Voice over IP News
New Brief for Net Phone
The Guardian
Joie Shillingford reports on the difference switching to Voice over
Internet Protocol made to one business
Being
able to dictate letters down the phone is the feature of Pannone
& Partners' new telephone system that Carol Jackson, head of
personal injury at the Manchester-based law firm likes the best.
The
company has replaced its conventional telephone with a Voice over
Internet Protocol (VoIP) system - which converts ordinary voice
calls into packets of data that can be sent over the net - from
Canadian company Mitel. This has provided increased flexibility
for the firms' 74 partners and 495 employees.
Now
it is quick and easy for people to move their extension number to
a new desk or take calls that come into the office when they are
at home. And one bonus is that it is easy to dictate letters and
other legal instructions over the phone and have them arrive on
the right persons desktop PC.
"From the car after a meeting works for me," says Jackson.
"It's easier than sitting in front of my secretary while she
waits for me to gather my thoughts. The dictation appears on her
PC, or can be routed to another secretary."
Jackson adds: "I use the VOIP system not just in the office
but a home over the broadband, too. It means that if I've been
to a meeting in Leeds, I don't have to go back to the office in
Manchester just to send an urgent fax. Then when I log on from
home, I can check what my secretary's typed up and can , if necessary,
fax off a few documents."
Some of these features are achieved by using Citrix Software to
connect the law firm's home based users to the company's case
system, but there is no doubt that VOIP makes the system more
versatile.
Some of these features are achieved by using Citrix Software
to connect the law firm's home based users to the company's case
system, but there is no doubt that VOIP makes the system more versatile.
Pannone & Partners first considers integrating VoIP with
its IT system when its contract for the Centrex switching service
expired earlier this year. It negotiated a one month rolling contract
while it looked for an attentive.
At that time, the firm had to pay every tie a lawyer changed desks
and needed the telephone extension moved. It also took 10 days
for the company they were using to make changes to the pick-ups
groups, which enabled any lawyer in a department to answer the
phone for another.
Today, all of the companies' VoIP handsets plug into its data
network is not needed. To move a handset, all the user has to do
is plug it into an Ethernet socket at their new desk, plug their
PC into the handset, and change some parameters in the VoIP software.
New pick-up groups can also be set up using the software.
Chris Styles, the technical systems manager, says: "The new system
is more adaptable, costs less to maintain and intergrates better
with IT systems such as Microsoft Exchange (email) ad Outlook (contacts)."
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"We got 360 Solutions (communication consultations) to do
an assessment for us, and although we did not need to spend extra
on expanding the network capacity, we did have to prioritise voice
traffic on the network, so there would not be a delay of even
a second while people were speaking."
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TO BE CONTINUED.....
No and issue date : 41014 - 14/10/2004
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