A Better Virtual – USA Virtual Offices

SAN JOSE—Virtual PBX keeps on racking up the virtual office rewards. So if you are a mobile worker or a virtual office user, listen up because this could be a service that can help you save time and money.

What’s all the hoopla about? Virtual PBX just won the 2011 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award from Internet Telephony magazine for its Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere product.

“At Virtual PBX, we focus on our customers’ needs to keep communications costs and complexity low, while ensuring they have the capacity and features to fuel growth to meet their business objectives,” says Greg Brashier, CMO of Virtual PBX. “This award illustrates the high value we are providing with Virtual PBX Complete.”

Maybe you haven’t used the product, but it does offer some noteworthy features. Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere is a full-featured hosted PBX service that aims to reduce business phone system costs while offering phone system access and availability through over a wide range of telephone and computing devices.

One of the most unique aspects of this virtual PBX service is that it taps in to both standard phone lines and VoIP lines. That eliminates unnecessary expenses and increases employee productivity and convenience.

“The editors from Internet Telephony magazine are pleased to grant a Unified Communications Product of the Year Award to Virtual PBX for Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere,” says Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC. “Virtual PBX has proven they are committed to quality and excellence while addressing real needs in the marketplace. We look forward to seeing continued advancement in technology solutions from Virtual PBX in the future.”

If you are looking for a virtual PBX provider for your traditional or virtual office space, this company is certainly worth checking out.

PORTLAND, OR—Ruby Receptionists. We’ve written about this virtual receptionist service before. It’s pretty innovative and affordable for virtual office users. Apparently, it’s also a great place to work.

Ruby Receptionists just earned the #3 ranking for mid-sized companies in Oregon Business Magazine’s yearly list of “100 Best Companies to Work For” for the third year in a row. The medium size category includes the top 34 highest-scoring companies with 35 to 99 Oregon employees.

What keeps putting this virtual receptionist provider on the list? It’s all in the core values that under-gird its proprietary technology. Those four core values are: Foster Happiness, Practice WOWism, Create Community and Innovate. With those four values, this virtual receptionist provider aims to provide stellar customer service and a stellar workplace.

“We live our core values with our employees the same way we ask our employees to live them with our clients,” says Jill Nelson, founder and CEO of Ruby Receptionists. “This enables us to deliver superior customer service while fostering an empowering, positive and enjoyable workplace for our employees. It’s just a big circle of love over at Ruby.”

Beyond those core values, Oregon Business Magazine cited two key factors in the surveys that led to the virtual receptionist provider’s number three ranking: emphasis on decision-making and trust.

Ruby Receptionists offers comprehensive training and proprietary software to empower its virtual receptionists and staff to deliver exceptional customer service to Ruby clients and callers. One example includes access to company-sponsored gift cards and an Amazon.com account so employees can spontaneously reward clients with small, thoughtful gifts that support Ruby’s “Practice WOWism” core value.

Ruby’s community-driven approach to management and communication also played an important role in employee surveys. Employees also noted the company’s “killer parties” as yet another highlight of working for Ruby. The virtual receptionist company sponsors numerous parties, community service activities and educational programs to foster team-building and camaraderie among its 70 employees.

And, of course, we’ve written about the Five at Five sabbatical program for virtual receptionists. The program offers five weeks of paid sabbatical after five year of employment. Eleven of Ruby’s 70 current employees will become eligible for sabbatical this year.

Virtual PBX solutions are rising about as fast as virtual offices. And it’s no coincidence in an increasingly mobile world.

One of the newest virtual PBX providers to hit the market is MyNetFone. MyNetFone’s just rolled out Virtual PBX 2.0, complete with new features and functions that it promises will revolutionize the virtual PBX market and signal a new generation of hosted or virtual solutions.

“We strongly believe that cloud-based or hosted solutions such as our Virtual PBX will, without a doubt be the phone system of the future, which is why we’ve continued to invest our resources in developing a truly innovative, future-proof solution,” says Rene Sugo, cofounder of MyNetFone. “We’ve had up to 30 of our best engineers working on this over the last year and I’m proud to say that we’ve developed a product that takes hosted PBX solutions to a whole new level!”

That’s a tall promise. Is it merely posturing or does MyNetFone have something that RingCentral, Phone.com and its larger competitors don’t? MyNetFone appears to be doing something right. The virtual PBX provider has more than 1,000 customers in Australia and New Zealand and has posted a 50 percent spike in customers in the last six months alone.

“Our business has grown rapidly since we first signed up to MyNetFone, and the flexibility of their services has allowed us to quickly and easily add more lines, phone numbers and locations as needed,” says Luke Scully, owner of online florist Fresh Flowers and Gifts, whose business has been with MyNetFone for over 3 years. “We’re about to open a branch in New Zealand and will be using MyNetFone to provide phone numbers and systems to help our expansion.”

PORTLAND—Ruby Receptionists is launching something we’d probably all like to take advantage of. The live receptionist services provider is rolling out a new employee sabbatical program dubbed “Five at Five.”

Five at Five draws its inspiration from one of the live virtual receptionist firm’s four core values: foster happiness. The other four core values are practice WOWism, create community and innovate. For Five at Five will offer its virtual receptionists a paid, five-week sabbatical after five years of working at the firm. Eleven of the virtual receptionist’s 70 employees can take advantage of the perk next year.

“Our virtual receptionists spend their entire work day making our clients happy by providing excellent customer service and making meaningful connections in a virtual world,” says Jill Nelson, founder of Ruby Receptionists. “Our new sabbatical program is just another example of how our core value of ‘Fostering Happiness’ applies to both our clients and our employees. We’re thrilled to be able to offer our employees time to recharge—and to pursue a dream or activity that makes them deeply happy.”

Ruby Receptionists is doing it up. The virtual receptionist company is even preparing employees to take their paid sabbaticals with an individual coaching session with Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener, a world-renowned positive psychology expert and author who is a leading authority on strengths, culture, courage, and happiness. And if that’s not enough, Ruby will also fund $1,000 grants that employees can apply for and use for the activities, travel or education they plan to pursue while on sabbatical.

This is an amazing program. I mean, think about it. Paid sabbaticals are typically the domain of universities and global enterprises. Small firms rarely offer them, and in fact Ruby’s virtual receptionists may be the first in the industry to have the opportunity. At the end of the day, the program is all about attracting and retaining the best and brightest virtual receptionists by setting the stage for workplace satisfaction and creativity.

Founded by Jill Nelson in 2003, Ruby Receptionists was named one of the “100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon” in 2010, 2011, and 2012 and has ranked as one of Oregon’s fastest growing companies for four consecutive years. It’s not difficult to see why, is it?

SAN JOSE, CA— If you are an executive in the hospitality industry, then listen up because there’s a new virtual PBX solution on the market that offers tangible benefits for your operation. Voice Carrier is making a major competitive moves in the virtual PBX market by acquiring hospitality VoIP solutions provider PBillX.

I hadn’t heard of PBillX until the acquisition. But I can see why Voice Carrier went after this deal. PBillX is the maker of an award-winning product called P$X. It’s a virtual PBX system that targets the hospitality industry.

Specifically, PBillx develops P$X software, a solution to provide a certified property management system (PMS) interface to open source Asterisk VoIP solutions. Voice Carrier has integrated the P$X software with its own VoIP PBX systems and service to create a paradigm shift in the way the hospitality industry uses its telephony infrastructure.

“PBillX established itself as an innovator in bringing state-of-the-art VoIP capabilities to the hospitality industry where many properties are still using outdated, expensive and difficult-to-maintain legacy PBXes,” says Gary Johnson, president and CEO of Voice Carrier.

“Now with P$X software in our hospitality portfolio, we can deliver a hybrid, cloud-based, on-premise PBX with a seamless integration to the hotel’s existing PMS. This coupled with our uniquely priced VoIP service plans allows Voice Carrier to provide hotels with unprecedented cost and operational savings over conventional PBXes—the bigger the hotel, the bigger the savings.”

The P$X software interfaces with the hospitality industry’s most popular PMS systems, including Micros Fidelio, Opera and Suit8, Protel, Amadeus Hospitality, Brilliant, Newhotel and Silverbyte/Optima. Hotels that choose Voice Carrier’s new hospitality solution can still use their existing in-room analog phones and phone system infrastructure while tapping into new functionality, lower monthly phone bills and a new potential to boost occupancy and revenues by marketing unlimited
local and long distance calling to prospective guests.

Voice Carrier is serious about the opportunity. The virtual PBX provider just joined
Hotel Technology Next Generation and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association. Voice Carrier will also be participating in major hotel industry conventions in the company months.

Junk South. The company does just what it sounds like it does—removes junk from hotels, resorts, student housing, and offices. Junk South has made a name for itself providing removal solutions for large scale renovations, brand conversions, relocations and demolitions.

But when it came to communications, the company wasn’t willing to use a junk phone system. The Athens, Ga.-based division of Athena Enterprises needed a virtual PBX solution that would live up to its reputation for sustainable business. Junk South needed a reliable communications solution that would make it easy for customers to call in their needs 24/7.

Junk South turned to VoiceNation’s virtual PBX service to make sure its high volume of calls is handled professionally. With VoiceNation, Junk South was able to set specific preferences for the virtual PBX solution and have calls routed to appropriate departments. That equaled more responsive call times and greater customer satisfaction.

“With VoiceNation, employees working in the field are reached without any delay, messages are easily retrieved, and faxes are sent from our smart phones and tablets with ease,” says Chris Caswall, president and CEO of Athena Enterprises LLC. “This service is truly an asset to our company and will continue to help us manage our call volume and support our customer base.”

Caswall says VoiceNation gives Junk South “great flexibility and peace of mind” that all incoming calls are managed appropriately. Junk South uses an online dashboard to customize call preferences, listen to messages, send virtual faxes and update contact lists; providing a quick and easy solution for everyday business.

“VoiceNation offers everything we look for in a calling service; affordability, ease of use, customizable interface, reliable customer service, and professional quality,” Caswall says.

SAN FRANCISCO—Need some help scheduling appointments? You may be able to cut the virtual receptionist right out of the mix.

Genbook, an online appointment scheduling solution, just rolled out an analytics feature that allows small businesses to track critical performance data and sales patterns in real-time. Dubbed Genbook Analytics, the feature paves the way for local merchants to better understand their business performance by analyzing the revenue, service and staff data generated by the more than 11 million appointments scheduled on the Genbook platform.

“Online appointment scheduling produces a tremendous amount of very valuable data that can now be organized into useful business intelligence,” says Rody Moore, founder and CEO of Genbook. “This new feature reflects a growing demand from increasingly sophisticated small local businesses who desire timely and useful information on which to base business-critical decisions.”

Accenture SAS Analytics Group, demand for analytics services is expected to increase by as much as 72 percent in 2012 as tech-savvy small business owners seek quantitative insight into how to run their businesses more efficiently and productively. Genbook Analytics helps merchants make key business decisions by identifying sales trends, forecasting future performance and monitoring a series of key data metrics. For example, the data can reveal which services bring in the highest revenue, what time of year is the busiest, and which staff members are generating the most appointments.

By delivering information in real-time, rather than in static reports, Genbook Analytics provides insight and intelligence for small businesses to help optimize their schedules and their staff and service offerings, while increasing their revenues. Appointment data can be sorted through daily, weekly, or monthly views and filtered by revenue or number of appointments, as well as by individual staff members or by services.

“I am now able to see how my business is growing, and from 2010 to 2011, it grew by 254 percent,” says Sirry Berndsen, owner of Spirit Of Light in Brookline, Mass. “I credit Genbook for much of that growth and am so glad I can now see my business’ key figures on one screen.”

SAN JOSE, CA—Virtual PBX is racking up the awards. This time around, the virtual PBX provider is getting attention for its Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere. The virtual PBX product has brought home the 2011 Internet Telephony Product of the Year Award.

Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere is a business phone system with VoIP capabilities. The solution allows customers to use their smart phones and computers as VoIP handsets while full phone system features.

“Our mission is to deliver communications tools that help businesses improve customer service and business productivity,” says Paul Hammond, CEO of Virtual PBX. “This recognition from Internet Telephony affirms the value of Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere, which is making a huge difference for our business customers, who are also able to reduce their operational costs.”

Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere is an attractive offering. It’s versatile and boasts business-grade quality calls. Then there’s the affordability factor. Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere is low cost, which makes it especially suitable for small- to mid-size businesses. Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere also allow small business owners the flexibility to mix and match a VoIP network with any SIP-compliant phone.

VoIP Anywhere capabilities can be accessed through the use of any standard softphone, such as those available for Android phones, iPhones and computers. VoIP Anywhere allows such devices to appear as VoIP extensions in the Virtual PBX system, so calls to and from the softphone have full access to all system features, such as business caller ID for outbound calls, call recording, call transfers, presence management and reporting. Virtual PBX has reduced bandwidth requirements for VoIP calls, allowing high-quality calls to be placed over even modest data connections, including 3G, 4G and WiFi.

“I am happy to grant Virtual PBX with a Product of the Year Award. The editors of Internet Telephony have verified that Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere displays quality and innovation plus provides real needs in the marketplace,” stays Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC. “I would like to congratulate the entire team at Virtual PBX for their commitment to advancing IP communication technologies.”

VoiceNation helped plenty of companies get through the holiday rush, now live answering and virtual receptionist service is helping businesses realize their New Year’s resolution to increase company revenue by maximizing any and all sales opportunities.

VoiceNation’s live answering service helps small business owners capture all incoming calls and qualify each prospective lead. These virtual receptionists hare professionally trained in a variety of industries, including legal, service, real estate, media, and hospitality.

“You know your biggest competitor offers a similar product at an equal price, therefore, you need to be the first to receive the consumer’s call. A missed call means your competitor gets the sale,” says Jay Reeder, president of VoiceNation. “Identifying each incoming call ensures you do not miss an opportunity to cultivate a sale.”

Indeed, today’s business world offers cutting-edge competition. Small businesses can’t afford to miss incoming calls. Think about it for a minute. If you are launching a marketing campaign to generate leads and referrals, you can’t cash in on that campaign if no one answers the phone. Even if you rely solely on cold calling to drum up new business, you could miss the sale if you don’t answer the line when the potential customer calls back.

According to Richard Seppala, “The ROI Guy,” many small business owners fail to understand that marketing and advertising is just the first step in the sales process. If the company doesn’t have an effective system for the leads generated, marketing can be a vain exercise. VoiceNation offers live answering solutions for lead capture, after hours on call, disaster recovery solutions, and much more.

VoiceNation serves more than 40,000 customers including FEMA, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Dell, AIG and the U.S. Coast Guard. They leverage the very latest in proprietary technology solutions in order to deliver quality call answering services at the lowest cost to their customers.

If you were wondering if Voice Carrier is really an innovator and  leader in hosted VoIP business communications systems, now you have more proof.

Internet Telephony magazine just handed Voice Carrier Office its 2011 Product of the Year Award. This marks the second consecutive year Voice Carrier has won the magazine’s coveted annual award.

Voice Carrier Office got the attention of the magazine with its combination of communications features and a unique pricing model. With Voice Carrier Office, customers get unlimited worldwide extensions for a low fixed monthly price.

“An exceptional combination of features and a unique pricing model enable Voice Carrier’s customers to achieve tremendous business efficiencies,” says Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC, the parent company of Internet Telephony magazine. “Congratulations to the entire team at Voice Carrier.”

Voice Carrier Office does have a clear differentiator: it’s the only cloud-based PBX provider to offer unlimited extensions and anytime, anywhere calling for one low price. Essentially, that means small businesses pay for only the number of concurrent connections they need to support the required simultaneous calling capacity as they connect with employees around the world. Voice Carrier calls it a “point-to-many” capability.

Voice Carrier Offices also offers features such as follow-me, voicemail-to-email, a customizable electronic switchboard, and a built-in conference bridge. All this allows entrepreneurs and small business owners to manage their business communications from the office, home or even on the road using their cell phone.

“We are proud that Internet Telephony’s 2011 Product of the Year Award recognizes Voice Carrier’s unsurpassed innovation,” says Gary J. Johnson, president and CEO of Voice Carrier. “Our customers continue to be extremely satisfied with Voice Carrier Office as a very easy-to-use, affordable and full-featured hosted VoIP business phone service that runs in the cloud and can be set up in minutes to reduce their phone bills by up to 70 percent. Voice Carrier Office delivers tremendous benefits and ROI to every customer.”