-in-one solution for managing multimedia inbound and outbound capabilities, but what the heck does that mean to anyone? Simply put, a contact center allows agents or employees to work from anywhere. OK, maybe that’s not such good news for them, but here’s an example of how it works. Let’s say an employee is moving from state to state to manage different aspects of your multiple locations, well, the employee can access the call center from anywhere to make sure nothing’s been missed while away and conversely, the contact center can route calls right to the agent or employee based on specific criteria such as; need, status, service level, location or wait time.

Pretty cool, but wait, there’s more. When the agent is contacted they also receive critical information about the caller or contact in order to help them field the call in the best way. A contact center is completely geared towards improving productivity. Adept uses premise based contact solutions by ShoreTel and Allworx because they are easy to deploy, maintain and use.  Those are the 3 key ingredients to a successful contact center.

The Allworx contact center features a very robust call management solution that allows businesses to distribute calls in linear priority, round robin, longest idle and ring all to maximize answered calls. Aside from flexible queuing options there are a host of supervisor management tools and call assistant features.

Jake Larsen, Contact Center Manager for MonaVie had this to say about ShoreTels contact center system, “The ShoreTel Enterprise Contact Center allows us to easily blend agent skills and language skills since we service over 10 different languages and even more countries round the clock. Email routing to specialized super-agents has added one more sales avenue for us. Using the open interfaces and simple yet powerful ECC scripting we’ve also created a powerful outbound survey application, and integrated it with the ShoreTel Enterprise Contact Center IVR engine quickly and easily. The outbound survey application has allowed us to assess our customer satisfaction levels and assess agent training needs. “

When you’re not able to be at your business in person and you can’t field calls, help customers and land importune leads then a contact center just might be the solution your business needs.

© http://www.adeptnetworks.com/ See original article here.

Zultys MX30: A Look Under the Hood

Overall, the Zultys solution is packed with convergence and it definitely reduces installation time.

Neil Lichtman, CEO of Zultys recently told me how Zultys improved their products (Zultys Delivers Value & Wins Deals) for simplicity and reduced installation steps. Zultys announced their win with Martin Engineering (seeZultys Wins Global Rollout) and I wanted to have a good look under the hood for myself. Neil took me up on my offer to review the Zultys platform.

The MX30 is just a little bigger than the Apple Mac Mini Server. The tested phone was the ZIP 55iZultys label using the Aastra (6755i model). I liked the phone, its appearance, real estate (buttons/soft keys) and balance (feel). I got curious and visited Zultys’ website to find their phone lineup here: Zip Phones

A hardware manual that shipped with the system gave me enough information to log into the system under the console mode and then download the Administrator software. The system configuration wizard had the system online in minutes. I’m not a Zultys dealer and haven’t been to any training. Zultys does offer new dealers assistance simply by completing a form to utilize their Initial Deployment Program (IDP), detailing the dealer system to be installed. The Zultys IDP is available to qualified partners and provides an assertive approach to initial Zultys system deployments. IDP adopts a proactive approach for initial installations to help ensure a higher quality experience for VARs as well as their end-users. This is a value add program for their dealers/VARs with installation assistance.

Built in documentation was helpful too and I did read parts of it. Within minutes the system was configured using the onboard wizard and in a few minutes more the automated attendant was up and running–I didn’t need to hassle to write a script and then find someone to record it (customarily an issue in the SMB market with customers) because the built in text-to-audio conversion points to a Zultys server in Sunnyvale that loads the wav file in the desired format with what is typed in a text box. Other languages and male or female voices are selectable or customers can use a sound program to create their own recordings in the acceptable audio format. Initially, I typed: “Thank you for calling Telecomworx, If you know the extension number of the party you are calling please dial it now or just press 9 for a company directory.” Since Telecomworx sounded a bit off–I retyped “Telecom works” and it sounded right on. So a quick lesson here is to use phonetics when necessary. Zultys delivers an in-skin voice mail/Automated Attendant and there’s no hard drive but instead a flash drive in the MX30 only. The dial plan tool is easy to master as is creating programming templates to speed up station programming.

The SIP phone audio quality is outstanding on the Zip 55i and that was the first thing I noticed when placing calls. I monitored in real time outgoing calls made through the system using ADTRAN’s VQM feature in our IAD. G.711 compression was shown for all calls made and again the audio quality scored excellent. The system shipped with a 4-port analog FXO card, and another cool feature is the built in calibration tool that Zultys uses to reduce echo. All that’s required are a few mouse clicks, and within seconds the system makes necessary adjustments to the FXO ports in use. This feature is key in that it removes subjectivity from the process and ensures the best sound quality is delivered to the users. There’s no need for external analog loop current attenuators since Zultys accomplishes basically the same thing using software. MXIE is the client software I downloaded to my desktops (Mac OS 10.6.7 desktop & Windows XP PRO laptop) and bound the clients with my SIP desk phone. Zultys permits 6 devices to be bound to one user, and this allowed me to use the softphone on my laptop and the MXIE client on my desktop in addition to the desktop phone. The iConnected client will work on my iPhone as I previously experienced and wrote about here. This brings up my device count to 4. Zultys alternatively allows 5 users to be bound to 1 device. Later, I easily changed MXIE on the fly and pointed the Zip phone to the Zultys system in Sunnyvale to become a telecommuter using both desktop phone and MXIE. The UC package (MXIE) is tightly fitted with options and works between three worlds (Apple, Linux and Windows).

The Syslog with color-coded messages (for severity) is viewable after launching the Admin software. The “Device Status” is handy, showing all devices and whether they have registered. “Sessions” shows active SIP sessions and “Circuit Status” shows parameters, traffic metrics and IP information including status on the LAN, WAN and optional ports. “SIP Monitor” shows statistics for registration attempts and responses to SIP requests. The backup and restore features also include a scheduled backup and archive. The system maintenance section includes plenty of tools, and there’s even a customer support server connection created by tunneling to allow the factory folks to observe and diagnose the system. There are numerous system monitors too and these tools are well placed. The “Call Monitoring” tool will be a hit with any dealer/VAR or IT support person to troubleshoot issues. The onboard system tools are placed so dealers/VARS and even customers don’t hang themselves by not having resources to troubleshoot (SIP/VoIP/T1-PRI) issues that would vex anyone. My favorite collaboration feature is MxMeeting and this allows companies to meet online and even take control of customer desktops. Conferencing and collaboration are strong features in Zultys software and these can be used for numerous customer applications. MXMeeting currently requires an external Zultys appliance and licensing.

Zultys’ MXreport custom report writer provides Call Center managers and System Administrators with deep insight into call handling and agent performance. MXreport taps into nearly 50 call detail record (CDR) fields through an easy-to-use drag-and-drop report builder interface that lets managers create and output their own custom reports that include graphs and key data. Reports can be generated into spreadsheets and other document formats. Any telephony solution requires providing accountability, and a good reporting package isn’t just to keep employees honest but it is crucial for troubleshooting and immediacy in making staffing/resource decisions about telephone traffic in your business. Zultys provides an optional Inbound Call Center solution and the one capability I like is the Call Attached Data (CAD). This feature allows agents, supervisors and end users to enter critical call information and notes into a pop-up “Post-It Notes” window, and this data is searchable and exportable. Zultys also ties to standard ODBC database access and provides the ability to offload CDR into another server to lighten the load on the IP-PBX.

Key Report Features

* Intuitive “”Drag and Drop” user interface builds custom reports in seconds
* Modify call data field reports according to unique ranges and qualifiers
* Run reports for individuals and call groups
* Flexible reporting timeframe lets users generate reports based on call activity by quarter-hour, hour, day, week, month and year.
* Create and save call record reporting templates
* Accesses nearly 50 call detail record data fields to provide granular call analysis and reporting
* Built-in graphic reporting tool
* Reports can be saved in common document formats such as Excel, Word, HTML, TXT, CSV, ODS, GIF, JPG, BMP, PNG and more
* Enables companies to improve performance and account for specific customer and company call activities for billing, legal and regulatory needs

Zultys agreed to let me experience being a telecommuter using their phone and MXIE client tethered to their system in Sunnyvale. A few simple changes to the SIP phone using my browser (Safari) and in minutes I had connectivity. Again, the audio quality was excellent. (Note the MOS scores in the screen shot at the end of this page.)

Overall, the Zultys solution is packed with convergence and it definitely reduces installation time. For dealers/VARs you need to focus on the customization opportunities within the system that enables you to deliver what the customer wants, when and where. For some of the competitors of Zultys, what I don’t understand is why more solutions don’t have onboard tools? For those that need convincing read Sorell Slaymaker’s post, SIP Trunking Maturity: 7 out of 10 and note that SIP trunks must have support mechanisms and that’s only one of many areas of support required in an IP solution. Why do administrators need to hassle to just get a telecommuter a desktop phone that works? Vendors without focus to deliver what the telecommuter wants (easy to deploy softphone or deskphone) are missing a key opportunity. Then, if your solution doesn’t easily support Apple OS, Linux and Windows OS users, another divide is created. People want to communicate with the tools of their choice; limit their choices and you just may end up limiting your revenue potential. There are no 2500 sets, no relays and contacts. The built-in fax server is another feature that eliminates standalone fax machines and provides the ability to use multiple fax numbers. The Zultys all-in-one system is very thoughtfully and purposely laid out in such a way that installation is easy, as is using the system and features.

What I like about the system feel is I don’t feel trapped in the vendor’s solution because customization is available throughout the platform and that is a huge advantage in selling to numerous verticals. The other capability I like as a business owner is the ability to add licenses as I can afford them. Zultys has hit on key ownership elements of the SMB: simplicity, value and application. The overall empowering trait is the amount of convergence found in the solution, system tools and how well thought out this product is.

As a competitor, I’m envious.

 © Matt Brunk  Find original article here.