86% of companies using unified communications reported that productivity benefits have grown. More than 60 percent reported savings of three or more hours per week for each mobile worker  (2005 Sage Research study)

Don’t know what Unified Communications is?  Simple – it’s the integration into your existing data network (LAN) of voice, data, video, mobility and IP communications, and the Perihelion Voice Server is at the heart of today’s unified communications systems.

Using office data networks rather than traditional telephone cabling, the Voice Server connects IP telephones to each other, to digital ISDN telephone lines and to the Internet. The advanced routing options allow employees to make and receive calls in the office, on the road or at home, and among the other ‘out-of-the-box’ features are sophisticated auto-attendant options for incoming calls, highly configurable call queuing, ‘follow me’ options, voicemail by email, company SMS, company directory and, of course, your choice of music on hold, whether that’s Bach or Black Eyed Peas. There is an option to record all incoming and outgoing calls onto RAID disks that can store all the calls you might want for compliance reasons. Behind the scenes the Voice Server will seamlessly maintain quality of service on the internal data network and internet link.

How does the Perihelion Voice Server differ from traditional solutions? For a start it runs on a low-power Linux-based appliance, using a modified version of the highly reliable Asterisk® Open Source PBX software which has seen many years of development. Each Voice Server is linked to Perihelion’s central servers located in a secure Data Centre, meaning that there is always a backup and failover system in place.

The real difference, though, is in the way that the Perihelion Voice Server is implemented. A specially developed numbering scheme, in conjunction with a custom interface that runs on almost any web browser, means that the Voice Server is probably the simplest office communications solution to install, configure and use. Not only that, it can be extended to cater for company growth without the need for expensive hardware upgrades; just enter a few details about the new employee on a configuration screen, plug in a new handset (or use a softphone on a laptop) and away you go.

The Voice Server connects to the Internet through the local area network, and directly to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) through standard ISDN lines; different models allow for one, two or four BRI or PRI ISDN lines, each of which support two or thirty channels respectively – that’s anything from two lines to 120.  Outgoing calls can be routed via the PSTN or – to save costs - by using a Voice over IP gateway on the Internet. For additional flexibility, especially for expected traffic peaks (such as during marketing campaigns), large numbers of simultaneous incoming calls can be received over the company broadband connection.

Connectivity with Perihelion’s Central Server means that the Voice Server configuration database is backed up each night and can be restored in minutes in the event of any calamity. If there is a problem with incoming phone lines the Voice Server can be configured to fail over to the Central Server to provide continuity of service and prevent lost business.

And how much do all of these advanced features cost?  Much, much less than you think. Whether you’re a two person start-up or an established company, there’s a Voice Server Solution to match you needs and budget.  Contact us today to find out more.

Asterisk is a registered trademark of Digium, Inc.