Streamlined interaction increases communication between employees
CONCORD, ON, CANADA, OCTOBER 24 – Using SIP Phones from Aastra, a global provider of enterprise communication products, systems and solutions, Schmooze Communications Inc., a provider of IP-PBX solutions, delivers solutions to businesses that transcend traditional complexities in business communications.
Every manager and employee in business today knows all too well the traditional way of utilizing phone system commands – an endless list of feature codes and hard-to-remember sequences of key presses that do useful things. A lot of employees survive with “cheat sheets” and other types of documentation. Schmooze has created a business model around simplifying access to these complex features and has selected Aastra SIP phone handsets and their XML capabilities to simplify business communications.
“XML capabilities on Aastra SIP phones essentially enable providers like Schmooze to easily develop feature-rich applications that run on the phone and integrate directly with the customer’s phone system,” said Stephane Angelot, Vice President, Strategic Solutions and Alliances.
All Aastra SIP Phones are capable of utilizing eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to deliver information and services from almost any data source in an organization. The display and keypad on Aastra SIP phones can be used to easily access and display data from the XML applications. XML lets the enterprise take the data from common "back office" business applications and deliver select information to the Aastra SIP Phone screen. Schmooze Communications saw an opportunity to use XML to make communicating easier through links to the business class phone system.
Schmooze specializes in IP-PBX systems for small, medium and large enterprises built on open standards at about half the cost of traditional PBX systems. In addition to delivering business class phone systems that are feature rich and easy to use, Schmooze prides itself on being able to quickly deploy solutions to customers. A 200-phone install configuration can be done in as little as 15 minutes by Schmooze’s automated system, which otherwise could take a full day to complete manually. Schmooze is able to ship phones to its customer same day, completely ready to use.
“We attribute a lot of our automated provisioning infrastructure to the Aastra phones,” said Ethan Schroeder, chief technology office of Schmooze. “Being able to configure and ship dozens of phone systems in a single day is something of a unique feat that we have mastered at Schmooze,” Ethan continues, “By automating nearly everything, we are able to really keep costs down for our customers while providing them with a truly simplified out-of-the box experience. But we feel the real power of Aastra SIP phones is the ability to run feature-rich applications. We have seized a tremendous opportunity to develop applications that truly transform business communications.”
Schmooze has utilized Aastra XML capabilities in a wide array of applications that make business communications easier. The Away Button allows employees in a company to set their away status to “I’m away”, “I’m at lunch”, I’m in a meeting”, or “I’m out of town” and set optional return dates/times and record temporary voicemail greetings. The Away Button also allows other users in an organization to locate employees, and if they are away, get notified automatically upon their return. The Visual Voicemail Button allows users to check their voicemail on the screen of their phone without listening to prompts and performing key presses like “Press 1 for new messages”. Instead, messages are visually displayed on the screen and easily navigated with options to play, delete and move messages. The Groups Button allows users to call or page groups of people in their organization with a single button press and even integrates with the capabilities Schmooze has to leave messages to groups of people. The Microsoft® Exchange Contacts Button allows employees to call people and businesses in their personal contact lists directly from their phone. The Day/Night Button gives small businesses the power to control when their phone system accepts calls or when it handles calls in another way, such as an interactive voice response system. Employees also have the ability to “park” calls, which puts a caller on hold and allows any employee in the organization to then pickup that call. The Visual Parked Calls button makes this process easier by visually displaying all calls that are parked on the system and providing single-button-press capabilities to pickup any of those parked calls. Other notable timesavers include a lit Do-Not-Disturb Button, a visual Call Forward Button, an Intercom Button that allows for instant communication between employees, and a Transfer-to-Voicemail Button which automatically transfers a call directly into a voicemail box.
While phone applications are surely an important part of Schmooze’s mission to make phone systems easy to use, they have also invested significantly in other areas that align with this goal. One very unique Schmooze feature is its Magic Button. Practically any function on a phone performed by punching a combination of keys – from initiating, routing and forwarding calls, to conferencing in a co-worker or being notified by an automated attendant when a co-worker returns to the office – all can be executed with a voice command. Groups can be called and paged. Calls can be parked and picked up again from any other phone in the organization. Even the current time, date and weather can be obtained with the Magic Button using a pre-set voice command. When asked if the Magic Button functionality integrates with the capabilities of XML applications on the Aastra phones Ethan Schroeder replied “Of course! Aastra gave us the capability, and we certainly weren’t going to let any possibilities escape us. When I tell the Magic Button I am away with my voice, the Away Button on my phone is automatically lit red. When I say ‘do not disturb me’, my Do-Not-Disturb button goes red. Everything works together. We believe in giving users many easy ways of performing tasks and letting them choose.”
The Schmooze PBXact phone system is available now and every phone system comes pre-loaded with an entire suite of XML applications on the phones. To learn more about Schmooze’s products and features, visit http://www.schmoozecom.com.
About Aastra Telecom
Aastra Telecom is a North American business unit of Aastra Technologies Limited (“Aastra”), a global company at the forefront of the Enterprise Communication market. Headquartered in Concord, Ontario, Canada, Aastra develops and delivers innovative and integrated solutions that address the communication needs of businesses small and large around the world. Aastra enables Enterprises to communicate and collaborate more efficiently and effectively by offering customers a full range of open standard IP-based and traditional communications networking products, including terminals, systems, and applications. For additional information on Aastra, visit our website at http://www.aastratelecom.com.
Aastra® is a registered trademark of Aastra Technologies Limited.
For further information contact:
Aastra Telecom
Steve Hawkins
+1 905.760.4251
Email: shawkins@aastra.com
Schmooze Communications, LLC
Tony Lewis
866-834-0996
Email: tony.lewis@schmoozecom.com
|
