Hosted voice services ideal for SMBs

SEATTLE, USA: Small businesses are increasingly adopting Hosted Voice services to support remote workers at less cost than traditional phone systems. Currently, 84 of Fortune's "Best 100 Companies to Work For" allow employees to telecommute or work from home at least 20 percent of the time, compared to 25 companies 10 years ago.

According to Nemertes Research report, more than 80 percent of companies have at least some employees who work away from their supervisor and/or workgroups, and on average, classify 27 percent of their employees as virtual.

Speakeasy, a Best Buy Company and a leading provider of voice, data and IT solutions, finds small businesses with these types of distributed, non-traditional workforces benefit the most from Hosted Voice (VoIP) technology.

With Speakeasy's Hosted Voice service, a small business can give the appearance of being a larger company, uniting any number of locations and telecommuters without an enormous capital investment. With Hosted Voice's Remote Office feature, for example, all incoming calls to a business phone are routed to an employee's number of choice, such as a mobile phone or home phone. Conversely, calls made from a home or mobile phone appear to come from a business office.

Newport Communications Group, the leading magazine publisher for trucking and its allied industries, uses Remote Office to service multiple work locations. With Speakeasy, Newport keeps traveling employees connected and gives remote employees access to phone system features from their home offices.

"Speakeasy Hosted Voice is a much more flexible and effective system than a traditional business phone system," said Chris Odor, Information Technology Manager, Newport Communications. "It allows us to tie all our sales offices, editors, and other employees into one system. We save on long distance and have the appearance of one unified company."

Upfront costs were less than 15 percent of a traditional phone system, and no expensive maintenance for the system is required since its hosted offsite at Speakeasy. Monthly long distance costs are also 40 percent lower.

"Traditional phone lines are restrictive for small businesses with a remote workforce," said Bruce Chatterley, Speakeasy president and CEO. "Speakeasy's Hosted Voice service can bridge the gap between virtual offices and create a stronger connection to increase workflow."