Even with the advent of the Internet and on line communication, traditional telephony systems still account for the biggest percentage of most businesses interaction with the world. While this method of communication is proven and reliable, it is highly inefficient and rigid.

With the meteoric rise in the development of new technology most businesses find it hard to keep up. They often find that even after the huge investments they made in adopting legacy PBX systems, they do not get the full range of features and flexibility. Most of the aforementioned legacy PABX systems are proprietary and once the purchase has been made customers find themselves locked in.

These systems often have hidden costs and do not always provide a full feature set. Because of their proprietary nature, it is very hard to find decent support outside of the manufacturer.

The solution to this potentially threatening predicament is at hand. Using VoIP/IP Telephony (Voice over Internet Protocol ) a business can completely change the way it communicates and deals with the world. Apart from the very obvious and direct reduction in operational costs and investment, VoIP/IP Telephony has a lot more to offer. If implemented with a proper strategy and plan VoIP can boost the efficiency of the employees. It can greatly simplify and aid their day to day activities. Let us take a look at one such core business function that a VoIP PABX can enhance.

One of the biggest drawbacks of legacy PABX systems was their poor scalability. The world of business, just like the world we live in, is dynamic. The needs of a business change with time. As a business grows so does it's needs. With the launch of a new product or service a business might see a massive rise in the influx of activity on the phones. All of a sudden the stress and pressure on the employees might reach critical levels and they may start missing calls from important and valuable customers. All of a sudden what was supposed to be a surge of positivity turns into unimpressed and often peeved customers due to the failure of the infrastructure to support the personnel and the inability of legacy PABX systems to keep up with the growing requirements of a business. The cynical amongst us will say “Yeah, We know these problems exist. But where does VoIP/IP Telephony come in? How is it any different? What can a VoIP Phone system do for me that a legacy system can't?”.

A very simple and elegant solution to the problem at hand is the ability to queue calls. This makes it very easy for employees to deal with any sudden or drastic increase in work load without losing calls and more importantly displeasing customers. Let us look at Call Queuing in more detail.

What is Call Queuing?

Simply put, Call Queuing is a telephony function that prevents calls from being dropped and customers getting a busy tone when no one is available to answer an incoming call. While they wait for a representative to become available, they are put on hold and generally hold music or relevant messages are played to them. This is a very simple and basic definition of Call Queuing. Most of the legacy PABX systems had some form of a rudimentary call queuing component. Most of the time this component was not a part of the standard PABX feature set. Additional fees were required to purchase the option to queue calls with these systems. Taking in view the already exorbitant cost of these systems, it often pushed budgets over the brink. Most VoIP Systems come with this call queuing component as a standard part of the feature set. Not only is the VoIP option incredibly cheaper, it is full of features and options that put multi million dollar legacy PABX systems to shame.

What can my business do with VoIP based Call Queuing?

The integration of data and voice and the ability to use these components of your business in conjunction gives VoIP the edge over legacy communication systems. Let us take a detailed look at what VoIP based call queuing offers.

• VoIP provides scalability. Most competitive VoIP solutions do not have any restrictions on how many queues are used. The only limiting factor is the capacity of the hardware which the VoIP system is running on. This makes sure that your infrastructure supports your business as it grows.
• VoIP provides better integration with your business systems. If you are experiencing very high call volumes and the number of callers exceed the number of lines you have, you need not worry about missing calls. Leading VoIP providers like Resonance Networks offer a voice mail solution. This means that the overflow of calls will go to a voice mailbox. The message that the customers leave will be emailed straight to a designated email address. This means you don't have to worry about those voice mail messages that invariably go under the radar. Your customer will never be left stranded with a busy tone again. Again this comes as a standard part of the VoIP system.
• Open Source software has taken the corporate and the technological by surprise. Major IT giants like IBM, HP, Sun and Novell to name a few are investing in and supporting the open source movement. VoIP uses open standards and protocols developed and accredited by bodies such as IEEE and IETF. This means you will never be locked in with a vendor or a solution. Moreover this also means you can use the Queuing system on top of any system that adheres to these standards and protocols. This also means that your solution will never be completely phased out.
• Callbacks are built into the system. This means your customers no longer have to stay on the phone while waiting for a representative. The intelligent queuing system remembers their position in queue and calls them back when a representative is available
• Skills based queuing is another great feature VoIP puts into the hands of the SMEs. Skills based routing lets you identify the various strengths of your team and make the fullest use of them. This means that an employee proficient in dealing with sales will field calls relevant to his skill and this will not only increase efficiency but boost employee morale.
• Due to the high level of database integration that is made possible by IP Telephony, integrators like Resonance Networks can build various customised solutions tailor made for your business. This means now your business can boast of special Prioritised Queues for important customers or emergency queues to deal with any contingency that may arise.
• Time based queues allow you to seamlessly merge call flows through various shifts. This means the queuing logic will automatically change according to the day or time or date. Public holiday announcements and business hours announcements can be triggered automatically. This give your business the edge of professionalism that will set it apart. The VoIP system can also be setup to record and play outage/emergency notices to all callers.
• Call monitoring makes it very easy to evaluate the performance of your team. This is also a very useful tool in training and coaching new employees. Ad-hoc recording of calls that were queued is also possible.
• Complete and total integration with the conferencing functions. A valuable feature that makes your customer service stand apart. The caller can be conferenced in straight into a meeting from a queued call.
• Have you got a particular need for your business that is outside the bland standard feature list provided by most vendors? A customised solution built for you may just be the way to go.

Now you can spend your capital on real features that grow with your business and help your business succeed. A well designed and implemented VoIP system can be a formidable business tool and asset. VoIP lets you turn your expenditure into an investment.