Posted by sutusdave in 3rd party products, Feature Highlights on October 29th, 2009
Hi,
There have been some stories recently about power outages and brownouts affecting local businesses, and I go to thinking about the importance of keeping communications up and available. Of course, we have a UPS on each of our servers and essential desktops, but we hadn’t protected our phone system. One brainstorming session later and we have the fix.
I went down to the local tech shop and bought another UPS. The higher the capacity of the UPS, the longer we can keep our communications up for. This is for the Business Central 200 and our internet gateway. I found out recently that most Polycom phones can be powered by the BC200 over their Ethernet cable. If I just don’t plug in the phone’s power adapter, it will automatically switch to receiving power over Ethernet (PoE). Now our UPS will keep our gateway, BC200, and phones up in an outage.
All Polycom phones made in the last two years are compatible with PoE. Some older models will be as well, but there’s no easy way to tell by looking at them. Just leave the phone connected to the BC200, disconnect the power adapter and see if it remains on. Most Polycom phones are cheaper to buy without the power adapter, too.
Using PoE while connecting your gateway and BC200 to a dedicated UPS will keep your communications up during a power outage. That’s it for this topic, so I’m going to go and take some unneeded wall power adapters to the recyclers.
-Dave.
Posted by sutusdave in Feature Highlights on October 20th, 2009
Hi everyone,
I was speaking with the Sutus support team, and they mentioned that there is sometimes confusion about what the default Reception workspace is for, why it is included, and how it can be used effectively.
The Reception workspace, for the most part, is like all other shared workspaces: it allows its members to share access to files, emails and phone calls. Also, all members of Reception can configure the behavior of that shared workspace; what happens when someone calls (the incoming call flow) or when someone emails reception (email forwards/alias). Reception has two other benefits that normal shared workspaces do not have:
Now that we have an idea of why and how the Reception shared workspace is used by the company, we should look at how shared workspaces help administrators manage their system. The first and foremost benefit is that it allows for role-based configuration. For most companies, it does not matter which employee is currently acting as the receptionist. Calls and emails will normally be handled in the same way by all receptionists.
Imagine, for example, that your receptionist, Bob, is leaving the company and will be replaced by a new employee, whom we will call Jill. By using the Reception shared workspace to handle the role of the receptionist, all you will need to do is:
However, if the Reception shared workspace was not being used, the administrator would need to:
Ouch. That is a lot of work.
In the second example, the role of reception was attached to a personal workspace. Moving this role to a new personal workspace requires a lot of customized configuration. In the first example, the role of the reception is attached to a shared workspace. This means that just the members change, not the workspace configuration! Jill will automatically have access to all of the reception email, files and phone calls that Bob had received during his time as the receptionist.
Using a shared workspace to manage roles applies to other positions in your office such as support, sales or accounting. By creating shared workspaces to handle each role, employees (personal workspaces) can move between roles and even share multiple roles.
The other benefit for installers is that all incoming calls go to a known place by default. This means that there is no configuration required if a new GW310 PSTN gateway or VoIP provider is added to the system. This is because the default behavior is to direct all of the phone lines to Reception’s incoming call flow. This makes new equipment installation easier and faster by reducing the number of configuration steps required.
That’s pretty much it for this week. Shared workspaces, in particular the Reception shared workspace, are pretty powerful tools. They can simplify the administration and day to day usage of your Business Central.
-Dave.
Posted by sutusdave in Feature Highlights on October 6th, 2009
Hiya,
I’ve been having some thoughts recently about email, company image, and shared workspaces. Have you ever been emailing a company about several unrelated topics, only to notice that your inquiries to sales@company.com, finance@company.com, and development@company.com are all replied to by fred@company.com? Fred sure does wear a lot of hats at this business! And how can we classify his responses at a glance in they all come from the same address? Worst of all, what happens when Fred goes on holiday?
When we call a support line for a new widget manufacturer, we don’t care who talks to us. Any support worker will be able to solve our problem. However, we could just as easily call a specific extension and talk to a specific person. We can do the same with email – to reach a general group, we have distribution lists, forwarding to groups, and the like, while personal email addresses are nothing new – but those are clumsy and inefficient. Wouldn’t it be ideal for replies to a group to come from a consistent email address, and wouldn’t it be even better for an inbox to be accessible by all the members of a team? This is a collaborative workspace, where the whole team can function as a well-oiled machine.
So here’s how to set up a Support group. Create a shared workspace on your BC200, enable email service, such as support@example.com, and add each member to it. Then go to each team member’s computer and configure their email client to subscribe to the Support shared inbox. Now, when a message is received, it is readable by all members of that shared workspace. This isn’t the same as sending a copy to each person, so if one person handles the message those changes are visible to ”’all”’ members of the workspace.
To make it appear as as if we are sending email as Support, we must create a “Support Identity” on our email client that sends messages as support@example.com. All major email clients (Outlook, Mail, Thunderbird) have this capability, but here’s how to set it up with Sutus Webmail. (If you don’t have it, go here to sign up. Sutus Webmail )
1. Log on to Webmail, and click on ‘Personal Settings.’
2. Click the’ Identities’ tab, and click the ‘New Identity’ button.
3. Enter your display name (Widget Co. Support for our example,) and the email address (support@example.com).
4. Now, when sending email, you have the choice to send as either yourself or your group.
This keeps privacy for the team members by not forcing them to use a personal address for all company business, allows for team members to go on holiday without letting the customers know, and allows for the team’s size to vary in response to workload all while keeping continuity for the customers.
As well as allowing for team members to work together more efficiently, this makes it really simple for us to control another part of our company image. Of course, our company wants to be seen as organized, well-run, and coordinated, and keeping areas of specialization clearly delineated provides our customers with clear evidence that we are.
-Dave.
Posted by sutusdave in Uncategorized on October 2nd, 2009
Hi Sutus users,
I really enjoy working from home. It’s relaxing, comfortable, and I don’t have to commute! However, I always had to remember to bring home a laptop and any files I needed. What if I forget one of them? Worse still, what if the laptop is stolen and my data is lost or compromised? Your BC200 can help you out. It’s not a new feature, but it really is a useful one. I’m talking about a Virtual Private Network, which is a simple way to connect to the office network from anywhere with an Internet connection. It takes just a few steps to set up, too. Open Business Central Manager, and click on Remote Office Access. Follow the instructions to set up either a PPTP or IPsec VPN. I’m going to recommend the ‘Help’ files this time, rather than have you follow my instructions. Just click the ‘Learn More…’ BUTTONS if you’re not sure what is right.
Here are some creative uses for a VPN, some that you may not have heard of:
So there you have it. It’s not much work to set up, but it really does open up a lot of connectivity possibilities. I’m going to leave it there for this week.
-Dave.
(P.S. – I’m not in my office while I write this!)
Hi Sutus users,
We’ve just started our Webmail beta trial, and we’re pleased to offer this opportunity to try out our new service. If you’re interested in a free, secure, Sutus-branded webmail address, head on over to the sign-up page.
Posted by sutusdave in Feature Highlights on September 9th, 2009
Hi there.
Today I want to talk about one of the receptionist/executive assistant features of the Business Central: Workspace Monitoring.
Since my receptionist, James, wanted a big phone with lots of buttons, I got him the colour Polycom IP 670. It has a big screen, 6 line buttons and has support for up to 42 more buttons with expansion modules. At first I was concerned about having to configure the beast, but then I remembered that the Sutus does device detection and configuration automatically, so I gave it a shot.
Adding the phone was easy:
The Business Central 200 knows what each Polycom phone looks like, and features you can change are highlighted when you mouse over them. Click on ‘Configure Phone Buttons…’ and you’ll see the choices that are available for each line button. James needs to call the marketing staff many times a day, so a speed dial button will make his life easier. He also needs to know when staff are available to take calls. Enter Speed Dial and Workspace Monitoring.
This service offers one-touch calling to a local extension, and it also lets us know if any other phone in the workspace is in use. Because most of our calls are for the three people in marketing, it’s really helpful to be able to see who in that department is available to take calls. Just looking at the screen of the Model 670 shows the status of all their phones. If someone is in a meeting or away from their desk, then can hit the ‘do not disturb’ button. This makes them show to James as busy, so he knows that they’re not available at the moment.
With the Model 670, this is really simple. There are 6 assignable buttons, which allows for a lot of flexibility. I set it up like this:
The top two buttons are the two call appearances, the next three are for our marketing team – Vivian, Michiko, and Ryan – and the last button connects to Call Park and Unpark. Now James can see who is on the phone or available to take calls, and it also allows him to see if parked calls for other team members are being picked up in a timely manner.
Should we need more control in the future, the Model 670 also has the ability to work with up to 3 expansion modules. They are called sidecars, and each sidecar adds 14 configurable buttons with a display showing their function and status. Each button can be assigned independently of the others, just like those on the phone.
That’s it – it actually took longer to type this out than it took to configure the BC200!
Posted by sutusdave in Feature Highlights on August 26th, 2009
Talking with receptionists can give a lot of information about how to configure a Business Central 200 for optimum usage. Something that I found to be quite flexible is the Call Park and Retrieve feature. There are two main reasons to use call parking, also called system hold, instead of local hold.
When a customer calls the office, the receptionist greets them and asks who they’d like to speak to. They then put the customer on local hold, notify the intended recipient, and connect the call to the recipient. This is the traditional method, and as you can see, it’s quite labour-intensive. It requires the recipient to be at their normal telephone extension and available for the call, it requires the receptionist to shepherd the call through various phone numbers, and only the receptionist can connect the call to the recipient. Local hold can only be cancelled by the phone that initiated it!
However, Sutus has simplified this procedure with their implementation of call parking. The receptionist can park the call while they page the recipient. The recipient can then unpark the call from any convenient phone. They recipient can be near any phone in the company, and the receptionist doesn’t need to make the connection. Paging is easy, too: “Accounting, call in stall one, please!”
There’s another common scenario that really makes call park stand out. Imagine that you’re at your desk when you receive a call. Perhaps this call is private, or involves personal information. You don’t want to have this conversation where your colleagues can listen in, so you move to a private conference room. Park the call and find an empty conference room. Unpark the call when you arrive, and have your conversation in peace. Imagine the past – put the call on hold, find an empty conference room, go back to your desk and transfer the call, run to the conference room and take the call. Two trips to the conference room, plus a longer time on hold for the caller – the Business Central helps us with a win-win solution.
In addition, when the receptionist puts people on hold, there’s no way of seeing a list of the callers, which receptionist put them on hold, or their destinations. With the Call Park feature, any Polycom IP phone can display the list of parked calls, with their source number, destination number, and who the call was parked by as well.
Call Parking is a simple feature, to be sure, but it has strong advantages over the way putting calls on hold used to be done. Efficient, convenient, and effective.
- Dave.
Posted by sutusdave in Feature Highlights on August 17th, 2009
Working phones are an essential part of any office. The flexibility and features of VoIP have strong advantages over traditional phone lines. However, I noticed that VoIP sound quality can suffer during times of heavy internet usage. An unclear phone call can reflect negatively on a business and its reputation.
I called Sutus Support and asked about improving call quality. At their suggestion, I looked into the Internet Connection Settings of the Business Central 200, and found the section on Internet Rate Control Settings.Internet Rate Control (also called Traffic Shaping or Quality of Service) allows us to prioritize our internet traffic for VoIP. The BC200 has all we need built in, including a connection speed tester. Let’s go into Administration and see what’s there.
After entering your login and password, click on the ‘Internet Settings’ tool and then the ‘Internet Rate Control Settings’ tab. There should be a red X showing that rate control is off. Click on the ‘Change Rate Control Settings’ button, and then click the ‘On’ radio button. It’s easier to measure the upload and download speeds automatically, but you can enter values manually if you know the numbers for your internet connection. Ideally, and for the most accurate results, measurement should happen when there is no other internet traffic. After hours is probably best, and don’t forget to quit your email and instant messaging programs before starting! Click ‘OK’ so the BC200 can carry out a speed test and configure itself internally.
After the speed test has completed, the BC200 will display the measured speeds. Most DSL and cable connections are asynchronous (greater speeds downloading,) while T1s and are synchronous (equal speeds for downloading and uploading.) Try the test several times at different times of the day, and enter the greatest numbers. Your ISP can tell you the speeds for your connection as well. Click the ‘OK’ box, and you’re done.
Something interesting that I found out from the support staff is that Sutus has done some extra work with their implementation of traffic shaping. Most others just control the outgoing traffic, but the BC200 controls both ingoing and outgoing. This helps ensure that all participants in your VoIP conversation can hear and be heard clearly. The BC200 allots a portion of your connection to VoIP traffic and reserves it for the duration of the phone call. It’s dynamic, too – if another call is made, the BC200 will reserve its traffic as well.
I was a bit worried that this feature would affect my downloading speeds all the time, not just when I’m on the phone. It turns out, though, that traffic shaping only takes effect when a VoIP connection is made. The downloading speeds seem as fast as they were before!
So there you have it. Greater call quality for your business and your callers without sacrificing download speed, all with a few clicks.
-Dave.
Posted by sutusdave in 3rd party products on August 12th, 2009
I wanted to connect a courtesy phone in the lobby to my Business Central. 
The Polycom phones have more features, but I didn’t want to give customers access to the full company directory, call parking abilities, or other features of a desk IP phone. Sutus makes it simple to do, and I’m not really a power user.
First things first. I bought a Grandstream HandyTone-286 VoIP-Analog phone adapter. I needed a length of Ethernet cable, another of telephone cable, and an available power outlet. I put the phone in the lobby and connected it with the telephone cable to the HandyTone. I then connected the HandyTone to the Business Central with Ethernet cable, and the power adapter to the wall outlet.
Connecting a HandyTone 286 to Business Central
I went to my computer and opened Sutus Business Central Manager. Systems Administrator access is needed for the setup, so make sure you have your password handy. Business Central will recognise that there’s a new phone on the network and assign it to the default workspace – usually Reception. Business Central won’t know the manufacturer or model of this phone, though; it will come up as ‘Grandstream HandyTone-286.’ I created a new shared workspace called Lobby, assigned the phone, disabled voicemail, enabled Call Restrictions and clicked on ‘Save Changes.’
You have to reboot the HandyTone after setting it up with the Business Central 200. Just unplug it from the power, count to 5, and plug it back in again. When the green light on the Ethernet port is glowing steadily, it’s ready.
I picked up the phone to see if there was a dial tone. There was, so I knew that it could call out. I tested the setup by clicking on the ‘Ring Phone’ button in Business Central Manager. After adjusting the ringer volume on my phone, it was ready to go. I celebrated by calling home to say that I was done early.
The whole project took 10 minutes, and cost me just under $55. The Grandstream HandyTone-286 is about $35, $20 for a phone from the department store, the Ethernet cable came from my parts bin, and the telephone cable came free with the phone.
-Dave.
Posted by sutusdave in Uncategorized on August 12th, 2009
Hi,
My name is Dave, and I’ve been asked to test the Business Central in a variety of real-life situations for the Sutus company blog. In the next few weeks, I hope to bring some of the lesser-known features of the Business Central 200 to this page.
I’m not a tech worker by trade, so I hope to write about a variety of ideas that are useful to those of us who use this on a day-to-day basis. I hope that this helps you find ways to get more value from your BC200. If you have any questions (or suggestions,) please feel free to reply to a post. Welcome!
-Dave.