Our Hand Coded Phone System Went Live Today

After much anticipation we bit the proverbial bullet and transferred our main phone number to our hand-built, home-grown phone system.

Why? Well, mainly because we wanted control. Too many middle men mean things become slow.  If we all decide to have a mind mapping session around a white board I want to forward my calls on to someone else.  Or if I’m on the road automatically transfer to my mobile. If we are left voicemail I want an email of the voicemail and an mp3 audio file attached to listen to it. We want to be dynamic and flexible. I want to achieve this via a click of a button or automate it as much as possible.  Furthermore building tools that let you create custom workflows integrating telephony including SMS is vital for creating streamlined communications.  The internet is about communication and telephony is a large part of that, it makes a lot of sense that this just becomes another part of the service.

Moving to www.plivo.com as our telephony platform, means we are in control of our phone systems and can program them as we see fit, as well as integrate them into our client and project management systems.

By taking this leap it also means that we discover the pitfalls (if any) of using a cloud based SIP powered phone system and what that means for small business. Right now it looks like large phone bill savings, more flexibility creating a mobile office environment, and lots more power meaning we can build enterprise level CRM and call integration apps at extremely affordable prices, bringing enterprise level software to the lil’ guys!

Here’s just a few fun features:

• Record and log calls against customers and projects (never miss the important details)
• Instant caller ID popups with the client information page, so you can see the last communication plus the current projects
• Mobile office. Either take your handset with you, use a softphone (software phone on your computer)  or your mobile… Or all three. As long as you have an internet connection you can feel like your sat at your desk.
• Send spam callers to voicemail… Ah that would be a nice feeling.
• Transfer calls by clicking on your team members face or name, not remembering their arbitrary extension number.

Imagine clicking on a customers profile page and seeing all communications, phone calls, ever made by yourself and your team. It’s pretty powerful stuff. The possibilities are endless. The next job is to code a button that sends spam callers straight to voicemail!

We’ll keep you updated. Right now I’m feeling pretty good. Good work Michael.