iFusion Raffle Winners

Thank you for stopping by our booth at the NY Expo for Business this week.
As promised we are giving away 2 iFusion stations.

Our marketing assistant Irina had pulled two winning cards from the bag and the winner is... drum roll please...

Damion R. Archibald from Total Care Cleaning Services LLC. in Saddle Brook NJ
and
Tim Chaudhry from Hi-Tech Trading (USA) Inc. in Woodbury, NY.

Thank you all for playing and stay in touch for future expos and drawings.

The Proven Advantages of Using Hosted Phone Systems

If you are running a small or a medium sized business, then it is important for you to consider using hosted phone systems in your office. A hosted phone system works in effectively removing all the complexities linked to using a traditional phone. It comes with software, applications and features that help in improving the productivity of your staff. The following are among the major advantages of installing a hosted phone system in your office:

1. The process of installing the system is less costly.  In comparison to a traditional phone system, handling the installation process of a hosted phone system is much easier because it does not require a lot of equipment. All the major hardware needed in making the system work is stored at the data center of your chosen service provider so you need not worry about where to find all these.
2. It allows you to take complete control of your company. Hosted phone systems can offer you personalized vanity numbers and these are extremely useful in attracting more customers since these numbers can be easily remembered.  Personal extensions also offer your customers a better experience when dealing with your company since they will have an easier time reaching the people that they want to talk to. You may also choose to use an operator if you do not want your customers to end up getting frustrated when they talk to a machine. A hosted phone system also allows you to establish a company directory and enjoy other features including call screening, group telephony meetings and three-way calling. All these can help in easily controlling and monitoring all your business affairs.
3. You will never have a difficulties controlling the system. Most hosted phone systems come with easy to use features and interface so performing certain functions such as calling groups, performing any account maintenance task and updating speed dials will only require you to log into your phone account online. The hosted system can also benefit you because of the presence of call logs and voice mails.
4. It meets the growing needs of your company. This means that you will never face any difficulty adding or removing any extension from your hosted phone system. If the number of your employees grows, then you can easily add extensions without negatively affecting the entire system. The good thing about this is that adding extensions to your system will never require you to buy expensive and new equipment.

But you should know that despite the many advantages offered by hosted phone systems, these systems also have their own drawbacks. The first drawback of using a hosted phone system is that it does not have an automatic security feature because most calls operate with an open internet connection.  But you can solve this problem with the help of firewalls. Another downside of using a hosted phone system is that it will take time for you to find the most decent call quality. It is because the system is fully dependent on the designated bandwidth amount. Still the advantages of the system outweigh its disadvantages so it is just a wise move for you to install it in your workplace.

INVAR Technologies INC. © 2012

What Makes an Effective Call Center Solution?

The call center industry is constantly changing so if you are running this type of business, then you have to make sure that you look for a call center solution which is capable of effectively handling certain changes in the industry. The call center industry serves as the focal point of all types of customer communications. The agents in this industry are around to answer questions raised by the customers and provide them with the kind of information that they need. The agents also act as extensions of marketing, support and sales teams by taking orders, responding to marketing campaigns and promotions and taking part in the cross-sell and up-sell initiatives of various companies. Considering the numerous tasks performed by call center agents, it is just right for you to look for a solution which will keep your business running in a fast-paced environment.

When searching for the best call center solution, it is important for you to spend time studying the features present in the packages offered by different providers. A good choice is that which comes with an integrated software and an interactive voice response system. This is a huge help in automating all your call center transactions, thereby avoiding the problems that you may encounter when using manual correspondence such as processing delays. The integrated software allows you take advantage of better business opportunities while the interactive response system is a big boost in optimizing call management which guarantees a prompt response to all inbound calls. This will improve the flexibility of your business.

It is also important for you to determine if a specific solution uses technology in managing callers. Look for a solutions provider which utilizes the best IT advancement, thereby giving team leaders an easier time controlling their staff, ensuring that all phones are constantly covered and preventing the queue times from growing too large. This is extremely useful in allowing call center managers and agents to regularly monitor call traffic while also improving the efficiency in the workplace.

You should also consider looking for a call center solution which comes with a call recording feature. This feature is extremely useful in terms of archiving and analyzing all customer interactions while also extracting essential data from the recorded and archived interactions. A call recording feature offers a lot of advantages including having enough recorded facts to dispute certain conflicts and protect your business against legal costs and fines. This is also a major help in ensuring that you meet the standards, policies and agreements in the industry. Aside from all that, the call recording feature also improves the performance of your business in terms of serving clients.

The web-based self-service feature is also one of those features that you should look out for when trying to pick the best call center solution. This specific feature gives your clients the ability to get answers to their questions and carry out basic troubleshooting tasks without seeking the assistance of an agent. This self-service feature reduces the number of inbound calls, thereby improving the productivity in your workplace and allowing your agents to handle customers that are dealing with more complex issues.

INVAR Technologies INC. © 2012

Hosted VoIP as a disaster recovery policy

Whether your company is a start-up or an established business, there are factors that need to be considered when you are thinking of installing or upgrading telephony infrastructure. Your solution needs to be reliable, cost-effective, flexible, scalable, low-maintenance and easily upgradable. Hosted Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology services, such as those offered by INVAR Technologies and Altigen have significant advantages in all of these areas when compared to the PBX technology offered by traditional telecom companies.

VoIP communications are transmitted over the internet, rather than through the public telephone exchanges. This allows for a great deal of flexibility in how services are provided. Because VoIP makes use of the internet's packet switching technology, rather than the telecom company's fixed exchanges, voice data can be easily routed around infrastructure failures caused by poor maintenance or natural disasters. Many businesses use hosted VoIP disaster recovery policies. Just as you can access the internet on your smart phone, you can access all of the features of VoIP over a WIFI or 3G data connection with your mobile devices. This makes VoIP much more robust than traditional telephony, where a downed line or damaged exchange can sever communications within a business and between a business and its customers. INVAR Technologies VoIP solutions can tell whether your office telephones are connected and turned on, and in case they are not, as in a power failure, calls can be automatically routed to mobile devices, meaning there is no break in your business's activities and ability to communicate.

Rather than housing a PBX exchange on your business's premises, with a hosted VoIP contract, most of the infrastructure is in the cloud, and all a business needs is VoIP-capable telephones. Because of this, using a hosted VoIP system entails large savings in capital expenditure on infrastructure. Businesses also don't have to worry about maintenance or upgrade costs for exchanges, because these are part of the hosted service. As businesses change to adapt to the market, their telephony needs change too. With hosted VoIP extensions can be added, removed, or rerouted in software within seconds. Traditionally, as a business grew, its original exchange became unable to handle the call volume, which necessitated yet another expenditure for a larger system. Hosted solutions will scale with your business's needs. Whether a business has a small office with two or three people, or a call center servicing thousands of calls a day, hosted VoIP will scale with no extra equipment costs.

Because hosted VoIP is implemented largely in software, it can be integrated easily into your existing applications, including your Customer Relationship Management applications. INVAR Technologies hosted VoIP already integrated seamlessly with CRM systems like Salesforce.com, vTiger and IRIS. If your CRM is not already integrated, INVAR Technologies has a team dedicated to to integrating your software to your specifications. Using hosted VoIP enables a business to leverage unified communications to streamline their workflow and business processes.

When compared to traditional telecoms technology, and even ISP provided phone services, VoIP provides significant cost-benefits, reliability, flexibility, and scalability. Can your business afford not to consider it?

INVAR Technologies INC. © 2012

Would Integrating VoIP into your CRM increase efficiency?

VoIP, or Voice over IP, is a telephony term for the technology that allows voice calls to travel over a data network. Voice information, forwarded in discrete digital packets, bypasses the circuit-committed PSTN (public switched telephone network.) Once seen as a luxury available to only the largest of corporations, simplified plug-and-play products and hosted services for converged voice and data applications now offer significant benefits to companies of all sizes.

While the cost-savings associated with VoIP technology will always remain a core attraction, advances in voice and data convergence technology means that VoIP can deliver a host of benefits. In particular, many corporations have found that integrating VoIP with their existing CRM (customer relationship management) solution has led to a unique opportunity to develop a truly customer-centric and efficient proposition.

Businesses choosing to transition to an integrated VoIP/CRM solution will derive significant benefits from the unified communications capabilities subsequently presented.

• Improved automation can eliminate the number of actions required to enter data into a system. Unique features such as click-to-dial capabilities can reduce the time needed to access useful customer data. Automatic dialing deployed in a call center environment will increase efficiency in terms of how many calls can be made in the working day. Improvement in sales figures is often directly derived from increased efficiency, since more time exists for the sales process to take place. 
• An integrated solution makes it possible for call logs and recordings to be made available to pertinent staff. This can help the members of the sales force and account management team access invaluable information regarding client activity levels, making it easier to identify opportunities to cross and up-sell complementary products and services. Call recordings can also offer increased efficiency when evaluating the performance of individual members of the sales team.
• Improved communications between a company and its clients can also increase efficiency. Innovative features like 'follow me', 'hunt groups' and 'DID (direct inward dialing)' can present attractive solutions for a client-focused approach to business. Never again need an opportunity to make a sale be missed. 
• Exciting conferencing capabilities make it easier than ever for businesses to connect with clients, without concern for the logistics involved in getting everyone required in the same room. Sales presentations conducted over the network offer advanced features like high-definition video calling, real-time document sharing and the ability to record events for future use. Integrating VoIP with a CRM solution adds even more to the proposition. Clients can be invited at the touch of a button and presentations can be made to many attendees at once, thus allowing business to be conducted faster and smarter than ever before.

INVAR Technologies is uniquely placed to help companies achieve the benefits of VoIP and CRM integration. Our system offers flawless integration of convergence equipment from the likes of Altigen and Aptela with existing CRM systems like Salesforce.com, vTiger and IRIS. If integration with a company's existing CRM solution does not already exist, we have a dedicated team to facilitate the benefits of integration to all companies. Skilled in all aspects of application development and integration, we can design and implement customized packages to exact specifications. We are able to offer a high quality of support to companies who may have already taken some steps towards a converged network and integration of VoIP with CRM.

Integrating VoIP technology with CRM solutions can put businesses ahead of the pack in offering a customer-centric approach while reaping the benefits of maximized efficiency. Please visit invartech.net to find out more about what we can offer.

INVAR Technologies INC. © 2012