This is actually very easy. Many company’s have been using the VoIP technology for the past 10+ years. Here’s some very simple steps to follow to make the best of this Corona Virus situation and your iProphet Business Telephone System.
Phone Service, what are our options?
Keeping in touch with clients while reducing employee risk has been on the minds of many of our customers the past few days so we wanted to take a moment to talk about those options to keep you prepared. These are going to be specific to your phone system services. We suggest reaching out to your IT service provider for any service related issues like remote access, etc.
We want to send some or all of our staff to WFH (Work from Home). What are the options?
If you are like the majority of customers now and are taking advantage of our hosted solutions, the news is good. Your phones are already programmed and working in a remote atmosphere and can readily work at home. Here’s a list of popular phones with built in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The T53W sells for $199 (+S&H).There are only a few things that need to be addressed.
- Power Supply: If your phone is currently using PoE (Power over Ethernet) then you are not using a plug in power supply. You will need to get either a PoE adapter or a specific power supply for your phone. We can help with this. Adapter are about $15 (+S&H).
- Employee access to a wired connection: Many times employees don't have direct access to the router in their home and are completely wireless. Because most of the phones deployed are connected via an ethernet cable, they will either need to do the same at home, or an alternate solution may be available. Some phones support a WiFi adapter and some of the more recent phones have it built in. If you have a question about this, just let us know. We can always order a replacement phone with these capabilities and get it to you.
- Router configuration: The number one issue we find that causes problems with VoIP services is a setting called SIP ALG. Many modern routers have this option enabled by default and it can cause service issues. It is something that we suggest disabling and can typically be found by searching your manufacturers documentation, or just starting with a quick Google search.
- Internet Services: Phone services are only as good as the network it is running on. If there is congestion on a network or there is limited bandwidth, it can have a negative impact on your phone services. Phone calls use a very low amount of bandwidth, but due to the nature of those calls it is extremely important it get to and from the PBX as quickly as possible. If you have a remote employee experiencing these issues, we suggest limiting higher bandwidth applications, such as streaming, large downloads which do not have usage cap capabilities, etc. until after the work day is complete is possible.
If you are using our hosted solutions and have addressed the things above, you can simply have your employees take their phones home and it should work. If you would like to replace some of your older phones with some of the new offerings which include WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities, let us know.
If you are using an on premise solution, you have options as well but there will likely be more steps involved. If you are interested in discussing your options, let us know as quickly as possible as more work will likely be involved.
How Are e911 Calls Addressed?
Because you will be migrating these phones off site, if you want to use e911 services from these remote devices you will need to order a DID from us for each location.
If you do not do that, you can not use the remote phones for 911 services as they are registered to the office number and address.