In layman’s terms, VoIP & sip technologies convert speech into a language that servers understand and then route phone calls over data networks.

VoIP allows you to make telephone calls using an IP data network. VoIP converts the voice signal from your telephone into a digital signal that travels over broadband then converts it back at the other end so you can speak to anyone with a regular phone number.

Unlike the traditional phone systems that sit in a closet, VoIP requires very little IT support or training to administer. You can quickly add move or, delete users, enable additional features like call recording automated call routing––all without additional support or staff.

The reason? A simple user web interface.

In fact, our VoIP solution is so simple and intuitive; that users can manage their own features right from their own computers.

Which means you’ll need fewer IT experts to handle things.

What’s more, VoIP expands communications and productivity by providing a range of advanced features and increased functionality without straining your budget.

Sip trunks
Are alternatives to multi analogue or ISDN lines? They can be deployed as replacements or a cost effective enhancement to your current services. Sip trunks will instantly reduce your line rental costs by 50% @£6.00 p[er trunk per month. Alongside providing you access to national call rates from ½ a penny per minute.

VoIP can be implemented in several ways, from a software program on your computer used with a headset and microphone to adaptors used with regular analogue home phones or you can use dedicated VoIP phones which look and act like regular phones but have specially designed chips to improve call quality.

We Lower Total Cost of Ownership
Business is more unpredictable than ever––growth one year, contraction the next year. Ideally, you’d be able to secure the most advanced technologies without having to spend significant money upfront on hardware. VoIP makes this possible. With our solution you save from day one, on your monthly communications service fees. Monthly services fees from £2.99 per user per month. All you need are VoIP-ready handsets.

That’s right, no expensive boxes or systems requiring onsite maintenance.

Making technology work for your business
Internet telephony is not just a case of being plugged into your computer with a headset; you can do that if you wish, or you can use IP handsets. Known as ‘VoIP’ (voice transmitted using your broadband connection) this kind of telephone system delivers several distinct advantages over a traditional PBX:

• Mobility- You can connect to your phone system by plugging it into almost any router with a broadband connection, from home to avoid travel or bad weather, or when you’re working in someone else’s office. It means you’re always in touch; in or out of your office.
• Remote workers can present a seamless image with access to the database and using a company phone number so there’s no indication that they’re working virtually.
• When you move to new premises your number can go with you; no argument, no expensive forwarding charges and no need to reprint all your stationery with new telephone numbers.
• The big bonus is cost – the total cost of ownership for VoIP is much less than traditional systems for set up, call charges and running costs.
• Everyone depends on technology to keep their business moving and fast broadband connections are a business essential VoIP internet phones are reliable addition to your communication services.
• Defined, disaster recovery service. Pre-defining failover call routes, maintaining continuity of your services should a crisis occur – preconfigured re-routing of calls to mobiles or another number if disaster occurs.
• Integrate VoIP with your existing traditional phone systems PBX
• Using our CT interface fully integrated system MS Outlook, CRM and phone systems working together sharing intelligent information with your computer applications.
• mobile phones can also be integrated into your systems, allowing high levels of accessibility and flexibility.

Managing change – Scale Up/Scale Down

Five year projections? Ten year projections? Frankly, for most businesses, it has become nearly impossible to make accurate predictions. It’s why you need a highly-flexible technology like VoIP.

VoIP is a sure way to give you the peace of mind that comes from not being constrained by a phone system that only supports a fixed number of employees which can be costly and complicated to expand.

If resources become squeezed, you can quickly scale back. On the other hand, if you open a new office, or need to provide services for remote workers, or you just need to prepare for a spike in demand around the holidays etc.

It’s quick and easy to scale up without any disruption to your business.

VoIP delivers Total flexibility that’s Easy to manage and Quick to deploy.

More Functionality
Even if you’re jaded about technology, once you see all of the advanced features and functionality that is available from a VoIP system, you’ll be seriously impressed by the impact it can have on your business.

And the best part is you can activate only those features that you need to make your company more productive.

It starts with HD voice, the clearest a business call can get. That’s just scratching the surface. Through Hosted VoIP, you can have voicemails automatically forwarded to your email account; you can make a call from a cell phone or remote office and have it appear as a call from the main office. You also have the ability to integrate with Outlook or your CRM system.

In summary
The last thing you want to do in this economy, or any economic climate for that matter, is spend thousands of pounds on a new phone system.

With Hosted VoIP, there are no large servers or systems to purchase. Other than the phones, there is no capital expenditures to depreciate over time. Which means it comes off of your books. All you have is an affordable monthly service fee that connects your business and employees to a host of capabilities that dramatically improve productivity.

Companies can finally replace their old phone systems and get a far more flexible phone solution for a fraction of the cost. But it’s not just replacing one phone system for another. With VoIP, you get the benefits of outsourcing the management of your phone system hardware.

Please contact us to find out how VoIP can transform your business, with a free no obligation audit of your services.

• Virtual Numbers - Choose telephone number from almost anywhere in the UK and 38 countries around the World.or transfer your exinisting
• Caller Display - See who’s calling you before you answer the phone
• Portable Service - Connect your VoIP phone around the world and appear as if you’re still in your office.
• Call Diversion - Send incoming calls to any phone number you choose Worldwide
• Call Waiting - When you're connected on a call, a beep tone and/or visual alert lets you know that you have an incoming call.
• Flexible Call Transfer - Incoming calls can be transferred to other phones in your office or to an external number, fixed or mobile, Worldwide.
• Hunt Groups - Incoming calls ring multiple phones in your office simultaneously, or sequentially.
• Call recording and storage - Evo-VoIP will send an email to the mailbox holder with the message attached. Pick up voicemails from anywhere in the world.
• Fax to email - Faxes delivered direct to your email. Open and read them from anywhere in the world.
• Dial in Conference facility - Up to 10 participants can dial in and log in simultaneously. Scheduling tool sends email invitations in advance.
• Auto attendant - Callers are greeted by a corporate message directing them to Sales, Accounts, Warehouse etc.
• Flexible Call Barring - Puts you in complete control. Bar calls to individual numbers and/or by Destination Group i.e. International, Premium Rate. The exceptions facility allows calls to specific numbers within a barred group.
• Flexible Time of Day programming - Set up specific Time/Day segments to be used for out of working day redirection to an alternative number or voicemail.
• System Speed Dials - Store an unlimited amount of telephone numbers with names of contacts that members of staff speak to regularly.
• Personal Speed Dials - Store an unlimited amount of personal telephone numbers with names of contacts that you speak to regularly.

Telephone products & services
If you need a new telephone number for your home or business there's no longer any need to go to the trouble and expense of having a new business phone line installed. You can now have as many telephone numbers as you like – all you need is a good internet connection. All our telephone numbers come with a long list of advanced features and services too – features that are simply impossible for ordinary telephony - such as call transfer, call forwarding, music on hold and voicemail's sent by email and many more. You’ll find the full list below.

UK Telephone numbers
When you sign up with Evo-VoIP we supply you with a UK telephone number so that you can receive calls from ordinary telephones - not just other internet phones. We provide 0845, 0800 and 07 numbers and geographic numbers at very attractive rates - and for anywhere in the UK. You don't even have to live in the area code for the number you want, so you can have an 020 London number but live or work in Leeds, Cape Town or Malaga. Our numbers come with our full set of free features including; Voicemail, Voicemail to email, Call Divert, Music on Hold, Divert, 3-Way Calling and much more.

Call Diversion
If you’re going out but still need to receive an important call, you can divert your calls to any number, anywhere. This is especially useful if you want to divert your calls to your mobile phone or a colleague’s office or friend’s telephone.

Voicemail
Voicemail is your digital answering machine, but unlike a normal answering machine you can get your messages anywhere. You can record your own personal message directly, whenever you like, use the pre-programmed message that we provide or even use your own professionally recorded MP3 and upload it. You can even use Evo-VoIP’s Voice Artists to do it for you!

Voicemail to email
Evo-VoIP will send an email to the mailbox holder with the message attached. Pick up voicemails from anywhere in the world.

Message waiting indication
You can be notified that you have a voicemail message waiting, with clear indication on your handset. Either by a flashing indicator & or a stuttered dial tone.

Music on Hold
Sometimes when you’re dealing with a call you need to do something else, maybe talk to a colleague or take another call. You can place the calls on hold, while you do what you need to do, without ending the call. Whilst the call is held, the caller will hear your music or information on hold until you’re ready to go back to the call.

Call Conferencing
You can hold a conference with any number of people to last as long as you like, any time you like. In fact, you can see it as a room that we built for you when you registered with us; it’s always open for you and your guests to walk into, anytime.

Dial in Conference facility
Up to 10 participants can dial in and log in simultaneously. Scheduling tool sends email invitations in advance.

User Control Panel
With Evo-VoIP’s On Line Control Panel you can manage your account in real time, from your own PC or any other PC, securely, from anywhere in the world. From the Panel you can view an itemised record of all the calls you’ve made and received, see your account balance and top it up, upgrade to other services or cancel one you no longer need. You can edit your details and update registered phone numbers at any time.

Line & Number presentation
This free PBX feature enables you to see which of your telephone numbers is being called along with the number of the person calling you.

This can be a very useful feature because with Evo-VoIP you can have as many numbers on your account as you want but sometimes you need to know which one of them your caller dialled. For example, if you run more than one business but only have one telephone, you will want to answer the phone with the correct business name.

Call Logging
Evo-VoIP gives you online, real time access to records of all the calls you have made, received or missed. You can see details of all the calls you have ever made showing; the date and time, the destination, the duration and the cost for each call and the total cost of all the calls in the period. This is a permanent record so that you can have total control of your budget. Call records can also be downloaded to a spreadsheet for further analysis. 

Call Recording
You also have access to a fully integrated call recording system. Calls are stored on our servers and can be accessed via the customer User Control Panel, in real time. Recordings can be filtered by number, time & date and then downloaded if required for internal use, as and when required.

Emergency Services
All Evo-VoIP customers can call emergency services immediately on sign-up. When you dial either 999 or 112, your call is sent to national emergency operators. You may also register your phone number and address with the Emergency Services data base so that when you dial 999 or 112 they have your location details on screen in front of them - you can update their records if you move home or office.

Fail over – Disaster recovery
If you lose your connection, perhaps because you have a power failure, or your ISP has a problem, our network can automatically detects registration failure and divert all your incoming calls to any landline or mobile telephone number of your choice.  If you use our PBX, you can have a separate failover for each extension too. So, should the worst happen, you have a simple and automatic predictable disaster recovery service.

And, should the worst happen and you need a full disaster recovery solution, you just plug any SIP telephone into any internet connection, pop in your ID and you’re up and running again immediately.

Evo-VoIP Fax Services
With an Evo-VoIP fax number you can both send and receive faxes without a fax machine:

Email to Fax.
You can send a fax to any fax machine anywhere just by emailing to the fax number – including any attachments you’d like to add

Fax to Email.
You can receive a fax from a fax machine directly into your email. Faxes  can be sent and received with attachments as an Adobe pdf, document.
No software to download and install. No need for extra telephone lines  Paperless, inkless
Send and receive faxes from anywhere you have an internet connection

Cisco SPA 303

Comprehensive Interoperability and SIP-Based Feature Set

Based on SIP, the Cisco SPA 303 3-Line IP Phone with 2-Port Switch has been tested to help ensure comprehensive interoperability with equipment from voice over IP (VoIP) infrastructure leaders, enabling service providers to quickly roll out competitive, feature-rich services to their customers.

With hundreds of features and configurable service parameters, the Cisco SPA 303 addresses the requirements of traditional business users while building on the advantages of IP telephony. Features such as easy station moves and shared line appearances (across local and geographically dispersed locations) are just some of the many advantages of the SPA 303.

Elmeg IP290

The Elmeg IP290 encompasses the important aspects of demanding business customers using the latest VoIP technology. Fitted with a two-line graphical display, the IP290 supports alphanumeric caller ID and a feature-rich user interface.

An extra Ethernet port for the enables users to "daisy chain" the phone with their PCs without the necessity for an extra LAN socket. For hands-free operation a standard PC headset can be used. Using SIP, the IP290 interoperates with equipment with standard compliance from other vendors. Advanced features like call pickup and parking or automatic call-back are implemented using latest standards.

Snom 320

The Snom 320 is a workhorse for the modern phone-intensive business. It has a rich feature-set which includes three-party conference bridging and full duplex speakerphone as well as a customisable 2 x 24 LCD display. The snom 320 is one of the most popular IP phones on the market today due to its winning cost/function/reliability combination.

Siemens IP Cordless phone

The Siemens A580 DECT IP Phone is the latest addition to the Gigaset range of cordless dual mode phones. As with the S685IP and C475IP, the new A580 base station can be connected to both a standard landline and Broadband for IP/Internet Calls.

With traditional telephony you can have only one telephone call on one telephone line at one time. To get more simultaneous calls you have to install - and pay for - more lines.

With Evo-VoIP you can have multiple concurrent calls on your handset at the same time. We can help you work out what you need to get the most out of your VoIP service.

There are 2 prime considerations which dictate both the quality and number of simultaneous calls you can make or receive over your Evo-VoIP service.

1. Your internet connection
Broadband ADSL has a lower bandwidth upstream to your ISP than the downstream. it is asymmetrical. Typically, ADSL bandwidth is described as 2 or 8mbs (or increasingly more) which is the down speed.

But because VoIP is symmetrical - a telephone call is, of course, two-way, most people listen as well as talk - the major bottleneck is your upstream bandwidth. The more bandwidth you have the more simultaneous calls you can achieve, whilst still using other internet applications such as internet browsing, file downloading, FTP or email.

So, as a general principle, always get the fastest ADSL service you can find and afford. A business ADSL service will have a lower contention ratio than a residential one and will be less congested. Find a good ISP - they are not all equal!

We provide our own voice prioritised broadband service which is specifically designed for use with our network. If you are looking for a business class, broadband service look here first as we can then control the whole call from your phone into our network.

For larger requirements should also consider buying symmetrical DSL - SDSL. Please contact us for further information

2. Your use of your internet connection
It’s worth pointing out that if you are heavy users of the internet and you wish to make telephone calls over it, something has to give. Unlike downloading a file or sending an email, a telephone call is instant and happens in real time – it cannot be delayed, slowed down or paused.

So if you wish to use both voice and data on one broadband connection “heavily” you need to design your network correctly.

If you have several people all sharing the same internet connection for voice and data and are using it heavily for both, you should consider separating your voice connection (VoIP) from your data connection (internet, email etc). By using an additional broadband circuit, has the benefit of giving you a failover back-up service to the data circuit.

It is also worth ensuring that your local network wiring is up to scratch - bad internal cabling can lead to all sorts of problems. Avoid using Wi-Fi for VoIP; it works, particularly with devices specifically designed for it, but for PCs and soft phones the encryption/decryption process adds complexity and slows things down.

We always recommend a physical cable connection (Ethernet, cat5e) from your router to your phone or PC rather than a wireless connection. Wi-Fi works well enough, but it adds complexity and lag, so if you can, it is best avoided for routine business use.

Some routers are better than others and it doesn't seem to be a cost issue.

A Netgear (4 port router plus a good switch in front of it such as the HP Procurve seems to be as good as any.) If you want a advanced dual circuit router;  the DrayTek Vigor range of routers have  Virtual Private Networking (VPN) & Quality of Service (QOS) technology built in, to further improve call quality.

We recommend using a dedicated, good quality, SIP telephone (we prefer Cisco, Elmeg, Snom and Siemens). Adapters (ATAs) work well, but they are in the end, adapters, not telephones and they offer reduced functionality over a good IP phone.

We don’t recommend using a soft phone on your PC for serious business use as their quality is never the best and your PC must be switched on all the time. But many people do - and seem happy with the result. If you do use a soft phone find a good quality mono headset for it.

Configuring your equipment correctly is vital to the quality of service you receive. Make sure that whatever equipment you are using is kept up to date because improvements in VoIP technologies are happening daily.

Service Guarantee

If you are ever dissatisfied with Evolved Communications Ltd services or feel the service level is not what you expected, then you will receive a refund a month’s VoIP service charges... plus we’ll make sure all services are transferred seamlessly to another service provider of your choice.

If your service fails for whatever reason, Evolved Communications Ltd will provide you with the following;

A VoIP mobile telephone and cover the bill for the entire period in question, including data charges and line rental until the problem is resolved.

Or

Deliver calls to another number of your choice and cover the bill for the entire period in question until the problem is resolved.

Digital systems work faster and cheaper tend to be cheaper than analogue.  They have more integration options, so adding extensions doesn’t get complicated.  Because it’s digital you can have a single line with 100 numbers, which means that, using Direct Dial inwards (DDI), you know which number is being called and can answer with the correct business name.  This is invaluable where one office is servicing several different company telephone services – such as professional telephone answering services or call centres.

You can choose to answer a call, divert it to an external number, deflect it to a different internal extension or route it to a voice mail service, flexibility puts you in control of your communications.

You can have ID recognition to help your team to know who is calling and to present useful information to the caller.  The Frost and Sullivan Report (200) projects an increase of 20% in productivity from the use of a converged and integrated telephone system.

This solution uses the best of both worlds, allowing either digital or VoIP to be used so you can choose the method that serves your need best.  With the right package you don’t need to worry which one to use, that will all be set up for you so you just need to worry about dialling the right number.  In fact, you don’t even have to remember or dial the number; the computer does it all for you!

A voice and data system offers you the ability to have caller ID connected to the Customer Relationship Management system (CRM), so, by the time your staff answer the phone, the customer details are already on the screen.  If someone gets a flag to call a customer, the system will automatically dial the number for them – all they have to do is click.

A fully integrated system will really allow you to reduce the time your team spend managing the information and let them get on with delivering what your customers want.

Evolved Communications releases new prices for January 2011

Link titles to phone description shown in IP phones