Tools of the trade

[Defcon|Rich]

I noticed a post about smartphones and got thinking of the different tools people use to keep in touch with their business whether on the road or in the office. I'd like to hear some thoughts on what folks recommend or are using to keep 'in touch'

 

 

 

 

 

Personally we use a combination of Kayako Support Suite which supports reading/replying to tickets via smartphones when we are out of the office and our 800 number which can be forwarded to these devices. And of course my trusty notebook that goes everywhere I do

 

 

 

Recently Kevin talked me into trying the Packet8 VOIP phone which comes with a toll free number add on and seems to be a worthwhile investment.. I haven't received it yet so only time will tell. I'll update when it arrives and can be used in a business setting.

 

 

 

 

[AvailNetworks]

I am using the smart phone now. I have kayako but still havent really got into setting it up for some dumb reason. It works great and it checks email every 5 minutes so support is always answered swiftly. Also I am on windows mobile o/s so remote desking into a machine is easy and fast.

[Hogie]

We have blackberrys for all our support personel (we are an IT department for a larger company besides a GSP... so we get free nextel phones and all that jazz).

 

 

 

We use cerberus for tickets (even our internal company IT tickets are in it, and our IT contracts we have have their own queues also).

 

 

 

Our phone system is something I built, but allows me to answer our queues at home (support never rings... yay!). It also sends me an email when a new voicemail (and emails the voicemail to me).

 

 

 

As for remote support, I have Verizon Broadaccess for my laptop...

 

 

 

Its great for those pesky times when the starter goes out in the airplane you are flying when you are in the town the Internet forgot (Sweetwater TX).

 

 

 

I dont think I have any other cool toys I use for the GSP past that...

 

 

 

BTW, if anybody would like to lease a configurable phone system (VOIP), let me know. I can prob help you out

[ECF]

As Rich mentioned in his earlier post,we were looking at Packet 8 to replace our current phone system.

 

 

 

Unfortunatly, they use the old bait and switch tactic to bring people into their site. They advertise a Virtual Office plan that looks really nice. The service is roughly $30 a month. They even send you a cool desk phone that has all the buttons preset to work with their service.

 

 

 

However after a close look at the order system, both Rich and I found that they want some $400+ dollars for setup. You actully need to order 3 virtual lines minimum. So the to order the service was in the neighborhood of $416

 

 

 

I can say the list of features that the Virtual Office plan is very long, and it looks like a great service. I just wish that companies were more upfront about pricing, instead of trying to lure people in with low advertised prices. And their residential plan, which I believe Rich got, seems like a decent deal at $19.99 a month.

 

 

 

Packet 8 does however get high marks from it's users, unlike our current provider that was at the bottom of the list as far as customer satisfaction. And I can attest to why they are. Our Vonage business service seems to ring when it wants, put people directly into voicemail when it wants. And we have had a case were a client has tried to contact us, and someone else has answered And we have also tried ATT's business VOIP with about the same results as we are having with Vonage.

 

 

 

So I guess we are off to find another solution

 

 

 

We may try the Packet 8 virtual office. Haven't decided yet

 

 

 

 

 

As for on the road support. A Pocket PC phone would work well. I also know that one of our clients has used their Palm based handheld to create servers on the road as well.

 

 

 

As we progress, I am sure we will add more features to allow alerts and other things to handhelds into TCAdmin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hogie]

I can charge you $3 cents a second on incoming 800 numbers and outbound long distance. Unforunately, we can only do the dallas area as local right now, but...

 

 

 

We could get it setup so you have a queue of phones (say, sent to diff people), for diff things.

 

 

 

Right now, when you dial one of our GSP numbers, we have an auto-attendant. It asks you who you want to talk too, and it rings the phones setup in that queue. Mind you, this is mostly in our office (We have cisco 7960's as our handsets). I have a budgetone 102 phone at my house that links up to the PBX and rings also.

 

 

 

I can give you a demo number to call via email if you want.

[ECF]

Muchly appreciated. But the commercial solutions are much cheaper as they include calling with the US and canada free with unlimited minutes. 800 inbound minutes are also included. Of course they limit them to 100 minutes. But for inbound sales calls we hardly ever break that limit.

 

 

 

Packet 8 actually has a plan that they call Virtual Attendant, which is basically what you mentioned. It takes calls, transfers them to other numbers,has voicemailboxes etc.. for like $14.95 a month.

 

 

 

I think we may try the full Virtual Office plan once in a few months.

[Chew]

I acctually utilize packet 8's virtual office features.

 

 

 

While they're a little pricey, Packet 8 is by far the best company to do business with that I've found.

 

 

 

I've tried a slew of VOIP services claiming better features and support than packet 8, however I have yet to find one that lives up to those claims.

 

 

 

You won't be dissapointed.

 

 

 

Matt

[ECF]

Thanks for that input Matt. I am still leery of VOIP, since we have had such terrible luck in the past with them. But P8 seems to be solid from what I have read.

 

 

[Defcon|Rich]

I can charge you $3 cents a second on incoming 800 numbers and outbound long distance. Unforunately, we can only do the dallas area as local right now, but...

 

 

 

We could get it setup so you have a queue of phones (say, sent to diff people), for diff things.

 

 

 

Right now, when you dial one of our GSP numbers, we have an auto-attendant. It asks you who you want to talk too, and it rings the phones setup in that queue. Mind you, this is mostly in our office (We have cisco 7960's as our handsets). I have a budgetone 102 phone at my house that links up to the PBX and rings also.

 

 

 

I can give you a demo number to call via email if you want.

 

 

 

 

 

The 800 system we use now has the auto attendant feature which is really nice but as you mentioned can get pricey which is why I started looking at the voip versions. We are going to try the residential version of P8 first and see how it works. If it's good most likely will move to the office version.

 

 

 

Thanks for the input

[Stealth]

My PC.

 

 

 

I dont get out much

[ECF]

I acctually utilize packet 8's virtual office features.

 

 

 

While they're a little pricey, Packet 8 is by far the best company to do business with that I've found.

 

 

 

I've tried a slew of VOIP services claiming better features and support than packet 8, however I have yet to find one that lives up to those claims.

 

 

 

You won't be dissapointed.

 

 

 

Matt

 

 

 

After some thought, we ordered the Packet 8 system last night.

 

 

 

We hope it will be installed and running this weekend or early next week.

 

 

 

While the setup charges are a bit steep, the monthly rates are about the same as the rest of the business VOIP providers out there.

 

 

 

With this new change, my partner Steve will be taking over most of the billing duties to free me up to help Luis a bit more, and to get some new documentation rolling.

 

 

 

With all the new features I haven't been able to keep up with the documents for them.