Archived Coverage

The right service provider (SP) can give a little company the "look and feel" of a big one.

By Richard Grigonis

We've all heard about how using a communications service provider (SP) makes terrific economic sense for a small company, particularly one where there's no IT staff and the employees are on the move and/or are in different locations. (As we shall see, you can obtain services starting at about US$10 a month.) Increasingly, however, hosted services are also having an impact on the way a company is perceived, both by employees as well as outsiders who call into the phone system. Using the right kind of SP changes the "look and feel" of a company, making even a SOHO look like a veritable multinational corporation to an outside caller, and engendering a sense of security and well-being in your lone call center agent who's working out of her home in Anywhere, USA.

One new service along these lines is the VirtualOne from GotVMail, a "virtual PBX" or hosted phone system that can be customized for one or more employees. It can be accessed from anywhere, with any phone (VoIP, landline, cell phone), and can easily and quickly be administered online. There are no long-term contracts to sign, and no hardware or software to purchase.

A unique 800 toll free or local number can be set up along with voicemail, multiple mailboxes, custom greetings, musicon- hold, live call forwarding, and other professional virtual office features.

GotVMail's CEO, Siamak Taghaddos, says: "GotVMail was founded because we saw a need in the small and home-based business and mobile professional market for people to 'sound professional' but who can't afford an expensive phone system and they don't have a central office. To fill this void, a hosted phone system was needed offering more than what the unified messaging providers of five or six years ago provided and more than what the Centrex systems used to be."

"We strive to make it an extremely easy and affordable way of having a professional phone presence and being able to integrate your staff wherever they are in the country, regardless of whether you're one employee in your home, or if you're four employees but one is in a car," says Taghaddos. "A 50-employee company where employees work from cubicles in a single office will need a PBX system; a hosted system wouldn't make sense both in terms of cost and logistics. But an enterprise with independent sales reps, such as an insurance company like MetLife, will certainly benefit from a hosted service."

"We offer a dial-by-name directory, customized greetings, music on hold, multiple mailboxes, and more," says Taghaddos. "We have three levels of services, starting at $10 a month, but we're always examining system usage so we can formulate the best valued plans for our customers. After all, we're a small business owner ourselves."