A Better Virtual – USA Virtual Offices

A Better Virtual has reported several times on virtual offices gaining momentum in the insurance industry—and the momentum keeps building.

Two additional insurance firms have just announced that they are moving to a virtual office model to cater to customer needs and reduce costs. Both agencies partnered with Astonish Results, which is creating quite a niche for itself in the virtual insurance office world.

Remland Insurance just launched a Virtual Insurance Office. In the insurance industry, that essentially means a new Web site and Internet marketing campaign that aims to improve the way in which the agency connects with, markets to and serves the modern California consumer.

At the core of RemlandInsurance.com is a move to make the online shopping experience more informative and interactive. The new site offers clear product categories, and there are multiple ways to contact the agency, including a free quote form, social media sites and an 800 number.

Remland Insurance offers both a “Virtual Insurance Office” and custom “Virtual Insurance Agent.” The idea is to boost consumer engagement and provide the visitor with a more personal experience for the 60-year-old firm.

Meanwhile, on the other coast, John Yurconic Agency has launched a virtual insurance office of its own. The Pennsylvania insurance agency also has a new Web site and interactive digital marketing strategy to back it. Like RemlandInsurance.com, Yorconic.com aims to improve the way customers interact with the 40-year-old firm.

With such a strong move toward virtual insurance offices, it’s only a matter of time before the industry moves toward virtual offices for agents. This is already happening, but I expect the momentum will build as the cost-efficiencies become clear. With fewer house calls and fewer consumers visiting insurance agency offices, virtual offices make practical business since in this industry as they do in many other industries.

The market for virtual PBX is heating up, with virtual phone providers upping the features and services ante almost every week. The question is, will the real virtual PBX please stand up?

The latest virtual PBX provider to amp up its services is The Real PBX. The company just added a host of new calling features to its hosted PBX services, including Call Hunt, Call Return, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Do Not Disturb.

In case you aren’t familiar with these features, let’s review:

IVR automates the process of caller handling with a greater level of efficiency. The Real PBX’s IVR is integrated with an Automatic Call Distribution feature, so it will route the calls intelligently to their right destinations, be it sales or support.

Teleware describes IVR this way: “A system where a caller uses their telephone keypad to respond to computer generated voice prompts. The simplest form of IVR system is an Auto Attendant where the caller’s keypad choices determine the ultimate destination of their call. In the more complex form of IVR, the telephone system is connected to one or more external database. A typical example here is telephone banking, where callers are able to find out the balance in their account or even transfer funds from one account to another.”

Call Hunt and Last Call Return work to build longer customer relationships and increasing customer retention. With these features, users can receive calls intended for them even if they are not in the office by adding a phone number to the call hunt group. When a customer calls that designated number, it will ring for a number of times set by the user before going to voicemail. The Real PBX also provides a number of features like Unified Communication, virtual receptionist, repeat dial, voicemail, fax, e-mail, call forwarding, call conferencing, and call waiting.

All in all, the features sound good. But the Web site makes me think twice before hiring this company. On the other hand, they have plenty of client testimonies that indicate customer success. Since I don’t see any free offers or money-back guarantees, though, I’d be more willing to experiment with a brand that does offer those trials before taking a chance on this company. The pricing isn’t overly aggressive. So unless you get a personal recommendation from a friend on this one, I’d test the virtual PBX market.

Have you tried live receptionist services in the past, only to be disappointed by the hidden fees and lack of quality customer service? Voice Nation figures you’ll answer yes, but not if you use its business voicemail, virtual PBX and answering services.

In a move to beef up its business answering services, Voice Nation is now including all available service features on all call plans with a guarantee that you won’t be charged any additional fees when you subscribe.

What features are those, exactly? Free call patching, order processing, free local voice mail, and no holiday fees. And on the quality customer service front, Voice Nation isn’t making new subscribers sign a service contract. That means you can stop the service at any time for any reason—and new customers can get a 30 day money back guarantee.

“Voice Nation has been an integral part of my company’s growth over the last several years,” says Lisa Calhoun, president of Write2Market. “As a small agency with writing talent distributed across the country, we still need to have a unified presence and big-company sound. I recommend Voice Nation without reservation to any small or medium sized business that’s ready to sound like a Fortune 500 company—even on a budget.”

With Voice Nation Live, you have the option to choose between a local or toll free number. And phone operators will greet your callers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can tap into a Voice Nation business account with 100 minutes included for just $9.95 a month. The plans run all the way up to Executive level for $34.95 a month with 1,000 minutes included.

These prices are fairly common in the industry, and I don’t see much here to differentiate Voice Nation from its competitors. But it looks like a stable company with a good product line. Voice Nation has been around and evolving for 10 years. The brand reputation is good, and the customers seem happy. So it’s worth exploring this virtual PBX company further.

When Miami law firm delancyhill decided to spread its wings six months ago, adding virtual law office elements was part of the game plan. Now, the firm is reporting tens of thousands of dollars in savings from the virtual office strategy.

Information Technology firm Invizio worked with delancyhill to launch an integrated cloud infrastructure. Cloud computing set the stage for the firm to save about $63,000 in annual operational expenditures. With results like that, it’s not difficult to understand why more law firms are opting for virtual office models.

Essentially, Invizio tapped current technologies to create a virtual IT environment that lets the firm access data and key operational apps from anywhere in the world at any time, as well as locally from three satellite offices. The virtual office moves, which included document management software, helped streamline workflow, slash paper waste, and help the staff more readily locate case files.

“Once a firm’s data and applications are hosted in the cloud, the organization can recover quickly in the wake of a hurricane, or other natural disaster, and continue to service clients and access important case files even from a temporary office set-up,” says Kevin Michael, a managing partner at Invizio. “Invizio’s partnership with delancyhill has resulted in a reliable virtual infrastructure that will allow the law firm to operate in just such a scenario.”

In case you aren’t familiar with the concept, cloud computing lets companies reduce capital investments in the software and hardware of an IT infrastructure and lets firms tap into computing power on demand without paying for what they don’t use. That means companies can scale as needed and pay-as-you-go for systems. All this frees up cash flow that the company can invest somewhere else.

Cloud technology works well for professional service firms that have a distributed workforce, that employ telecommuters, or want operate without the boundaries of physical office space. It also works well in the wake of natural disasters. With tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes becoming more prevalent lately, companies need to consider business interruption issues—and work to avoid them.

EVoice has long positioned its brand as offering a “radically better phone number.” Now, the j2 Global Communications company is positioning its brand as a radically better way to record phone calls.

EVoice just rolled out Call Recording for eVoice. The service targets phone-centric professionals and consumers that need to record and replay business or personal telephone calls. Essentially, the service lets you record, store, and review any call you make from your personal, business or mobile phone—so long as you are using an eVoice virtual phone number.

“Call Recording is yet another reason why small business owners are choosing eVoice as their virtual phone system,” says Mike Pugh, vice president of marketing at j2 Global. “This new feature—along with a toll-free phone number, a professionally recorded greeting, customized menus, and call routing—makes it easier to turn phone calls into satisfied customers and increased sales.”

Here’s how it works: Press *2 on the telephone keypad. That brings up a pre-recorded prompt to let callers know that the phone call is being recorded. Once set in motion, the conversation is captured and saved as an mp3 or .wave file. Users can scroll forward, back and pause when receiving calls by using the eVoice media player. The cost: $5.95 a month with unlimited recordings.

EVoice figures doctors, lawyers, real estate brokers, contractors, travel agents, and other professionals that need to record contractual conversations will find the service valuable. The potential for the service includes monitoring customer service calls for quality, confirming telephone orders for accuracy, documenting the details of contract and business discussions conducted over the telephone, and downloading recorded calls to your computer and store alongside related digital documents and files.

I can definitely see plenty of use cases for this service and expect eVoice to knock it out of the park with this add on. In fact, I might even use it myself.

Virtual PBX is raking in the awards lately. The company that bills itself as the inventor and top supplier of hosted phone services has taken home another honor.

Technology Marketing Corporation has named Virtual PBX Complete as the recipient of its 2011 NGG Leadership Award, presented by Next Generation Networks (NGN) magazine.

In case you aren’t familiar with Virtual PBX Complete, it’s a turnkey hosted IP-PBX business-class phone system that aims to meet the telephony needs of small- to mid-sized businesses. Some of the key characteristics are flexibility, business-class features, price and easy installation. And the market differentiator is Virtual PBX Complete’s ability to support complete blending of analog and IP telephony while incorporating open SIP peering at the same time. Hence, the name Virtual PBX Complete.

“This recognition illustrates Virtual PBX’s commitment to providing clients with innovative and useful products that will help each customer advance its IP communications needs,” says Paul Hammond, CEO of Virtual PBX. “At Virtual PBX, we strive to provide our customers with the deepest feature-set and offer the highest possible level of customization. We believe that versatility is at the heart of innovation and Virtual PBX Complete is a great example of this.”

The Third Annual NGN Leadership Award has recognized the growth, evolution and distinction between the applications and services designed for next generation networks and the enabling technologies that make them possible. Virtual PBX took home an award in  the Services and Applications category.

“Virtual PBX has been recognized for their exceptional work in advancing NGN services and technologies,” says Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC. “Virtual PBX Complete has proven it is exceptional and its innovation has contributed to the transformation of the industry. Congratulations to the entire team at Virtual PBX and I look forward to more innovation in the coming year.”

Virtual PBX Complete promises everything a business needs to professional phone support. The service does away with the need to request dial-tone service and other expensive adds-ons from traditional phone providers because it relies on an Internet connection and it’s loaded with features. Virtual PBX Complete ships with a quality VoIP phone and prices that are 40 percent to 80 percent less than your traditional business phone. Plans start at under $10 a month.

Virtual PBX has all the standard features, which I won’t list here. But here are some of the more interesting features:

•    Customizable greetings and hold music for different departments
•    Automatic call distribution queues
•    Call preview and smart caller ID to know who is calling and what they want
•    Real-time voicemail monitor and interrupt
•    Multi-business support

Have you had any experience with Virtual PBX? We’d love to hear about it in the comment box below.

If you are a virtual assistant, listen up. There’s news you can use this week to boost your skills and potentially increase your income.

First up, HotSkillsVATraining.com. The company is now offering an e-commerce specialist training program for virtual assistants. The course aims to give virtual assistants everything they need to implement, manage and maintain an online business for clients to busy to do it themselves or too economical to hire a larger IT firm.

Specifically, the program will equip virtual assistants to deploy a shopping cart system, develop products, connect the “buy button” on a Web site and ensure the transaction of funds between the customer’s credit card and the business owners bank account and more.

“E-commerce is at the core of every online based business,” says Cindy Greenway, lead trainer at HotSkillsVATraining.com. “Business owners need someone on their team who can manage this core—from implementing and managing the shopping cart to developing systems to keep in touch with prospects, provide valuable content, automate tasks and much more.

The course includes:

• Setup, manage and strategically use a shopping cart system to simplify and automate tasks
• Implement autoresponders to offer ongoing valuable content to prospects
• Format and distribute broadcasts—ezines/newsletters/announcements—and consider ways to measure their effectiveness via link tracking and open stats
• Setup and completely automate online teleclass registrations—from registration to post-class follow up
• Setup and maintain blog posts for clients, as part of their overall online strategy
• Assist with creating audio and written products and setting them up to sell on a website
• support with attracting website traffic and list building activities

Separately, Virtual Assistant Forums has published a new e-book called “Become a Virtual Assistant.” The 110-page book offers information, direction and advice to help new and aspiring virtual assistants successfully navigate the small business startup process and get down to business.

Specifically, the e-book offers 22 business-building worksheets, sample contracts and business documents, as detailed list of 100 small business and virtual assistant industry resources.

“Starting a virtual assistant business can be a confusing, expensive and time consuming process. It may take months to get all of the questions answered and put the necessary pieces in place,” says Tess Strand Alipour, founder of Virtual Assistant Forums. “The ‘Become a Virtual Assistant’ e-book is a road map designed to help aspiring virtual assistants avoid wasted time and get down to business.”

What a headline from the America Bar Association Journal: “Legal Entrepreneur Forms DC Law Firm that Shuns Office Face Time and Lawyer.”

In this case, the headline really does say it all—and it speaks loud and clear to the virtual law office trend that’s slowly making its way across the country.

Debra Cassens Weiss penned the ABA Journal article that discusses a non-lawyer entrepreneur that launched and later sold a contract legal staffing firm—and has now set out to revolutionize law practice with a law firm that allows lawyers to work at home and doesn’t emphasize attorney rainmaking.

I decided to check out the firm, named Clearspire, for myself. The Web site boldly declares that the 100-year-old law firm model has been reengineered:

“For corporate and outside counsel alike, the traditional law firm model is broken. In response to a universal demand for change, Clearspire has introduced an entirely new model for the practice of law. For clients, we offer a complete, value-driven solution for outsourcing complex legal matters. For attorneys, we present an opportunity to practice in a supportive and invigorating environment, free from the demoralizing demands of major firms. The result is a radically new and efficient law firm for the 21st century. Where the most advanced business practices and most powerful technologies promote excellence, accountability and value. Where every system brings clients and attorneys into closer collaboration around shared interests. Where the universal desire for a better law firm has led, finally and fully, to a true alternative.”

While Clearspire promises an entirely new model, the attorneys come mostly from AmLaw 200 ranks. Bryce Arrowood is the co-founder, president and CEO of the company. Arrowood’s innovations in the legal service arena include a proprietary relational database for LawCorps that managed every facet of the business from sales and marketing contact information to employee management and financial and accounting management.

This is one of the most innovative models I’ve seen, and should pave the way for even greater competition among virtual law firms—and greater adoption of the model.

Davinci Virtual Office Solutions turned five years old today.

The Salt Lake City, Utah-based virtual office solutions provider has grown at break neck speed since it opened its virtual doors in 2006. Check out some of these stats:

8,000 – number of companies Davinci Virtual serves around the world
850 – the number of Davinci Virtual office locations

Although virtual offices were up and running before Davinci Virtual came along, the Utah company deserves recognition for helping to take the concept mainstream. Indeed, virtual offices have come a long way in the past five years.

Davinci Virtual offers entrepreneurs and small business owners a prime business address in large and small cities alike, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami. Through its network of business center partners, Davinci also offers meeting space, business support services, and in many cases day office space.

“We were thrilled to celebrate five years of innovation and success. Davinci Virtual Office Solutions has met every milestone it has set while creating a new way to work for businesses,” said Bill Grodnik, CEO of Davinci Virtual. “We are so proud of our staff and our partners and we can’t wait to celebrate another five great years.”

Among the many services Davinci Virtual offers are:

• local or toll-free telephone and fax numbers
• digital voicemail
• electronic fax
• e-mail
• online command center
• unified messaging
• voice and video conferencing
• voicemail to e-mail
• fax to e-mail
• professional live receptionist services
• virtual assistants
• live call answering services
• screening and forwarding
• find me, follow me
• surveys
• live web chat
• outbound calling
• customer service
• appointment scheduling
• order taking

So, happy birthday Davinci! Here’s to another five years.

MegaNet Communications is throwing down the virtual PBX gauntlet. The company just expanded its Voice over Internet Protocol services to accommodate customers of any size—in both residential and business markets.

“We’ve seen a huge upswing in customers using their high-speed Internet connections to expand their phone services while drastically reducing their monthly costs,” says James Smith, vice president of Marketing for MegaNet Communications. “Businesses are taking advantage of the extremely low pricing and free nationwide calling VoIP can offer, while maintaining excellent call quality and offering many more options not usually included with traditional phone service.”

MegaNet estimates companies can save between 15 percent and 40 percent—or more—over traditional voice services by deploying VoIP solutions. That’s not a new figure. Most of the company’s competitors throw out similar numbers.

Moreover, companies can also leverage calling features that are usually only available with large hardware phone system purchases. For example, as part of its monthly service fee MegaNet’s Virtual PBX services offers the following features:

• auto attendants
• personalized voicemail
• automatic call forwarding
• interactive voice menus
• voicemail to email
• call waiting
• caller ID blocking
• call transfers
• three-way calling
• phone-based management
• do not disturb
• internal/external ring tones
• stutter tone notification
• phone number fail safe
• caller ID with name
• fax to email

“In addition to cost savings, using VoIP can allow a business to connect many different physical locations together under one phone system,” Smith explains. “An employee working in Massachusetts can pick up a phone and dial an extension to reach a co-worker in Montana, as easily as if they were sitting in the next office. Even better, calls of this nature are free using VoIP, which can represent an impressive cost savings to a multi-site firm.”

MegaNet’s feature set isn’t exactly new either, though it is robust. While many virtual PBX companies are focused on the business market, though, MegaNet is also venturing into the residential VoIP market. MegaNet points to the many cost-saving benefits home users can tap into via their high-speed Internet connection. That’s somewhat unique. Although home-based businesses using virtual PBXes is not new, most companies don’t call out residential customers.

OK, so what’s it going to cost you? Not much. The Business VoIP/Voice service for small businesses includes 600 minutes a month for $19.95. Or, you can go with the unlimited service for just $29.95 a month. Residential packages start a low as $14.95 a month. The only catch is you have to sign up for a one-year term to get those rates.