Posted by sutusdave in Uncategorized on December 30th, 2010
Hi everyone,
This is just a quick note to say thanks to all of the SUTUS resellers, partners, and customers for making 2010 an excellent year. We have created strong relationships with our resellers by adding features they requested through our free software releases. We became a member of the International Franchise Association, and are happy to be appearing at the their annual convention in Las Vegas in 2011. Also, we have joined forces with several specialists to deliver improved call handling, VoIP services and virus protection. We couldn’t have done it without your help.
SUTUS hopes you all are enjoying a happy holiday season, and we look forward to working with you in 2011. We’ve got the redesigned Business Centrals coming out, more telephony features designed for franchises, and cloud configuration capabilities in the works!
Yours while celebrating,
-Dave.
Posted by sutusdave in 3rd party products, Feature Highlights on December 22nd, 2010
Hi everyone,
Recently, we’ve had some questions about people using their own audio clips with their Business Central Auto Attendants. Perhaps you have a professionally-made recording with calling options, or ads for your customers, or maybe you’d like to upgrade from another PBX to a BC200 without changing what your customers hear when they call?
In our newest beta release, Business Central Manager lets you upload your own audio clips to use with auto attendants. You can set the options and integrate it with your call flows. The BC200 can use a .wav file from any source.
Log in to your BC200 using your Administrator password, and click on the Call Routing tool. Select the Auto Attendants tab, and highlight the auto attendant you want to edit. Click on the Edit button, and you can select the clip you want to use and upload it from your computer.
Yours on hold,
-Dave.
Posted by sutusdave in Feature Highlights, New on December 1st, 2010
Hi there,
One of my pet peeves when phoning local shops is to have them interrupt our conversation “because someone else is calling.” It’s frustrating for the other customer, too. Does “Hi thanksforcalling canyouholdplease?” sound familiar? It is good that the company is getting so much interest, but there’s a more professional way of dealing with the calls.
Enter the Call Queues function of the Business Central 200. It provides a better experience for your customers, because their calls are answered and processed in an efficient manner. It’s better for your employees too, as they don’t have to interrupt their existing conversations to put people on hold, and they can help callers in the order they are received.
When you’re on the phone, Call Queues will answer any incoming calls, play your message, and put them on hold until you’re done with your original caller. It will then connect the person on hold and let you take care of business. It’s just like having a checkout line in a store – first come, first served.
Call Queue has been added as another call destination, like auto attendants, voicemail boxes, or telephones. Here’s how to set it up. Log in to your BC200 using your Administrator password , and select the ‘Call Routing’ menu. At the top there’s a tab for ‘Call Queues, which is where we’ll be working today.
Select ‘Create’ to make a new queue. The ‘General’ tab on the right side is where we can set various parameters, the ‘Queue Menu’ assigns actions to keys that the callers can press while waiting, and the ‘Users’ tab shows which workspaces use the queue. The ‘Clips’ menu allows you to engage your customers with advertising messages, play hold music, or simply tell them their place in line. Save your changes, and you’re set up!
As a suggestion, here’s a setup that we’re using here for testing. When a customer calls our Sales number, the Auto Attendant answers them and plays our welcome message. The caller has the option to press ’0′ to leave a message for the Sales workspace, but if they don’t, they are automatically put into the call queue for Sales. As the workers in Sales finish their calls and hang up, the BC200 connects the next caller in the line to them. If nobody answers within the timeout limit, (two minutes in this case) they are automatically sent to the Sales voicemail.
This is in beta testing, and will be available in the next update.
Yours, patiently in the queue,
Dave.
Posted by sutusdave in Feature Highlights, New on November 19th, 2010
Hi everyone,
Did you know that Business Central can be found in a wide variety of small businesses, from franchises to non-profit organizations, and each with their own requirements of IT and communications? Recently, SUTUS has been collecting a series of success stories from different industries that use the Business Central product line to save themselves time, money, and hassle. They’ve published a variety of these to show the flexibility and adaptability of the SUTUS solution. Start learning about ways that SUTUS can help you in your industry specifically by clicking here.
There are a few common themes to these stories, however. Business Central is scalable to meet your needs, so it will be ready for your future growth. Also, SUTUS is ready to work with other retail hardware that you may have, including security cameras and point-of-sale devices. If that wasn’t enough,the cost savings of standardization between franchises, offices or branches will keep your bottom line low.
If you have a story of how the SUTUS solution helped your small business, please tell us.
Thanks,
-Dave.
Posted by sutusdave in Feature Highlights, New on September 28th, 2010
Hi everyone,
After the release of Business Central Manager 1.7.2, I noticed that the amount of spam I receive suddenly decreased. I looked into it, and found that SUTUS has included a 30-day trial of their new Business Central Email Security suite with this release.
It’s simple to use and administrate, as it runs in the background, and any changes are automatically applied to all users. When there are updates, they are made automatically, thus keeping you safe from new threats. Log in to your BC200 using your Administrator password, and select ‘Email Service.’ Choose the ‘Email Security’ tab, and then ‘Edit Settings’ to set it all up.
The Business Central Email Security suite is sold as a one-year license, and there are discounts available depending on the number of users you have.
Click this link to go to the purchase page.
Posted by sutusdave in Feature Highlights, New on September 15th, 2010
Hi everyone,
When you’re not at work, you post a ‘closed’ sign on the door, right? It’s just good manners, and smart business sense as well. So why do so many companies not do the equivalent for their phone or email services?
Expanding on last week’s post about Auto Attendants, let’s take a look at how the workspace availability (also called ‘presence’) can help out the car dealership. I mentioned that they could set up one auto attendant and call flow combination for when they are open and a different one for when they are closed. We can manually or automatically switch between the two call flows, so let’s find out how.
Using your administrator password, log in to your BC200, and click on the ‘Manage Workspaces’ tab on the left. Then highlight the workspace you want to edit, select ‘Edit Properties,’ and then click on the ‘Availability’ tab. Choose a day by clicking on it, and then you can change the availability schedules. Changing the call flow or email services can be selected under the availability schedule.
This is the Parts department of the car dealership from last week. They are available on a varying schedule – Monday to Thursdays 7:00 to 3:00, Friday from 7:00 to 1:00, and a half-day on Saturday. If a call comes in outside of these times, it will follow the ‘Unavailable’ call flow.
That’s not all, though. This feature is available for all workspaces, personal and shared, and they can all follow different schedules. For example, one of their sales team, Dustin, recently went on a holiday, and he wanted his customers to be handled correctly. He manually set his workspace to ‘unavailable,’ and then set his account to do the following:
This is a screenshot of Dustin’s auto-reply setup. Of course, he can change the message to say what he wants it to!
It actually took less time for him to set up his availability schedule than it did for me to write this and grab the screenshots, and I’m sure that you’ll be able to do it just as quickly. He was able to do these changes without getting an administrator, because the BC200 lets people change aspects of their own workspace as well as details of any shared workspaces they are members of.
If you need help, or just want to learn all the details, just search for ‘availability’ in the BC200′s Help section. The BC200 does synchronize itself automatically with internet time servers, so it will always have the correct time.
-Dave.
Posted by sutusdave in Feature Highlights, New on September 9th, 2010
It’s been a while, but I have some good news. SUTUS has recently released their newest software version, and I’m pleased to tell you about part of it – configurable Auto Attendants. (Auto Attendants are sometimes called IVRs – Interactive Voice Response.) I’ve been involved with testing this, and this will definitely make it easier for your customers to reach the departments they want.
There are four differences. Now, we can:
Let’s go under the hood. Log in to your BC200 with your administrator password. From the list on the left, select Call Routing. From there, select the Auto Attendants tab, and you’re in. You can see which auto-attendants are assigned, who is using them, and, by clicking on one of them, you can see what keys are mapped to which actions.
I was involved with setting this up and testing it. It’s a pretty good demonstration of how your BC200 can route customers’ calls more efficiently.
Here’s an example: At our local car dealership, they had a full-time receptionist to answer and connect their phone calls. Customers complained of lengthy hold times, and the receptionist was under stress trying to keep up with the volume of calls! A quick survey showed that only a few calls were for specific people, as most of the calls were people looking to speak with someone in either the sales or the parts departments. They decided to filter these calls out with an auto attendant before the BC200 rings a Reception phone, and let the receptionist deal with the calls for specific people.
Their receptionist recorded an auto attendant greeting describing the options for callers. They then assigned the keys as follows:
’1′ key connects to the Sales Dept. workspace
’2′ key connects to the Parts Dept. workspace
’3′ key connects to the Reception workspace
Now the callers can bypass the receptionist, thus freeing them up to speak to people who need guidance. My Managing Call Flows blog article has some tips that might be helpful when setting this up.
They also created a second auto attendant to use when the dealership was closed, which was set up on the Reception Availability tab. This allowed them to have another message and to add the option 9 to reach off-hours support. Before, all off-hours callers had to leave messages with Reception, and she would transcribe and email those messages to their intended recipients when she arrived in the morning. How tedious! Now, using the same key assignments as above, callers can leave a voicemail with a specific department. They also added ’9′, and they assigned it to call (123) 456-7890, which is their after-hours emergency contact number. Calls that come to the Reception workspace are sent to the appropriate auto attendant depending on the time of day.
Before multiple auto attendants, callers were subject to lengthy hold times even before they spoke to the receptionist, the receptionist was stressed out and unable to keep up with the number of calls, and customers were unhappy. By setting multiple auto attendants, customers can reach the people they want more efficiently, and the receptionist can concentrate on calls for specific people, rather than those for general departments.
This is included in the version 1.7.2 release of the Business Central software. If you’d like more information, just search for ‘Attendant’ in Business Central Manager’s Help.
-Dave.
Posted by sutusdave in Feature Highlights on April 8th, 2010
Hi everyone,
Today we’ve got a simple way to save both time and money, all while keeping your data backed up in one convenient place.
Getting some kind of standard method to back up files was always on our list of ‘to do’ items here at the office, but it never seemed to be important enough to get done. Some people would burn their data to a DVD, some would copy it to a USB stick, and some just wouldn’t back up at all. Using the BC200 as a central backup makes sense for all involved. It’s a simple 4-step process to back up your My Documents folder in Windows 7 and Windows XP, so let’s get started!
Windows XP:
1. Click on “Start,” then “Accessories,” then “System Tools,” and then “Backup.” You will come to a screen like this:
2. Click “Next.” Make sure you select “My documents and settings,” otherwise your backed up files will fill the BC200 too quickly. Click ‘Next.’
3. On this screen, you can tell your computer where to save the backup file. On ours, we already set up a mapped drive to the BC200 on the Y: drive. (The full path to the backup files is \\central\workspaces\personal\kyle perry\Backup, just in case we need to find it.)
4. Click on “Next,” and then “Finish,” and you’re done!
Windows 7:
1. Click “Start,” and open “Backup.” You will get the following screen. If you haven’t set a backup before, you’ll need to click on “Set Backup” to continue.
2. To tell the computer to save your backup to the BC200, click on “Save on a network.”
3. To tell the computer exactly where you want the files on the BC200, fill in the location. This one here is just an example – you’ll need to replace “workspaces” and “name” with the name of your workspace and person. Also, you’ll need to enter your username and password on the BC200. Click ‘OK’ to go to the next window.
4. You should select “Let Windows choose.” Click “Next” and then “Finish” on the next screen and you’re done!
Your computer will back itself up to your BC200, keeping a copy of the files in your “My Documents” folder.
That’s it for today. I hope you never need to use the backups, but if you do, you’ll be happy you took the time to set this up. (Just a quick technical note – the BC200 has two separate hard drives inside in a RAID configuration. If one of them fails, you’ll still be be able to recover your data from the other drive.) Happy computing!
-Dave.
Posted by sutusdave in Feature Highlights, New on March 25th, 2010
Calling other office locations can be a real pain. Obviously, long distance charges can really add up, and tying up phone lines can cause missed calls. Using the BC200 to route interoffice calls over the internet keeps your telephone lines open and saves money too.
So, how does this work? All you’ll need are two or more offices with an Internet connection and a BC200 at each location. Setting it up is pretty easy – the BC200′s wizard walks you through it.
Our screenshot below shows that our home office is San Francisco. We’re directly connected to the BC200s in Vancouver, Chicago, and Boston, and we have a local telephone line available too. Via Boston, we can also reach Toronto and New York.
This allows for flexibility in call routing too. With this example, we could allow anyone from any office to place a call to the 604 or 778 area codes, regardless of their physical location. Conversely, a customer in San Francisco can call our 778 number and be seamlessly forwarded to our corporate main offices in Toronto, all with no long distance charges. And the San Francisco office doesn’t even need to be open!
Imagine this scenario: Customer Jane, in Boston, wants to talk to the Sutus sales team, but it’s 7:30pm, and her local office is closed. In the past, she’d have to do several steps.
With Interoffice Calling and an optimized call flow, however, she just has one step:
Their BC200 takes care of the rest.
Her call will be forwarded to Vancouver where they are still open and able to take care of her. No research, time calculations or phone charges needed.
Customers saving their money is great, but we at the office like saving too. Especially the finance department! Imagine that I’m in New York, and I need to call our importer in Toronto. I could call long distance, but that’s going to become expensive. Instead, I can use the Toronto phone line. My BC200 routes my call to Toronto, where their BC200 sends it out to the phone network. Success!
Send us a line if you have any questions – our new website has all our contact details. If you’re already a reseller, click here. If you’re an end user who is interested in the Business Central solution, click here.
That’s it for this week. Talk to you soon!
-Dave.
Posted by sutusdave in Feature Highlights on January 14th, 2010
Hi everyone,
I want my customers to get a hold of my people easily. Isn’t it frustrating to have to remember two or three business phone numbers just to talk to one person? Get a competitive edge and make your people easy to contact by optimizing your Call Flow.
Case 1 – The Mobile Employee
Jim, our service tech, usually works offsite, but in town. He starts and ends his day at the office, so he needs to be contactable, but he doesn’t want to give out his cell numbers to clients. When somebody calls Jim’s extension, the BC200 will ring his desk phone first, in case he is in the office, and then forward the call to his cell phone using an external line.
Case 2 – He’s Overseas
Daniel, our traveling sales agent, is often out of the country, and he’d like to have an ‘office phone’ while overseas. Calling his extension here will ring his desk phone and his softphone (communications software that acts like a telephone) at the same time. If he doesn’t answer, the caller will be directed to the Auto-Attendant. The caller will think he is in the office down the street, but he’ll really be in Germany, connected to our BC200 with a VPN! As a bonus, the VPN allows him secure access to his email, the internet connection in the office, shared documents, and even the office printer.
Case 3 – Her desk is here, but she works over there…
Renata is a designer, but she spends a lot of time collaborating with Jean in the production department. She needs to be available wherever she is. Here, the BC200 will direct the incoming call to Renata’s desk phone, then ring Jean’s phone in the engineering department, and then terminate the call back at Renata’s voicemail.
Case 4 – Like a Pager
Dr. Beesie doesn’t want to take non-emergency calls while in the clinic, but she wants to get messages. In this case, the BC200 doesn’t ring a phone – it just terminates the call at her voicemail. The good doctor can then return her calls as time permits. (Using the last tip, we could forward the notification emails to her cell phone… just to give you a few ideas!)
Case 5 – Anyone Will Do
Our tech support department has many workers – Bill, Steve, and Eric, to name just three – and they can all help our clients. Someone calling Bill will ring his desk phone, then to all the phones in the Tech Support shared workspace, and then to the voicemail for the tech support shared workspace.
Set It Up.
Here’s how to do it. Call flows are editable under the Edit Workspace tab – just double click the workspace name, select Phone Service, and choose Incoming Call Flow. We can have up to three sequential destinations for an incoming call. Each destination can be a physical phone, a softphone, a forwarding number, a voice mailbox, or the Auto-Attendant. Just start at the top of the page and work down, and that’s the order the BC200 will follow when it receives a call.
So, what’s the secret? There really isn’t one. We need to remember that the BC200 frees us from the old idea that ‘each phone has one extension number, and that’s that.’ Just give your clients one extension, and let the BC200 and your Call Flow keep you in touch wherever you are! Have any questions? Just call me at the office, and I’ll be there… or will I?
-Dave.