Administrators working from home?

[Gunn Esplin]

Hi

I run a small IT service company in the UK and struggle with trying to manage calls when at companies sites, making sure that jobs are progressed if they cannot be fully completed, products ordered are not forgotten when I get back to the office etc etc. I work from home with another employed consultant and currently dont use a landline for the office, just take calls on my mobile.

I am considering :-

getting a voip phone that doesnt have to be answered at the office

getting a home working database administrator to get the calls and manage Commit

but wondered if there are any better options. How do you guys work?

cheers in advance

Gunn

[nattivillin]

If you are getting busy to the point where you are missing calls and appointments, sounds like its time to invest in either an assistant, or one of those answering services.

[natrat]

Careful with VoIP phones, unless you have a system where the call will go elsewhere ifthe line is busy or down. I ran the business off a voip phone in the office but with the vagaries of the internet and hardware i would miss quite a few calls. Now i use a 1300 number (local call for clients anywhere in oz) and have it terminate at my dedicated business line at my house. If i'm out i forward that line to my mobile and dont miss any more calls.

but if you are busy enough that there are tonnes of calls and job management it might be time to either get an assistant or take on a outsourced answering service - they answer the call as your business and send you an email or text with the details so its easy to prioritise callbacks.

nathan

[nattivillin]

I echo the caution with voip phones. Seems like everyone is "pushing" them, but I've yet to see the reliability or call quality you get with analog phones.

We were using VOIP to connect all our stores, thought it would be great to be able to transfer customers from store to store (in case they called one that was too far from where they lived) it wss a mess. The internet just isnt reliable enough for it (not in my area anyway)

[natrat]

I use VoIP for my outgoing calls in my office. Have been using it for 3 years with the same provider and call quality is superb. Its the occasional outages that are my problem, be it my internet or the voip modem occasionally locking up. There are too many points of failure for it to be the primary incoming line or the only line full stop. I've found keeping it simple is the best way to go. Have only had grief with doing interoffice setups as well.

[pops1000uk]

I ve got to say, we have used voip for 6 years with very small problems. You do need to select the correct voip equipment to get the best results. Currently we are using a open source server system with 5 phones.

We also provide a setup service "anywhere in the world" using remote software. be happy to do it cheaper for CommitCRM users.

[natrat]

Which open source system are you using? I've looked at a few but haven't had the time or resources to purchase the required hardware (specifically voip phones) to test it properly as an office system.

[pops1000uk]

hi, Elastix. This is the better of all the systems I have tried them all. Snom phones are also the best by far.