What is Switchvox?

What can it do?

Switchvox can work with regular analog phones and SIP (VOIP) phones. It can be peered with other systems to allow free VOIP calls between locations. It has robust reporting tools so that you can see how your system is performing historically and in real time.

Does My Business Need a PBX?

Most companies use a PBX because it is significantly less expensive than connecting an external phone line to every telephone in the organization, a scenario where inter-office calls may actually accrue charges from your phone company.

The advances made in VOIP technology, and the ever dwindling price of hardware have enabled the Switchvox PBX to be more flexible, less expensive, and easier to manage than has ever been possible before. In the past, a PBX system might have been prohibitively expensive for smaller companies and start ups.
With Switchvox, your business can start saving right away by doing away with high long distance bills and hassle. Your business could run a PBX in-house and present a professional image to your customers and vendors, without the traditional headaches and high cost associated with the PBX technology of the past.

Of course, Switchvox PBX includes many other features besides just connecting calls. These include:

• Digital Receptionist
• Music / Info on Hold
• Call Transfer
• Assisted and unassisted transfers
• Call routing and forwarding
• Unlimited extensions and voice mail boxes
• Call center / Call queue management
• Detailed call records
• Voice mail to your email inbox
• Conference calling
• Time-based Behavior (automated night switch)
• Voicemail to your email inbox
• Support for analog phones (including cordless phones)
• Support for VOIP Phones
• Message Waiting Indicator
• One Touch Voice-Mail Retrieval
• Unlimited interactive voice menus (IVR)
• Powerful on-line tool suites for both administrators and users
• And much more!

Features in detail

Setup and Management

• Runs on standard hardware - Runs on standard PC hardware not vendor specific proprietary hardware.  Your server, your phones, means ease of use and lower maintenance costs.
• Handset and Carrier Freedom - Connect almost any type of phone, any standard land-line or VOIP/SIP phone.  With Switchvox, your business is not pigeon-holed into buying expensive proprietary telephones. Switchvox works with a wide array of phone service providers. Take advantage of the VOIP service price war by never being locked in to a single carrier, or if you already have a line with your local phone company, Switchvox works with traditional carriers as well. Not sure who to go with? Switchvox lets you mix and match to minimize your costs while ensuring maximum reliability.
• Central Phone Number - Publish just one number for your business, and reach all employees With Switchvox, you can present a unified company image under one central telephone number. All of your employees, whether they are in the office or out, can be reachable through your main number.
  Incoming calls can "follow" an employee, eliminating the need to put a list of contact numbers on business cards. Just one number can reach your desk phone, mobile phone, or even follow you to hotel rooms as you travel.
• On-line Management - Point-and-click tool suite so you can configure from any internet connection Because Switchvox is a next-generation PBX, there is not a lot of complex management that you need to do. You will, however, want to configure the system to meet the specific needs of your business.
  Much of the management of individual extensions may be done by the extension owners. It's easy to do on the web with the Switchvox user tool suite, eliminating much of the administrative load of operations managers. Individual employees have access to their own extension's tool suite, allowing them to control personal configuration, check messages and use the Switchboard for extending phone capabilities.
  
  
  

• Seamless Scalability - Grow at your own pace and never pay for more than you need.  Most small businesses purchase up to three different phone systems over their first ten years in business, in order to keep up with their changing needs. The expenses to install, maintain, and learn all of this different equipment can be tremendous. Your business will always be prepared for growth with Switchvox because it scales easily to meet your growing needs.
• Call Detail Records - Managing your phone system is important to both business efficiency and cost control. If you don't know how many calls are coming in, how many are being handled, or how long callers have to wait to be connected, how can you improve your response? Also, phone expenses need to be controlled or they can be damaging to your bottom line. Switchvox gives you complete records of all calls that come into the system, including call date and time, the incoming Caller ID, what extension or queue the call was routed to, the caller ID of the phone that answered the call, how long the call was, and more. This information is delivered to you electronically in three formats-an easy-to-read web page, graphically in a chart, and a text version that you can enter into other programs, such as Excel, for further processing.
  
  
  

Call Answering

• Digital Receptionist - Answer all of your calls professionally, without the need for an attendant.  A personalized voice menu system (IVR) answers incoming calls, eliminating the need for a full-time receptionist. When a call comes in, Switchvox plays your custom business greeting and then gives options for routing the call.
  Switchvox gives practically endless options for call routing, including:
  • Route calls to a specific employee
  • Route calls to a queue (dial 1 for sales, 2 for support, etc.)
  • Route calls to an information extension (dial 3 for business hours, 4 for directions)
  • Select an employee by name from a directory (dial the first 3 digits of the employee's last name)
• Dynamic Operator - Route calls to whomever you wish when callers dial for "operator" assistance Switchvox gives you the flexibility to change who the "operator" is at any time. Our system can route the call to any phone, anywhere, and can change the phone number to which calls are routed for a particular extension at any time.
• Music/Info on Hold - Improve callers' experience with your own customizable music and messages.  Improving your callers' experience can be as simple as playing some music. While callers are waiting to be connected, they can listen to music, a recorded message, or a combination of music and messaging. You can choose music from our available classical selections, upload your own titles, or generate excitement with promotional messages.
  You can even change the music and messaging selections that are played in different call queues.
• Dial-by-Name Directory - Company directory updates automatically as employees and extensions change. Give callers access to a company directory if they don't know a specific extension number for an employee. The automated dial-by-name directory is based on the last name of the employee.
  • "Please dial the first 3 letters of the employee's last name using your numeric keypad."
• Time-Based Behaviors - Change the flow of calls based time of the day, day of the week, and more. You can easily set up your phone system to behave differently outside of business hours or during different times of the day. Switchvox gives you options to change how your PBX behaves based on time rules, available through both the administrator's and user's on-line tool suite.  With Switchvox, it's even possible for each extension owner to manage their own time-based behaviors, allowing them to fully customize the behavior of their own extension. Maybe all calls between 12-1pm should go directly to voicemail? Or try calling me on my mobile phone if its between 5-6pm on Friday and I haven't answered at my desk?

Call Routing

• Flexible Extensions - Set up different types of extensions that can be managed easily on-line. In traditional PBX systems, user extensions are assigned to physical telephones and employees have to be at their desks to answer calls. With Switchvox, extensions are flexible, and extension owners let the system know which phone (or phones) they would like their calls routed to. This is a fundamental difference with the Switchvox system, and it gives our system tremendous power while giving your company much sought after flexibility. The Switchvox system can route calls to any phone, of any type, anywhere in the world.
  
  
  
• Follow Me - Calls can automatically find you anywhere there's a phone.  With Follow Me calling, extension owners can make a list of phone numbers where they may be reached, such as the number of the phone at their desk, their home, or their mobile phone. When the employee enables Follow Me, calls not answered at their main number will then be routed to the next number on the Follow Me list, as the system attempts to find the employee and connect the call. If no one answers any of the numbers on the list, callers are then sent to the employee's central voicemail.
• DID Call Routing - Route calls to internal extensions based on external caller identification.  Your can use DID Call Routing to give different departments or employees their own incoming line with their own unique phone numbers. When a call comes in to that number, Switchvox will connect the call to the extensions that you specify using the on-line administrative tool suite.
• Advanced Transfers - Transfer calls to any type of extension in the system.
  With Switchvox, you can transfer callers anywhere in the system either to another employee, to the operator, or to a queue. Switchvox fully supports both assisted and unassisted transfers.  Unassisted transfer allows you to simply connect two calls with the click of a button. Assisted transfer allows you to speak with the party that you are transferring a call to before actually connecting the two parties. This can be used to announce the caller and purpose for the transfer, and to determine whether it is an appropriate time to connect the calls.
• IVR - Create custom menus for routing calls based on user input Interactive Voice Response (IVR) can be used to route calls more intelligently than most systems allow without prohibitively expensive add-on modules. Businesses may want to route calls to an extension or queue that is specifically tailored to the caller's needs. From basic numeric input menus (press 1 for sales, press 2 for support, press 0 to speak with an operator), to very advanced menus that accept many types of user input, Switchvox has your needs covered.

User Experience

• Online Configuration - While overall system configuration is done by a system administrator, many functions and features may be controlled directly by each extension owner. This gives a lot of flexibility to the individual employee, at the same time reducing work load on the administrator. Typical configuration activities by extension owners include establishing Follow Me lists, setting up voicemail greetings and checking messages.
• Switchboard - Switchvox allows you to extend the capabilities of your phone with the help of your desktop computer. The Switchboard is a web-based application that emulates the features and buttons of an expensive multi-line telephone. Through this interface, you can call numbers from your Memory Dial list, put calls on hold, park calls, transfer calls, view caller ID information, hold teleconferences, check your voicemail and more. The Switchboard is just one more innovative feature that gives Switchvox the edge over all other PBX systems.
  
• Caller ID - When a user of Switchvox receives a call, a preview of information about the call can be displayed to your phone, if capable of displaying text, and to the switchboard, before the call is even connected. By showing this information in the call preview, users can know the phone number from which the incoming call originated.
• Send Calls - Send calls directly to voicemail when you don't want interruptions.  There are times when you don't want your phone to ring, and want callers sent directly to voicemail. To meet this need, Switchvox allows extension owners to send incoming calls to their voicemail box without ringing or send individual calls as they come in with the click of a button.

Conferencing

• Conference on Demand - Start a conference at any time, without reservations or scheduling.  Every Switchvox system includes the ability to teleconference on demand. When enabled, conferences can be started at any time, without the need to schedule a conference in advance with a conference provider.
  Any Extension - Each extension can have (or be denied) its own conference room.  Conferencing can be made available for every extension in the Switchvox system, or this privilege can be granted by administrators only to select extensions. Once enabled, each extension has its own private conference room, and conferences can be conducted at any time, regardless of other conferences in existence at other extensions.
• Real-Time Monitoring - Watch your conference room activity on-line and see who is in with you.  Switchvox conferencing includes the ability for extension owners to bring up the on-line Switchboard that shows conference activity. The Switchboard shows the caller ID of all parties involved in the conference, and updates automatically as attendees change.
• Easy to Use - No PINs to remember, no schedules to set up

Voicemail

• Virtually Unlimited Capacity - No "mailbox is full" messages, no messages lost.  Many systems have limited voicemail storage.  Not so with Switchvox as the hard drive capacity is much larger than proprietary systems without hard disk storage.  Backups can be made by the administrator at any time that include Voicemail messages, so messages aren't ever lost and may be archived at your convenience.
• Personal Greetings - Extension owners can record their own voicemail greeting.  You can easily record your own voicemail greeting over the phone or upload a recording to the user's on-line tool suite, so callers can hear your voice.
• Message Notifications - Know when you've got voicemail through email, SMS, and web alerts.  Switchvox includes multiple ways to let you know a voice message is waiting. You can receive an email notification, SMS / text messages to your mobile phone, and web alerts.
• Pick-up Anywhere - Get messages from any touchtone phone, or listen through email or on the web. Naturally, you can get your voicemail from any touchtone telephone, but you can also have your messages attached to your email, and you can listen to them through your computer's speakers.
  The voice messages are also available through the on-line User Tool Suite and you can retrieve them from any computer with web browsing capability and speakers or headphones.

Call Queues

• ACD Queuing - Full-featured ACD queuing for managing calls to a department.  ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) queues are used when callers may know what they want but not necessarily who they want. Typically, these callers will want to be connected with a department, such as sales or support. Using ACD queues, employees (agents) log into a queue so they can answer calls for a specific department. Incoming calls are routed into the appropriate queue, and the calls are distributed to the agents logged into that queue. ACD queuing can be a critical business function, and needs to be as robust and feature-rich as possible to allow maximum flexibility for your company.
  
  
  
• Dynamic Agent Presence - Managing ACD queues can be complex and time consuming for administrators. Most systems, administrators must keep track of who is working, when employees go on breaks, when someone comes in late, etc. ACD queuing allows employees to quickly log themselves in and out of queues, and the system dynamically adjusts call routing appropriately. Management can monitor queue and employee activity, in real time, but they don't have to re-configure the system with every employee change.
• Status Information on Hold - Avoid customer frustration with information about estimated wait time etc.
  Switchvox gives you the option to play music while callers wait, and to play an informational or promotional message. The music and message can be different from queue to queue and you get wide flexibility in when to use the recordings.
  With Switchvox, you can choose to give callers estimated wait time for the queue, their position in line and more.
• Queue Logs - Review agent activity and queue history so you can improve customer service.  In addition to knowing what is going on at any given moment, which Switchvox provides with real-time monitoring, it is often useful to know what has happened in the past. We provide our customers with queue logs, so they can see when agents logged in and out of queues, how many callers were waiting at any time, and other important information. The queue history will help your organization improve customer service and staff your organization optimally.

Administration

If you can use the web, you can set easily set up powerful call routing rules for your Switchvox extension. You never have to miss another important call when you set up calls to follow you from your desk to any other phone, even your mobile. With its point-and-click on-line tool suite, managing a phone system has never been easier.
Extension owners also have access to many more features in their on-line tool suite, such as the Flash based Switchboard application to manage calls at a glance, and the ability to send voicemail notifications to their email inbox.

All of the extensions on your system can be seen at a glance, allowing you to find and modify extensions quickly. Extension creation takes less than a minute and provides for virtually any type of extension your business may need. From an automated company directory, to an employees VOIP extension, Switchvox handles it all with ease.
Clarification is always just a mouse click away with contextual help topics throughout the interface. Administrators have access to extension management tools, PBX Features like music on hold and interactive voice response menus (IVRs), as well as system settings, diagnostic tools, and reporting features.