VOIP Providers

So, the point of starting the blog was to attempt to keep a more public record of some of the useful work bits we have been doing here.

First of these is about VOIP. Over the last couple of weeks we have had visits from a few companies, and still have another one to go. Seen lots of good things, and some things to make me think. Based on everything we have learned so far I’m coming up with a bit of a wishlist for whatever system we decide to go for:

- Web based
- Voicemail to email (ideally options for attached audio file or text transcript)
- Number forwarding- if I’m not in the office my calls get forwarded to my mobile. This should have clever filtering (only certain number get through at certain times, etc, etc), and able to be automated.
- Could we automate things like parents reporting a pupil absent?
- LDAP integration
- Something clever to deal with the school trip mobile phone
- All staff to have softphones- both Mac and PC
- Presence/availability indicators
- Video/audio conferencing, instant messaging
- Ability for users to record parts of calls and save
- Tracking of wait times, common routing, etc
- Incoming call number linked to our person database to present users with all the detail about relevant pupil/etc

We’ve also started thinking about how we train staff to use all of this as and when it comes online. There are some interesting implications about work/life balance as well- this kind of setup alongside the remote access will allow us to work from anywhere (good thing), but will mean there is no reason why you can’t work from anywhere (potentially bad thing).

At the moment no real decisions have been made about providers/equipment or anything, but we have been very seriously looking at Switchvox. The major advantage there is not only is it all web based (ticks many of our boxes), but seems we can quite easily create our own views/modules to show staff the kind of data we would like them to see while taking phone calls.

Image source- Pink phone box CC licensed on Flickr by OrangeAcid