Business Phone Systems Chicago




So, why the steady decline of premises-based revenue?


1. Cost


2. Advanced Features


3. Maintenance


4. Security    





Business Phone Systems Chicago



What are Analog Audio Signals?



What is Asterisk?



What does ATA stand for? What is it?



What does an Auto Attendant do?



What does bandwidth refer to?






What is call hunting?






What is a codec?



What is direct inward dialing?



What exactly is dual-tone multifrequency?



What is dynamic host control protocol?



How does find-me/follow-me work?


In telecommunications, what does full duplex mean?







What is a phone system’s interaction voice response?



What does IP stand for?



What is my IP Address?



Is IP Telephony different than VoIP?



What is an IP Phone?



What is jitter?



What does KBPS stand for?



What does lag mean?



How does latency affect my VoIP system?



What does messaging refer to in internet telephony?



In terms of VoIP service, what is a packet?



How can packet loss happen?



What does packet switching mean?



What is PBX and what does it stand for?



How is peer-to-peer relevant to VoIP?



What is the Primary Rate Interface (PRI)?


What does protocol refer to?



What does Quality of Service of a VoIP system mean?



What exactly is my router?



What does SIP stand for?



How does SIP relate to Phones?



How does a softphone differ from a standard telephone?



What is a switch when talking about VoIP?



What does TCP stand for?



Why is it called telephony?



What exactly is VoIP?



What exactly is a VoIP Phone?


– See more at:

Business Phone Systems Chicago



Companies just starting to research phone systems are likely to face a confusing alphabet of acronyms including VoIP, PBX and UC. What do these terms mean and, more to the point, how do these technologies make a business more competitive?

Let’s cut through the noise and define a few terms to help you understand the technologies underlying the modern phone system.

VoIP  Voice over Internet Protocol enables calls to be carried over the Internet using a telephone or computer. This type of phone system can reduce costs by eliminating the need for multiple carriers. It also enables access to applications and services delivered through the Internet or private cloud connection.

PBX and IP PBX  A PBX – or “Private Branch Exchange” – is a telephone switching system within an enterprise, where users share a limited number of outside lines to make external phone calls. Calls can easily be routed internally, by dialing a three or four-digit number. A traditional hard-wired PBX separates voice and data, but an IP PBX uses VoIP to combine voice and data networks.

Cloud Phone System  Also known as “hosted” or “software as a service” (SaaS), a cloud phone system opens up a wide range of possibilities. By hosting the communications platform in the cloud, a business reduces its cost and IT expenses. Vendors take responsibility for owning, configuring and managing applications and hardware. In addition, such systems allow companies to leverage technology and telephony across many locations.

UC –Unified communications integrates voice and data with critical business process applications, such as CRM, ERP and ATS. And, of course, communication features such as video conferencing, instant messaging (IM), mobility and online collaboration can be integrated into a single easy-to-use IP PBX solution. ShoreTel became a leader in UC by integrating our IP PBX with popular applications like Microsoft Outlook to create desktop call control, quick dialing, visual voicemail, automatic conference scheduling, and phone meeting invitation wizards.

By streamlining communications and enabling better collaboration, these technologies boost productivity and reduce costs, while helping businesses create competitive advantages. No wonder so many organizations are choosing to upgrade.

Best practices in Business Communications Business Phone Systems Chicago

The Best Problems in Business and How Cloud Phone Systems and Storage Can Help

The business world is full of opportunities and potential problems. The funny thing is, some of the problems that a growing business can face along the way might not sound like problems at all. As a business grows, it will face new challenges that it will need to overcome in order to continue to grow and thrive. Accelerating growth might sound like nothing but good news, but knowing where to turn for support when these “problems” arise is of paramount importance.

Thankfully, modern technology can help. To be more specific, cloud-based technologies are stepping up in several big ways to help businesses of all sizes overcome the challenges they face on their long road toward success. Here are some of those challenges, along with some of the ways that the cloud can help.

Moving into new offices and adding new employees is easy and cost-effective with a cloud phone system.

Expanding Into New Offices

There’s nothing more exciting than expanding a growing business into new geographical territories. Granted, that excitement is frequently tempered by a sense of anxiety. What if the new company branches don’t perform as well as the original? What if the new offices aren’t conveniently located?

Those are questions that will be answered in time. As your company expands, however, there are steps you can take along the way to ease the transition. One of the biggest challenges when expanding to a new location is the question of communication infrastructure. You’ll need to install additional phone lines in the new location to maintain inter-office communication.

Thankfully, cloud phone systems have stepped up to help ease this transition. Using an existing high-speed Internet connection, an IP phone system can easily be scaled to add new locations to your phone network. This also means that the days of expensive phone line installations are over.

Adding Employees

Along with new offices comes the addition of new employees. Any growing business needs to make sure it has the talent it requires to stay on top of the increased workload. The aforementioned cloud phone system solution can help to lessen this burden as well. An existing IP phone network can add new lines for new employees in no time at all.

The cloud can help out in other ways, too. An expanding workforce means more people will need to access the same business assets. Cloud storage can be a huge boon to employee collaboration. Whether they work in the same office or in another city, your most important documents and other digital assets can be stored in a central location for quick and easy access.

More Customers

Perhaps the best “good problem” a business can have is to see a large influx of new customers. With increased demand comes a need for increased supply, and your company’s responsibilities will grow with each new customer.

The cloud can come in handy here as well. Cloud-based phone systems are easily customized, meaning you’ll have greater control than ever before over the way incoming calls are handled. What this means is that you’ll know with a greater certainty that your ever-growing customer base will have their calls directed to the proper department. In this way, maintaining excellent customer satisfaction is easy, even as you begin to face a greater demand for your products or services.

Business Phone Systems Chicago



Organizations surveyed in 2014 that had deployed VoIP:

  • 33% said they had a hosted VoIP solution.

Organizations surveyed in 2014 that planned to implement UC:




1. Shift in How Businesses Communicate


2. BYOD Explosion


3. Growing Comfort Level with the Cloud


4. Businesses want Cloud Benefits, Now and in the Future


  • Control and reduce costs
  • Simplify the delivery and management of communications
  • Boost productivity and efficiency
  • Facilitate migration to a converged network


5. Demand for Mobile, Video & Social


6. Centralized Management


To learn more, download the full IDC report.

Business Phone Systems Chicago

Become More Efficient with Apps for Productivity


There are times that you think to yourself as you’re leaving work that you’ll look over that report at dinner, or research that topic early in the morning before work, or that you HAVE to remember to do that thing on your lunch break. And then some spare time rolls around, and you realize you forgot the necessary documents on your home computer, or you took a note somewhere and you can’t remember where you put it. Evernote for Apple, Android, and Windows solves this issue. It integrates your information – like your notes, calendar events, and documents – across platforms so you can access and change them anywhere. It’s like taking your home to work and your work home.

We’ve all had “those days” at work where we just can’t seem to focus long enough to get anything done. One solution to this is the Pomodoro Technique, which alternates short breaks and long periods of work. You can do whatever you want on those short breaks, but you have to work during the working periods. It’s been shown that frequent breaks can improve mental agility, but it’s also a good way to boost your motivation to get things done. ClearFocus is essentially just an app that acts as a timer for this, and with it, you’ll be surprised how much you can accomplish. This particular app is only available for Android, but there are plenty of Pomodoro timers available for Apple, too.

The last thing you want to do when you’re on a business trip is lose track of your expenses. The busy days can make this challenging, though – before you know it, your wallet is overflowing with expense repors. Abukai, for Apple, Android, and Blackberry, can help solve this issue by allowing you to take pictures of your receipts and automatically create fully itemized expense reports. One less thing you have to worry about when you get back!

Are you the type who likes to whistle while you work? The Focus@Will app for Apple and Android will stream music specifically chosen to create productive work conditions. Don’t get distracted by Spotify’s suggested tracks or by creating the perfect Pandora station. Just tune in and start working!

Best practices in Business Communications Business Phone Systems Chicago

9 Considerations for Selecting the Best Audio Conferencing, Video Conferencing and Web Conferencing Service for Your Business

9 Considerations for Selecting the Best Audio, Video and Web Conferencing Service for Your Business

By this point, businesses know why they need web and video conferencing. They need to gather teams of people from different locations; they need to reduce spending on travel; they want the flexibility to join meetings from smartphones and tablets; and the list goes on. More efficient collaboration means stronger teams, which result in faster speeds to market for new products and campaigns.

As you’re comparing video conferencing software, keep these considerations in mind.

1. How Will Your Business Use Online Meeting Software Now and in the Future?

Ask yourself two questions, ‘How will we use it today, and how should we use it tomorrow?’ The obvious use cases will be the answers for the first question: you’ll use it for internal team meetings. But how else could you use it? How about interviewing your customers to see where you can make improvements? Why not use it for training employees, especially if you have people in disparate offices or people who work from home? Why not host webinars to help answer those questions your prospects ask in the beginning of the sales cycle?

Once you determine your current and future needs, make sure you find online collaboration tools that can support what you want to do today and down the road.

2. Will it Work on Mobile Devices?

If your web and video conferencing software does not work easily on smartphones and tablets, then you’re inhibiting use. Today’s business people do not sit in the same office all day, every day. We travel to other offices, we go on-site to visit customers, we meet with vendors, we have lunch with colleagues, etc. So you need to make it easy for people to connect and collaborate from anywhere. The best video conferencing software enables people to join from their desktop computer, laptop, smartphone and tablet.

3. What is the Total Cost for Everything You Need?

You could go and buy teleconferencing, web conferencing and video conferencing separately, but why would you? It’s more expensive, and it is a hassle to use different services at different times, or layer them together. (A great example is having to use a separate audio bridge with your online meeting services.) That’s why finding a unified solution is the way to go. It makes it easier to use and lighter on your wallet. Our OfficeSuite HD Meeting™ is a great example– you get audio conferencing, web conferencing, and High Definition Video meetings for one low monthly price.

Besides finding a unified solution, the other word of caution here is to ask what features are included. For example, some providers offer the ability to share keyboard and mouse control and High Definition video, but those are optional features that are only included in the premium plan. In comparison, both of those features are included with OfficeSuite HD Meeting, and it costs about a quarter of the price of the most popular services on the market.

4. How Easy is it to Use?

This seems like an obvious consideration, but you would be surprised to find that not all conferencing services are easy to use. I have used several over the last few years, and one of the most popular ones (I won’t name names!) does not work well for me. It forces me to go through two different steps every time I have to join a meeting. It’s also not easy to allow another person to share their screen without giving them complete control. This may just be a personal preference, but you will find that many services have the same type of functionality but they work differently. Figure out which services offer free trials and take each one for a spin. We offer a completely free trial of OfficeSuite HD Meeting, so try it out!

5. Video Quality

In an age of text-style communications that are devoid of facial expressions and vocal tone, we often miss the full message that people trying to share. How often have you misinterpreted an email or text message because there were no accompanying social cues? The vast majority of communication is non-verbal. In fact, research has show that as much as 93% of what we’re trying to say is communicated non-verbally. Knowing this, you must find a video conferencing solution that offers high quality video. Face-to-face video meetings are only as good as the picture that comes across. If you can’t see the other person very well, you’ll miss their quick smile and their hand gesture.  With OfficeSuite HD Meeting’s dynamic voice detection feature, the screen changes to display the live video of the person who is currently speaking so it’s easier to catch these important social cues.

6. Flexible Audio Options

Having flexible audio options makes it easier for people to join and participate no matter where they are. There are two options for audio: you can dial in using a phone or use your computer’s audio (and plug in a headset if you wish). You can easily switch between the two options, even during a meeting. Having these options makes it easy for people to join meetings whether they are at their desk or in the field. While sharing your screen or showing a video for the other participants to see, you can share computer audio as well so that your meeting attendees get the full experience. And unlike other online collaboration tools, the audio conferencing is included with OfficeSuite HD Meeting.

7. Recording and Streaming

There are many reasons why you might want to record a meeting: for training purposes, to create webinar replays, to share video interviews, and more.  But what good is a recording if you can’t easily play it or share it? Make sure you ask what type of format the recordings come in. You might be shocked to learn that the most well-known services only offer proprietary recording formats, which means they’re not easy to play and definitely not easy to share. That’s why we made sure the recordings that come with OfficeSuite HD Meeting are standard MP4 video and MPEG 4 audio formats. They can be saved to any folder or drive you want. Other providers charge storage fees, but ours is cloud-based storage so there are no fees. What if you want to play a video during a web meeting? Not all web conferencing software supports audio and video streaming, so that is another good question to ask.

8. Outlook® Calendar Integration Only?

This goes back to the ease of use consideration. If your video conferencing service integrates with your calendar, sending invites is fast and easy and requires only one step instead of two. Many conferencing services offer calendar integration but only with Microsoft Outlook®. For all you Google users out there (like me!) you’ll be happy to know that OfficeSuite HD Meeting integrates with your Google calendar as well. With just the click of the mouse I can schedule a meeting and create a new calendar invite ready to share with others. And everything needed to join the meeting is in the invite, even phone numbers for people who do not wish to use their computer audio.

9. Customizable Screens and Meeting Rooms

Depending on the meeting you’re having, it might be easier to view your screen in different ways. You might want full screen video so it’s easier to see the person who is talking. If you’re looking at a presentation with your team, you probably want the gallery view so that the PowerPoint® is front and center and everyone’s video cam is shown on the right-hand side. Not all video conferencing services offer different views, and many do not offer customized personal IDs which allow you to customize your meeting room number so that it’s easy to remember. For example, my boss changed his to 867-5309. As a result, that song is always in my head, but it’s easy to join his meetings because I never forget it!

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Business Phone Systems Chicago

5 Alternatives to having On-Hold Greeting Melodies





One: Change the Music



Two: Pitch Your Product (within reason)



Three: Tell a Joke



Four: Provide Random Facts



Five: Switch It Up!



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Business Phone Systems Chicago

Fall in Love with Your Business Phone System


Here are 7 must-have phone features that are sure to make you fall in love with your business phone system.

1. Mobile Twinning
Mobile twinning is one of the most convenient phone features, especially for those who are in and out of the office frequently. Twinning ensures that you never miss a call, no matter where you are. This eliminates the need to give out multiple phone numbers or worse, have to lug a work and personal cell phone around with you. When mobile twinning is enabled, your office phone and cell phone, or any phone number of your choice, ring simultaneously. It’s perfect if you’re not sure where you are going to be. Plus, it offers the ability to switch back and forth from each device, without the caller every knowing the difference. This is ideal for anyone who ever works outside of the office.

2. Voicemail Transcription
Listening to voicemail has become almost obsolete, but in business, we don’t have the luxury of not listening to our voicemail messages. Or, do we? With voicemail transcription, you can read your messages instead of listening to them. Genius! Messages are transcribed for your convenience and sent right to your email inbox. While they may not be 100 percent accurate, you can see who called and get the gist of what they needed to determine if you need to call them back or not. This is a huge time-saver, but also extremely convenient if you are in a noisy area, or in a meeting and listening isn’t an option. And, if you ever do want to listen to the message, the recording is also sent to you as a wav file attachment. This feature will forever change the way you feel about voicemail.

3. Softphones
Softphones are perfect for anyone who travels or works remotely. They offer the same functionality of your business phone on-the-go, like caller ID, contacts, using company minutes and extension dialing. Softphones are typically available for PCs, Macs and mobile devices. This will literally turn your desired device into your actual business phone so you don’t have to worry about disclosing your personal cell phone number and can communicate seamlessly internally with your team through your office extension.

4. Auto Attendants
A huge advantage with cloud-based phone systems are Auto Attendants or Digital Receptionists, which ensure your incoming calls are all answered and directed to the appropriate place, no matter who is physically available. Project a professional image and save on having a designated employee available to answer every single incoming call. The most frequent calls are for hours of operation, business location and directions. Using an Auto Attendant will reduce the number of routine calls that have to be answered by 25% and will ensure that callers are directed to right person and information every time

5. Forwarding Calls
If you are not using mobile twinning or softphones, another alternative for flexibility with your calls are advanced forwarding options. The most common of these are to forward calls to your cell phone or to another coworker. If you know you are going to be out of the office and want your calls directed to another phone number or to another team member, all you need to do is program a button on your phone and press the button before you leave to activate it. Then, every call will ring to that phone number instead of your phone in the office. This will ensure your calls will not be missed while you are out.

6. On-Hold Options
On-hold greetings and music options can make a big difference in how your company is portrayed and how your customer’s experience your business. While customers are waiting on-hold, take advantage of this feature and advertise specials you are running, your website or promote upcoming events to boost attendance. Be sure to also select music callers will actually enjoy and that is relevant to your business or target market to make their on-hold experience as enjoyable as possible.

7. Hot-Desking
Hot-desking is a unique and incredibly useful feature. It allows your employees to turn any phone, at any of your other locations or rooms into their own. Whether you are working from a different office location, in a conference room, or at another employee’s desk, by simply logging in to that phone with your passcode, you can turn any desk phone into your phone with all of your settings, contacts, voicemail and speed dials readily available. No longer move phones around offices or try to take phones with you, every phone within your organization can be used by any employee whenever needed; this is a huge convenience and cost-savings.

Cloud-based business phone systems have come a long way and provide the advanced mobility and functionality that modern businesses need to stay competitive. When investing in your next business phone system, be sure that it provides you with these must-have features.

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Business Phone Systems Chicago

5 Major Phone Trends in the Future

cloud scalable solutions





Multiple devices

1) Mobile Access Emphasis


Visimeet video conferencing

2) Increased Web Real Time Collaboration (WRTC)



3) Unified Communications


Smiling technician at work

4) Outsource Telephony


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5) Social Integration


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