Taking the phone for granted...
Category None
So one of the things with living in Paris that I am taking for granted is how the whole phone "thing" is working. I decided to scribble down how the phone is working, as when you look at what's possible today for Small companies with the internet and Voice over IP phones it really is amazing. First let's look at how my setup currently is:
So let me explain this a little bit. There are a number of components involved here, the Domino server is pretty obvious and not doing anything fancy. but what about GotVmail and Vonage?
Vonage I have blogged about before, but since I first got it I have added a few of the options, namely:
So I found the GotVmail service when I was looking for a telephone system for the company, I really didn't want to learn the intricate details of a phone system and we were already very happy with our vonage service, but we wanted a few things like a 1-800 number, a corporate directory and different extensions for Support, Sales and Information etc. So there are a few packaged solutions out there that involve A PC, some software a PBX card and a few phone handsets, typically they were at least a couple of grand and introduced a complexity that I didn't want. Fortunately I found GotVMail which gives us a 1-800 number, and offers all the features I was looking for, and when someone chooses an extension it just forwards the call to the relevant telephone number. Plus it has the bonus of receiving faxes and sends them to you as PDFs. GotVmail also takes voicemail messages and emails them to us, and we can also set which hours certain extensions are able to take calls.
So with that out of the way why is it so cool? Well think about this, here I am sitting in Paris with my Vonage phone plugged into the network, Someone can call our US 1-800 number, my east coast, west coast or UK phone number and the phone here is going to ring. The person at the other end doesn't have to know where I am, it just works. Just like the internet letting small companies appear large, this type of setup can let a small companies phone system appear like a large companies.
So one of the things with living in Paris that I am taking for granted is how the whole phone "thing" is working. I decided to scribble down how the phone is working, as when you look at what's possible today for Small companies with the internet and Voice over IP phones it really is amazing. First let's look at how my setup currently is:
So let me explain this a little bit. There are a number of components involved here, the Domino server is pretty obvious and not doing anything fancy. but what about GotVmail and Vonage?
Vonage I have blogged about before, but since I first got it I have added a few of the options, namely:
- SoftPhone for the PC with a West Coast number, when not turned on redirects to East Coast number.
- UK number, a London number for folks in the UK to call me either free or at low cost
So I found the GotVmail service when I was looking for a telephone system for the company, I really didn't want to learn the intricate details of a phone system and we were already very happy with our vonage service, but we wanted a few things like a 1-800 number, a corporate directory and different extensions for Support, Sales and Information etc. So there are a few packaged solutions out there that involve A PC, some software a PBX card and a few phone handsets, typically they were at least a couple of grand and introduced a complexity that I didn't want. Fortunately I found GotVMail which gives us a 1-800 number, and offers all the features I was looking for, and when someone chooses an extension it just forwards the call to the relevant telephone number. Plus it has the bonus of receiving faxes and sends them to you as PDFs. GotVmail also takes voicemail messages and emails them to us, and we can also set which hours certain extensions are able to take calls.
So with that out of the way why is it so cool? Well think about this, here I am sitting in Paris with my Vonage phone plugged into the network, Someone can call our US 1-800 number, my east coast, west coast or UK phone number and the phone here is going to ring. The person at the other end doesn't have to know where I am, it just works. Just like the internet letting small companies appear large, this type of setup can let a small companies phone system appear like a large companies.
| Permalink | 
Comments
Posted by David Bailey At 11:12:30 PM On 02/09/2005 | - Website - |
East Coast Telephone Line 25bucks (unlimited calls within the US and Canada
West Coast SIPPhone 10 bucks a month
UK number 5 bucks a month
Total: 40 buc ks + tax
(so my cell phone costs more than this setup each month)
GotVmail is 15 bucks a month, plus a charge for each 1-800 call.
Posted by Carl Tyler At 04:30:49 AM On 02/10/2005 | - Website - |