Unified Messaging
In a modern office enviroment, we use numerous forms of messaging ie. e-mail, fax and voicemail. Unified Messaging integrates the various software applications we use to handle incoming messages into one unified enviroment.
Imagine the advantages of being able to view all of these messages within your Outlook inbox.
Faxes can be viewed, saved, copied, forwarded and handled just like e-mails. Voicemails also appear as inbound messages with useful information such as the caller's name or number. By double-clicking the message your phone immediately plays it back. The message can also be saved just like an e-mail as a .wav file which can be forwarded or archived as appropriate.
Some Unified platforms can even read you your e-mails when you ring in to retrieve your voicemails, and deliver fax messages to a fax machine anywhere near you when you are out of the office.
So whether you are office bound or working from home, Unified Messaging is a powerful tool to ensure you react speedily to your customer's needs.
One point of contact. Now you need only look in one place - your e-mail inbox - for notification of all your messages, be they e-mail, voicemail, or fax. Double click the icon, and your voicemail messages are immediately played over your keyphone. All the features you expect from your Telrad voicemail are available via your PC - Pause, Rewind, Fast Forward, Delete, Copy, Transfer etc. When you delete a message on the Unified Messaging desktop, it is automatically deleted in voicemail system, and vice versa.
IP Telephony and Voice over IP (VoIP) are key themes for the year. But like many other terms which are "in", many people use them but not everyone understands them in the same way. IP is simply an acronym for "Internet Protocol" - a network level data transfer protocol which is often used for networking PCs and accessing the Internet.
Quite simply, Voice Over IP is using this tried and tested means of data communication to send voice calls and other telephony features and applications.
There are many benefits to this means of communication including:
- Shared resources for voice and data ie. wan's, kilostreams, megastreams, frame relay or ADSL's - rather than separate leased line for each service.
- Advanced home working offering voice calls and features on PC phone via a Broadband connection ie. home workers, home call centre agents.
- Cost reductions providing central operators for multiple sites and central voicemail.