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The Audio Conferencing Revolution - a new way to cut business costs

Audio conferencing is an effective alternative to face-to-face meetings.

Also called phone conferencing and teleconferencing, it brings together any number of people from anywhere in the world.

Benefits of Audio Conferencing

• Reduced Travel Costs
• Increased Productivity across Dispersed Workforces and Teams
• Improved Hiring and Retention of Top Talent
• Sustained Competitive Advantage
• Support for Environmental Initiatives

 

What can I use Audio Conferencing for?

Small Meetings With a Audio Conferencing unit on your desk you are able to hold spontaneous meetings without leaving the office or losing precious work time.

Conference Room The most traditional way of conducting teleconferences involves gathering onsite colleagues in the conference room and calling other participants.

Large Situations Audio conferencing's versatility and audio quality enhances conferences and meetings in large lecture halls and auditoriums.

 

Want to discover more?

Do you have any technical questions? Or are you interested in seeing a demo? Then call us on 01969 625035 (Option 3) and have a chat to one of our audio conferencing experts. Alternatively simply fill in the form on the right side of this page and we’ll call you back and arrange a demo or quote.

 

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Click the image above to review some of the latest Audio Conferencing Products

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As you determine the right IP phones for your organization, here are some questions to ask to help you select the kind of phones that best fit your business:

1.Who will use the phones?

IP phones have a wide range of features and functionality depending on the typical usage. Phones are designed for a variety of uses, including by executives, professionals, operators and call center agents. IP phones that are used in lobbies, lunchrooms or other common areas may have a streamlined feature set.

Executive - An executive or an executive assistant may need a 12-line phone that has an excellent quality speakerphone and a large color display. Support for a Bluetooth headset may be desired for cordless hands-free calling.

Professional - Professionals, executives and executive assistants who spend a large chunk of their day on the phone may need a “professional” level phone. Three to six lines may be appropriate, as well as a bright, back-lit color display, a full-duplex speakerphone and an integrated headset jack. Design professionals, media creators and others who work with bandwidth-intensive applications may want their IP phone to provide support for Gigabit Ethernet for higher performance.

Essential - For open areas such as lobbies, visitor offices, classrooms and dorm rooms, a more basic phone is usually warranted. In these scenarios, a single-line phone with a two-way speakerphone, and a one-line display to show caller ID is typically sufficient.

2.How does the phone sound?

IP phones with high-fidelity sound (also known as wideband) quite simply sound better. For instance, ShoreTel’s phones deliver seven octaves of range, whereas many phones deliver only three octaves. Hi-fidelity sound is easier to understand and is less tiring on the listener.

3.How does the phone look?

Office phones may be practical, but they are also part of the décor. Do the phones come in different colors? Is it possible to customize the background image on the phone, such as with a company logo or message? ShoreTel’s phones are designed to look elegant and come in both black and silver.

4.How does the phone feel?

Knowledge workers may spend hours on conference calls each day. Contact center agents may spend all day on the phone. Ergonomics is important. At ShoreTel, we strive to make phones that are beautiful, comfortable and practical. Our contoured handset rests comfortably against the ear, which maximizes productivity and minimizes user fatigue. The touch screen enabled IP 655 provides haptic feedback allowing a user to get positive physical feedback when interacting with the screen.

5.What features are needed?

Most IP phones come with a set of basic features, including three-way calling, call waiting, and call-rollover, but there are a broad array of other features and functionality to consider.

Hi-fidelity sound (wideband)
Speakerphone performance
Color or grayscale display
Number of Ethernet ports
Support for Gigabit Ethernet
Power over Ethernet
Headset support
Support for multiple languages

6.Where is the person located?

If the person works from home or a remote office, consider a phone with an integrated virtual private network (VPN) client for added security. For instance, remote workers can connect a ShoreTel IP phone to a broadband router, and quickly establish a secure tunnel to the ShoreTel VPN Concentrator. The phone will then act as though it was in the office

7.How do you configure and manage the phones?

A phone system that’s easy to manage will keep operational costs low. For example, once a ShoreTel phone is plugged into the network, ShoreTel Director automatically discovers it and adds it to the system. The phone can then be centrally managed as part of the enterprise network. As new software releases become available, all IP phones can be updated automatically, which also simplifies ongoing management.

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Reports of the death of the desk phone are greatly exaggerated

The desk phone is still a workhorse of communications; market research firm In-Stat predicts IP phone shipments will exceed 40 million units in 2015. At the same time, businesses have more choices than ever when it comes to selecting the right phones for their employees and many workers may also have a smartphone in their pocket or a software-based phone on a laptop or tablet.

 

With so many options available, businesses should weigh their users’ needs and workplace environment before selecting their next-generation phones. Organizations can choose from a variety of phones, including:

IP phones. An IP phone, especially when paired with a state-of-the-art unified communications (UC) client, allows workers to be highly productive. They are “always on,” ready-to-go, and ShoreTel’s IP phones are easy to use, delivering high-fidelity sound so communications are crisp and clear. ShoreTel has a wide range of IP phones with features to suit every application, extending from the conference room, to the executive office and down to a lobby phone.

Soft phones. Soft phones let people make phone calls over the Internet using their PC, laptop or tablet and a headset or USB phone. ShoreTel Communicator has an integrated soft phone that allows users to turn their PCs into their phones when connected by a suitable broadband connection. Soft phones may be ideal for people who occasionally work remotely or from home.

Smartphones. Workers can use their mobile phones in the office, but they may find that in-building coverage is poor or that their cell phone usage charges can quickly add up. Organizations can use ShoreTel Mobility to extend the power of UC and their desk phone to their smartphone by enabling access to either the Wi-Fi or cellular network. Cellular calls are routed over the cheapest path both inside and outside the enterprise, which keeps costs down—and users productive.

With ShoreTel, customers can choose the right phones for their needs. All ShoreTel IP phones interoperate with ShoreTel Communicator, so settings, call-handling rules, presence information, and automatic directory updates can be managed according to users’ preferences. Communicator gives workers a suite of tools to manage real-time communications on their computer or mobile phone and move seamlessly between voice, video and IM as needed.

Click here to read 'Questions to Select the Right IP Phones'.

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Turbocharge Your Business with UC-Enabled Applications

Could your business be more efficient if communications were integrated into your core business processes, such as sales and customer service? Integrating unified communications (UC) features into business applications can increase employee productivity, shorten response times, encourage collaboration, and improve customer satisfaction. The ability to call, IM, email or conference another person from within the application you are using, rather than having to open up multiple applications or reach for the phone, helps workers stay productive. Moreover, the resulting consolidation of transactional data enables sophisticated reporting and analytics that can revolutionize business operations.

Integrating applications into unified communications, known as communications-enabled business processes (CEBP) in techno-circles, puts communications in the context of a business process. For example, with presence information enabled in a CRM application, a broker at a financial services company could, for instance, easily locate an available subject-matter expert to answer a complex question from a client.

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