Business Phone Services. Make VoIP phone call from Outlook ?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. I'm using RingCentral right now and it works great with Outlook contacts and so-so with BCM. I'm working with them to integrate it better... Cool service!

A. On most laptops, you just need a headset (either cheap that plugs into the sound ports, or more expensive USB ones), and some VoIP software that links to a service. The service you select will determine which VoIP software is compatible and that will determine which set of contacts you can use. Almost all of them work with Outlook and none that I've found will work directly with BCM. eyeBeam is a real good softphone for VoIP from www.counterpath.com. I don't know if I'd say "anything else" because I've only studied 227 other services and subscribed to 25 of them, BUT... Since 1995 (when ACT! first developed their TAPI interface at the TAPI Bake-Off), I've stayed on top of the telephony market, VoIP in particular, and have had many different options from many different providers. The RingCentral guys have a long history of doing this and have developed a fabulous platform for small to medium sized businesses. You can use regular phones or VoIP which makes it real flexible, especially for businesses where people are working from different places and are mobile. Here are a couple of reviews that say it in more detail: http://microsoftstartupzone.com/blogs/ori/archive/2007/08/17/decoupli... http://small-business-phone.com/?p=4 As someone in the telephone business, I can explain why this is. It's not nearly as unreasonable as you might think at the outset - although I would also like to keep my internet calls free. Business telephone services currently have no such thing as a "free call". Only residential telephone services do. When you make a call from a business telephone, the minimum charges for the first minute is something around 2 to 4 cents, and each additional minute something like one cent. This specific information is likely contained in your telephone directory. This is because businesses make more calls and are on longer than typical residences. As a class, residential telephones are mostly unused, placing very little demand on the telephone company's resources. This is why, when an emergency strikes (storm, earthquake, etc.), you cannot get a dial tone from Ma Bell. There aren't enough to go around for everyone at the same time. Not nearly. When folks get on the internet with unlimited access, they frequently stay on for hours every day, a lot more like business telephones. This costs the telephone company more, because they have to provide the dial tone and associated path and resources for that connection, and to maintain a certain level of network performance for everyone else. That dial tone et al you're using is one less for everyone else.

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