29

May

A Virtual Phone System for a Small Mobile Business

05-29-2008 | Posted by: Carolyn Young

Searching for the Virtual PBX service that best suits your needs can be a bit daunting if you are not familiar with the terminology and the different services and pricing structures available. Since we like to share our knowledge and experience regarding certain business applications and services, we thought we would do the same with this decision.

The primary feature we are looking for in a potential Virtual PBX solution is the ability to have telephone conversations solely using our computer and the Internet (otherwise known as VoIP service). Other important features include:

• Low cost
• Between 3 to 5 extensions with an Auto Attendant
• “Follow Me” calling to multiple numbers
• Voicemail delivery via e-mail
• Faxing capabilities included

While the bulleted items are offered from most providers, VoIP service is not. A priority for us, as well as the majority of businesses, is to keep things as simple as possible while being cost effective. Having one company that provides all of these services is ideal for us.

A few of the websites we reviewed - eVoice.com, GotVmail.com, and OneBox.com - give the consumer basic details and pricing on their websites. However, some really go the extra mile to make sure you have all the information necessary to make an informed decision. A couple that impressed me with their amount of helpful data were RingCentral.com and VirtualPBX.com. Both these sites have extra information and tutorials available for download, and RingCentral.com also offers instant question answering with their Live Online Chat feature. The websites are very user-friendly and cater to both new and experienced users of Virtual PBX.

Both eVoice.com and GotVmail.com offer 30-day free trials of their products, while OneBox.com and VirtualPBX.com do not offer any. We recently took advantage of the 7-day trial from RingCentral.com since they are the only provider that offers both VoIP and Virtual PBX services.