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VoIP

Buzzword, Game Changer… or Both?

By Joshua Van Buskirk, PFW Technology Evangelist

PFW Password - Winter 2008For starters, it’s important to establish what those four letters stand for. VoIP is an acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol; essentially, a number of technologies used to transmit voice communications over the Internet or private networks – like the private network the computers in your dealership are connected to. There’s a good chance you or someone you know has already used some form of VoIP to communicate with a family member or friend, since a number of free services are available for making computer-to-computer voice calls over the Internet. However, since you have no control over a huge public network like the Internet, the quality of calls made with free services can vary immensely.

At this point, you might be starting to wonder why VoIP is a buzzword around your office if it’s just used at home for chatting with friends and family. The answer is that it’s because it has huge benefits to business. It’s a game changer, remember? Big companies like Nortel Networks are releasing business phone systems which take advantage of VoIP and technology companies like IBM are taking serious notice. Nortel and IBM haven even formed a Technology Alliance to develop and sell a VoIP business phone system, Nortel’s SCS500.

As a SCS500 beta site for Nortel and the IBM Power6 platform since early 2008, PFW has closely worked with Nortel software developers, quality assurance specialists and product managers at developing our VoIP solution. Prior to PFW’s involvement with SCS500, and as early as 2005, PFW began researching business VoIP solutions from a number of companies. SCS500 emerged as the most cost-effective solution for PFW’s customers. Its open-standards design allowed for easy integration with PFW products. SCS500 is a solution that harnesses the power of the IBM i for Business platform – it runs on the same reliable platform as the PFW Dealership Management System.

So what is SCS500?
We know it’s a business phone system which uses your computer network, rather than standard telephone wiring within your dealership, to produce high-quality voice communications. However, it works differently than other VoIP services out there that use the Internet to communicate. The Nortel SCS500 business phone system still uses VoIP technologies to transmit voice communications, but it does so primarily over your dealership’s own private network. This means that call quality won’t vary as much as it does with Internet VoIP services; calls sound just like regular land-line calls should: crystal clear.

What about features and benefits?
For starters, SCS500 can handle voicemail for all of your phone users – it can even e-mail voicemail messages to your smart phone or home computer, allowing you to be instantly notified while away from the office. Better still, if you have an important call you’re waiting for, SCS500 can help the caller find you by first calling your office extension, and, if you don’t pick up, reach you wherever you are by placing a call to your cell phone or any other number you’ve provided to the SCS500 system. Other advanced features are offered, such as presence, which allows you to see which colleagues are currently on other calls at a glance. SCS500 also has all of the standard business phone system features, such as an auto attendant which can guide callers to the correct department or extension at your dealership.

Since SCS500 is VoIP-based, you can do much more with it than with your traditional phone system. Just as with Internet-based VoIP services, you can access SCS500 remotely – make and receive calls from your home office just as if you’re actually in the dealership by using your PC equipped with soft-phone software. If you have more than one office location, you can save on long-distance charges while making it easier for your customers to connect. Simply link remote stores together using SCS500 to allow callers to one location to be seamlessly transferred to an extension at another location without any long-distance charges being incurred by you or the customer.

When a call from a customer arrives at your desk, PFW Customer Portal can automatically display the customer’s important details on your computer’s screen before you even pick up the phone.

That’s all possible because of the VoIP-based nature of the SCS500 solution and the work PFW has done integrating it with PFW IntelliDealer.

You’re going to be hearing a lot more buzz about VoIP and the Nortel SCS500 solution – especially from PFW. PFW has invested financial and development resources to better our understanding of SCS500 and be able to offer an integrated and cost-effective solution to our customers. As a Nortel Business Partner and an authorized reseller of SCS500 in North America, PFW has replaced the existing phone system at our head office with SCS500 and is committed to selling, installing and supporting SCS500 for our customers.

SCS500 and its integration with PFW IntelliDealer Customer Portal will be part of PFW’s suite of solution offerings in the first half of 2009. To learn more, contact
Joshua Van Buskirkdirectly at (519) 474-3300 ext. 277.