Archive for August, 2009

Call Parking Saves Time

Published August 26, 2009 Feature Highlights Leave a Comment
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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.

Call Park

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.

Traffic Shaping for Improved VoIP Call Quality

Published August 17, 2009 Feature Highlights Leave a Comment
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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.

QoS Settings

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.

Courtesy Phone Made Easy

Published August 12, 2009 3rd party products 4 Comments

I wanted to connect a courtesy phone in the lobby to my Business Central. Grandstrem HandyTone 286 SIP ATAThe 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

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.

Introduction

Published August 12, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

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.