[{"categories":["News\""],"contents":"More Minutes, Same Price Great news for all PASCOM GmbH customer in Germany, as of today April 1st, we\u0026rsquo;ve significantly upgraded our FairFlat business telephony flat rate bundles by adding more inclusive minutes, all for the same price - and no this is not an April Fools joke!\nThanks to improved conditions with our upstream service provider, we are now able to offer customers in Germany even more added value by including significantly more airtime minutes to our FairFlat Business Telephony options for calls to both German Landline and mobile networks. As a result the PASCOM FairFlat options will now include the following number of airtime minutes:\nFairFlat S FairFlat M FairFlat L FairFlat XL German Landline Minutes (Old) 750 1,000 3,000 6,000 German Landline Minutes (New) 1,000 2,500 5,000 10,000 German Mobile Minutes (Old) 250 500 1,000 3,000 German Mobile Minutes (New) 500 1,000 2,500 7,500 Inclusive minutes pre (old) and post (new) April 1. 2026\nBenefits of PASCOM business telephony The new, upgraded PASCOM FairFlat airtime provide yet another compelling arguement for PASCOM business telephony solutions. Any business who wants to keep their monthly telephony costs under control and save big as a result will definitely be in a position to do so with PASCOM. Alongside existing benefits including PASCOM\u0026rsquo;s all-in-one user pricing and free cross-system VoIP calling that allows PASCOM telephony customers to call other PASCOM telephony customers completely free of charge.\nThe addition of extra PASCOM FairFlat inclusive minutes will ensure that our customers can call more and for longer without encurring any addition costs - whether your business operates as a small, compact team or a larger SMB with contact centre operations. As a result, the upgrade to PASCOM\u0026rsquo;s FairFlate bundles will provide your business with greater control and certainty over telephony costs. In addition, by adding inclusive minutes to both Landline and Mobile networks provides business with extra flexibility when contacting customers exactly where they are.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nAlready a PASCOM FairFlat Customer? Sit Back and Relax! As an existing PASCOM FairFlat telephony customer, your FairFlat plan will automatically benefit from the upgrade to the FairFlats. Starting today, April 1. 2026, your plan price will stay the same but will automatically include the increased inclusive minutes, ensuring that you do not need to do a thing, as the switch has already been automatically applied.\nNot yet a PASCOM FairFlat Customer? As a PASCOM cloud phone system customer in Germany looking to benefit from either one of our FairFlat bundles or our German FullFlat plan, switching to a PASCOM Telephony tarif is straightforward. First, you will need to ensure that your business phone number(s) are hosted by PASCOM, either through porting your existing phone numbers to PASCOM or through booking new phone number(s) via mypascom.\nOnce your business phone numbers are hosted by PASCOM, simply open mypascom and select your phone system from the subscription tab and then navigate to \u0026ldquo;Tariff Settings\u0026rdquo; and click the \u0026ldquo;Choose Tariff\u0026rdquo; button. Under the next screen you will have the option to choose between either our FairFlat plans or our Germany FullFlat tariff.\nIn order to make the correct decision as to which FlatRate option best suits your business needs, you will obviously need to do some calculations, but if in doubt contact our sales team who will happily assist you in making the correct decision for you business.\nAbout pascom - Simply Better Connected If you have any questions about PASCOM Cloud Telehony solutions and our Business Messaging and Collaboration apps, please visit our website and discover how PASCOM can help you upgrade your business communications by arranging a personalised demo with one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFor more information and new feature updates, please visit:\nwhatsnew.pascom.net\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"April 1, 2026","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-germany-fairflat-pricing/","title":"Delivering Added Value: PASCOM FairFlat Customers Now Receive More Airtime Minutes for the Same Price."},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems"],"contents":"How Streamlined Internal Communication Reduces Delays and Misunderstandings One of the things that gives modern teams a true competitive advantage is streamlined internal communication. It has evolved into an operational strategy for high-performing organizations that aim to move faster, reduce friction, and keep teams aligned without unnecessary back-and-forth.\nBecause let’s be clear, poor workplace communication, that is slow, scattered, and cluttered, impacts everything. According to a recent study, the 2024 State of Business Communication, poor communication leads to strained relationships (31%), missed deadlines (26%), and a sharp drop in productivity for 41% of professionals.\nOn the other hand, by establishing clear communication norms, channels, and shared systems, streamlined internal communication eliminates unnecessary confusion, constant rework, and the heavy cognitive load of piecing information together. This increases an organization’s ability to work efficiently, particularly for the distributed teams where there is a lack of physical presence.\nHere, I’ll discuss how streamlined internal communication prevents delays and misunderstandings:\n1. Reduces Information Overload Constant updates, long threads, and out-of-context conversations are some of the biggest factors that get in the way of focused work. And when this happens, people spend more time doing impractical things like locating information, finding missing details, and making sense of fragmented messages, delaying progress on what actually matters.\nHow Streamlined Communication Eliminates it: By establishing clear guidelines on communication frequency, channel usage, and structured updates, teams know where to share what, who to reach out to, and how information should flow. They don’t waste time speculating about missing context, chasing scattered information, or making sense of it, which speeds up decision-making and execution.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\n2. Removes Ambiguous Ownership Unclear task responsibilities, undocumented decisions, and the vague way in which the information is communicated leave room for conflicting work, missed tasks, and assumptions. Each person interprets the situation through their own understanding of the sequence of events, priorities, and expectations, which may or may not actually align with reality.\nHow Streamlined Communication Eliminates it: With clearly defined roles and responsibilities, documented decisions, and structured handoff practices, everything is transparent, and no one is left speculating. People know who is responsible for what, who needs to be informed and consulted during key steps, and what the expected outcomes are, while staying fully accountable for their own actions.\n3. Prevents Fragmented Context Having too many scattered channels for different conversations may look efficient, but it actually creates confusion and slows teams down. Teams share updates in chat, make decisions on call or virtual meetings, and attach files and documents in email, leaving information vulnerable to being misplaced or even forgotten. As a result, people lose track of what was decided, who said what, and where the information lives, eventually operating on outdated or incomplete information.\nHow Streamlined Communication Eliminates it: Having a single source of truth consolidates all the scattered conversations, documents, and updates. Modern tools provide a unified space for teams to not only communicate and collaborate, but also document decisions, track progress, and revisit context effortlessly. This ensures teams can access context in one place, trace decisions easily, and stay aligned without digging through multiple channels to find the missing pieces.\nOrganizations can also strengthen alignment by centralizing updates and announcements in one place. A solution like Walls.io enables teams to display real-time internal and social content streams on digital bulletin boards or intranet pages, making communication clearer and reducing the chance of missed information.\n4. Shortens Decision-Making Loops In the absence of standardized processes and clear documentation practices, teams lack insights into key facts, previous project data, and past decisions. Not only does this delay critical decisions, but it also leads to lost context, repeated conversations, a nd second-guessing. This may significantly impact the accuracy of the decision taken or compromise the final output.\nHow Streamlined Communication Eliminates it: When an organization establishes clear workflows for updates, information flow, and escalations, the entire decision cycle becomes faster and frictionless. With clear roadmaps and defined checkpoints, every decision runs through a predictable and transparent flow, eliminating bottlenecks and ambiguity that may slow down or distort the decision.\n5. Reduces Unnecessary Rework Unnecessary rework happens when teams do not understand the instructions and expectations to begin with. Also, when everyone has a different understanding of scope, quality standards, or the definition of done, there are higher chances of work being revisited or redone from scratch. A structured workflow, supported by tools that centralize document requests and shared materials, helps teams clarify expectations early and avoid the miscommunication that leads to rework. A monthly bookkeeping checklist can also act as a repeatable reference point, ensuring every stakeholder follows the same steps without missing context.\nHow Streamlined Communication Eliminates it: Streamlined communication removes ambiguity by bringing everyone on the same page from the beginning. Standardized expectations, mid-cycle checkpoints, and confirmation practices create a shared understanding among team members, allowing teams to avoid the frustration and effort associated with rework and deliver work right the first time, hence improving overall business productivity.\nConclusion Streamlined internal communication is an intentional practice. One that requires not only the right systems and practices in place, but consistent efforts, clarity-driven habits, and purposeful intentions from both managers and teams. Because when communication is structured, predictable, and free of unnecessary complications, teams don’t waste time second-guessing, backtracking, or searching for missing context.\nWhen everyone commits to working with clarity in alignment from the start, decisions become well-thought-out, execution moves faster, and teams stay ahead of delays and misunderstandings. And beyond the operational benefits, streamlined communication creates an environment where people feel connected to their work, their responsibilities, and to each other.\n","date":"January 28, 2026","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/benefits-of-streamlined-internal-communications/","title":"How Better Internal Communication Reduces Delays \u0026 Confusion"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":" January 26th, 2026 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading cloud phone system solution provider across the DACH region, today announce the successful integration of META\u0026rsquo;s WhatsApp Business Messaging services into pascom ONE phone systems. The new integration allows pascom customers to connect with customers quickly, easily and securely by sending and receiving WhatsApp Business Messages directly via the pascom Desktop and Mobile apps.\nWith over 3 billion monthtly users, WhatsApp is the world\u0026rsquo;s most popular messaging app and now pascom customers have the ability to reach their customers where they are, namely via their preferred messaging app, allowing our customers to deliver engaging and personalised outbound messaging directly from the pascom apps. Furthermore, as the most popular messaging platform globally, incorporating WhatsApp Business Messaging into the pascom cloud communications platform provides pascom customers with an amazing opportunity to connect with customers at scale without requiring employees to toggle between apps or platforms in order to send and receive WhatsApp messages.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nAs a META business messaging spam prevention measure, the new integration allows pascom users to initiate outbound customer contact in the form of personalised templated messages. Once 2 way communication has been initiated, pascom users and their customers can then continue the conversation in free form. Obviously, inbound customer contact is not subject to the same limitations, ensuring customers are always able to connect via WhatsApp Messaging.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO Never before have we released a new function that has generated so much interest. Alone in the BETA testing phase, a multitude of customers and partners began testing the new WhatsApp Business Messaging integration, even before we had publicly announced the BETA phase. As such, we\u0026rsquo;re extremely confident that our WhatsApp business connector will further benefit our phone system customers as they continue to open new, innovative and personalised channels to engage with their customers and continue to optmise their business activities from marketing to sales and customer service.\nDesigned with ease of set up and management in mind, pascom\u0026rsquo;s WhatsApp Business Connector ensures pascom customers do not require advanced API knowledge. Instead, pascom customers only need a META Business Account and the step-by-step setup process then connects their account to META\u0026rsquo;s Business Messaging API.\nAbout PASCOM - Simply Better Connected If you have any questions about PASCOM, our pascom Cloud Phone System, our new WhatsApp Business Connector, or our Team Messaging and Collaboration app, then we are here to help. Visit our website and arrange to speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial and discover firsth hand how pascom can help upgrade your business communications.\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"January 26, 2026","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/new-pascom-whatsapp-business-connector/","title":"WhatsApp Business API Integration"},{"categories":["HowTo"],"contents":"New PASCOM Intelligence Call Recording AI Transcription Unless you have a perfect photographic memory allowing you to absorb and recall information like a sponge, you will likely have encountered the situation where you cannot easily recall an important piece of information. In fact, you\u0026rsquo;re not alone in this with an overwhelming majority of B2B decision makers considering sales people unprepared for a sales call!\nThankfully, call recordings provide a powerful method of keeping detailed records and are also useful as a quality control and training tool. However, playing and listening to call recordings is an arduous and lengthy time consuming process, especially when searching for a specific recording. In such a scenario, wouldn\u0026rsquo;t it be nice to be able to search the content without having to listen to all the recordings?\nNow you can thanks to PASCOM\u0026rsquo;s new AI-powered call recording transcription tool which makes the transcripts directly available from within the PASCOM App.\nWhat is Call Recording AI Transcription PASCOM\u0026rsquo;s call recording transcription feature uses Automatic Speach Recognition (ASR), an AI-powered Speech-To-Text (STT) technology to convert recorded telephone conversations into written texts, making it easier to capture every detail of a phone call and supporting users and teams in optimising the customer experience by helping businesses identify patterns and gain better insights into their customer interactions on the phone.\nTypically, businesses use call recordings and call transcription for the following use cases with the aim of making smarter, data driven data:\nEvaluating team performance - monitor team communication effectiveness Enhancing customer support - more detailed insights into customer concerns and improve responses Improve team collaboration - share detailed information quickly within an organisation or team Improve productivity - remove manual workloads through AI automated transcription Enhance the customer experience - identify trends and react accordingly Refining strategies - identify strengths and weaknesses and adjust strategy accordingly Quality Control - detailed, searchable record keeping Agent Training - highlighting training needs and optimisations. Why Should Companies Use AI Call Transcription? Without accurate record keeping, it is easy for key details to be forgotten or misunderstood, particularly in roles such as sales, customer service, and technical support. Within your organisation, this can lead to confusion and inefficient processes such as unnecessary clarification follow-ups etc. Worse still, such scenarios can damage how your customers perceive your company and your professionalism, causing a loss of customer confidence which can damage sales and customer retention, both of which could potentially be avoided if call recordings were automatically transcribed using AI technology.\nAs such, companies that use call recordings should consider transcribing their recordings in order to enjoy a number of benefits as well as gaining greater customer insights all them to:\nEnsure customer conversations are documentated Improve record searching efficiency Eliminate misunderstandings make smarter, data-driven decisions. Benefits of AI Transcribed Call Recordings AI-powered call recording transcription provides a powerfull tool to accurately document customer calls, ensuring that every agreement, important discussion, and even action items are documented, helping drive professionalism, streamline processes and enhance the customer experience.\nMaintaining Accuracy and Clarity For individual employees, transcribing call recordings removes the guesswork from having to recall exact details of a converstion. As a result, important information is logged while agreements and action items can be easily identified, removing the potential risk of crucial aspects of the conversation being forgotten and elimininating any potential misunderstandings.\nWithin a contact centre envirnonment, the same is true as all your customer facing employees answering customer calls need to be kept on the same page in order to deliver a consistent, excellent customer experience. As the transcription is attached to the call history logs, customer service and sales teams can effortlessly access previous customer conversations without having to switching business applications or relying on memory or various handwritten notes.\nFurthermore, customer calls transcripts to a specific team e.g. sales, are logged within that team\u0026rsquo;s call history, providing all employees within the team access to critical information in near real-time, further enhancing collaboration and eliminating misunderstandings and removing any confusion.\nSearchable Text Improves Efficiency Sifting through and manually re-listening call recordings to find key information is an inefficient, frustrating and time-consuming process. With AI call transcription, the recordings are converted into text data, creating a text record of the information. As text data is searchable, employees can then perform a keyword search with the PASCOM app to find specific information quickly and effortlessly.\nNot only do searchable text records greatly improve efficiency by removing the time-consuming hassle related to finding relevant information, it also improves productivity by allowing you and your team to find and review key information in minutes instead of hours. In turn, almost instant access to critical information ensures that your business can react quicker and make smarter, more intelligent decisions when interacting with customers.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nFocus on Customer Engagement Thanks to call transcription, the days of busily taking down notes or entering information into your CRM during a customer call are now a thing of the past. Now, employees can fully focus on the call and what really matters, engaging with the customer and being 100 % present in the call instead of multitasking and running the risk of missing vital points.\nThanks to call transcriptions, employees can review the conversation after the fact, extract relevant information, any agreements or action points ensuring that future customer interactions and follow-ups are more effective and customer orientated.\nQuality Control and Training An often overlooked benefit of call transcription is Quality Control. Above, we\u0026rsquo;ve mentioned how call recording transcription are excellent for documenting customer calls and how this can be used to optimise workflows in ongoing customer interactions. However, call transcriptions are an excellent record keeping resource which can be called utilised to drive customer service quality long-term.\nManagers can use transcriptions and recordings for training purposes to improve customer care on the phone. For example, if one employee dealt with a difficult customer query really well, the transcript can be used in combination with the recording to help other employees understand how. For example, managers can use the call recordings to help convey which tone is appropriate, whilst using the transcript to help convey the actual meaning and promote understanding.\nSmarter, Data-Driven Decision Making Transcriptions can be used to monitor performance over time, allowing team managers to identify potential strategy optimisations. A classic example is if the sales team is always answering the same question, the transcriptions can be used by marketing to better understand the customer concerns and adapt their communications as necessary.\nFurthermore, sales team managers can use sales call transcriptions to monitor performance over time, comparing calls with successful and unsuccessful outcomes. The comparision can highlight where sales strategy is effective and where it needs to be refined. In addition, monitoring performance over time allows businesses to better understand customer behaviour and requirements, ensuring that decisions regarding got to market strategies are based on data.\nHow Does PASCOM AI Call Transcription Work? The AI call recording functionality is available for all types of call recording, i.e. call recordings started automatically by the phone system and recordings started manually via the PASCOM app during a customer call. Once the call has been completed, both the recording and the AI generated transcription are made available directly to the users via the PASCOM app, meaning that to view the transcription, PASCOM users need only to select the required call from within their call history.\nCalls with recordings are clearly labelled with the word \u0026ldquo;REC\u0026rdquo;. Furthermore, a text snippet from the transcription is also display within the call entry, distinguishing the entry from calls without a transcription:\nPASCOM call history entry with AI call transcription\rClicking or selecting the call entry will open a more detailed overview of this specific call, including a notes tab, under which the transcription is stored.\nDepending on the length of the call recording, there can be a short delay as the AI processes the transcription. If the transcription has not been fully processed, you will seen an \u0026ldquo;in progress\u0026rdquo; message.\npascom Intelligence AI transcription in progress\rThe AI uses voice recognition to identify and differentiate the callers, meaning that recording transcripts are produced to reflect the conversation and not just as a single text. This ensures that the person speaking can identified, making it easier to decipher who said what and when in the conversation.\nPASCOM Intelligence AI transcription for call recordings\rA prerequisite for using the AI transcription service for call recordings, is that the PASCOM recording system is configured and that the transcription setting is enabled.\nTranscription, while extremely powerful, is not perfect. Accents, intonation, line quality, and external noise can influence the recording. If in doubt, verify accuracy using the recording file which can be listened to directly in the PASCOM App.\nSummary AI-powered Call Transcriptions are significantly more than just simply converting audio call recordings into text. AI generated transcriptions can be essential to driving business performance and form a vital element of any customer-first strategy. Whether sales, technical support, or customer service, AI-generated call transcriptions save time and unlock valuable insights into team performance, customer behaviour, call flow management, and quality control.\nIf you want to turn more customer calls into growth possibilities, the PASCOM all-in-one cloud phone system provides you will all the telephony and messaging tools including a complete suite of PASCOM Intelligence AI features all designed to keep your business simply better connected.\nGet your 30 day free trial and discover how PASCOM can support your business with time-based call routing, intelligent routing, and much more!\n","date":"January 12, 2026","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/ai-call-recording-transcription-benefits/","title":"Turn Call Recordings into Insights with AI Transcription"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":" January 8th, 2026 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading European Cloud business communications provider are excited to announce the addition of the new Deutschland FullFlat, the company\u0026rsquo; new flat rate VoIP telephony tariff for unlimited calling in German Landline and Mobile networks.\nThe new Deutschland FullFlat telephony option further expands PASCOM\u0026rsquo;s VoIP telephony options with a \u0026ldquo;true\u0026rdquo; flatrate option. Compared to PASCOM\u0026rsquo;s FairFlat telephony tariffs where users share the bundled minutes, the new FullFlat tariff is available on a per user basis, ensuring each pascom FullFlat customer will benefit from unlimited telephony to all German Landline and Mobile Networks.\nThe new Deutschland FullFlat telephony tariff is ideally suited for any business that operates a high volume outbound call and contact centre looking to benefit from consistent and predicatble monthly costs whilst ensuring that agents can make calls without worrying about exceeding bundled minutes and/or incurring unexpected per-minute charges as a result.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Head of Sales As with all FlatRate options, our new FullFlat tariff will ensure that our customers are able to benefit from consistent pricing to simplify their budget planning whilst eleviating any concerns for high usage environments. As such, the new Deutschland FullFlat is the perfect addition to our VoIP telephony tariff options and ensures that all our Germany-based customers are able to choose the tariff that best suits there business needs, whether per-minute, minute bundles or our new unlimited calling option in German Landline and Mobile networks.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nAbout pascom - Simply Better Connected If you have any questions about PASCOM Cloud Telehony solutions and our Business Messaging and Collaboration apps, please visit our website and discover how PASCOM can help you upgrade your business communications by arranging a personalised demo with one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFor more information and new feature updates, please visit:\nwhatsnew.pascom.net\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"January 8, 2026","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/germany-full-flat-telephony-tariff/","title":"Germany FullFlat - New PASCOM FlatRate Telephony Tariff"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":" December 17th, 2025 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading Cloud phone systems vendor for business, today announce the successful completion of interoperability testing with the Yealink\u0026rsquo;s new T7 \u0026amp; T8 series of IP desktop phones.\nThe new Yealink phones boost enhanced 3 ring securtiy, bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, ensuring that with the new interoperability, pascom customers will benefit from the highest standards in terms of modern design, usability, functionality and security.\nFurthermore, the new T7 and T8 services of Yealink VoIP phones feature enhanced sound quality features including smart noise filtering, an optimised accoustic shield, and a new 3W loud speaker to deliver professional grade voice audio. In addtion, the new series of phones provide pascom customers with an overall improved performance and more comfort thanks to touch sensitive buttons and screens.\nMoreover, both the T7 and T8 series support USB-C connectivity, bringing the phones in-line with European legislation in terms of USB connectivity, ensuring that new interoperability with Yealink\u0026rsquo;s latest range of IP phones will provide pascom customers greater compatibility and connectivity benefits when choosing Yealink VoIP phones and Headsets.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Head of Sales The new interoperability with Yealink\u0026rsquo;s T7 and T8 VoIP phones is excellent news for both our customers and our partners as it ensures that our pascom Cloud Telephony solutions remain at the cutting edge of technology and more flexibility when choosing their IP phones. New functionality including both Wireless and Wired options make deployments simpler in different office environments and the sleek design and intuitive ease of use, ensure our customers will benefit from a professional, cost-effective and unified user-experience.\nAbout pascom - Simply Better Connected If you have any questions about PASCOM ONE, our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help upgrade your business communications, then we are here to help. Visit our website and arrange to speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFor more information and new feature updates, please visit:\nwhatsnew.pascom.net\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"December 16, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-yealink-t7-t8-voip-phone-interoperability/","title":"New PASCOM Interoperability with Yealink T7 \u0026 T8 Desktop VoIP Telephones"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":" December 11th, 2025 | Deggendorf, Germany\nAddiction is increasingly recognised as a chronic disease that alters the brain and behaviour, leading to compulsive drug use despite harmful consequences. It impacts physical and mental health, relationships, and financial security. While modern understanding has helped reduce stigma, addiction remains surrounded by taboo and misunderstanding, more still needs to be done. Drug usage appears to be on the rise and nationwide drug related deaths have reached levels not seen for 20 years.\nUnfortunately, some see addiction as a failing of the individual and one that affects only certain groups — the unemployed, the homeless, or the wealthy. However, this could not be further from the truth. It is a societal problem that touches all communities and one that we all need to come to terms with, understand and act against. For this reason, we are proud to announce that this year, pascom will be supporting drugstop Regensburg with the company\u0026rsquo;s annual donation.\nNowadays, medical professionals have a more medicinal and pyschological approach to treatment, and this is reflected in drugstop\u0026rsquo;s philosophy of \u0026ldquo;working with people\u0026rdquo; as opposed to \u0026ldquo;working on people\u0026rdquo;. The organisation has a multi-pronged approach to fighting addiction focussing on prevention, support, and sustainable ongoing assistance. Each step of the journey to a life free of addiction, each invidual patient is cared for according to their needs, whether as an outpatient or in one of drugstop\u0026rsquo;s various facilities including counselling centres, youth counselling centres, and aftercare group homes.\nTo effectively tackle addiction requires more than reactive measures. Prevention requires long-term thinking in terms of education to break the cycle. Therefore, the organisation organises preventative measures in cooperation with local schools where the drugstop team is able to reach out to the younger generation and speak openly and frankly about addicition. Further to this a number of information evenings for parents are organised, and of course any young individual concerned about drug addiction can always contact the the youth counselling center and/or the centre\u0026rsquo;s help line!\nQuirin Pasquay, pascom GmbH CEO We are proud to support Drugstop in their mission to prevent addiction and provide vital care. Their work touches not only those directly affected, but also families, friends, and communities at large. Yet because of the stigma surrounding addiction, organizations like Drugstop often face overlooked needs and constant financial challenges. Our donation is intended to help ease that burden, so their team can continue the extraordinary work that changes lives every day.\nAnother critical issue Drugstop addresses is the safe use and disposal of needles. Sharing or reusing needles can spread life-threatening diseases such as HIV/AIDS. In Regensburg, the situation has become increasingly severe, posing risks to public health. As such, drugstop have stepped up their needle clean up initiatives, involving weekly clean ups plus educational efforts regarding safer usage and disposal as well as working in partnership with the AIDs counselling station on needle exchange programmes.\nAbout Drugstop Drogenhilfe Regensburg e.V. drugstop Drogenhilfe Regensburg e.V. is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to working with drug users and those struggling with addiction. Through our various facilities, we provide preventative, supportive, and sustainable assistance, creating a comprehensive network of support to help people with drug addiction and those directly and indirectly affected by it. Our goal is to build a bridge to self-determined lives—with, without, or away from drugs—by offering services tailored to individual needs.\nAbout pascom - simply better connected Founded in 1997, pascom develop next-generation Cloud Telephony Solutions for businesses.\nWe recognise that as an IT solutions vendor in a growing market, we are in the fortunate position where we can give back to society. Therefore, every year, our employees challenge themselves physically and emotionally in the pascom Get Fit Challenge, a challenge designed to not only keep fit, but also raise money for worthy causes wihtin our community through their efforts.\nFor the 2025 Challenge, the goal posts were set even higher, meaning team PASCOM had to push themselves harder and even further than ever before. Once again, the team rose to the challenge admirably and smashed their target with weeks to spare. In doing so, they have raised a total of €10,000 for charitable donations in 2025.\nFor more information on our supported charities, our company and our Cloud telephony solution, please visit www.pascom.net.\n","date":"December 15, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-donation-drugstop-regensburg/","title":"pascom Supporting Drugstop in the Fight Against Addiction"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":" Standing up to violence takes courage and determination, a trait shown by the team at Frauennotruf every day. Home, it should be a safe haven, a sanctuary, a place to live, laugh, and love. For an increasing number of people, this is sadly not the reality. In Germany, a Bundeskriminalamt report released in November 2025 stated that 2024 saw over 260,000 reported cases of domestic violence, a record high and a year-on-year increase of approximately 3.8%. Of the reported cases, approximately 73% of the victims were women and worryingly, the real figure is probably much higher as victims often suffer alone, in silence, too afraid to act. Even more worrisome is that the figures published by the BKA only report on domestic abuse. Unfortunately, violence against women and girls is a more widespread problem that can happen anywhere at any time, at work, in a restaurant, in a public park and other public places.\nEveryone has the right to a life free of violence. When that right is broken, the physical injuries are horrific enough, but for survivors it is often the psychological damage and insecurities that prevent victims from getting the help they so desperately need. Violence against women is a subject shrouded in so much shame and taboo, so much so that survivors often blame themselves and the topic is rarely discussed openly. Even today, most cannot bring themselves to face the subject - a fact that is well known to Women’s Help organisations worldwide, including the Frauennotruf in Deggendorf (Women’s Emergency Helpline Deggendorf). More needs to be done, not only to help survivors, but also to raise awareness of the issue, let it be known that the violence cannot be tolerated or ignored and that as a society, we can all do our bit to make a change, and we’re extremely proud to stand up to Violence Against Women and Girls by supporting the Frauennotruf Centre Deggendorf with our annual donation.\nFor 30 years, the Frauennotruf centre\u0026rsquo;s amazing team of state-certified social workers have been providing a safe place for women and girls in Deggendorf seeking help in escaping violence. Whether per phone or in person, the centre\u0026rsquo;s team are always on hand to provide free, confidential guidance and support for both past and current situations, to support victims in developing strategies to escape the spiral of violence and just as importantly to regain the confidence to believe in themselves, their abilities and their strengths again.\nIn addition to supporting victims, the centre is open to those closest to the victims. Without professional help, it is often impossible for loved ones to understand how they can help, taking its toll on loved-ones, family and friends. Naturally, the Frauennotruf counselling centre will also be on hand, providing support services and much needed guidance.\nMiriam Ulrich, Geschäftsführung Frauennotruf Deggendorf Donations are extremely important for our work. They help us offer additional services and to secure the centre\u0026rsquo;s ongoing counselling services. Which is why we are extremely grateful to pascom for their donation - it will make a real difference to work we do with Women and Girls affected by violence. A life without violence is a human right and with this donation, we are more able to work towards ensuring this. Every bit of support helps us make this right for the victims a reality.\nBeyond counselling, the centre operates in a multi-functional capacity, offering both intervention and prevention services. Intervention services include liaising with local law enforcement, who having had a case reported to them will support the victim in contacting the centre. From this point, the centre’s function is to support the victim through assessing the situation, counselling, organising transfers to other support organisations, and in the case of domestic abuse, developing a safety plan for the victim and their children. All conversations are in complete confidence and at a pace that best suits those in the care of the centre.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom GmbH CEO A life free from violence is a fundamental human right. When that right is violated—especially within the home—the consequences are devastating. By standing with Frauennotruf and supporting their work, we aim not only to ease the financial burden of the center but also to raise awareness so that more people in need can find help. We want survivors to know they are not alone: there are people who care, who will walk beside them as they reclaim their confidence, their strength, and their dignity\nIn terms of prevention, the team at Frauennotruf are available to anyone who is concerned for the well-being and safety of a female family member, friend or colleague but is unsure of how best to proceed can contact the hotline. In such cases, the Frauennotruf team are always on hand to provide professional advice. Furthermore, the team offer training courses to help employees working in gastronomy, nightlife and other public establishments to identify situations and manage them accordingly, including “Ist Luisa hier?”, a Germany wide initiative similar to “Ask for Angela”, that gives women and girls with a code phrase to use to call for help should they be in a situation should they feel threatened.\nIf you, or someone you know, are suffering from the effects of abuse or violence, help is available. Please contact your local or nationwide helpline and/or your local police force. In Deggendorf, the Frauennotruf helpline can be contacted directly via on 0991 / 38 24 60.\nAbout Frauennotruf Deggendorf Since its founding in 1992, the Deggendorf Women\u0026rsquo;s Emergency Hotline has become a central point of contact for women and girls who have experienced domestic or sexual violence.\nThe Women\u0026rsquo;s Emergency Hotline was established through the commitment of courageous and determined women who wanted to counter the silence and taboo surrounding violence against women. Even today, this topic is shrouded in shame and is all too often repressed or downplayed. Public relations work is a key component of the organisation\u0026rsquo;s activities. The goal is to raise public awareness and clearly communicate that violence must not be ignored – and that we can all do something about it.\nThe Women\u0026rsquo;s Emergency Hotline was founded through the dedication of courageous and determined women who wanted to challenge the silence and taboo surrounding violence against women. To ensure that the Deggendorf Women\u0026rsquo;s Helpline can continue to be a vital part of the social services landscape in the district, a great deal of commitment is needed. In addition to financial support from the Free State of Bavaria, the Lower Bavaria district, the district, and the city of Deggendorf, the organisation relies on substantial contributions from its own resources each year. This is made possible through volunteer work and the support of many dedicated individuals from the region.\nThe Frauennotruf Centre in Deggendorf offers free, confidential, and (if requested) anonymous counselling services to girls and women across the region, either per telephone or in-person at the organisation\u0026rsquo;s counselling centre in Deggendorf.\nAbout pascom - simply better connected Founded in 1997, pascom develop next-generation Cloud Telephony Solutions for businesses.\nWe recognise that as an IT solutions vendor in a growing market, we are in the fortunate position where we can give back to society. Therefore, every year, our employees challenge themselves physically and emotionally in the pascom Get Fit Challenge, a challenge designed to not only keep fit, but also raise money for worthy causes within our community through their efforts.\nFor the 2025 Challenge, the goal posts were set even higher, meaning team PASCOM had to push themselves harder and even further than ever before. Once again, the team rose to the challenge admirably and smashed their target with weeks to spare. In doing so, they have raised a total of €10,000 for charitable donations in 2025.\nFor more information on our supported charities, our company and our Cloud telephony solution, please visit www.pascom.net.\n","date":"December 11, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-donation-frauennotruf-deggendorf/","title":"Taking a Stand Against Violence Against Women with Frauennotruf Deggendorf"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"It\u0026rsquo;s Christmas! Advent has arrived, and 2026 is knocking on the door. Naturally, that means that the usual end-of-year madness is now in full flow. Everything from inventories, end-of-year reports, and annual reviews to the (in)famous Christmas staff parties are stealing all your attention. Then there is the fact that for many businesses, the holidays are the busiest time of year - particularly in retail. So there’s a lot to do, and often the smaller things can get overlooked, particularly when it comes to your business phone system.\nThat’s why we’ve updated our list of to-dos for the festive period to help ensure that you, your team, and your business don’t drop the ball (at least until New Year\u0026rsquo;s Eve) during the 2025 holiday period!\nContents In this article, we will cover the following:\nBusiness Opening Times Phone System Time Checks Festive Phone System Greetings Seasonal Music on Hold (MoH) Seasonal Voicemail Greetings Reduce Workloads with AI Connect with Customers via WhatsApp Update Customer Touchpoint Information 1. Business Opening Times Throughout The Holidays You and your team are probably already well aware of your business’ opening time throughout the holidays, but if not, it’s time to get them set, as your operating hours and how you communicate them to customers are crucial to effective business communications throughout the season. They affect everything from your out-of-office autoresponder to Google My Business listings and even your business phone system time checks and phone system prompts!\n2. Phone System Time Checks There’s nothing worse for a business’ corporate image than when a customer calls and the phone just keeps ringing because your team are already on holiday and there is no-one there to answer the phone. Conversely, what if your business hours are extended during the holidays due to increased demand, but your customers can’t reach you because you haven\u0026rsquo;t updated your phone system time-of-day call routing?\nSo if your business hours change in any way during the holidays, it is time to update your business phone system time checks (Time-Based Call Routing / Time-of-Day Call Routing). Depending on the size of your business, you will likely have two or more departments with individual call queues (teams in pascom) and therefore, it is essential that you make changes not only to calls to your main business phone number (subscriber number), but also to all your team extensions. This will ensure that even customers who call your teams directly without going through your phone system IVR, will also be handled correctly.\nWith the pascom phone system, it is possible to cover countless scenarios, guarantying that no matter how your business hours change, your business availability throughout the holiday period can be expertly managed to meet your customer expectations - so even if like us, some of your teams work throughout the holidays while others don’t, calls will be expertly handled.\nHow To Configure Time-Based Call Routing Benefits of Time-of-Day Routing Call, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\n3. Festive Phone System Greetings For many businesses, the holiday season is the busiest time of year whereby high call volumes are to be expected and upto this point, everything we have done has been somewhat theoretical. A bit of strategy, some configuration adjustments, but now it\u0026rsquo;s time to get real by updating your phone system prompts and greetings. Greetings are your company\u0026rsquo;s voice and as such they are the first touch point between your business and your callers and therefore the ideal opportunity to make that ever important great first impression!\nMaking a good impression right off the bat is always important, but even more so when you consider the scope for potential gains and growth during the festive season, so your business telephone system greetings and prompts need to be top notch. In the past, this used to be a real hassle, that involved speak over actors, recording studios and no small amount of financial outlay. However, things have moved on and these days it is possible to produce professional greetings in minutes thanks to our AI-powered voice prompts generator.\nThat said, I reckon I am probably not alone when I write this; people can still tell AI from real human prompts - even when it has become increasingly difficult. I also believe that your festive season prompts need that little extra professionalism, especially given the potential importance of the the holiday season for many businesses. So if you\u0026rsquo;re looking for something special for your customer greetings this year, then as a pascom customer, our professional prompts recording service is precisely what your business needs.\nInformation to include When creating professional prompts for the festive period, it is important to include certain information that you most definitely include to prevent your customers being in the dark. Secondly, the prompt voice should be friendly, warm and welcoming whilst maintaining your company voice.\nKeep customers up to date with your festive opening times as soon as possible. Highlight any specific days/dates where your business is closed, i.e. public holidays, company holidays etc. If you\u0026rsquo;re offering callers extended holiday opening hours, promote them! Promote specific information for specific departments if some aspects of your business close down while others stay open. If you close during the holidays, be specific about dates and make it clear when your business opens up again. Specify contact options for urgent enquiries should this be applicable to your business. Keeping your callers and customers up-to-date with your holiday opening times is a valuable courtesy that they will really appreciate, and it will reduce the number of questions that you and your team have to answer about your business’ availability during the festive period.\nHowTo Phone System Prompts Benefits of AI Phone System Prompts 4. Seasonal Music on Hold (MoH) Now that you\u0026rsquo;ve got your time checks and prompts sorted, it is time to get your Music on Hold working for you! First up, updating your Music on Hold to reflect the season is a great way of improving the customer experience by creating a more joyful and festive vibe for callers. Appropriate holiday Music on Hold that reflects your brand can have a number of positive effects that enhance the caller experience. Just remember to create a good selection of holiday music, that you can rotate, so callers don\u0026rsquo;t always hear the same music on repeat.\nSeasonal Music on Hold Benefits at a Glance Enhance how customers perceive your brand: Festive MoH portrays professionalism and engagement with the season. Strengthens emotional connections: people love holiday songs and using them can evoke strong emotional ties and positive memories . Boost sales: Creates more positive mood and emotional connections, making customers more will to buy from you, especially when combined with promotional messaging. Avoids repitrepetitionion and boredom: Changing up your music removes the monotony for callers and prevents them becoming bored with the same generic music used by everyone else. First and foremost, the right Music on Hold can help make any waiting feel more enjoyable and therefore shorter, and therefore positively impacting the perceived experience. Secondly, festive Music on Hold helps align your business with the holiday spirit, humanising your brand, creating an emotional connection between your business and your customers.\nFinally, updating your Music on Hold for the holiday season and mixing in promotional messaging provides businesses with an excellent marketing opportunity to promote seasonal offers and in turn drive sales, especially if your business operates in a retail or B2C environment.\nA word to the wise here, when done well, choosing the right music mixed in with the right messaging will help portray your business as professional, organised and, to coin a 2025 phrase, “locked-in” with customer expectations, helping create an environment where customers are happier and therefore more willing to spend. However, get it wrong, and the impact can be the opposite, so it is worth ensuring that your choices align with your brand and more importantly with what your customer expectations are. Furthermore, when using custom Music on Hold, you will also always need to consider copyright licensing, so be sure to check for any music licensing requirements. If in doubt, it is best to go to the professionals - yes it costs more, but you should be on the right side of the law.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re looking for more “pizzazz” with your Music on Hold by mixing in Seasonal and Promotional Messaging, then professionally recorded is the only way to go, unless of course you have a recording studio in house and the required editing skills and experience. If not, then we’ve got our pascom customers covered here as well, just hit the button below:\nProfessional Voice Over Prompts\n5. Update Voicemail with Seasonal Greetings Voicemail is such a decisive tool. It’s like marmite, some love it and some hate it. In many industries where customers have a dedicated contact person, e.g. accountancy and real-estate, voicemail tools are still very popular and frequently used. That said, I am not a big fan of voicemail as there are other options which, in my opinion, offer better outcomes in terms of customer service and satisfaction - but that’s a topic for another post. That aside, if your business uses voicemail, updating your Voicemail Greetings is another touchpoint where you can customise your approach to delivering a memorable and engaging in-call experience.\nThe problem with voicemail is that no-one really likes being transferred to voicemail if they haven’t already had contact with the business. What is more, most people don’t believe that their voicemail message will really be listened to, let alone actioned upon, meaning most callers don’t even bother to leave a message. In fact, according to Forbes research, 80% of callers directed to voicemail DON\u0026rsquo;T leave a message and this presents a big problem for small businesses who don\u0026rsquo;t have the resources to answer every call.\nBut it\u0026rsquo;s not all doom and gloom - voicemail gives you 24/7 availability, So if your small medium-sized business relies on Voicemail, then you will need to seriously up your game over the holiday season and your greetings will have to be way more than pretty special to keep the customer engaged and motivated enough to even leave a message!\nOnce you\u0026rsquo;ve succeeded in getting customers to leave voicemail messages, then it\u0026rsquo;s time to back up your \u0026ldquo;promise\u0026rdquo; with almost immediate action. The longer you wait, the chances of that caller becoming a customer decrease dramatically.\nThankfully, powerful business phone system tools such as pascom\u0026rsquo;s voicemail to e-mail, in-app voicemail notifications and playbacks plus our new AI-driven automatic Voicemail Transcription are included as standard and can be invaluable in optimising and improving response times to streamline and make your customer service extra special.\nKeep the season's greetings short and sweet, yet festive. Don't forget to mention New Year; otherwise they might seem a bit odd if a customer calls after Christmas. It is also imperative to include the date that you will be back at work and options if the enquiry is urgent - this helps manage customer expectations and also REMEMBER to change them again once you're back in the office. HowTo Phone System Voicemail 6. Let pascom Intelligence and AI Pick Up The Slack As alluded to in the points 2 and 5 regarding seasonal prompts and Voicemail greetings, your pascom phone system includes a host of powerful AI tools in the form of pascom Intelligence, so why not let them take up the slack this Christmas?\nAI Voice Prompts Firstly, as mentioned above, the pascom AI voice prompts generator can be used to quickly generate and use professional voice prompts within your call queues. A good use case could be when you are receiving numerous calls and your existing prompts aren\u0026rsquo;t keeping customers informed accordingly, you can quickly swap out the prompt with the AI-generated prompt and keep your callers in the loop.\nHowTo AI Prompts\nAI Voicemail and Call Recording Transcriptions Secondly, automatic AI transcriptions are available for both pascom voicemail users and businesses that use call recordings. The major benefit here is that transcriptions are extremely useful when it comes to driving service and reducing response times by making messages and recordings text based and therefore readable. Not only are readable recordings and messages quicker to understand, they are also searchable.\nThe result, your response times and service standards will improve as users can simply read the transcriptions within the pascom apps instead of having to listen to the audio, you no longer have to play back the audio files to understand the content, a task that is time-consuming and not very effective, particularly for longer messages. Beyond this, finding and understanding the content again is much quicker and more efficient, as you only need to search for keywords and the pascom Apps will do the rest, eliminating the need to listen to countless audio files before finding the right one.\nCall Recording AI Transcriptions\nVoicemail AI Transcriptions\nAI Voice Agents While there is no substitute for human interaction and immediate service/responses, it is sadly not possible to answer 100% of calls around the clock. Using an AI-powered Voice Agent gives businesses a 24/7 telephone presence and allow businesses to handle every customer call without dropping the ball - crucial in today’s fast-paced, on-demand consumer culture in which customers expect immediate service.\nOf course, having AI answer calls for you doesn’t actually do anything for customer service if there is no follow-up, so it is what happens under the hood and within your team that is important. Just like an “ordinary” call, AI answered calls create an entry within your team call histories, giving every member access to the information contained.\nBut that’s not all that the pascom Intelligence AI Agents do. Combining transcription technology with further AI tools, pascom AI agents can summarise the call, highlight keywords such as Customer Number or Call Reason, and even gauge the callers\u0026rsquo; mood on hand from the tone of the speaker\u0026rsquo;s voice. This information is then included within the easily identifiable AI Agent call log, allowing you and your colleagues to react appropriately to the customer call almost instantly.\nAI Agent Setup Using AI Agents in the pascom Apps 7. Connect with Customers via WhatsApp Business Messaging As the world\u0026rsquo;s largest messaging platform, it is mostly a given that your customers are using WhatsApp and this presents an excellent opportunity to connect and engage with them at scale directly from your pascom business phone system - keeping all your conversations in one place whilst connecting with your customer base where they are.\nFrom simple “Happy Holidays” template messages with your business hours to order confirmations and even free-form chat (once initiated by the customer), integrating WhatsApp Business Messaging into your pascom telephone system opens up a whole new communications channel and with it so many additional benefits for the holiday season.\nThe beauty of WhatsApp Business Messaging via pascom is that, compare to other social media messaging, you are not restricted to using a mobile phone number. This allows you to use a phone number from your pascom SIP trunk and with a bit of forward-thinking, you can connect individual numbers from your departments to WhatsApp Business Messaging, for example sales, customer service, and support etc. This allows you to route incoming messages directly to employees who can actually help the customer, as opposed to going around the houses. As a result, response times and time to resolution are shortened, improving your overall customer service with a chat.\npascom\u0026rsquo;s WhatsApp Business Messaging integration is currently in BETA and will be officially released in January 2026, but if you want to benefit from it now, simply contact our sales / support team who will activate the BETA feature for your pascom phone system.\nWhatsApp Business Connector Documentation Using WhatsApps Business Messaging 8. Update All Your Customer Touchpoints It is essential to update all the touchpoints where a customer may try to contact you or learn about your business.\nEven though over 70% of customers expect to have phone contact at some point in the purchasing process, your business phone system, while central to how you communicate, is not your only communication channel. Therefore, it is equally important to update all your customer touchpoints. To help you out, we\u0026rsquo;ve compiled a list, although it is by no means definitive:\nAutomatic Out-of-Office E-mail replies Google MyBusiness Listings Social Media Posts and About Sections WhatsApp Store Front (if applicable) Webpage ChatBots Social Media Messaging Auto-responders, i.e. Messenger So if your business experiences a slow down over the Christmas period, then now is the ideal time to try and test pascom with our 30-day free trial.\nSummary If you have any queries about pascom phone system features and how to use leverage the most benefit this Holiday Season, then check out some more of our How To guides as well as our desktop client, mobile app and web client user guides listed in our documentation.\nIf you, your team, your colleagues, or customers could benefit from an effective all-in-one video and business collaboration solution, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\nWishing you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2026!\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"December 1, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/is-your-business-phone-system-ready-for-the-festive-season/","title":"Is Your Business Festive Season Ready?"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":" November 30th, 2025 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading provider of Cloud-based Business Communications solutions, today announce the addition of AI-powered Telephone Agents, the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) functionality to be included into the company\u0026rsquo; growing pascom Intelligence suite of AI-based telephony and communication tools.\npascom\u0026rsquo;s AI Agents have been developed to act as a virtual call agent within a call queue. The primary function is to answer calls, collect information from the caller and then summarise the call in order to present the information in the form of an entry within the team call history within the pascom apps.\nThe new AI agents will resemble what can be best described as an Intelligent Voicemail box, whereby callers are prompted to leave a message and on hand the recording, the AI is able to analyse the content of the call according to the criteria defined in the initial AI Agent setup and then categorise and summarise the content.\nIn doing so, the new AI agents deliver a powerful tool that can be flexibly configured to search for content, analyse caller tone and mood and therefore provide team members with actionable, relevant information with which employees are able to immediately react and enhance the customer service they deliver and are therefore extremely advantageous for businesses with higher call volumes and organisations that frequently receive calls that are similar in nature.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nThe benefits of AI Agents extend further beyond reducing workloads during the workday. The new AI Agents can act as team members outside of business hours, supporting businesses by answering calls 24/7 and providing automated call summaries accessible via team call history for processing on the next business day, an especially useful tool for customer service and sales teams, saving them time in qualifying customer calls and leads.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO As we continue to develop and expand pascom Intelligence and our AI capabilities, the arrival or our new AI Agents are an exciting and value enhancing addition to our Cloud phone system functionality. We believe that the new AI agents will be of great benefit to all our customers, providing them with the ability to further enhance the customer service and telephony experience for their customers.\nThe current release includes three customisable templates which our customers can adapt and build on in order to create the AI Agent that is best suited for their business. Initially, the included templates are primarily focused on tax consultants and doctors - two sectors where AI Agents can be extremely beneficial. A third, generic template is also included and can be customised to match business goals and requirements.\nDiscover pascom ONE If you have any questions about PASCOM, our pascom Cloud Phone System or our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help upgrade your business communications, then we are here to help. Visit our website and arrange to speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"November 30, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/new-pascom-ai-agents/","title":"pascom expand pascom Intelligence AI capabilities with AI Agents"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":" November 10th, 2025 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading provider of Cloud-based Business Communications solutions, today announce release of the new pascom ONE Team Calling Identities feature, a powerful outbound calling feature that simplifies and automates outbound caller ID signalling when making calls on behalf of a team and enhances outbound call entries within the Team Call histories, further simplifying workflows and enhancing productivity.\nThe pascom phone system has long allowed outbound calls to be made using your team extension instead of your personal extension (Direct Inward Dial / DID). However, the previous setup was a too complex and not user-friendly from the end-user perspective.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nFurthermore, thanks to the new caller identities feature, outbound calls made on behalf of a team are now included in the team call history. This ability automatically informs colleagues that you have made contact with the customer, greatly improving efficiency and delivering a range of additional benefits. An obvious example is improving efficiency when managing callbacks, missed calls or calls answered with pascom\u0026rsquo;s new AI Agent feature.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO We are delighted to say that with the release of the new outbound team calling functionality, we have listened to feedback from both our customers and partners and are providing our customers with a feature that has often been requested. The new feature is much more than just a usability fix, and offers many more advantages than simply improving how we manage missed calls. It enhances teamwork, delivers corporate identity benefits and provides valuable call reporting insights, allowing our customers to further enhance how they communicate with their customers, clients and business partners.\nThanks to the introduction of caller identities, switching between making calls from your personal to team telephone numbers has become much more intuitive and the new feature also includes in-built automated intelligence to eliminate human error, ensuring that your business phone system is supporting your business in the delivery of excellent customer service whilst portraying a consistent, professional image and enhancing telephony analytics accuracy.\nDiscover pascom ONE If you have any questions about PASCOM, our pascom Cloud Phone System, our new outbound team calling functionality, or our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help upgrade your business communications, then we are here to help. Visit our website and arrange to speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"November 10, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-outbound-team-calling-identities/","title":"New pascom ONE Feature: Outbound Team Calling Identities"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Renews Commitment to Data Security and Compliance with BSI C5 Certification Information Security and Data Protection are core elements of business operations. Not only is compliance a legal obiligation, demonstrating your business' commitment to data security is crucial to building and maintaining trust with your customers - particularly in the IT \u0026 Telecoms sector. Therefore, we're proud to announce that pascom and the pascom ONE cloud communications solution have been successfully BSI C5 certified and demonstrating that pascom ONE meets the highest requirements for Information Security, Data Protection and Compliance. What is BSI C5 BSI C5, also referred to as C5:2020, is the Cloud Computing Compliance Controls Catalogue certification devised by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) for Cloud Services.\nOver the years, pascom solutions have been certified against many accreditations, notably ISO 27001, the international standard for ISMS certifications. BSI C5 certifications differ in that they are primarily intended for cloud services within the German market and are designed to provide cloud customers with essential guidelines when choosing a cloud solutions provider.\nAs such, pascom ONE\u0026rsquo;s BSI C5 certification further demonstrates pascom\u0026rsquo;s commitment to information security, particulary on the customer level, where the customer must show a certain level of trust in the provider, by sharing personal and business specific data.\nQuirin Pasquay, pascom CEO Trust in that your data as customer is stored securely is a crucial element in the purchase decision for any customer. Therefore, businesses should and must make every effort to ensure data security, and at pascom we\u0026rsquo;re proud of our commitment to take every step, meausure and precaution to keep our customer data secure as demonstrated by our solutions becoming BSI C5 certified.\nBSI C5 Benefits Data protection and information security attestations are essential for cloud service providers. Often such certifications are legal requirments, but they also provide a number of benefits for customers as is the case with pascom ONE\u0026rsquo;s BSI C5 attestation.\nLegal Certainty and Compliance BSI attestations provide legal assurances that pascom ONE solutions meet the highest security standards and are compliant with the high security standards and obligations required when handling sensitive data.\nThis is particularly relevant for organisations that operate within regulated industries, such as Medicine, Finance, and the Public Services sector, which may require BSI certification when implementing / adopting new cloud service solutions.\nTransparency and Confidence Choosing a C5 certified cloud service provider, provides clear and detailed information about the security measures implemented by the provider. This enables customers to make informed decisions and therefore increases the customer\u0026rsquo;s confidence in their chosen provider.\nAssurance of High Security Standards The BSI C5 certification sets rigorous standards for Data Protection and Information Security. As such, the BSI C5 attestation ensures customers can choose their provider in confidence that their data is being protected in accordance to the strict BSI security guidelines.\nSimplifying Risk Analysis As the BSI C5 certification provides an audit of the providers processess and security measures, it provides customers with a comprehensive overview which can be used to perform risk analyses and evaluate whether a provider aligns with the customers specific security and certification requirements.\nSimplified Compliance Process In the same vein as a BSI C5 attested cloud provider can support businesses with the Risk Analysis, choosing a BSI C5 certified cloud service provider can also help businesses in fulfilling their own compliance obiligations. For example, if a business is subject to certain security criteria, choosing cloud providers that already adhere to said criteria will help the customer fulfil their own obligations.\nDiscover pascom ONE With continuous development and certification, you can rely on a future-proof communications solution that combines tested security with the latest technology.\nIf you have any questions about PASCOM or our PASCOM ONE cloud phone system and how we can help upgrade your business communications, our team will be more than happy to help you any way we can. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFor more information concerning our Data Protection policies, GDPR compliance and hosting certifications, please read our Data Protection Documentation\n","date":"September 16, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-bsi-c5-certificatied/","title":"pascom ONE receives C5 certification – Maximum security for your communication"},{"categories":["HowTo"],"contents":"What is Time-of-Day Call Routing? Time-of-day Call Routing is a business phone system feature that is used to manage calls differently depending on the time of day, day of the week, or specific days and dates.\nTime-of-day call routing enables businesses to manage calls more effectively and efficiently by ensuring calls are directed to the most suitable individuals, team, department or even voicemail box both during the working day and after-hours.\nHow Time-of-Day Call Routing Works To set up time-of-day call routing, a business most configure specific call rules which then determine where calls are routed to based on the time of day they are received.\nBusiness Hours and Time-of-Day Routing Businesses can define different routing rules for business hours and outside of business hours. At first glance, this is easy to imagine. However, there are other scenarios when Time Based Call Routing is useful.\nExample 1: Opening Times / Business Hours If your business operates a 9 to 5 schedule, you can configure your time-based routing to route calls to a receptionist or a specific team between the hours of 09:00 and 17:00 - this is referred to as using an action condition or time condition as illustrated here:\nSimple Time Condition for Time-of-Day Call Routing\rIn the image above, the * means \u0026ldquo;All\u0026rdquo; and the time condition for \u0026ldquo;Open\u0026rdquo; has been set up to be active from Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 17:00, meaning that this time condition will be applied during those times Monday to Friday of every month.\nAll calls during the configured times can play a greeting prompt and then be routed onto a queue. Calls outside of those hours could be routed to a prompt saying.\n\u0026ldquo;Thanks for calling pascom, our offices are currently closed. Please call back during our normal business hours which are Monday to Friday, 9 to 5\u0026rdquo;.\nThe call could then be ended by simply hanging up.\nSimple Time-of-Day Call Routing Example\rAdvanced cloud phone systems, like pascom ONE, allow for a more professional approach, allowing calls to be forwarded to a designated after hours destination such as a mobile number or a voicemail box, where the caller can then leave a message. In the case of a voicemail box, the initial prompt would look like this:\n\u0026ldquo;Thanks for calling pascom, your call is important to us, but our offices are currently closed. Please leave a message and a member of our team will contact you at the earliest opportunity\u0026rdquo;.\nAs voicemail messages can often be overlooked, pascom enables the message to 1. be forwarded via e-mail to the intended receipient and 2. transcribed and attached to the corresponding entry in the call logs within the pascom apps.\nExample 2: Different operating hours per team What if each of your business departments / teams, has different availability? For exampl, your sales team are available from 09:00 - 12:30 and from 13:30 to 17:00, but your customer service team is available from 09:00 to 17:00.\nWith pascom ONE, managing calls to each team is simple. You only need to use the same techniques as in example 1, but configure the time-based call time conditions separately per team.\nTeam specific Time-of-Day Call Routing time conditions\rExample 3: Call Routing per Day of the Week As eluded to in the examples above, time-based routing and time conditions can be used not only for time, but also days. Making it possible to handle calls differently during the week and on weekends.\nA classic example of where using different time conditions for during the week and for on weekends is in the retail industry where weekend opening hours tend to be different to those during the week. Another example could be if your business runs a form of Contact Centre (e.g. support / customer service) where weekend availability must be ensured.\nThe example below shows how time-based routing and time conditions can be configured differently according to the day of the week for a customer service team.\nCustomer Service Time-of-Day Call Routing Week Days vs Weekends\rExample 4: Public Holidays \u0026 Calendar Integration If your business shuts down on public holidays, e.g. Bank Holidays in England of Feiertagen in Germany, then it may be wise to used the calendar function when configuring your time-based routing.\nA simple google search will list all the public holidays in your area and you can then add this information to your phone system. Modern cloud phone systems, such as pascom ONE, all you to enter the information per hand directly into your phone system calendar or upload them using the Import function.\nOnce done, you can then configure your time-based call routing to call up the calendar and handle calls differently on public holidays. For example, playing a greeting stating that the offices are closed due to the public holiday and when employees will be available again.\nBenefits of Time Based Call Routing Time based call routing provides businesses with several benefits, from efficiency to customer satisfaction.\nImproved Efficiency When it comes to telephony, there are a few KPIs to consider, e.g. call handling times and time to answer rates. Thanks to time-based call routing, calls are directed to the first available, most appropriate person or department, minimizing wait times and call handling times, and therefore providing an efficiency boost.\nEnhanced Customer Service From the customer perspective, there\u0026rsquo;s nothing worse than calling a business and the phone simply ringing seamingly endlessly. Time based call routing helps ensure that your customers who call during business reach someone quickly.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nShould a customer call outside of regular business hours, time-based call routing helps ensure that your calls feel like they have had a positive interaction with your business, even if it is just leaving an after-hours voicemail.\nProviding your team then follow up accordingly, time-based call routing can have a significant impact on customer service how your customers view your business.\n24/7 Availability If your business is larger, operates in multiple time-zones or delivers a product or service that requires round the clock customer support, then time-based call routing can be used to provide a round-the-clock service.\nOn the smaller end of the spectrum, time-based call routing allows you to route calls outside of your normal business hours to a designated \u0026ldquo;on-call\u0026rdquo; or after hours phone.\nLarger implementations could see calls being routed to employees in a different time-zones to cover calls to your business outside of operating hours in the customers own country.\nSummary The main benefit of time-based call routing is the flexibility such a call routing strategy provides, thus enabling your business to professionally and efficiently cover many scenarios when handling customer calls.\nGet your 30 day free trial and discover how pascom ONE can support your business with time-based call routing, intelligent routing, and much more!\n","date":"August 11, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/time-of-day-call-routing/","title":"Benefits of Time-of-Day Call Routing"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Time-of-Day Call Routing? Time-of-day Call Routing is a business phone system feature that allows calls to be handled differently according to the time of day or even on specific days and dates using so called Action Conditions or Time Conditions, i.e. routing calls to different destinations within the phone system depending on what time the call is made.\nTime-of-day call routing enables businesses to manage calls more effectively and efficiently by ensuring calls are directed to the most suitable individuals, team, department or even voicemail box both during the working day and after-hours.\nHow Time-of-Day Call Routing Works To set up time-of-day call routing, a business most configure specific call rules which then determine where calls are routed to based on the time of day they are received.\nSummary The main benefit of time-based call routing is the flexibility such a call routing strategy provides, thus enabling your business to professionally and efficiently cover many scenarios when handling customer calls.\nGet your 30 day free trial and discover how pascom ONE can support your business with time-based call routing, intelligent routing, and much more!\n","date":"August 7, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/time-of-day-call-routing/","title":"Time-of-Day Call Routing"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom ONE Airtime Sales Incentive 2025 A Win-Win for PASCOM Partners! We’re excited to announce the pascom ONE Airtime Sales Incentive 2025, designed exclusively for our valued pascom Partners. Running from 01.08.2025 to 01.08.2026, the incentive has been designed to reward our partners who actively drive pascom ONE airtime sales with attractive financial incentives.\nHow It Works Throughout the incentive period, all pascom Partner airtime sales will be accumulated and at the end of the incentive, partners will receive a direct financial payout according to their sales performance!\nEven More Great News for pascom Partners pascom ONE concurrent user licences include 5 phone numbers / CU as standard. Previously, porting additional numbers beyond those included incured a one-time fee of €2 per number plus €0.20/month per number. From 01.08.2025, this will no longer be the case as we\u0026rsquo;re removing those additional costs and with them yet another barrier to new business growth when porting phone numbers to pascom ONE!\nThis means that from August 1st, 2025, pascom Partners will benefit from:\nEasier onboarding for new customers\nMore flexibility for growing businesses\nA simpler, more attractive offer for partners to sell\nWhy This Matters for You as a Partner The combination of Increased airtime sales incentives and Zero extra number porting costs makes pascom ONE easier to sell, easier to scale, and more profitable for you.\nThis is your chance to boost your sales, increase your margins, and deliver even more value to your customers.\nReady to grow with us? The airtime incentive is the chance for pascom partners to generate even more sales successes! Not a partner but want to become one? Find out how here: pascom Partnerships.\nStart focusing on pascom ONE airtime sales today – and let’s make this incentive a huge success together!\n","date":"August 1, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-one-airtime-partner-incentive-2025/","title":"pascom ONE Airtime Partner Incentive 2025/2026"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"10 Effective Strategies for Improving Business Productivity Improving business productivity is critical to the long-term success of your organization. However, you need to admit that managing everything can be stressful at times.\nInefficiencies can intrude in everything from tight deadlines to team performance management and process optimization, slowing development and reducing profitability.\nThe good news? A report by McKinsey reveals that businesses can boost productivity by up to 25% simply by improving internal communication and processes.\nBut, where to start? In this article, you will explore 10 effective strategies to improve your business productivity, allowing you to achieve more with less effort. These strategies will also help your team work more efficiently and deliver outstanding results.\nWithout further ado, let’s get started.\n1. Use Productivity Tools Productivity tools make sure that your tasks are organized, deadlines are met, and communication flows seamlessly. Some of the productivity tools include project management software, time-tracking apps, and task management tools.\nProductivity tools boost productivity by providing a centralized platform for teams to collaborate, monitor progress, and manage their time well.\n2. Offer Flexible Work Options Flexibility at work increases employee performance and workplace satisfaction rate. Offering flexible work choices, such as remote working or flexible schedules, enables employees to work around their personal lives. This flexibility can dramatically improve attention and work-life balance, resulting in happy and productive teams.\nEmployees who have the freedom to work when and where they want are more productive. To establish flexible work choices, first discuss your team\u0026rsquo;s needs and preferences.\nConsider creating a hybrid model in which employees can work from home or at the office, or provide flexible hours so that they can work when they are most productive.\n3. Set and Review Goals Regularly Clear and specific goals are essential for your team members to stay on track and align with overall business goals. You need to encourage your teams to assess their goals on a daily or weekly basis.\nThis is important to make sure that everyone is on the same page and working on the important tasks rather than wasting their time on unnecessary tasks. This allows your teams to alter their plans as needed, ensuring that they are agile and responsive to changing business needs.\nYou can set SMART goals, establish key performance indicators (KPIs), and examine these metrics at regular check-in sessions. A goal review procedure can help your team members celebrate their accomplishments. They can also find opportunities for career growth and level up their skills.\n4. Prioritize High-Impact Tasks In the midst of your daily activities, it\u0026rsquo;s easy to forget tasks that are actually important. You need to help your teams focus on high-impact jobs that will boost overall productivity.\nYou can use task management tools such as prioritization matrices or Eisenhower boxes. These tools will help you identify and focus on tasks that match your strategic goals.\nYou can also categorize your projects based on the criteria of urgency and importance. You need to complete tasks that are both urgent and important first. Then, you can move on to other tasks and decide whether they need to be delegated or deferred.\nThis allows your teams to avoid wasting time on low-value activities, ensuring that their efforts are focused on projects that drive results.\n5. Eliminate Time-Wasting Activities In business, every minute matters, and time-wasting activities can have a substantial influence on production. Minimizing or eliminating unnecessary meetings, streamlining processes, and optimizing team communication channels are critical for increasing productivity.\nBegin by doing an audit of your current meetings. You need to find out if they are all necessary or not. Consider holding a meeting-free day or introducing guidelines requiring each meeting to have a defined agenda and objectives. This helps teams to communicate more efficiently and partake in valuable discussions.\nIn addition, you can examine your processes to identify any bottlenecks or redundancies. You can improve productivity by optimizing your operations and using automation tools to reduce needless steps or tasks.\n6. Avoid Multitasking Multitasking appears to be a useful talent in today\u0026rsquo;s fast-paced work environment. However, it can have a negative impact on productivity. Promoting single-tasking helps employees to focus on one task at a time, which results in higher-quality work and fewer mistakes.\nTo introduce single-tasking, educate your team on the advantages of concentrated work. Encourage them to avoid distractions, such as shutting off notifications during certain work periods. Introduce techniques such as the Pomodoro Technique, which includes working in focused sprints followed by short breaks.\nBy creating an environment that supports single-tasking, you allow your team members to dig deeper into their work and produce high-quality results.\n7. Boost Employee Motivation A motivated team is a productive one. Fostering a positive and healthy work culture through recognition programs, rewards, and open communication can significantly boost employee engagement. When employees feel valued and rewarded for their achievements, they are more likely to remain engaged and devoted to their work.\nImplementing a recognition program is as simple as scheduling regular shout-outs during team meetings or developing an employee-of-the-month award. You can also offer incentives like bonuses or extra time off to your deserving team members for meeting specified targets. For example, in customer-facing roles, a well-structured call center training guide can not only improve performance but also contribute to employee motivation by setting clear expectations and building confidence.\nOrganizations with engaged employees get higher ratings from customers and increased sales. Investing in your team\u0026rsquo;s motivation not only boosts productivity but also improves morale and retention.\n8. Invest in Employee Development Continuous employee development is critical for increasing employee confidence and productivity. To do so, you can organize training programmes, workshops, or online learning platforms for your team members.\nOrganizations that invest in employee development frequently see improved work performance outcomes as employees feel more capable of handling their tasks.\nFirst, you need to examine your organization\u0026rsquo;s talent gaps and identify appropriate training opportunities. Encourage employees to actively pursue professional growth by giving them access to learning resources like online courses or mentorship programs.\n9. Encourage Autonomy, Avoid Micromanagement Encouraging workers to accept responsibility for their work promotes accountability and raises employee job satisfaction.\nMicromanagement frequently stifles innovation and creativity. Thus, allowing individuals to make their own judgments is crucial for developing a productive workforce.\nEstablish clear expectations for results while allowing flexibility in how those results are reached in order to foster autonomy within your teams.\nStay in touch with your team members on a regular basis without micromanaging them. This shows your trustworthiness toward your team while continuing to offer assistance when required.\n10. Foster a Collaborative Environment Real-time communication can significantly improve team collaboration within your organization. To encourage teamwork, you can use open communication platforms, hold regular feedback sessions, and set clear shared goals.\nIn addition to enhancing problem-solving skills, a collaborative environment encourages creativity among team members. Implement collaborative tools that enable real-time communication. These tools could be platforms for sharing documents or instant messaging apps.\nSchedule regular brainstorming sessions in which teams can openly express ideas without fear of being judged. This openness frequently leads to innovative solutions that benefit the entire organization.\nYou can also use Pascom – a robust cloud-based phone system for businesses that improves teamwork and communication. Companies can improve their internal communication and consumer relations with Cloud VoIP phone systems, video conferencing, instant messaging, call management, and more.\nConclusion To put it briefly, improving business productivity necessitates a diverse strategy that takes into account several elements of the workplace. By putting the aforementioned strategies into practice, you can empower your team members, increase productivity, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.\nBeing productive requires not only working harder but also working smarter. So, adopt these techniques to help your staff reach their maximum potential and propel your organization forward.\n","date":"July 30, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/10-effective-business-productivity-strategies/","title":"10 Effective Strategies to Improve Business Productivity"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"5 Small Business Challenges \u0026amp; the Practical Ways to Overcome Them We all hear about the big, multinational companies, but the real driving force behind a country\u0026rsquo;s economy is small and medium businesses (SMBs). According to the European Commission, small businesses comprise 99% of enterprises in the EU and employ 48% of the workforce.\nRunning an SMB comes with a set of challenges like rising costs, fierce competition, and evolving market demands. Bigger enterprises with dedicated teams and huge budgets can overcome these challenges easily, but it\u0026rsquo;s quite difficult for SMBs with limited resources.\nHowever, there is good news. With the right solutions and strategies, SMBs can tackle most of these challenges and stay competitive within their industries. Further, I’ll discuss the top 5 challenges small businesses face and practical ways to overcome them.\nChallenge #1: Application Overload - Loss in productivity due to too many applications Technology is evolving rapidly, and thousands of tools and applications exist for business telephony, messaging, project management, video conferencing, file sharing, CRM, and more. Even though each tool helps tackle different challenges, SMBs can struggle to juggle between multiple applications.\nMost SMBs have a limited workforce, and an overload of applications disrupts their focus and hampers collaboration and productivity. Technology is meant to help business owners, but too many applications do more harm than good for SMBs.\nHow to Overcome This SMBs should go for feature-rich applications that directly help with their operations in multiple ways. Instead of using a different tool for each thing, it is better to search for applications that have several capabilities and can help with multiple domains.\nFor example, with pascom, SMBs can combine all their communications from calls, chats, video meetings, and even faxes into one secure, hosted-in-Germany app, eliminating the need for separate providers. It is their one-stop, all-in-one solution for everything communication-related.\nChallenge #2: Talent Acquisition - Hiring and retaining talented employees A Goldman Sachs survey stated that around 89% of small businesses find recruiting qualified, talented employees hard. The workforce is the backbone of a successful business, without which an SMB can never scale and grow its operations.\nMost individuals dream of working at a global enterprise and ignore SMBs. Also, sometimes SMBs succeed in hiring the right talent, but retaining them is a bigger issue.\nHow to Overcome This Offering flexible benefits to employees is a great option even when the total compensation is lower. Individuals love remote-work stipends, compressed weeks, and wellness allowances.\nWork on your SMB’s branding so that potential employees get to know about your organization. Use social media and employee testimonials to showcase your workplace culture, mission, and growth opportunities.\nHighlight success stories of team members who have grown within the company to demonstrate career potential and attract top-tier talent.\nChallenge #3: Demand Generation \u0026amp; Acquiring Customers Around 43% of small and medium businesses fail because they cannot generate a stable market demand for their services and products. It’s hard for them to get consistent leads and turn them into high-paying customers for their business.\nThis issue arises because of limited marketing budgets, inadequate brand visibility, and competition from larger companies. If SMBs can’t attract and retain customers, then they are surely headed towards failure.\nHow to Overcome This SMBs must use analytics tools to monitor conversion rates at each stage of the sales funnel. This way, they identify which marketing channels yield the best return on investment (ROI) and can allocate resources effectively.\nEncourage existing customers to refer new clients by offering small discounts or credits toward future services. Implementing a referral program can leverage word-of-mouth marketing to expand an SMBs customer base.\nChallenge #4: Cybersecurity - Securing business intelligence and data As more and more enterprises are transforming digitally, hackers are coming up with new ways to hack them. Most big companies have advanced technical and security teams with strong security protocols and defense mechanisms.\nOn the other hand, SMBs are more vulnerable to cyberattacks and data breaches, which puts their business intelligence and data at risk. 43% of cyberattacks hit small businesses, which often lack mature defenses. Loss of customer trust and costly remediation can cripple SMBs.\nHow to Overcome This PASCOM enhances business intelligence and data security through its ISO 27001-certified cloud infrastructure, ensuring encrypted data transmission for calls, chats, and third-party integrations. It employs daily backups, 24/7 monitoring, and regular penetration tests to safeguard user data, telephony records, and call recordings.\nSMBs should require MFA on all user logins to protect against credential theft. Even if passwords are compromised, MFA adds a critical security layer, significantly reducing unauthorized access risks.\nConduct regular, short phishing-simulation exercises and update employees on emerging threats. This helps identify vulnerable departments and reinforce security awareness.\nChallenge #5: Cashflow Management Unpredictable cash flow remains a significant financial hurdle for SMBs. Over half of the enterprises struggle to cover daily operating expenses, and many cite uneven cash flow as a barrier to growth. Just like different productivity tools, SMBs should look out for an application that can help with this problem.\nLate customer payments, seasonal sales fluctuations, and unexpected expenses can quickly deplete available funds. This makes it difficult to pay suppliers, meet payroll, or seize new opportunities. Without sufficient cash reserves or flexible financing options, even profitable SMBs can start facing a serious cash shortfall.\nHow to Overcome This SMBs should shift from annual budgets to dynamic monthly forecasts based on their expenses and revenue in real time. This helps them anticipate cash shortfalls and allows for timely adjustments in their cash flow management.\nThey should establish low-interest lines of credit with banks or fintech lenders before cash crunches occur. Having access to funds in advance provides a safety net for covering unexpected costs.\nCompanies can offer small discounts for early payments and utilize digital invoicing tools to automate payment reminders. This strategy encourages prompt payments, improving cash inflow and reducing the time spent on collections.\nConclusion SMBs face unique challenges in their day-to-day operations, but each challenge presents an opportunity for growth. Challenges like application overload, talent acquisition, supply chain disruptions, cybersecurity threats, and cash flow management are daunting.\nHowever, with the right tools, cultivating talent, securing operations, and managing finances wisely, SMBs can overcome these challenges and continue their growth. We encourage all SMBs to improve continuously, overcome obstacles, and contribute meaningfully to their communities and the broader economy.\n","date":"June 23, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/5-smb-challenges-and-how-to-overcome-them/","title":"Small Business Challenges \u0026 How to Overcome Them"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"Revolutionise Your Phone System Voice Prompts with AI Nothing affects creating a good first impression more than how you handle your customers when they call your business. Get it wrong and you\u0026rsquo;ll lose customers. Get it right, and your customers will love you and this is where professional, high quality voice prompts, greetings and announcements are essential - and pascom\u0026rsquo;s Voice Prompt system has just been given a major AI-powered upgrade!\nHaving successfully completed BETA testing, pascom\u0026rsquo;s new AI driven text-to-speech (TTS) feature is now available to all pascom customers and with it, customers can now benefit from creating professional voice prompts, welcome messages, announcements and even mailbox greetings in a matter of seconds thanks to the power of AI.\npascom Phone System Voice Prompt AI Benefits Thanks to AI-powered text-to-speech (TTS), creating a professional voice prompt takes just a few seconds. Beyond production speed, AI generated voice prompts offer a number of advantages over self-recorded and professionally recorded prompts.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nProfessionally Recorded Prompts vs Self-Recorded Prompts vs AI Generated Prompts Professionally recorded prompts have always been considered the crème de la crème when it comes to voice prompts and pascom phone system customers have always been able to upload custom voice prompts and greetings. Our customers can even order voice prompts directly from us and we\u0026rsquo;ll create them for you.\nBut why are professionally recorded prompts so good? Well it is all about the quality. They are recorded by tonmeisters in a professional studio with professional voice over artists. Furthermore, they can be mixed to include background music offering a seamless in-call experience.\nHowever, as mentioned above this requires a recording studio, a professional speaker and professional audio editing, all of which takes time and costs money - obviously not ideal when the prompt is required now or the intended usage is for only a short period of time.\nIn such a use case, self-recorded prompts using the pascom recording system offered the ideal solution. The system allows customers to quickly and simply record prompts on their phone. As the audio file is recorded \u0026ldquo;on-the-fly\u0026rdquo;, the systems is obviously an excellent option for recording time-sensitive voice prompts and getting them online in their intended purpose as soon as possible.\nHowever, the audio quality depends on a number of factors. Firstly, the phone being used or more specifically the quality of the microphone (HD audio, noise cancellation etc) can significantly degrade the audio quality. Secondly, the surroundings where the recording is being made can have a massive affect on the quality of the recording.\nA busy office is not an ideal place as there\u0026rsquo;s too much background noise and despite it being quiet, the broom cupboard will likely result in a echoey hollow tone. Then there is the speakers clarity of voice. Most people are used to recording themselves, so they may rush it or stumble, meaning the recording will need to be done again.\nFinally, consistency is key to branding and here two classic examples where AI generated prompts are better than both professionally and self-recorded voice prompts, especially when it comes to consistency.\nFirstly, there\u0026rsquo;s the tone of voice being used. With an AI powered voice prompts generator, you simply choose the voice that best suits your business goals and requirements and you can be guaranteed that the voice will be the same for every recording.\nWith professionally and self-recorded prompts, it is not always possible to get the same speaker and even if it is, their pace and pitch will probably vary - they are only human after all!\nSecondly, if your business operates in multiple countries, you will need voice prompts in mutliple languages. pascom\u0026rsquo;s AI prompts tool, creating a complete set of prompts in different languages is easy. Simply select the language, enter the text, choose the voice and you\u0026rsquo;re done.\nProfessional and self-recorded prompts in multiple languages may need multiple voice over artists, making production more complicated, more time consuming and as a result adds extra cost, especially by professionally recorded prompts. Compare this to AI generated voice prompts, and it\u0026rsquo;s clear to see that AI powered voice prompt generators offer significant advantages over traditional pre-recorded voice prompts.\nDiscover pascom ONE If you have any questions about PASCOM ONE, our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help upgrade your business communications, then we are here to help. Visit our website and arrange to speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"May 19, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-ai-powered-prompt-system-benefits/","title":"Benefits of pascom's AI powered prompt system"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Streamline and optimise efficiency with pascom Call Notes. The latest pascom desktop and mobile apps now include the new phone call notes function, allowing users to add summary notes and a visible status indicator to specific phone call entries in the call history. Furthermore, the new notes feature is available for phone calls listed in both an individuals call history and for phone calls listed within a team\u0026rsquo;s call history, i.e. calls to the sales team via the sales call queue.\nAs notes are attached and stored centrally, the information is made accessible across devices and in the case of teams and becomes visible to all team members as well. This allows users to digitally store call summaries as a note for each phone call and make them accessible to other team members and on all their devices. What\u0026rsquo;s more, using the status indicator icons allows users to add a visual reference indicating whether the phone call requires additional attention or follow up actions such as requests for offers or technical questions and so on.\nMoreover, pascom\u0026rsquo;s call notes are text-based and therefore searchable, ensuring that retrieving information in the future is much simpler as a user need only search for the content of the note to be able to search for and retrieve the phone call in question. Beyond this, the call history filter tool can also be used to filter calls and only entries according to the status indicator, for example to only show calls requiring further attention. This saves valuable time and effort when searching and retrieving call notes, allowing users to quickly and more efficiently process and/or respond to your customer\u0026rsquo;s enquiries and/or needs.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO The design concept behind the new Notes Feature focuses on providing pascom app users with a comfortable and easy-to-use tool to streamline record keeping and sharing relevant information with their team directly within the call history, thus providing users with a powerful centralised tool to further optimise processes and bolster efficiency. What\u0026rsquo;s more, the new notes feature is an excellent extension of our already comprehensive call management tools, particularly when used in combination with call labels, call details and even the team missed call counter.\nFor pascom and DATEV customers, the notes feature offers even greater benefit as call notes can now by synchronised from the pascom apps to DATEV, ensuring all the necessary for accurate billing call data (CDR) synchronised to DATEV, plus all your detailed notes summarising the call with your clients, providing access to all the client information required by accountancy and legal firms in one place; DATEV.\nFor more information and for more feature updates, please visit:\nwhatsnew.pascom.net\nDiscover pascom ONE If you have any questions about PASCOM ONE, our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help upgrade your business communications, then we are here to help. Visit our website and arrange to speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"April 24, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-call-notes/","title":"New Feature: Add notes to phone calls"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Desktop UC Apps Support for Yealink WH64 and WH66 Headsets The latest version of pascom\u0026rsquo;s desktop Windows and macOS apps now include support for Yealink\u0026rsquo;s WH64 and WH66 headsets, ensuring that our customers will benefit from complete compatibility with the pascom Softphone apps and ease of use when choosing Yealink headsets as their preferred headset.\nFurthermore, the new interoperabilty includes a great scope of functionality beyond supporting the headset buttons and mute functions, as caller IDs/Caller names are now shown within the headset base station display. Alongside the softphone popup call notification and the softphone window itself, support for this new functionality provides pascom users with an additional reference point to identify who is calling them before answering the call.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO Since their release, Yealink\u0026rsquo;s range of headsets have become one of the most popular headsets amongst our customer base and therefore we are very happy to announce not only can our customers now benefit from an increased range of fully supported headsets to choose from, but also greater functionality with the addition of support for the Yealink headset base station display. What\u0026rsquo;s more, the additional support is great news for our partners, who now have another great selling point when demonstrating pascom solutions to potential customers.\nFor more information and new feature updates, please visit:\nwhatsnew.pascom.net\nDiscover pascom ONE If you have any questions about PASCOM ONE, our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help upgrade your business communications, then we are here to help. Visit our website and arrange to speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"April 22, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-yealink-wh64-wh66-headset-integration/","title":"PASCOM \u0026 YEALINK WH64/WH66: Seamless Headset Compatibility"},{"categories":["HowTo"],"contents":"Competition is cutthroat nowadays, and organizations are always looking for resources to keep them ahead of their competitors. Not every task can be done manually, and using the right software or tools has become a necessity for small businesses.\nA report states that more than 85% of all business applications will be SaaS-based software by 2025 end. As technology evolves, so does the software, and it can be hard to choose the ones for your needs and requirements. Further, we\u0026rsquo;ll talk about 10 game-changing tools that are sure to take your business to new heights of success.\n10 small business tools to boost efficiency and growth Using the right software for your needs can transform your workflow by improving collaboration, optimizing marketing, streamlining communication, and more. Let\u0026rsquo;s go through each tool one by one and learn how they can help small businesses grow.\nNote for readers: All Pricing information related to the software are actual and correct at the day of the publication. However, this information may be outdated when you read this article on a later date. So, don’t consider this Pricing to be a fact and check on the official website.\n1. pascom (Best for communication) pascom provides a robust cloud-based phone system for small businesses that improves teamwork and communication. Companies can enhance internal communication and consumer relations with VoIP phone systems, video conferencing, instant messaging, call management, and more.\nIt is a great tool for small businesses thanks to its cost-effective price, scalability, and ease of integration with current systems. You can improve customer service by utilizing pascom and increase productivity, lower communication costs, and scale operations.\npascom ONE Pricing 30-Day Free Trial €8.90 per licence/month 2. Canva (Best for graphic design) Small businesses can use Canva to create high-quality, professional-grade graphics even without advanced graphic design skills. It is possible to make engaging visuals quickly because Canva has a wide variety of templates for flyers, presentations, social media posts, and more.\nUsers can access millions of stock photos, fonts, illustrations, etc. Canva\u0026rsquo;s simple drag-and-drop interface streamlines the design process. From creating presentations to marketing content, it saves small businesses time and effort.\nPricing Free Plan Canva Pro - €12 / $12.99 per month Canva Teams - €9 / $10 per month (minimum of 3 members) Canva Enterprise - Contact Sales Team * Annual plans including discounts are also available\n3. Ahrefs (Best for SEO) One of the most powerful SEO tools, Ahrefs helps small businesses enhance their online presence. It offers backlink analysis, keyword research, site audits, content exploration, rank tracking, etc. Organizations get insightful data to help increase their SERP ranking.\nAhrefs has a vast database with accurate information that is perfect for optimizing content and to find growth opportunities. There are several ways in which Ahrefs helps small businesses increase efficiency and growth. Organizations can track their website performance, improve their SEO strategies, analyze their competitors, and more.\nPricing Lite - €119 / $129 per month Standard - €229 / $249 per month Advanced - €419 / $449 per month * Annual plans including discounts are also available\n4. ProofHub (Best for project management) Small businesses should use ProofHub for user-friendly project management and team collaboration. Its top features include task management, file sharing and proofing, time tracking, customizable workflows, and real-time communication. Organizations can stay productive and organized using it, as everything is on a centralized platform.\nProofHub\u0026rsquo;s easy-to-use interface ensures a minimal learning curve. You won\u0026rsquo;t require multiple tools, which enhances efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The software\u0026rsquo;s flat fee for unlimited users is the best part for small businesses operating on a tight budget.\nPricing 14-day Free trial Essential - $45/month (billed annually) Ultimate Control - $89/month (billed annually) 5. Google Analytics (Best for website analysis) If a business does not have a responsive website and a respectable online presence, it\u0026rsquo;s bound to fail. Even though it\u0026rsquo;s free, Google Analytics is a powerful tool to monitor your website\u0026rsquo;s performance. Website traffic, real-time data, traffic sources, conversions, user demographics, etc., are some metrics that help enhance your marketing strategy.\nAnother reason to use it is its smooth integration with Search Console, Ads, and other Google tools. Small businesses leverage Google Analytics to get insights about user behaviour and customizable reports about their marketing campaigns. As a result, organizations can focus on their target audience and improve their website\u0026rsquo;s user experience.\nPricing Google Analytics are Free-to-Use with a Google Account 6. Loom (Best for screen recording) Loom is a screen recording and video messaging tool for efficient and effective communication among team members. You can record your screen and webcam footage and easily send them as videos. It\u0026rsquo;s perfect for explaining complicated ideas and educating new team members.\nLoom has a simple interface and eliminates the need for long meetings thanks to instant video sharing. You can access it across several devices, and it integrates with many popular tools. Small businesses use Loom for better internal communication and personalized customer service.\nPricing Starter - Free Business - $15/user/month (billed annually) Business + AI - $20/user/month (billed annually) Enterprise - Contact sales team 7. ChatGPT (Best for generating AI text) OpenAI\u0026rsquo;s ChatGPT is an advanced large language model that can respond to human queries through natural language processing. Small businesses can enhance communication, create content, automate customer support, and do much more with it. Users can write emails, draft blogs and articles, etc. Basically, any type of business writing online, in real-time.\nUsing ChatGPT, organizations can reduce their response times and automate repetitive tasks. From content creation to customer support, it\u0026rsquo;s a great tool for small businesses. It can reduce effort, save valuable time, and accelerate business growth.\nPricing Free Plan Plus - $20/month Team - $25/user/month (billed annually) Pro - $200/month Enterprise - Contact sales team 8. Mailchimp (Best for email marketing) A great tool to help organizations with their marketing efforts is Mailchimp. Businesses can conduct personalized, targeted campaigns through it. It helps engage with customers and boost conversions through customizable email templates, performance tracking, automation, audience segmentation, and more.\nSmall business teams don\u0026rsquo;t need deep technical expertise to create emails through Mailchimp because of its user-friendly interface. For marketing optimization, the tool has advanced features like E-commerce integration, data analysis, metric tracking, and A/B testing.\nPricing Free Essentials - €12.05 / $4.39 per month (billed annually) Standard - €18.54 / $6.56 per month (billed annually) Premium - €324.41 / $131.16 per month (billed annually) 9. HubSpot (Best for customer relationship management) The all-in-one CRM tool, HubSpot helps businesses streamline their customer service, sales, and marketing efforts. Its top features comprise lead generation, email marketing, recruitment process outsourcing, customer relationship management, social media management, etc. This allows small businesses to track their performance, automate workflows, and offer personalized experiences to customers.\nStartups and small businesses appreciate HubSpot\u0026rsquo;s user-friendly interface, seamless integrations, scalability, and more. It enhances operational efficiency and business growth for small businesses, whether they want to improve customer retention or manage their leads.\nPricing Plan EUR USD Free - - Marketing Hub Starter €15/user/month $15/user/month Starter Customer Platform €15/user/month $15/user/month Marketing Hub Professional €792/month Includes 3 users, additional users at €45/month $800/month Includes 3 users, additional users at $45/month 10. QuickBooks (Best for business accounting) Businesses can streamline their financial management and accounting using QuickBooks. It\u0026rsquo;s a cloud-based tool with features like payroll management, expense tracking, invoicing, time management, etc. Organizations can stay compliant and organized thanks to the tool’s user-friendly interface and seamless third-party integration.\nQuickBooks provides customizable insights and reports, allowing small businesses to grow rapidly with data-driven decisions. It is an excellent tool for improving a business\u0026rsquo;s financial operations\u0026rsquo; productivity and efficiency.\nPricing Simple Start - €9.50/month Essentials - $13.50/month Plus - €19/month Advanced - €35/month Features to look out for in small business tools We talked about the top 10 tools that small businesses should use in their day-to-day activities. However, it is not necessary for organizations to stay limited to these. There are thousands of tools and resources in the market that can be as useful as the ones mentioned above.\nAs technology advances, new and updated tools come up that can help organizations reach the next level. However, how do you find the best tools and differentiate them from the bad ones? Here are some features you should look for before investing in a tool.\nUser-friendliness - An intuitive and user-friendly interface is really important for a small business tool. Every team member should find it easy to navigate and use the tool even without lots of technical expertise. A tool that has a minimal learning curve enhances team productivity through its accessibility and simplicity.\n3rd-party integration - Most businesses already have a set of tools they use. Any new tool should offer seamless 3rd-party integration with popular tools like Google Docs, QuickBooks, Mailchimp, etc. This ensures organizations don\u0026rsquo;t need to alter their existing workflows and processes too much. They can transfer data across different platforms smoothly.\nCustomization - Every business has its own workflows, goals, and objectives. Therefore, a tool should be flexible and customizable so that an organization can tailor it to meet its requirements. Right from personalized dashboards to accessibility permissions, customization ensures that a tool can match a small business’ unique workflow efficiently.\nScalability - As a small business grows, it expects its tools and other resources to scale up. A good scalable tool handles increasing users and tasks without compromising performance. You should search for tools that offer flexible models that allow you to add features as your business scales up.\nData security - No matter the size of an organization, data is vital for everyone. Any tool that you use should prioritize data security with the latest techniques. Some crucial security features include multi-factor authentication, HIPAA or GDPR compliance, backups, encryption, etc. Tools with strong data security protect both business as well as customer information.\nCustomer support - Responsive and helpful customer support is a must for any tool or software. There should be proper documentation or a guide to help users get familiar with the tool and its features. Businesses rely a lot on customer support when they are new to a tool. Responsive support channels like email, phone, and website chat are a must.\nAdvantages of using small business tools There is heavy competition in the corporate world, and organizations can\u0026rsquo;t succeed if they do everything manually. Being productive and using resources correctly is a must to gain an edge over competitors.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s read about the advantages that small businesses get through using the right tools and software.\nBetter Collaboration - Productivity tools help small businesses with efficient teamwork and collaboration. Teams can work on tasks in real-time, communicate seamlessly, share and track files, and make actionable decisions quickly.\nActionable analytics - Most business tools offer data analysis and insightful reports. Organizations can identify trends, track performance, make data-driven decisions, and improve team efficiency.\nSaves time and effort - Manually performing repetitive and low-priority tasks wastes time. Tools allow businesses to automate such tasks and streamline their workflows to boost productivity. This reduces errors and saves time as well as effort.\nQuick business expansion - Tools allow organizations to add more users, projects, and services. This smooth transition and scalability help with faster business expansion.\nConclusion Leveraging the right technologies is essential for small businesses looking to boost productivity and spur expansion. The tools we talked about above all offer crucial features that improve productivity, streamline processes, and enable data-driven decision-making for businesses.\nRight from pascom for cloud phone systems to ProofHub for project management and collaboration, every tool tackles a crucial field like communication, accounting, marketing, etc.\nBy using the right software tools for particular requirements, small businesses can save time and money, scale effectively, maintain competitiveness, and set themselves up for long-term success beyond 2025.\nAuthor Bio: Meet Nandini Sharma, the creative force behind ProofHub\u0026rsquo;s marketing success! As the company\u0026rsquo;s marketing manager, she\u0026rsquo;s passionate about all things SAAS, project management, marketing, and teamwork. When she\u0026rsquo;s not at work, you\u0026rsquo;ll find her indulging in her love for arts and crafts or reading up on the latest trends in work management.\n","date":"March 27, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/top-10-smb-efficiency-growth-tools/","title":"Top 10 Small Business Tools to Increase Efficiency and Growth in 2025"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"Photo by MART PRODUCTION\nFebruary 03rd, 2025 | Niš, Serbia - pascom Serbia, a leading provider of Cloud-based VoIP Business Communications solutions, are proud to once again support the Genecology and Obstetrics Clinic at the University Clinical Centre of Niš. Serving as both an academic medical centre and the main medical centre for Niš, Southern and Southeastern Serbia, the University Clinical Centre of Niš treats more than half a million patients annually.\nAs a result of team PASCOM\u0026rsquo;s efforts throughout the 2024 pascom Get Fit Challenge, pascom Serbia employees were able to donate €2,000 to a worthy cause. As is custom in Serbia, instead of making a financial donation, our team once again approached the University Clinical Centre of Niš to discover what facilities the hospital actually required.\npascom Serbia annual donation 2025\rThanks to the excellent cooperation with the Hospital, our team were able to source 5 air purifiers which will be used across a number of hospital departments. Furthermore, we were also able to donate a much needed refrigerator for the IVF department. It is our hope, that through making this donation, we are able to support the University Clinical Centre of Niš in continuing to offer the best in patient care and comfort.\nStefan Tosic, pascom Serbia CEO: The decision to continue our support for the Niš University Clinical Centre was based in part on the successful cooperation with Genecology and Obstetrics Clinic in 2024, but mainly due to our belief that our help has had a really positive impact on the experiences of every patient who stays at the clinic and it is our hope that throught our continued support we can further enhance the quality of care and comfort for all the expectant mothers and the newbourn babies at the clinic.\u0026quot;\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"February 3, 2025","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-serbia-2025-donation/","title":"pascom Serbia 2025 donation to Niš University Clinical Centre"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"November 29th, 2024 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading provider of Cloud-based Business Communications solutions, are proud to be supporting the Deggendorf SKI x BIKE youth department with the company\u0026rsquo;s annual donation. Every year, team pascom choose a local volunteer organisation that provides invaluable services to children, teenagers and families within our community, and SKI x BIKE Deggendorf is an excellent example of such an organisation that is also close to our hearts. As the name suggests, SKI x BIKE focus primarily on the endurance sports of Cross Country Skiing, Mountain Biking and Race Cycling. However, the club prides itself on providing access to a wide range of sports including swimming, yoga, gymnastics, snow shoeing, football and basketball.\nWhile the club is open to all ages, the SKI x BIKE place special emphasis on fostering and bolstering enthusiasm for sports for the younger generations and within the family. Starting with early years development, the SKI x BIKE youth department offers weekly \u0026ldquo;Parent and Kid\u0026rdquo; training courses where children between ages of 2 and 6 can develop their motor skills and build their confidence during sporting activities including climbing whilst being accompanied by their parents (or grandparents)\nFrom March to October, the youth team at SKI x BIKE offer weekly mountain biking courses adapted to the skills and ability of the 6-10 age and 10-16 age groups. The courses are designed to focus primarily on the enjoyment of the sport whilst further develop the childrens Mountaining Biking abilities thanks to a child friendly and skill level approach to training, for example in the older age groups it is not expected that 10 year olds compete with 16 year olds. Instead the group is split according to speed and skill level, to ensure that each participant can gain the most from the technical and practical training AND love it whilst doing it.\nCome the winter months, the club switches it\u0026rsquo;s focus towards Winter Sports. From September onwards, Ski Roller and Inline skating courses are offered in preparation for the cross-country skiing season - a sport that requires no small amount of stamina and is therefore not suitable to the youngest members of the club, but is open to teenaged youth deparment members.\nDr. Martin Eiberweiser, Chairman SKI x BIKE Deggendorf e.V. We are extremely honoured, that PASCOM has decided to support our the Youth Work of the Ski \u0026amp; Bike Deggendorf with such an amazing donation. On behalf of the name of the club\u0026rsquo;s committee and especially on behalf of our younger members, I would like to extend my gratitude to the entire team at PASCOM for their commitment. Such actions, clearly set you apart from many in our fast-moving society, where many focus predominantly on themselves.As a outdoor sports club with now over 1100 members, inspiring the next generation of young sportspeople and helping them enjoy outdoor sports and the beautiful nature that surrounds us is extremely important to us. Your donation will therefore be used to support the club\u0026rsquo;s youth department. Many thanks to the entire pascom team.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom GmbH CEO on pascom helping kids stay active with donation to SKI x BIKE club youth programme As an avid cyclist, SKI x BIKE holds a special place in my heart. It is here that, as an adult, I came to love the sport of cycling, a love that I am actively trying to pass on to my children and through donating to the youth department, it is my hope, many other children as well. Obviously, everyone is different, with different hobbies and that is what makes supporting the SKI x BIKE verein [club] in Deggendorf extra special as through the wide range of activities that they offer, there is something for children of all ages, meaning that everyone is included and everyone can benefit from the club.\nAbout SKI x BIKE Deggendorf - A Club as Individual as You Are! Formed by passionate ski and bike rides 30 years ago, SKI x BIKE Deggendorf has been providing a home not only to passionate athletes, but also to families. Under the motto \u0026ldquo;A club as individual as you are\u0026rdquo;, the SKI x BIKE offers a diverse range of activities from children\u0026rsquo;s gymnastics to MTB Kids, all designed to promote children\u0026rsquo;s physical fitness, boost their confidence and strengthen the bond within their family. Discover the perfect mix of sport, fun and shared experiences for the whole family!\nMore about SKI x BIKE Deggendorf\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"December 3, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-donation-ski-bike-verein-deggendorf-2024/","title":"pascom Supporting SKI x BIKE Deggendorf to Inspire the Next Generation of Young Athletes"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"November 29th, 2024 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading provider of Cloud-based Business Communications solutions, are delighted to be supporting the incredible work of the Kreisjugendring (KJR) Deggendorf.\nThe Kreisjudendring operates as the District Youth Association in Deggendorf and as such is the umbrella organisation for Youth Work across the the region of Deggendorf. Within this role, the KJR is responsible for supporting member organisations in a number of ways including advising, coordinating and financial matters, for example subsidies for excursions to make them more affordable, organising volunteers, delivering training and certification for youth workers and youth department leaders.\nMoreover, the KJR is active at the grass roots level in that the organisation also hosts event days and campaigns such as FITKIDS Action 2024 and the Spielmobile (Games Wagen (Van)). Furthermore, during school holidays the KJR is responsible for organising a large number of programmes, for example \u0026ldquo;Exploring the digital world\u0026rdquo; which took place over Easter and is aimed at young teenagers (11-15). For teenagers over 16, the KJR organisied a 2 week Italian trip to Tuscany, Pisa and Florenze. For the 13-15 age group, 2024 the KJR organised a summer trip to Austria and Italy. For those who preferred staying closer to home, the KJR organised multiple week long Summer Camping events, day trips to Legoland and Bayern Park.\nCarmen Rainer, Chairwoman KJR Deggendorf Our work and that of the youth associations in the district of Deggendorf is based on the support of the many volunteer youth leaders. To prepare them for their work with children and young people, we, the Kreisjugendring Deggendorf, organise three training courses a year to train youth leaders according to Juleica standards. These training courses are subsidised by the Bezirksjugendring Niederbayern, but will be subject to severe cuts from 2025. Your generous donation will help us to maintain our training standards and the existing conditions.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom GmbH CEO Childcare and youth work programmes are essential community services, especially when one considers the how much the cost of living has risen in recent times. As such, we\u0026rsquo;re extremely grateful that we at pascom are in a position to help and support the amazing work of the Kreisjugendring and are proud that our donation will be invested in caring for the needs of children of all ages in our community.\nAbout the Kreisjugendring Deggendorf As the mouthpiece for young people and youth associations across the region of Deggendorf, the KJR is actively involved in youth work in a number of areas. Operating as the umbrella organisation, the KJR is involved in the promotion and financing of youth work services provided by member organisations as well as organising and hosting leisure and educational events at a grass roots level.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"November 29, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-donation-kreisjugendring-deggendorf-2024/","title":"pascom Supporting Community Initiatives: Annual Donation to Strengthen Youth Programmes in Deggendorf"},{"categories":["HowTo"],"contents":"What is Memtime? Memtime is an automatic Time Tracking software for Windows, macOS and Linux. The application provides exact to the minute time tracking capabilities for computer activities and even time offline and enables more precise, simple and secure time tracking than ever before. Memtime is not designed for organisations, but for users who want to better track their work day, boost their productivity and of course use the data for invoicing purposes, for example legal and tax experts.\nYour browser does not support the video tag. In the form of a chronological timeline, Memtime provides a detailed overview of your everyday activities. Connect your calendar, project management software, your VoIP phone system provider and many other tools and then book the tracked time on each activity to the projects and customers before creating individual reports and exporting them in your preferred format. Thanks to Memtime, you will never again lose track of billable minutes, and you need not worry about the security of your data: Memtime saves all your tracked activities offline on your local device and neither shares the data with your company nor stores it in the Cloud.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nSimple Setup Setting up the pascom Memtime integration is quick and easy. Simply follow the steps as described in our documentation and your integration will be up and running in minutes. Setup Guide\nWhy use pascom and Memtime? Automatically Track Phone Call Times and Duration Once the setup has been completed, you can configure the integration to automatically track all your calls.Furthermore, it is also possible to create custom rules allowing to automatically assign certain calls to customers for billing by using their callerID.\nOf course it is also possible to manually assign call entries to certain customers as the pascom Memtime integration allows you to view your call history and details at any time. What\u0026rsquo;s more, pascom is not the only integration on the Memtime marketplace, for example, you can connect a number of calendars including Microsof, macOS and Google Calendars.\nYou can then use this information to align calls with your calendar events in order to assign calls to customers according to your meeting schedule and therefore allowing you to add these calls to your billing records with just a few simple clicks.\nAssign Telephony Data to Projects Memtime also includes it\u0026rsquo;s own project management tools, meaning you can create custom projects if you wish to do so. Moreover, you can also connect other project management software such as Jira Cloud, Asana and Zoho Projects and assign your call records to specific projects. For example, if you are working on a larger project and you want to keep track of all your calls with project team members and/or regarding the project, Memtime allows you to simply allocate calls and computer activities to projects to track your productivity.\nAccurate to the Minute Billing and Reporting If you or your company works in an industry where \u0026ldquo;Billables\u0026rdquo; are the norm, for example, a law firm, tax consultants or even an advertising agency, having accurate, exact data for your billing is essential. Yes there are other methods for creating billing records - for example our DATEV integration or using the pascom Analytics and Call Detail Records (CDR) exports.\nHowever, \u0026ldquo;normal\u0026rdquo; users do not have access to the pascom phone system admin UI - and for good reason, i.e. not to break anything. Unfortunately, this also means that a normal user does not have access to the pascom analytics or CDR record tools and therefore must rely on their phone system admin to provide such records for them. With Memtime, everything is at the user\u0026rsquo;s fingertips and can be achieved with a couple of clicks and reports such as the one below are automatically generated.\nObviously, there are many more applications for a desktop time tracking productivity software, so if you want to learn more about Memtime, please visit their website here:\nmemtime.com Discover pascom ONE If you have any questions about PASCOM ONE, our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help upgrade your business communications, then we are here to help. Visit our website and arrange to speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"November 28, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/why-pascom-memtime/","title":"How to boost efficiency and billing accuracy with Memtime's pascom integration"},{"categories":["HowTo"],"contents":"In the world of business, business voicemail can be an extremely useful tool, particularly for smaller businesses who perhaps do not have the personnel to answer all calls immediately. What\u0026rsquo;s more, when combined with a complete suite of modern business communication tools such as Voicemail-to-E-mail, small businesses and startups can realy leverage voicemail to their advantage by providing callers with the option to leave a message.\nThis enables your business to attend to callers at all times. Whether the call is outside of business hours or you are currently unable to take the call, leaving a message provides your business and employees with the ability to still take care of your customers.\nHowever, business voicemail does have a few issues. Firstly, retrieving and listening to voicemails is time consuming. Secondly, a lot of information can be packed into a voicemail and that information cannot be easily retrieved and is therefore extremely difficult to refer back to at a later date.\nThankfully this where Voicemail-to-Text Transcription can be a game changer.\nContents Benefits of Business Voicemail Disadvantages of Business Voicemail What is Voicemail to Text? Benefits of Voicemail to Text Transcription How to setup \u0026amp; Use Voicemail to Text Benefits of Business Voicemail Before we delve any further into the benefits of voicemail transcription and how to use it, let\u0026rsquo;s first take a look at the advantages of business voicemail.\n1. Attend to callers at all times Business is becoming increasingly 24/7 and being able to attend to callers at all times is extremely important. For example, by allowing customers to leave a message when you are unavailable or when they call outside of hours, you could prompt them to leave a message with contact details with a promise of a call back.\nThis way, the customer has the impression that their call is important and will be dealt with once you are available again or when the business reopens.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\n2. Screen calls and save time At pascom, we have never been fans of screening customer calls, BUT it can be advantageous if, for example, you are currently focusing on a high priority project and the last thing you need is to be disturbed by something that isn\u0026rsquo;t urgent. Allowing the call to go to voicemail gives you the ability to continue focussing on the task at hand and return to the less urgent matter at a time that is more convienent.\nThe same could also be true when using the DND or a client profile that disables incoming calls when you are in a meeting. While this is not directly screening calls, the effect is the same once the call goes to voicemail.\nAs I said, I can see the advantage here, especially for small teams where the only other option is the caller waiting for ages in a call queue. For larger teams, there are better alternatives for handling calls, such as dropping the call onto another queue or extension so that the call is answered by a real person.\nDisadvantages of Business Voicemail 1. Can be Time Consuming One of the main problem with voicemails is that retrieving and listening to them can be quite time consuming. Yes, Voicemail to email can make retrieving them easier as the .mp3 file is then in your e-mail inbox and can be listened to directly in your e-mail. The same is true in the desktop client, where you can filter your call journal to only show calls with voicemail messages attached. What\u0026rsquo;s more, the voicemail message is attached to the corresponding call within the call history as shown above. However, listening to all the messages takes time and for heavier voicemail users, finding the right voicemail message can also be long-winded.\n2. Audio File Content is not Searchable Perhaps the biggest issue with business voicemails is that it is inherently difficult to search the contents of an audio file. That makes referring back to and searching for specfic messages or specific information contained with a voicemail message extrememly difficult. This is time consuming and even once the message has been found, more time is wasted you may need to listen to the message multiple times in order to extract all the necessary information.\nWhat is Voicemail Transcription? Voicemail Transcription uses a Voice-to-text engine in order to transcribe the audio contents of a voicemail message into text. This information is then logged alongside the voicemail message next the corresponding missed call entry.\nBenefits of Voicemail to Text Transcription 1. Saves time and is more efficient How often have you listened to a voicemail from someone and then had to listen to it again in order extract the information? If the message is really long, you may have to listen to it a few times to fully understand / note all the important content. Voice-to-text transcription saves you valuable time in that you no longer need to re-listen to messages or take notes as the information is there to read through and reading a message is much quicker than listening to a message.\n2. Text is searchable Even more problematic is when you want to come back to the message in a few days time, trying to find it again can be tricky. Thankfully, once the voice message has been transcribed to text, the pascom apps then attach the text to the corresponding entry within your call logs as text and just like with a chat message, text is searchable and therefore makes finding the message quick and efficient.\nHow to Setup \u0026amp; Use Voicemail to Text Firstly, you will need to ensure that your pascom apps are up-to-date as the voicemail transcription is supported from pascom app version 114 onwards.\nNext, log into the pascom admin UI and under the Users menu, select Users and then select a user to edit. Under the Basic Data tab, scroll down and activate the voicemail transcription option.\nOnce the voicemail transcription has been activated, the pascom apps will then automatically transcribe your voicemails and attach the text to the corresponding entry in the call history:\nDiscover pascom ONE If you have any questions about PASCOM ONE, our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help upgrade your business communications, then we are here to help. Visit our website and arrange to speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"November 6, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/benefits-of-voicemail-to-text-transcription/","title":"Voicemail to text: what are the advantages and how to use it"},{"categories":["HowTo"],"contents":"The rise of moonlighting—where employees take on second jobs or freelance work outside their primary employment—has become increasingly common. While it may provide workers with additional income or creative outlets, it can pose challenges for businesses, particularly when it comes to productivity, focus, and team loyalty.\nFor organizations, especially in high-demand sectors like call centers, retaining committed and loyal employees is crucial to maintaining performance and customer satisfaction. Unchecked moonlighting can strain resources, lower engagement, and harm the company\u0026rsquo;s culture.\nHere are practical strategies for curbing moonlighting within your team and strengthening employee loyalty through effective communication, support, and engagement initiatives.\nFactors Contributing to Moonlighting As moonlighting has become increasingly common, understanding the factors that drive employees to moonlight can help businesses address the root causes and find solutions that maintain team loyalty. Here are some key reasons employees choose to moonlight.\n1.\tFinancial Motivation One of the most common reasons employees turn to moonlighting is the need for additional income. Rising living costs, personal financial goals, or debts may push employees to seek extra work outside their regular jobs.\nFor some, their primary salary isn’t enough to cover expenses, especially in industries where wages are stagnant or insufficient.\n2.\tDesire for Career Growth Another significant reason for moonlighting is the pursuit of professional growth. Employees may take on extra work to acquire new skills, gain exposure to different industries, or position themselves as more competitive candidates for future opportunities.\nWith the rise of social media, exploring career opportunities has become easier than ever, even during work hours. Employees spend an average of 150 minutes daily on social platforms, and a single viral post or job listing can quickly spark interest.\nThis can lead them to consider new career paths or side hustles, diverting focus from their current responsibilities. Moonlighting often becomes a natural next step for employees looking to break into industries or roles they are passionate about but can’t explore within their full-time position.\n3. Work-Life Balance Interestingly, some employees choose to moonlight as part of their search for a healthier work-life balance. They may use their side jobs to explore passions, hobbies, or freelance work that offers more flexibility and personal fulfilment. While it may seem counterintuitive, balancing two jobs can give employees more control over their time, especially if their primary job doesn\u0026rsquo;t offer much flexibility.\nThe Types of Moonlighting Moonlighting can take on different forms depending on the extent of the employee’s involvement in external work and its impact on their primary job. Understanding these variations can help businesses identify and address moonlighting within their teams. Here’s an overview of the different types of moonlighting and how they manifest in the workplace.\n1.\tBlue Moonlighting Blue Moonlighting refers to occasional freelance or side work that employees take on very sporadically. This type of infrequent moonlighting doesn’t typically interfere with their primary job.\nAn example might be an employee who picks up a few projects during holiday seasons or weekends for extra income. Since this is less consistent, it tends to have minimal impact on their performance at work.\n2.\tHalf Moonlighting Half Moonlighting occurs when employees regularly work a side job but balance it with their primary responsibilities. This could involve part-time work or freelance gigs outside their regular working hours.\nAlthough employees may fulfil their main job duties, the regularity of the side work can eventually impact their energy levels, productivity, and long-term focus in their full-time role.\n3.\tQuarter Moonlighting Quarter Moonlighting is when an employee takes on secondary work limited to a specific period or during certain circumstances, like an economic downturn or a personal financial need. It’s often temporary but can become a regular part of an employee\u0026rsquo;s routine if they get accustomed to the extra income.\nAlthough temporary, quarter moonlighting may erode commitment to the main job as the employee gets busier with side projects.\n4.\tFull Moonlighting Full Moonlighting involves employees working two or more jobs requiring significant time and effort. In this case, employees often face challenges in meeting their responsibilities at both workplaces, as the workload from their side job(s) affects their ability to perform optimally in their primary position.\nThis can lead to burnout, frequent mistakes, and a lack of focus. Full moonlighting poses the greatest risk to a company, directly impacting an employee’s loyalty, productivity, and long-term commitment.\nHow Moonlighting Impacts an Organization Moonlighting can significantly affect an organization’s performance, employee morale, and productivity. While employees may see moonlighting as a way to supplement their income or grow professionally, its impact on the organization is often far less positive.\nFrom diminished focus to reduced engagement, here’s a look at how moonlighting can affect a company’s bottom line.\n1.\tReduced Focus and Productivity When employees take on second jobs, their focus is often divided. The extra hours spent working outside their primary role can lead to exhaustion, reducing their ability to concentrate on tasks during their main job.\nThis lack of focus can translate into lower productivity as employees struggle to manage competing responsibilities. Over time, this may result in missed deadlines, poor-quality work, and overall inefficiency within the organization.\n2.\tLower Engagement and Commitment Employees engaged in moonlighting may feel less connected to their primary job. Their energy and attention are often split between the two roles, making it difficult to fully commit to either role. This can lead to disengagement, where employees are physically present but not mentally invested in the company’s goals or culture.\nAs engagement drops, employees are less likely to contribute creative ideas or collaborate effectively with their teams, hindering organizational success.\n3.\tIncreased Risk of Burnout Balancing two jobs can be taxing on employees, both mentally and physically. Moonlighting often leads to burnout, as employees push themselves beyond healthy limits to meet the demands of both roles. Burnout affects their personal well-being and results in higher absenteeism, increased mistakes, and a decline in work quality.\nOver time, this can escalate to turnover, causing organizations to lose valuable talent and incur the costs associated with hiring and training replacements.\n4.\tImpact on Company Culture Moonlighting can also disrupt the overall company culture. When employees are disengaged or burnt out, it can negatively affect team dynamics and morale. Others may notice the lack of commitment and become frustrated by the imbalance in workload distribution.\nThis, in turn, can create tension within teams, reduce collaboration, and foster a disengaged workforce that struggles to meet its goals.\n5.\tFinancial Losses and Missed Opportunities The impact of moonlighting on an organization’s bottom line can be substantial. According to various studies, moonlighting employees are often less productive and make more errors, leading to financial losses.\nAdditionally, the cost of replacing employees who leave is high due to burnout or disengagement. Companies also miss out on opportunities for innovation and growth when key team members are distracted by secondary jobs instead of focusing on the company\u0026rsquo;s goals.\nStatistics About Moonlighting and Organizational Impact A 2022 survey revealed that nearly 45% of Americans had a side hustle, and 30% of those with a side hustle said they needed the extra money to cover basic living costs.\nAnother article estimates that disengaged employees cost the global economy $8.1 trillion in lost productivity annually, and moonlighting can directly contribute to this disengagement.\nA report indicated that burnout, one of the significant effects of moonlighting, is a leading cause of employee turnover, which costs businesses 33% of an employee’s annual salary to replace them.\nCreating an Empathetic Working Environment One of the most effective ways to reduce moonlighting is fostering a supportive and empathetic workplace. Employees are less likely to seek additional employment when they feel valued and have their professional and personal needs met within their primary organization.\nCreating an environment prioritizes employee well-being discourages moonlighting, strengthens team loyalty, and boosts overall job satisfaction. Here are some key strategies to ensure employee loyalty and satisfaction while minimizing the risk of moonlighting.\n1.\tOffer Competitive Wage Packages and Benefits The primary reason many employees turn to moonlighting is financial necessity. Organizations should review their compensation packages regularly to combat this and ensure they are competitive within the industry. Offering fair wages, comprehensive health benefits, and perks like retirement plans or bonuses demonstrates that the company values its employees.\nWorkers who feel financially secure are less likely to seek outside income, which strengthens their loyalty to the company.\n2.\tCreate Avenues for Career Growth Employees are motivated by opportunities for advancement and professional development. When an organization invests in an employee’s career trajectory, it can reduce the temptation to seek outside work.\nOffering internal promotions, mentorship programs, and upskilling opportunities (such as workshops or certifications) helps employees grow within the company. A culture of continuous learning encourages team members to view their current job as a long-term investment rather than a stepping stone to other opportunities.\n3.\tEncourage Work-Life Balance Burnout is another key driver of moonlighting. Overworked employees may seek alternative jobs for income and escape a stressful work environment. Prioritizing work-life balance is essential to keeping employees engaged and satisfied.\nOrganizations can implement flexible working hours and remote work options and enforce clear boundaries around after-hours communication. Encouraging employees to take time off and providing mental health support ensures they remain refreshed and productive, decreasing the likelihood of seeking additional employment.\n4.\tPromote Open and Honest Communication An open-door policy fosters trust between employees and management. When employees feel comfortable sharing their concerns or discussing challenges openly, they are less likely to seek external employment as an outlet for dissatisfaction.\nRegular one-on-one check-ins, feedback surveys, and transparent communication channels provide valuable insight into employee needs. A reliable business communication tool can streamline these efforts, ensuring feedback is easily shared and acted upon.\nManagers who actively listen and respond to this feedback can improve the work environment, addressing issues before they drive employees to moonlighting.\n5.\tBuild a Positive Workplace Culture A positive workplace culture that promotes teamwork, recognition, and inclusion goes a long way in maintaining employee loyalty. Recognizing employees for their hard work, whether through public praise, rewards, or career advancement opportunities, increases their sense of belonging and commitment to the company.\nAdditionally, encouraging a collaborative and inclusive environment helps employees feel more connected to the organization’s goals and values, reducing the desire to seek fulfilment through secondary employment.\nConclusion Addressing moonlighting within your organization requires a proactive approach rooted in understanding, empathy, and long-term solutions. By recognizing the underlying motivations—such as financial strain, career aspirations, and work-life balance—businesses can take meaningful steps to improve employee satisfaction and reduce the desire for external work.\nOffering competitive compensation, fostering career growth, and promoting a healthy work-life balance help curb moonlighting and strengthen employee loyalty. By creating an environment where employees can thrive, companies can mitigate the risks of moonlighting while building a more loyal and productive workforce.\n","date":"October 29, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/how-to-stop-moonlighting/","title":"How to Stop Moonlighting: Tips for Maintaining Team Loyalty"},{"categories":["HowTo"],"contents":"When it comes to business telephony, ease of use, efficiency and flexibility are crucial to productivity and therefore business success. As phone system technology has advanced with the advent of VoIP phone systems, one feature that has completely changed the way we handle business phone calls is the softphone - all the functionality of a traditional desktop phone combined with the portability of your laptop and/or mobile phone.\nContents What is Call Flip How does Call Flip Work Benefits of Call Flip How to use Call Flip Particularly since remote working became the normality, employees require both a laptop and mobile softphone app to work from home / remotely effectively. In the office environment, desktop VoIP phones have not yet disappeard and wireless DECT handsets are common place in environments where employees need to move freely around the workspace. Therefore, it is quite likely that the majority of employees users use 2 or more devices to communicate on any given business day and this is where Call Flip has become a game changer for how we handle phone calls.\nWhat is Call Flip Call Flip is a VoIP phone system function that allows users to switch the device they are currently using during an active (i.e. live ongoing) call. Call Flip is sometimes referred to as call pushing or call switching, although call switching actually refers to a similar function that in the end has the same result, just a different method.\nThe pascom cloud phone system has long had the functionality to flip live calls to allow users to continue the conversation on a different device. However, the process was, until recently, not exactly user-friendly and therefore the function was never really utilised, but often demanded.\nWith the release of pascom\u0026rsquo;s desktop and mobile apps (version 114), the Call Flip function has been simplified to make it extremely easy to use.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nHow does Call Flip work? Simply put, Call Flip works in a similar fashion to a blind (unattended) call transfer, but instead of calling the another person\u0026rsquo;s extension, calls moved with Call Flip are meant to be picked up by the same person who started the process. As such, the Call Flip feature starts an outgoing call and then transfers this call to your user devices by ringing your extension via an intermediary. The intermediary bridges the call between the orginal device and the device on which you pick up the call, i.e. the device on which you wish to continue the call.\nAs the process takes literally a second from clicking the Call Flip button on the orginal device to accepting the call on target device, the conversion can be continued seamlessly without the person on the other end even realising that anything has changed.\nWhat are the benefits of Call Flipping The main advantage of call flipping is flexibility and mobility. For example, the ability to move an active call from one of your devices to another of your devices provides greater flexibility, freedom to move around your workplace, and mobility in terms of remote working.\nBut what do these advantages deliver in terms of benefits to your business?\n1. Minimise disruption to calls Customer calls are essential and disruptions to business calls should be avoided at all costs. When choosing a business phone system, managers and business owners don\u0026rsquo;t only base their expecations and decision on cost, they look at guaranteed uptime, support reaction times, feature sets and more.\nWhen a customer calls your business they also have expectations that need to be fulfiled. They expect to speak to someone when they call your business, they expect the call to be dealt with quickly and efficiently and for the conclusion of the call resulting in their needs / demands being met.\nHaving the latest in cloud PBX and call forwarding technology is a massive plus when it comes to avoiding call disruptions. For example, you are in the office and you are on a call with a potential new customer who could be worth a significant amount to your business. You\u0026rsquo;ve been on the phone for 20 minutes or so and everything is going really well, but you suddenly have to leave the office. The problem is your using your office desktop phone or your laptop softphone, neither of which are ideally suited for continuing the call.\nIn the past, you had to either stop the conversation and arrange a call back or transfer the call to a colleague. Both of these options will break the flow of the conversation and could disrupt the relationship with the potential customer.\nWith Call Flip, you can simply flip the call and continue the conversation on your mobile device, giving you the extra mobility you need to carry on the call outside of the office.\n2. Increased Responsiveness Business today is now more mobile than ever. The days of just the business owners working from home are gone. These days, employees are just a likely to be working outside of the office as in the office. This means that the demands and requirements on business technology have become much more exacting.\nHaving a business phone system that delivers all the latest in business telephony and collaboration technology provides employees, users and agents with all the tools they need to react quickly and efficiently, making them more responsive to customer demands and therefore more productive.\nRemember the example above where you are in the office and suddenly have to leave, using call flip allows you to continue that conversation. But why did you need to leave the office? Perhaps an urgent matter has arisen at another customer and you absolutely have to speak to them in person face-to-face. Thanks to call flip, you can continue the call you were on whilst travelling to the second customer - of course only if it is safe to do so i.e. walking, handsfree bluetooth in the car or whilst using public transport.\nUsing this functionality adds an additional layer of agility and responsivess to your company\u0026rsquo;s business communications which when used correctly will only enhance your customer service and how your customers perceive your business.\n2. Increased professionalism What\u0026rsquo;s more customer expectations have shifted dramatically as well. Customers are well aware of the technology that is available today - they use it themselves on a daily basis. Therefore, customers expect the same ability and level of professionalism from your business.\nDelivering and exceeding on these expections portrays your business and your customer service in a more professional manner and as a result, customers are more likely to choose and remain loyal to your company.\n3. Stronger Business Image Furthermore, a feature-rich professional cloud PBX not only gives callers the impression of a highly professional business as it delivers all the functionality required for the modern workplace out-of-the-box, it also gives the impression that your business is larger than it may actually be. This can be significantly beneficial to Small Business owners and their business growth as customers are more likely to believe that your business is capable of meeting their requirements.\npascom Call Flip: Quickly Explained Given the benefits, it is clear to see that functions like and including the Call Flip feature are essential components of a company\u0026rsquo; telephony infrastructure as they strive to deliver on and exceed the expectations of their clientel. In fact, Call Flip is more than a feature, if forms part of a feature rich cloud communications platform that when combined with other features such as pascom\u0026rsquo;s Client Profiles, allow users to manage their own online presence and call routing exactly according to their requirements.\nHow to use Call Flip With the pascom apps, using Call Flip is as simple as pushing a button. The only exception is if you are using your desktop phone. In this instance, you will need to either an asterisk (*) function, configure it on your BLF keys or go old school and simply hold the active call, and call yourself so that you can accept the call on a new device, as shown below:\nDiscover pascom ONE If you have any questions about PASCOM ONE, our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help upgrade your business communications, then we are here to help. Visit our website and arrange to speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"October 23, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/how-to-use-pascoms-call-flip-call-pushing-feature/","title":"Call Flip: How and why to use it"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"October 21st, 2024 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading provider of Cloud-based Business Communications solutions, today announce the arrival of new Call Flip feature for the pascom Apps. The new feature, often referred to as call pushing, provides pascom users with a practical, efficient way to move live calls from one phone to another with a single click. For example, the new pascom Call Flip feature allows users to flip a call on their desktop app to their mobile app, allowing the user to continue to call their mobile phone without the caller experiencing any inconvience.\nProviding the best level of customer service is essential to business success and for most businesses, the phone is an essential point of contact with their customers. Moreover, as business communications and workplace practices have become more mobile centric, there has been a significant increase in the need for business phone system features that ensure employees are able to provide the very best service from anywhere. pascom\u0026rsquo;s new Call Flipping is one such example, as it provides employees with the ability to continue calls in situations where normally a call back or call transfer to another employee would be been necessary, which would break the conservation and if the caller is a new customer, this heigtens the risk of losing the customer.\nThe pascom ONE cloud phone system always had the ability to flip calls, however the process was complex and inefficient. The new call flip feature offers pascom users numerous benefits in that it removes the complexity and therefore makes the function more more user-friendly. As a result, pascom users will have the ability to continue the conversation of a different device, according to their current needs. For example, of a call is on the desk phone or desktop app, but the user needs more mobility, they can push the call to their mobile or DECT handset and continue talking. This allows pascom customers to further enhance their in-call customer service and increase customer satisifaction through increased professionalism and efficiency.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO Remote working and the need to completely incorporate mobile devices into a company\u0026rsquo; business phone system have both become essential elements in the world of business communications. We have long had the ability to push calls from one device to another, it was just the process that was long winded and impractical. With the new Call Flip button, our customers are now able to Flip calls to other devices with a single click, greatly simplifying the process and in doing so, providing yet another feature to help ensure our customers can continue to offer the very best customer serivce to their callers.\nDiscover pascom ONE If you have any questions about PASCOM ONE, our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help upgrade your business communications, then we are here to help. Visit our website and arrange to speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"October 21, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/new-call-flip-call-pushing-feature/","title":"New pascom Call Flip Functionality"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"October 7th, 2024 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading provider of Cloud-based Business Communications solutions, today announce the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) voicemail message transcription. As the company\u0026rsquo; first AI integration, the new feature represents pascom\u0026rsquo;s first milestone in terms of the pascom ONE phone system and AI features.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nThe new voicemail to text transcription solves a number of problems relating to voicemails. While voicemails are an essential communications tool, retrieving and listening to voice messages is time consuming and often ineffective way communication channel. In order to extract all the necessary information, particularly longer messages must often be replayed and note taking may also be required.\nVoice to text transcription ensures that accessing the required message and information is quicker and more efficient, meaning pascom user\u0026rsquo;s can now get back to callers quicker, plus the transcription provides an excellent visual reference during a call should it be required. Furthermore, compared to voicemail audio files stored within the pascom apps, the content of a voice to text transcriptions is searchable, making finding the message at a later date much simpler.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO We have been looking at AI for a while now and looking for use cases that, simply put, make business sense. Voicemail to text transcribed messages offer our customers numerous advantages over traditional voicemail messages. For example, messages become searchable, they are quicker to retrieve and reference back to, which in turn helps user efficiency and productivity. Therefore, we\u0026rsquo;re happy, that the recent growth in demand for a voicemail transcription amongst our customers and partners provided to the perfect opportunity to listen and respond to our customers as well as take our first steps into the world of AI phone system functionality and it is our hope that our new Voicemail Transcription feature will be the first of many new AI-based phone system features.\nDiscover pascom ONE If you have any questions about PASCOM ONE, our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help upgrade your business communications, then we are here to help. Visit our website and arrange to speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"October 7, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/new-ai-voicemail-transcription/","title":"New AI Voicemail Transcription Feature"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Expands in Swiss Market with pascom Switzerland August 1st, 2024 | Deggendorf, Germany \u0026amp; Zug, Switzerland - pascom GmbH, a leading provider of Cloud-based VoIP and Business Communications solutions, today announce the formation of pascom Switzerland. The new company is the first step of pascom\u0026rsquo;s expansion into the Swiss Telecoms market. Since the launch of pascom ONE and pascom fixed-line voice services, the company has been committed to expanding its Telephony and SIP trunking solutions across additional European markets and the Swiss launch is another strategic milestone in the company\u0026rsquo; growth.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nThe formation of pascom Switzerland is the first step in the company\u0026rsquo; expansion in the Swiss market and makes the pascom ONE cloud phone system subscription available in Swiss Francs (CHF). Adding CHF pricing for pascom ONE solutions is an essential aspect of the company\u0026rsquo;s growth plan within Switzerland. As the company continues its SIP trunking service expansion across the D-A-CH region, the availability of Swiss pricing is crucial to upcoming roll out of pascom Switzerland SIP trunking, which is expected later in 2024.\nFurthermore, the addition of Swiss pricing for pascom ONE will further simplify the accounting process for pascom customers and partners, who will now benefit from an in-market supplier which reduces both complexity and costs. While such benefits will initially be enjoyed by existing pascom customers, making pascom services available under Swiss pricing will ensure that pascom ONE solutions become an even more competitive and attractive option for Swiss businesses looking to benefit from an all-in-one cloud phone system.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO We are equally proud and excited to announce the launch of pascom Switzerland. As pascom continues to grow and expand across the D-A-CH B2B telecommunications market, launching in Switzerland was the next major strategic goal in our strategy. Even before we add our pascom ONE SIP trunking services to our offering in Switzerland, our expansion will greatly benefit our customers and partners by removing the complexity and cost of international trade, which is obviously essential for our future plans as we look to offer fixed-line VoIP telephony services (SIP trunking) moving through Q3 and Q4 this year.\nDiscover pascom ONE If you have any questions about PASCOM ONE, our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help upgrade your business communications, then we are here to help. Visit our website and arrange to speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"August 27, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-one-switzerland/","title":"pascom enters Swiss Market with pascom Switzerland"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"The pascom Partner Summit 2024 in review July 2nd, 2024 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of cloud business phone systems, last week celebrated their 10th annual pascom Partner Summit together with the company\u0026rsquo;s channel partners from across the DACH Region.\nThe event, hosted in Regensburg, provided pascom partners with first hand insight into pascom\u0026rsquo;s current product development, market expansion and future business strategy. What\u0026rsquo;s more, the pascom partner summit 2024 provided an excellent platform to discuss industry trends, including the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in business communications and what the transformation to an all-in-one solutions provide means to the channel.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nIn a change from previous partner summits, the 10th edition was a \u0026ldquo;pascom only\u0026rdquo; show as the company continues to place even greater emphasis on interacting with their channel partner network. This resulted in a modified format and provided additional contact points and breakout sessions via which pascom partners were able to design their participation more specifically around the topics, presentations and sessions most relevant to their interests.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Sales Director Interacting and connecting with our reseller partners is essential to our success, especially as we our transition to an all-in-one cloud communications provider enters it\u0026rsquo;s final stages. As with any change, there is always a degree of uncertainty and that\u0026rsquo;s why the 2024 summit was such as success. By focusing soley on pascom as opposed to our technology partners, the 2024 summit saw more open, proactive and productive discussions taking place and provided the perfect platform to openly discuss hot topics and issues directly affecting us and our partners.\nAs is now customary, we also take the time to reward partners who over the previous 12 months have stood out and not just in terms of revenue, but also in terms of engagement. Therefore, we were delighted to honour the following partners:\nTele-Crew for their engagement as our Top Forum Contributor.\nETL Datenservice as our Top Performer in terms or revenue (and loyalty as they\u0026rsquo;ve been a partner since the very beginning).\nVeTeKo as our top Outperformer i.e. the partner that outperforms in terms of team size to revenue generated.\nOn this note, rounding off the pascom partner summit with traditional Bavarian Wirtshaus evening provides the ideal opportunity to thank all our partners for their continued loyalty and engagement with the pascom solutions and brand. And 2024 was no different as we invited all event participants to join us a the Spital Garten Beergarden for an evening of Bayerisch delicacies.\nDiscover pascom ONE We have helped thousands of companies just like yours, from Small Office Home Office sized businesses to multi-location call centres, to get their Cloud Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions up and running smoothly, quickly, and efficiently. So if you are looking for a trusted partner to help you with your business\u0026rsquo; migration to cloud communications, then contact the pascom team today!\n","date":"July 2, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-partner-summit-2024-review/","title":"pascom Partner Summit 2024"},{"categories":["News","HowTo"],"contents":"Since September 2023, pascom has been testing the 4-day working week and the purpose of this article is highlight why we decided to change, what we implemented, what we\u0026rsquo;ve learnt along the way and most importantly to answer the big question: Does the four day week work?\nContents Why change anything?\nWhy the 4 day week?\n4 day working week models\nWhat have we learnt?\nThe Day Off Time Management \u0026amp; Stamping Structure and Discipline Use your IT How to measure success\nDoes the four day week work?\nWhy Change Anything? At pascom, we are a family company, which happens to have a fantastic product. Our team is younger, more family orientated and we are proud to say that our people have always given everything in their jobs. The morale within the company is excellent, we already offer a significant number of employee benefits, our sales model is effective and our dev team are continually developing what is already a great solution - so why change anything?\nThe answer is simple: the truth!\nStressed employees - as a younger team, most of our employees are either in or approaching the so-called rush hour of life - the phase between 25 and 45 years old were everything from careers to partners, kids, houses, and family all seem to collide together all at once. Not only is this phase of life expensive, it is also extremely stressful and time consuming.\nChallenges to employee retention - our employees receive regular head hunter approachess, making employee retention an essential consideration of HR strategy.\nChallenges to attracting new employees - our geographical location means the employment market is not only smaller, but also highly competitive with huge multi-national companies also located in our region.\nWhat this means pascom are by no means alone when it comes to being affected by the issues above. In fact, many business owners are facing the same issues. The truth is that the combination of over-stressed employees and the ever increasing struggle to find and keep new talent within the company will eventually result in slow but steady shrinking of the company before finally going under.\nOne could throw more money at to the problem. Higher salaries may persuade employees to stay and even convince potential new hires to choose you. However, it\u0026rsquo;s not really a viable long-term solution. Employee stress levels will stay the same and those new hires will likely become even more expensive every year. Furthermore, if you are in the situation like us at pascom, where you are competeting against global players in the regional workforce, then throwing more money at people is like hoping for a miracle, as those giants will always have more to offer.\nTherefore, we needed an amazingly fantastic \u0026ldquo;WOW factor\u0026rdquo;, something unique, something highly desirable and something that these big international players couldn\u0026rsquo;t easily offer. And that\u0026rsquo;s how we decided on the 4 day working week.\nWhy the 4 Day Week? Firstly, because it is fair and equal for everybody. Each employee benefits in the same way. Working 4 days a week, but getting paid for 5 days is easy to understand as a recruitment USP. Workplace flexibility and work-life balance are both crucial benefits that both existing employees and potential new hires look for in their employers and the 4 day week is the icing on the cake when it comes to flexi working and work-life balance. Moreover, existing employees will feel like they are being rewarded in the same way as new hires.\nSecondly, regardless of an employee\u0026rsquo;s personal circumstances, having an extra full day off is great for reducing stress as it allows you to focus on what makes you happy. Unlike working reduced hours over 5 days, having a completely free day means you can completely switch off from the rigours of your working life and give your full focus to other equally important aspects of life. For example, younger employees could use the time to persue their hobbies, while those with families can spend more time at home with the kids.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s more, employees who do are not currently burdened with the stresses of the Rush Hour phase, but want use the time to explorer other interests or simply earn some extra money for their rainy day holiday fund are free to find part-time employement if they choose to do so.\nFour Day Working Week Models There are many variations of the 4-day working week. We chose the 4/32/100 model. That means 4 days, 32 hours for 100% pay. However, there are a number of variations of the 4 day week all of which have there pro\u0026rsquo;s and cons.\n4 Days, 8 Hours / Day, 80% Salary This option will result in employees working 20% less but for 20% less pay. While this approach may help alleviate workplace stress and it might even be an attractive tool for new hires (if your salaries are already high enough).\nHowever, existing employees will probably not be very happy to have their salaries\u0026rsquo; slashed by 20%. Moreover, the strain on employee finances may cause more stress than before especially given the level of inflation in the global economy right now.\n4 Days, 9-10 Hours / Day, 100% Salary With this model, employees will continue to work the full 40 hour weeking for there usual salarly. However, the hours will be spread over 4 days at 9-10 hours a day. It is an approach that many older, more traditional companies have considered.\nHowever, it is our opinion that having longer working hours per day does not deliver any stress reducing, flexibility enhancing benefits. Remember the rush of life phase? With this approach, even employees with shorter commutes will have less personal time than they did before and will be commuting earlier and later than before, meaning downtime will also be reduced. Moreover, requiring employees to focus for longer per day is, in our opinion, counter-productive as most normal people cannot focus effectively for that long.\nTherefore, we would not recommend this approach as it does not fulfil any of objectives. In fact, our view is that it would make the situation worse.\n100:80:100 In layman\u0026rsquo;s terms, the 100:80:100 model means 100% performance over 80% of the working week hours for 100% salary. This approach is the basis for how we decided to implement the 4-day week as it gives employees more downtime for the same pay and in return, the employees are more fresh and rejuvanted meaning they are better equipped to deliver 100% performance.\nWhat have we learnt? The 4 day working week sounds fantastic, and it really is. I for one am really benefitting from the extra day off. It gives me the freedom and flexibility to do things I love, e.g. 3 or 4 hour long bike tours, or catching up on household chores. Okay, I don\u0026rsquo;t enjoy the chores and would otherwise put them off - much to the annoyance of my better half! Moreover, as a youth team football trainer, I am able to be present for my kids training sessions AND matches. This was simply not possible before.\nHowever, before you think the 4 day week is easy, it isn\u0026rsquo;t. The 4 day week is not perfect and it comes with real challenges that you will need to overcome, meaning there are some real considerations that you need to consider before making the switch.\nWhich Day Off? When people think of the 4-day week, most people immediately think of all employees having the friday off. However, this is not practicle as it means that businesses are effectively closed on Fridays. So a more flexible approach is required and most models suggest employees to extend their weekends by choosing either Monday or Friday.\nAt pascom, our employees were give the choice of one of three days; Monday, Tuesday or Friday. This decision was based on providing the maximum freedom of choice whilst ensuring that day-to-day operations of the company were not to adversly affected. In our case, as a cloud telephony solutions provider, we provide a service and therefore have guaranteed Service Level Agreements. This is turn meant that we have obligations to our customers and partners that must be fulfilled within fixed time frames. This meant, we had to find an approach that ensured all our teams, but critically our technical support and DevOp teams could continue to operate at full capacity.\nChoose the days wisely When deciding on which days to offer, offering 3 days to choose from seemed like a great idea to maintain capacity. However, hindsight has shown that the choice of 2 days is the better option. When employees are off work for 3 days in the working week, planning and scheduling has become incredibly complex.\nWe would also suggest implementing a policy whereby, once an employee chooses their preferred day off, that day will always be their day off (at least for a certain fixed amount of time). Do not allow employees to mix and match as this reduces transparency, creating even more planning issues.\nTime Management \u0026amp; Time Tracking As mentioned above, having a reduced week with people out of the office on different days creates it\u0026rsquo;s own issues. Firstly, all your weekly internal meetings, sync ups, and brainstorming sessions etc will need to be rescheduled in order to ensure that all the require employees are able to attend. If everyone had the same day off, this would be simple. However, in service industries this isn\u0026rsquo;t feasible. Moreover, considering the shift towards 24/7 customer service expectations, having everbody off on the same day will create a rise is customer service complaints.\nTherefore, Time Management is crucial in maintaining employee wealthfare, productivity, and output levels. If possible, spread give one half of your team the Friday off and the other half the Monday. If you are a small business, with smaller teams, the effect of having people unavailable will be felt more heavily. Therefore, aspects such as clock-on / clock-off and break times must be clearly communicated to your team.\nMoreover, the purpose of the 4 day working week is to reduce stress levels and promote a healthy work-life balance. Therefore, a \u0026ldquo;laissez faire\u0026rdquo; approach to time management would counter-productive. Thankfully, recent EU employment law changes now require companies to track the amount of time each employee works.\nContary to what most employees perceive, this is not a trust issue. In fact, it is an employee wealthfare issue. Time Tracking (Timestamping) provides employers with a tool to ensure that employees are taking the legally required breaks and are not overworking. Time stamping ensures employees receive the correct holiday allocations and guarantees that overtime is compensated correctly.\nIf implemented effectively and communicated transparently throughout the company, time tracking is actually an essential HR tool and provides both employees and employers with clarity over how much people are working and this is want makes Time Tracking essential for the 4-day week to be effective.\nBecome More Disciplined \u0026amp; Use Your IT Delivering the same amount of work in less time is possible, but only through discipline. Make sure you set aside time each day for office chit chat, but don\u0026rsquo;t let it overrun. The same is true for business meetings. Sticking to the agenda, planning the required time allocation and reducing the small talk in your meetings will make them much more effective AND ensure that you have the time to complete your work tasks.\nFurthermore, as colleagues may not have the same day off as you, it is important to become much more disciplined when it comes to progress tracking. This will facilitate the hand over between employees and ensures that tasks are repeated unnecessarily, therefore ensuring that progress is always in the right direction and maximising time efficiencies.\nWith this in mind, it is important to use all the tools are your disposal. At pascom, we have a number of project management tools, including jira. Every task or project should have it\u0026rsquo;s own ticket and each ticket should have a meaningful name and description and the information contained within the ticket should be as concise and relevant as possible. There is no point reading through a tonnes of information, when only the last sentence is important and relevant.\nOf course, Atlassian\u0026rsquo;s Jira project management software is not the only project management tool available. Indeed, we use more tools in combination with one another including Atlassian\u0026rsquo;s Compas and for the web team, Github is essential.\nHow do you measure success? The measure of success depends entirely on what you are aiming to achieve. In our case, the socio geographical demographic make up of our workforce coupled with company objectives helped determine our goals with the 4 day week. That means success for us is:\nMaintaining employee productivity and company performance Boosting employee satisifaction / minimise employee turnover Increasing the number of job applicants This begs the question, have we been successful? Well this is what happened at pascom:\nInitialy, employees and managers were a bit sceptical. Then all of a sudden, a \u0026ldquo;we can do it\u0026rdquo; mentality emerged. Even pascom CEO, Mathias Pasquay, didn\u0026rsquo;t expect this as he freely admitted in his presentation at Kamailio World 2024.\nJust click the link to see for yourself:\nWatch Now\nHe even goes as far as saying that thanks to this mentality and our more disciplined approach to working we even become more efficient and productive than prior to the 4 day week, which speaks volumes for employee satisfaction!\nNext on our list of goals is to to make pascom more attractive to new hires. In previous years, we have increased our regional presence through Job Fairs, we have introduced and promoted an employee Get Fit Challenge Bonus scheme, invested heavily in Corporate Social Responsibility, and even been promoting the company through sporting events and sponsorships. Before we introduced and started promoting the 4 day week as an employee benefit, we received an average of 1 or 2 applications a month. Since we have been promoting the 4 day week as the \u0026ldquo;WOW\u0026rdquo; factor in our pascom Recruiting Campaigns, we have seen a massive increase in Job Applications with between 10 and 20 per week.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nDoes the Four Day Week Work? So does the 4 day week work? For us yes and it is achievable for other companies as well.\nOf course, there will always be exceptations. Any business whose revenue directly correlates to time will have difficulties with the four day week. For example, consultancy firms and businesses who charge per the hour will suffer revenue losses if they reduce the working week. Other industries where the \u0026ldquo;4 Day Week\u0026rdquo; is unlikely to be applicable for all employees include, Retail, Manufacturing, Construction, Gastronomie and Travel.\nSo yes, it can and does work, but accept that lot depends on your goals and there will always be challenges to overcome. As long as the 4 day week is suitable for your business, then there is every chance that the 4 day week will be successful for your company to. You just need to ensure that you have well thought out aims, a solid implementation and are willing to learn from mistakes and continually optimise your strategy - it won\u0026rsquo;t be plain sailing, but you will get there!\nDiscover pascom ONE We have helped thousands of companies just like yours, from Small Office Home Office sized businesses to multi-location call centres, to get their Cloud Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions up and running smoothly, quickly, and efficiently. So if you are looking for a trusted partner to help you with your business\u0026rsquo; migration to cloud communications, then contact the pascom team today!\n","date":"May 6, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-4-day-week-review/","title":"Does the 4 Day Working Week Work?"},{"categories":["HowTo","Video Collaboration"],"contents":" Contents In this article, we will cover the following:\nWhat are virtual meeting video backgrounds Benefits of virtual meeting video backgrounds How to use pascom\u0026rsquo;s video backgrounds What are Virtual Video Meeting Backgrounds Modern business communications have entered the digital age and video meetings (video conferencing, web meetings etc) have become an essential part of the modern workplace, especially for remote working whether from home or mobile working on the go. As a result, video meeting application adoption has rocketed and with more and more meetings taking place virtually, either from home office or whilst on the go, the need for uncluttered backgrounds has become an essential video conferencing feature.\nChanging or blurring your background is a visual effect that is applied to a users video feed during a virtual meeting. The feature either changes the background completely or softens the background whilst keeping the user sharp and in focus. The technique is similar to the shallow depth of field that portrait photographers often use to ensure that the subject of the photo is visually more important than the background.\nThere are a number of reasons why you might want to have the ability to change and / or blur your background image. For example, you may wish to add more privacy to your online meetings when in Home Office or remotely. Other reasons might include adding an element of professionalism to your meetings. But privacy benefits are not the only reason why changing your backdrop in your video meetings can be a good thing. There are also a number of highly advantageous reasons which add to the effectiveness of your online virtual meetings.\nBenefits of Virtual Video Meeting Backgrounds 1. Enhanced Focus on the Speaker In photography and videography, one of the main benefits of subtle background images and blurring is that the subject becomes the focus of the image instead of the background. During your virtual meetings, this is important as it ensures that everyone who is using a different background or employing the blurring will become the centre of attention. This is especially important for whoever is speaking or presenting, as it means that participants will be able to focus soley on the message without any visual distractions in the background.\nMoreover, it is common knowledge that communication is mostly (55%) visual in terms of body language and facial expressions. With this in mind, separating the background imagery and placing greater focus on the speaker, helps ensure that participants can focus more attentively on the speakers words, their body language, gestures, and facial expressions. In turn, this can result in clearer, more effective communication.\n2. Reduce Distractions, Increase Meeting Efficiency One of the main challenges of any meeting is to keep everyone focused on the content of the meeting. This is especially true for virtual meetings where remote nature and the increased potential for distractions can seriously hamper effective communication and therefore reduce meeting productivity.\n3. More Virtual Meeting productivity tips Read more Read more Read more 4. Maintain Privacy Blurring your background or using a pre-designed image as your backdrop is an excellent way of maintaining your privacy when working from home or in other workspaces where you do not want to reveal private/personal details that could be visible within your workspace. Furthermore, if you work in a shared working environment or are connecting remotely to a video call, managing your video feed background can also protect the privacy of others within the environment where you are currently working.\nPrivacy Tips\nIf you are working in co-working or public location, you should take every pre-caution to protect the privacy of the people around you as well as to protect the data you are working with. So consider using a VPN when connecting via public networks and always use a headset and talk with discretion to ensure your conversations remain private.\n5. Increased User Comfort Another benefit that many people often overlook is that by altering a video feed\u0026rsquo;s background image, it is possible to help meeting participants feel more comfortable and relaxed during the video meeting. Most of us are a bit self-conscious and may feel that other video meeting participants may being judge us based on our surroundings. This can lead to elevated stress and anxiety when entering a video call. Simply by changing the background, this issue is almost eliminated and people can be more relaxed during the meeting.\n6. Increased Professionalism Changing or blurring your background during a virtual meeting can create more professional impression. When most people think of professionalism, they think of clear, clean and tidy spaces and decluttering your background portray a sense of organisation and preparation, not only for you but also the company that you present.\nIn terms of business meetings, decluttering your background image promotes both your personal and business brand as it shows that you are prepared and ready for a professional business meeting. This is essential for those business meetings where making a professional impression is essential, for example with customers, partners or other invested parties.\nUsing pascom Video Backgrounds With the latest version of the pascom desktop apps, pascom video conferencing users are now able to enjoy all the benefits of changing/blurring their video background image.\nHow to Apply Backgrounds \u0026amp; Blur Effects In order to change your background, open the pascom desktop app and open the settings menu by clicking the gear icon . Within the settings, select the \u0026ldquo;Video\u0026rdquo; option which will open the video settings menu:\nNext select your preferred background. The selected background will appear highlighted with a red box around it.\nIf you wish to blur your live background, you can do so simply by selecting the blur* option instead of a background\n*Blurring is currently only supported on windows. Now close the settings menu using and test your chosen background simply by starting a video call with a colleague\nThat\u0026rsquo;s it, you are ready to jump into your next video call.\nWe’re here to help If you have any questions about our video conferencing solution or would like to discover more about our pascom ONE cloud phone systems, the pascom app features and how they can help your business prepare for tomorrow’s workplace, then we’re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\n","date":"April 22, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/6-ways-to-enhance-virtual-meetings-with-video-backgrounds/","title":"6 Ways Video Background Effects Enhance your Virtual Meetings"},{"categories":["News","Video Collaboration"],"contents":"April 22nd, 2024 | Deggendorf, Germany - We at pascom GmbH, a leading Business Communications solutions provider, are excited to announce the recent pascom v109 and v110 app releases. The new app versions include an upgrade to our Virtual Meeting \u0026amp; Video conferencing tools. The new functionality is intended to enhance the virtual meeting experience and improve meeting effectiveness by reducing visual distractions.\nAlongside many improvements, the latest release brings further feature upgrades to the pascom desktop app\u0026rsquo;s video meeting tools including the ability to change the background image plus windows users now also have the ability to blur the video background. Building upon last years release that added \u0026ldquo;Talking Events\u0026rdquo; to the pascom video suite, the new functionality will provide pascom virtual meeting participants with a number of addition benefits, such as being able togreatly enhance the user experience and meeting effectiveness with the ability to \u0026ldquo;declutter\u0026rdquo; video backgrounds and create greater focus on the video meeting participants.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Sales: Providing our users with the ability to alter their video backgrounds will greatly enhance the pascom video meeting experience and will help ensure that our users can continue to benefit from even more productive and effective virtual meetings. No matter where you are working from, in the office, in home office or even while on the go, pascom desktop video meeting users will now be able to ensure that other participants are focusing on the participants as opposed to what ever is happening in the background.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of All-in-One Communication and Collaboration Solutions that upgrade how businesses communicate.\nWith pascom’s innovative UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our cloud phone system and video collaboration solutions support businesses to upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"April 22, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-one-new-video-features/","title":"New Virtual Meeting \u0026 Video Conferencing Features"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"April 11th, 2024 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading Business Communications solutions provider, today announce the successful completition and implementation of interoperability with Snom\u0026rsquo;s D8XX series of desktop VoIP phones.\npascom ONE Snom D8XX desktop VoIP phone interoperability\rThe recently released pascom Cloud Phone System (10.04.2024) includes a number of updates focussed on Snom VoIP phones including interoperability with the company\u0026rsquo;s range of 8XX IP phones. The new release will benefit customers and partners alike as they will now be able to onboard and manage Snom D8XX endpoints using the pascom provisioning tools. Furthermore, the pascom desktop apps can now remotely control Snom D8XX VoIP phones, meaning pascom users are now able to start calls via the pascom apps whilst benefiting from the traditional use of a desktop phone.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Sales: Implementing interop support for the Snom D8XX desktop VoIP phone series is great news for our customers. As a long-standing Snom PBX technology partner, we\u0026rsquo;re proud to support the company\u0026rsquo; full range of VoIP phones and IP DECT solutions, and with the Snom D8XX series, we are continuing to offer our customers an excellent range of choice coupled with modern design and performance.\nFurther updates in the recent pascom ONE cloud phone system release, also include support for Snom\u0026rsquo;s new Remote Control Function via SIP NOTIFY. Previously, Snom phones were connected via HTTP requestes, meaning the pascom apps could not communicate directly with Snom phones. Through supporting this new functionality, pascom Snom users will now enjoy greater comfort and ease of use when initiating calls via CTI and the pascom desktop apps both endpoints are now able to communicate directly via the SIP protocol.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of All-in-One Communication and Collaboration Solutions that upgrade how businesses communicate.\nWith pascom’s innovative UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses to upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"April 11, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-snom-d8xx-interoperability/","title":"pascom ONE Snom D8XX interoperability"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"pascom aims to improve comfort and effectivness during prenatal care: our contribution to the University Hospital of Nis Thanks to our GetfitChallenge 2023, we are proud to announce that our team has recently donated a state-of-the-art treatment chair to the maternity department of the University Hospital of Nis/Serbia. This chair will not only improve workflows, but also increase the quality of care for pregnant women at this facility.\nThe chair will be used specifically for cardiotocographic examinations to monitor heart rate and labour activity in pregnant women. These important examinations are a crucial aspect of prenatal care, focusing specifically on the health of both the mother and child during pregnancy and labour.\npascom employees make donation to University Clinic Nis\rStefan Tosic, pascom Serbia CEO With this year\u0026rsquo;s donation, the pascom team in Serbia wanted to support our youngest community members and their mothers. That\u0026rsquo;s why we decided to help the maternity ward of The University Clinical Centre of Nis. We hope that our donation will make hospital days more comfortable for all future mothers being treated at our local Obstetrics clinic.\nThanks to this donation, the medical professionals in the maternity department of the University Hospital of Nis can now work even more efficiently and perform more precise monitoring of pregnant women. We are pleased to be able to contribute to the improvement of obstetric care at this facility and hope that the new chair will help to have a positive impact on the well-being of patients.\nWe appreciate the opportunity to make a positive contribution through our GetfitChallenge and look forward to improving healthcare for all.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of All-in-One Communication and Collaboration Solutions that upgrade how businesses communicate.\nWith pascom’s innovative UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support healthcare insitutiions to upgrade their patient care and communications.\n","date":"April 9, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-serbia-2024-donation/","title":"pascom Serbia 2024 donation to Nis University Clinical Centre Maternity Ward"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems"],"contents":"In today\u0026rsquo;s pascom knowledge post, we will look at Cloud Communications, why they have become essential to businesses and business communications, what benefits they offer and any potential disadvantages of opting for all-in-one solutions compared to multi-provider solutions.\nContents What are All-in-One Cloud Communications\nAll-in-One vs Unified Communications\nThe benefits of an All-In-One Cloud-based Business Communications Solution\nAll-Inclusive Features Eliminate App Overload \u0026amp; Increase Productivity Improve Data Security \u0026amp; Reduce Risk of Shadow IT Streamline Supplier Relationships\nPotential disadvantages of all-in-one solutions\nFinal Word\nWhat are All-In-One Cloud Communications? All-in-one cloud communications solutions include all the business communication tools needed by workers daily and make them available directly in a single native app for desktop and mobile. What\u0026rsquo;s more, an all-in-one solution will include options to integrate into other essential business applications and make them available directly via the desktop and mobile apps. This grealty improves performance and reliability as all the tools are natively included in one application, removing any potential integration weaknesses.\nFurthermore, being cloud-based ensures that your business communications are securely accessible from anywhere, providing workers with extra flexibility to access the tools not only when needed, but also where needed. Moreover, just like our pascom ONE, all-in-one cloud communication providers will also include Fixed-Line (Landline) business telephony and business telephone numbers within their service offering.\nAll-In-One Business Communications vs Unified Communications Unified communication solutions integrate the essential everyday tools that workers need into a single, easy-to-use platform, thus reducing the time wasted by employees switching between multiple communication applications. Instead, employees can access all their must-have communication tools with a single click on their desktop and/or mobile. The benefits of such solutions are as well-known as they are far-reaching, from improving employee productivity and increasing output to allowing management to optimise business processes.\nHowever, many businesses still look at unified communications as a way to combine all their existing platforms via an On The Top (OTT) application and somehow integrate this mix-match with the existing infrastructure. While this may be appealing in the short term, particularly in terms of your business\u0026rsquo;s digital transformation, there are several longer-term downsides to such an approach. For example, in terms of cost, ongoing maintenance and stability. This multi-vendor approach to UC means that your solution not only entails a cost per solution provider but also it means that your solution stability is reliant on the seamless integration of each provider and a single change could potentially break the whole system.\nA classic example of how these issues can manifest themselves can be found in the world of telecommunications and business phone systems. Most businesses will have a business phone system and a business landline number, both of which will probably be sourced from two different providers.\nSimply put, this means that you have two different invoices to pay, creating additional work for your accounts. Moreover, both providers will likely have different invoicing models creating cost efficiency calculation issues. Then there is the technical aspect; when something goes wrong, each provider will likely say the other is at fault.\nThis is where the All-In-One Business Communications model and solutions such as the pascom ONE cloud phone system come into play.\nBenefits of All-In-One Business Communication Solutions As is clear from the name, All-In-One Business Communication solutions deliver all the day-to-day communication tools required by businesses and their employees in one native solution. As a result, all-in-one solutions offer many advantages and benefits over multi-vendor solutions.\n1. All-inclusive features All-in-one solutions such as pascom ONE deliver all the everyday communication tools out of the box. To name just a few, our feature set allows users to call, chat, share and meet directly in one single app on their desktop and/or smartphone. That means no more time wasting switching between apps as you and your colleagues will have all you need to stay connected in one place.\nCompared to some all-in-one solution providers which offer modular systems with add-ons at additional cost, pascom cloud communication solutions are truly all-inclusive. As the list below shows, every feature and even our hosting, support and update services are included within the user subscription. In fact, the only additional costs relate to our telephony minute charges / flat rate minute bundles and our higher coverage Service Level Agreements.\nCollaboration Desktop \u0026amp; mobile apps Instant Messaging Team Messaging (Group Chat) Video \u0026amp; Audio Conferencing Online Web Meetings Screen sharing File Sharing Presence Management Telephony Business SIP Trunking1 Inbuilt Softphones One number concept Call Hold Attended / Unattended Transfers Centralised phonebooks Outlook / Apple Integration Voicemail \u0026amp; Voicemail-2-E-mail Digital faxing Contact Centre Automatic Call Distribution Call Queuing Call Recording Music on Hold Prompts Skills based routing Analytics Integrations Microsoft 365 Microsoft Exchange Microsoft Teams DATEV tomedo® CRM via client actions \u0026hellip;. Call, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\n2. Eliminate App Fatigue \u0026amp; Increase Productivity One of the major issues affecting the modern workplace is the sheer volume of apps that employees use daily. This phenomenon is known as App Overload or App Fatigue and is becoming an increasingly challenging issue for businesses to overcome. Sometimes, using multiple apps is unavoidable, for example when being invited to a video conference by an external party. However, businesses must ensure that their internal and outbound communication is unified and accessible via a single solution and there are several good reasons for this.\nFirstly, overloading employees with a seemingly never-ending number of business apps not only creates frustration but is also incredibly inefficient and extremely wasteful in terms of time and resources. The more apps you have installed the more memory that is required to run them and the more time is wasted switching between them. Worst still, if employees are allowed to dictate which apps to use, the less cohesive the system will become. For example, employees will invariably lose an overview of where information is stored and which app to use when communicating with other parties.\nSecondly, through having a centralised platform for all your business communications channels, maintaining and updating all your business contact information is much simpler. In turn, this saves IT managers time and resources as they only need to maintain one data source. Furthermore, not only are employees no longer switching through numerous apps, but they will also have access to so-called \u0026ldquo;clean data\u0026rdquo;, meaning that the data is accurate and current, allowing them to offer quicker, more professional and more personal customer service.\nGet Rid of App Fatigue To overcome these issues, businesses need to consider which applications they use regularly and try to unify them in a centralised application. In the case of business communications, this will be telephony, video, chat, file-sharing and web meeting applications.\nNext, businesses need to focus on providing applications that have a consistent look and feel (User Experience) across all the devices that use as this ensures the exact same workflows across all workspaces.\nFinally, the user experience doesn\u0026rsquo;t only have to look good, it must be good otherwise the chosen app won\u0026rsquo;t actually solve the user\u0026rsquo;s problems and therefore won\u0026rsquo;t be used, at least not to its full potential.\nThankfully, platforms such as pascom ONE and our desktop and mobile applications, deliver all of the above and more in one solution.\n3. Improve Data Security \u0026amp; Reduce Risk of Shadow IT Similarly to App Fatigue, the security risks posed by shadow IT are potentially catastrophic. By having too many apps, you expose your business to potential security risks either through having to manage security on multiple applications or through the increased potential for human error.\nWorse still, if employees decide to ignore company policy in favour of simplifying their workflows, they will start using their own apps to communicate and share sensitive business information. This will result in not only the loss of control over the information, but also you will have zero ability to ensure data security - this is what\u0026rsquo;s known as Shadow IT.\nWith an all-in-one solution that is user-friendly but also fully featured, it is easier to ensure data security as your employees will be more willing to use your business\u0026rsquo;s infrastructure and applications as opposed to going rogue on uncontrolled apps.\nBenefits of Provider Consolidation 1. Compatibility In a multi-vendor solution, an update to one component could lead to compatibility issues with other components of the solution.\nAs mentioned above, this is often the case when choosing multiple vendors for your phone system provider and for your fixed-line services (landline telephony). If one provider releases a new update, this update may contain changes to anything from new encryption, security protocols, and deprecations to something as simple as an IP address change. In the worst-case scenario, the consequence will be that tge phone system is unable to register with the telephony provider, plunging your business into darkness as customers are no longer able to reach you.\nAll-in-one cloud communication solutions significantly reduce any potential downtime caused by integration failures as all the components of the solution are developed, hosted and maintained by a single provider, and every aspect of the solution is rigorously tried and tested for quality assurance purposes.\n2. Cost Savings and Transparencies One of the stated goals behind unifying communication channels into a unified communication solution is to optimise efficiencies - something that UCC solutions are very effective at. All-in-one cloud communications solutions go even further by eliminating the need for multiple providers for multiple solutions. Therefore, where your business previously had multiple monthly and/or annual invoices to pay, going all-in-one provides greater transparency over your costs, simplifying and optimising the accounting and reporting processes.\n3. Improved Supplier Relationship Having a single solutions provider means that your business is well-positioned to benefit from an improved supplier relationship. For example, should you require technical assistance, with an all-in-one cloud telephony solutions provider, such as pascom, your business will have access to a dedicated support team that acts as your single point of contact for any support-related issues. Compared to all-in-one solutions, support for multi-vendor solutions will often require you to contact multiple providers, to open and track numerous support tickets, all of which wastes valuable time and effort even before a solution is found.\nFurthermore, opting for an all-in-one solutions supplier often provides you with direct access to the vendor in terms of new feature requests and so on. For example, at pascom, our support forum includes Feature Voting tools and our pascom DIRECT live stream provides an excellent platform for our end-users to interact with us and provide direct feedback.\nPotential Disadvantages of All-In-One Solutions Of course, there are always potential risks and disadvantages of any solution type and while there are plenty of benefits of all-in-one solutions, there are also some downside that you should be aware of.\n1. Vendor Lock-in Some All-In-One business communication solution providers lock you in to using only their business SIP trunking services. While having all your services from one supplier is mostly a good thing, it is not always. When it comes to Business Fixed-Line Telephony charges, sometimes having the flexibilty to choose another provider is great as it means you can enjoy greater cost-saving and customer experience benefits.\nFor example, if your customer base is split over a few countries, it might be useful to add providers who have lower tarifs for those countries to save on outbound telephony cost. What\u0026rsquo;s more, wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be great for your customers to be able to call you on a local rate number as opposed to paying international call charges.\nBeyond this, what happens if your business grows internationally, but your chosen provider is unable to support your growth with fixed-line numbers and tarifs - then you will have to look again.\nSolutions like pascom ONE overcome this issue by offering the best of both worlds. Yes, we can host your phone numbers for you, but if your business also operates in a country not offered by pascom ONE, then you still have the freedom to choose the provider that best suits your needs.\n2. Occasionally Slower Innovation Innovation is essential for improvement and development. Choosing Cloud Based solutions providers will generally ensure that you are benefitting from solutions that are on the cutting edge of technological innovation. However, all-in-one solution providers do have the disadvantage that their solutions are wide reaching in terms of functionality. Therefore, they are sometimes slower compared to a solutions provider that focuses purely on one area.\nGenerally speaking though, this isn\u0026rsquo;t acctually a case of slower innovation, but a more methodical go-to market approach that allows all-in-one solution providers to incorporate the very best of recent innovations into their solutions.\nYes you might have to wait a little bit, but your patience will be rewarded long-term thanks to having a well-rounded, complete yet future proof solution.\nFinal Word All-in-one solutions offer considerable advantages over multi-vendor solutions. However, before choosing your vendor, it is vital to perform a thorough assessment of your current infrastructure, what is working and what\u0026rsquo;s not, what can be improved and what you actually want to achieve, only then will you be able to choose the solution that is best for business. When it comes to business communications, there are many providers to choose from, but few offer such a complete package in a truly all-in-one solution as pascom ONE, meaning it is important to know what to look out for when choosing your solution, which is the topic of our next post, so be sure to check back soon!\nWe’re here to help If you have any queries about Fixed Mobile Convergence, the pascom phone system, the pascom app features and how they can help your business prepare for tomorrow’s workplace, then we’re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\n1 pascom ONE business SIP trunking is currently only available in Germany and Austria. Other countries require an additional SIP trunking provider.\n","date":"February 26, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/all-in-one-cloud-communications-benefits/","title":"All-In-One Cloud Communication Solution Benefits"},{"categories":["pascom Life"],"contents":"We\u0026rsquo;re Back - Welcome to 2024 Happy 2024 everyone! We trust that you\u0026rsquo;ve all had a great start to the year and if your New Year\u0026rsquo;s resolution was to get fit, we\u0026rsquo;re right there with you and you have the backing and support of everyone at pascom!\npascom Get Fit Challenge 2024: Employee Engagement meets Social Responsibilty In 2023, teamPASCOM demonstrated amazing committment and determination to smash the 75,000 points target. Thanks to the teams\u0026rsquo; efforts, not only did participating employees receive a €1,000 bonus, we were also able to use the proceeds of the 2023 Get Fit Challenge to provide financial support to seven (7) local charitable organisations who rely on donations and volunteers to provide the services they provide.\nThanks to the teams achievements, we were able to give back to our community and support the amazing work of our chosen organisations with a donation of €8,500. As with previous years, we chose to support organisations whose main area of activity is considered uncomfortable and are often overlooked. Furthermore, as part of our commitment to our employees, we also look to support organisations in which our employees are actively engaged, for example, the volunteer fire services and youth football clubs.\nChallenge 2024 Looking forward to 2024 and the challenge has already started heating up. Many employees have started the year with a bang and have already been hitting the company gym or partaking in BodyPump sessions. Some, more brave colleagues have even been braced the -7°c temperatures on the pascom early morning runs.\npascom employees training in the pascom Gym\rThis is just as well considering that the bar has been raised once more. If the team want to secure their bonuses and the annual donnation, then they will have to work together and show true determination as this years target is a whopping 100,000 points.\nTo put all this in perspective, the challenge runs over 44 weeks from January 1st to October 31st and for every point raised we will donate 10cent to charity if the team reaches its target. As for the points, they are calulated as follows:\nActivity Points Cycling 1/km Alpine Skiing 1/km Rowing 2/km Run / Hike / Walk 3/km Nordic Skiing 3/km Swimming 10/km Weight Training, Yoga, Workout 20/hour Cake Donation 40 Salad Donation 30 In order to reach the 100,000 point goal, the team will need to average just under 2,300 points per week. So if the team were to achieve the required points by cycling alone, a quick glance at the the table above shows us that they would need to cycle 2,300 km per week. No matter which way you look at it, the 2024 challenge is going to be tough, but thankfully teamPASCOM will receive reinforcements in 2024 as we welcome new employees to the team early in the year.\nActive pascom As is probably quite clear by now, as a company, pascom place significant emphasis on employee health and well-being. Couple this with the team\u0026rsquo;s dynamic ethos and the introduction of the 4-day week last September pascom employees should become even more active as they enjoy more free time outside of the workplace, so 2024 promises to be extremely active which is a good thing considering that we\u0026rsquo;ve got our work cut out for us.\nTo this end, pascom Health Manager Magdalena has already restarted the pascom BodyPump sessions after the Xmas/New Year break and will continue to offer them throughout 2024. The pascom running club is back up and running and while the amount of daylight and the colder weather is not yet ideal for commuting 20km each way on the bike, our avid bikers will be out there soon enough - #thereisnooffseason as the boss would say!\nFurthermore, we are once again Gold Sponsors of the Heimat Trails Trophy (HTT) outdoor sports event. The 2024 HTT competition has been expanded with new and additional locations including a more family friendly hiking route per location. One or two of the new routes are even closer to home, meaning that the team has no excuse and will have plenty of opportunity to get out on the trails with colleagues, friends and family.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of All-in-One Communication and Collaboration Solutions that upgrade how businesses communicate.\nWith pascom’s innovative UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses to upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"January 11, 2024","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-get-fit-challenge-2024/","title":"pascom Get Fit Challenge 2024"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year From pascom 2023 has flown by and 2024 is just around the corner which means that it\u0026rsquo;s that time of year again when we wish all our customers, partners, and users a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.\nAs is customary at this time of year, we would like to thank all our customers, partners, users and colleagues for their continued loyalty and trust in us and our solutions throughout 2023. Before we say farewell to 2023, we would also like to take this opportunity to provide you all with some important information regarding support, tips for managing your phone system during the holidays and how to catch up with pascom at upcoming events in January.\nTechnical Support \u0026amp; Christmas Opening Times The pascom Support team will be available as normal (with reaction times according to SLA) throughout the Christmas / New Year break, meaning our pascom customers will still be able to access our support services throughout the holidays. For response times, please refer to your pascom Service Level Agreement.\nFor all other enquiries, the pascom offices will be closed from Friday 22nd December and will reopen again on Tuesday 2nd January 2024 at which point, our team will ready and raring to go.\nGet Your Business Communications Fit for The Holidays \u0026amp; Beyond As is always the case at this time of year, it is important to make sure that your phone system is setup according to the holiday season. So, as we the holidays and New Year period approaches, businesses of all shapes and sizes must prepare their business communications platform for the festive season and beyond. Depending on your business model, this will entail a number of changes to the normal configuration:\nBusiness Hours, Public Holiday Calendar Checks \u0026amp; Prompts If your business hours change or services/departments close for the holidays, then you will need to update your opening hours and time checks to reflect your business hours during the Christmas / New Year period.\nTo do this, simply log in to your phone system admin UI and follow the instructions as described in our documentation.\nOnce you\u0026rsquo;ve got your calendars and business hours checks sorted, it is time to update your phone system prompts and music on hold to match the holiday season. A tip from us is to share the festive cheer this year with warm season greetings and some appropriate music on hold as well as to provide additional information such as opening hours in your prompts - just be sure to check for any music licensing requirements.\nUpdate All Your Communications Channels While your business phone system is central to how you communicate with customers, it is not your only communication channel, so be sure to update, change and modify your messaging across all channels as appropriate. For example, any auto responders that you use for online chat such as Messenger etc will need to updated to greet your customers and provide them with the appropriate information they need.\nThere are things that are easy to do and make a big difference when it comes to managing customer expectations and experiences but are often forgotten.\nAutomatic \u0026ldquo;Out of Office\u0026rdquo; E-Mails Setting up good automatic out-of-office e-mail replies is a great way to share information with customers who e-mail you. To make them effective, your auto-reply must give the customer all the information they need in a friendly and informative manner. Therefore, your auto-reply should contain the dates that you are unavailable when you are back and information on what to do if the enquiry is urgent and can’t wait until your return to the office.\nSocial Media Updates As you would expect, most businesses are pretty good at posting their best wishes for the holiday season - they don’t want to appear as Scrooge or Grampus, etc. However, posting information regarding opening hours \u0026amp; tips for customers who are trying to contact your business is something worth doing as it helps avoid customer disappointment. As discussed above, a great example is updating your Facebook Messenger auto responder.\nUpdate Your Google Opening Hours This is one of my pet hates - how annoying is it when you google a company for contact and opening information, only to find that the information hasn’t been updated, and you’re left in the lurch. Updating your My Business google listing is simple and can be done in less than five minutes. Therefore, you have no excuses for keeping this information up-to-date and not just at Christmas!\nFuture Proof Your Business Communications in 2024 Looking at the holidays and beyond, for many businesses the Christmas break provides IT admins and phone system managers with the ideal time to plan and implement a number of optimisations. Once again, this year has been a year of change within the IT landscape with Hybrid Working, Cloud Communications, Mobile VoIP Apps and Video Conferencing all continuing to grow in the world of business communications. For many businesses, 2023 has been a consolidation year, whereby they have been replacing the stop gap solutions they adopted between 2020 and 2022 with all-in-one solutions that they can rely on a permanent basis going forward. In particular, we’ve noticed a significant uptake in complete solutions including SIP trunking services, meaning that businesses are looking not only to replace old or stop gap solutions, but are looking for to consolidate their tech stack to the minimum of solution providers. This trend looks set to continue into 2024 meaning that for businesses with lower call volumes and demand over the holidays can use this period to update and upgrade their infrastructure and solutions before 2024 kicks-off.\nThe benefits of adopting an all-in-one business communications solution are as far-reaching as they are varied. Firstly, all-in-one solutions simplify your life in that you only have one platform to manage and your users only one app to use. This will also help reduce and minimise the threat posed by shadow IT. Next, if your boss loves fancy new stuff, they will love having the latest fancy stuff in one app. Plus, they will see a rise in employee productivity. Finally, your accounts team will likely thank you for reducing the number of monthly invoices they have to process, which has the added benefit of making your decision look great on the balance sheet.\nSo if your business experiences a lull over the Christmas period, then this is the perfect time to try and test.\nUpcoming Events Regardless of whether you are a pascom customer, partner, or pascom mobile / desktop client user, 2024 will provide you with plenty of opportunities to catch up with us as we hit the road running.\nFirst up, we have our regular monthly reseller partner briefing on the 10th of January. As a pascom partner, you will receive an email in the first week of January 2024 with information on how to register.\nNext, the 11th of January sees our weekly pascom BOOTCAMP webinars returning after the Christmas / New Year break, and we can’t wait to see lots of pascom phone system customers, partners, and prospects joining us as we kick off 2024.\nTo round off an action-packed start to the year, you can meet the pascom team in person at the TAX Arena expo in Hannover on February 28th, where we will be showcasing how pascom ONE helps tax advisors, in particular DATEV users, upgrade their business communications.\nFor more info on pascom events, please visit our events page:\npascom Events\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here to help If you have any queries about pascom phone system features and how to use them, then check out some more Video Collaboration posts as well as our desktop client, mobile app and web client user guides listed in our documentation.\nIf you, your team, your colleagues, or customers could benefit from an effective all-in-one video and business collaboration solution, then we’re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\nWishing you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2024!\n","date":"December 18, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/christmas-2023-pascom-support-and-opening-times/","title":"Christmas 2023 pascom Support and Opening Times"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"December 14th, 2023 | Deggendorf, Germany - Around the world, the bravery and dedication demonstated by the men and women of the fire and rescue services cannot be under-estimated. To the communities they serve, the fire and rescue services are critical, whether it simply be through knowing that they are or having needed their services in a time of need. In Germany, the Fire Brigades are organised by the \u0026ldquo;Gemeinden\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Städte\u0026rdquo; (\u0026ldquo;Local Authority/Borough\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Towns/Cities\u0026rdquo;), with only larger towns with populations of over 80,000 legally requiring a professional, i.e. full-time, fire service. As a result, the majority of Germany\u0026rsquo;s 1,383,730[1] firefighters are actually volunteer men and women who freely give their time to serve their local communities, often times putting their personal safety at risk.\nThe term volunteer fire services implies a sense of amatuerism. However, this could not be further from the truth. Each and every volunteer section is professionally trained, often participating in joint training excerises with neighbouring volunteer services. However, unlike their City Council funded counterparts, the volunteer services rely heavily on fundraising and donations in order to ensure their ongoing operational effectiveness, Deggendorf, like many other local communities in Lower Bavaria, is no different and relies solely on the selflessness of volunteer members - including two of our own teamPASCOM employees - and donations in order to effectively serve our community.\nFor this reason, pascom has decided to show our gratidue for the volunteer work down by Jonas and Seb and support all to our local Volunteer Fire Fighters by donating € 1,000 to contribute towards the Deggendorf Freiwillige Feuerwehrs (Volunteer Fire Service) ongoing fund raising activities as they look to upgrade their resources, equipment and training facilities as well as supporting the section\u0026rsquo;s youth programme and youth events.\npascom donation to the Volunteer Fire Service Deggendorf\rMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO: The emergency services are vital to our community, and with two employees who volunteer for the fire services, we are well aware of how often the volunteer fire services are called up for duty. As an IT and telecommunications company, we are also uniquely aware of the importance of system upkeep, maintenance and modernisation, so it is our honour to support the vital services provided by the Freiwillige Feuerwehr Deggendorf as part of our annual donation this year. Beyond this, we would also like to thank both Seb and Jonas and all their colleagues within their respective volunteer fire service sections for their indispensable efforts to keep our community safe.\nTim Rothenwöhrer, City Fire Inspector, Freiwillige Feuerwehr Deggendorf We will use the donation from pascom to support our Kids (6yrs+) and Youth (10yrs+) fire brigade programmes. Experiencing camaraderie is one of the focuses of the numerous exercises and events. With such donations, we are able to fund free of charge events for including a day trip to Bayern Park. We also try to build a sense of identity through supplying t-shirts for both the kids and youth fire brigade programmes and then there\u0026rsquo;s the christmas party. Of course, it\u0026rsquo;s not all about trips and parties for the youth programmes. To operate effectively, we must also continually maintain and update our equipment. pascom\u0026rsquo;s generous donation will allow us to invest in our equipment and training programmes to ensure our teams are as well prepared and equipped every time they go out.\nAbout The Volunteer Fire Service Deggendorf Excerise club and fire engines - the beginnings of the Deggendorf fire department\nIf a fire broke out when the city of Deggendorf was founded in the 11th century, the citizens were on their own, meaning they must fight every fire single-handedly without the help of a fire department. Only a so-called \u0026ldquo;Towerer\u0026rdquo; was stationed in the tower of the old Deggendorfer Town Hall and was responsible for warning fellow citizens in the event of a fire.\nAfter the first hand-operated fire extinguisher was procured in Deggendorf in 1719, the next important step towards centrally organized and technological firefighting in the Danube city followed almost 150 years later. In 1865, the Deggendorf Volunteer Fire Department was founded and organized as an association. The necessary technical equipment was partly taken from the city\u0026rsquo;s inventory and partly financed by donations. The 84 founding members came from the Deggendorf exercise club - a common practice at the time in order to recruit sufficiently trained, resilient and motivated emergency personnel. In the same year, the first, rudimentary \u0026ldquo;fire extinguishing regulations\u0026rdquo; were drawn up and are the forerunner of today\u0026rsquo;s complex fire service regulations.\nfeuerwehr-deggendorf.de\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\n[1] Wikipedia\n","date":"December 12, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-volunteer-fire-service-deggendorf-2023/","title":"pascom Donation to Support Deggendorf Volunteer Fire Services"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"December 14th, 2023 | Deggendorf, Germany - In a demonstration of our continued commitment to social responsibility, pascom is joining forces with Die Tafel Deggendorf, a local charitable organisation dedicated to supporting individuals and families facing economic hardships.\nRecognising the importance of giving back to our community, pascom has made a substantial financial donation to support die Tafel Deggendorf in procuring food and essential supplies for those in our community who are on the breadline. The donation is aimed at providing much-needed support to those in need, particularly in these challenging times where everyone is feeling the bite of inflation and higher energy costs.\npascom donation to Die Tafel Deggendorf\rMathias Pasquay pascom CEO: At pascom, we believe in the power of technology to connect people, but we also recognise the significance of community and compassion. Our collaboration with Die Tafel Deggendorf is a testament to our commitment to making a meaningful difference in the lives of those who may be facing hardships within our community.\u0026quot;\nDie Tafel Deggendorf, with its dedicated team of volunteers, has been at the forefront of community support for many years. The organisation welcomed pascom\u0026rsquo;s involvement as a significant boost to their ongoing efforts.\nChristiane Preiß, Citizens Office Deggendorf, Spokeswomen for Die Tafel Deggendorf The Tafel Deggendorf is not for profit Aid Organisation whose goal is to collect excess and qualitative food and drink sustance and simply distribute it to those in need. Especially in these hard times, we rely heavily on the readiness to help of our volunteers, partners and sponsors, without who it would not be possible to ensure the required food stores levels at the Tafel, so we are deeply grateful for pascom\u0026rsquo;s generous donation and their commitment to making a positive impact in our community.\nAbout The Tafel Deggendorf Tafel Deggendorf is a social institution that has shown unwavering commitment to the community for many years. As a non-profit organization, it is committed to providing essential sustenance to those who are faced with existential challenges in our society. Through its important work, Die Tafel Deggendorf contributes to improving people\u0026rsquo;s quality of life and creates a basis of solidarity that shows that joint efforts can have a positive impact on the well-being of society.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"December 12, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-die-tafel-deggendorf-2023/","title":"pascom helping those in need with Die Tafel Deggendorf Donation"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"December 14th, 2023 | Deggendorf, Germany - Everyone at pascom is proud to once again be supporting the Oberfalz AIDS counselling services as part of our 2023 community donation campaign.\nEvery year, the team at pascom look to give back to those in our community who, for whatever reason, need help, counselling and support. Those who have followed us over the years will know that we look to support those charitable organisations which are often overlooked simply because of the area in which they work is considered taboo or stigmatised by society and 2023 is no different.\nOur €1,000 donation to the AIDS Counselling Support Service will, in part go towards funding for the organisation\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;Spritzenaustausch\u0026rdquo; (Needle Exchange) programme. The transmission of both HIV and Hepatitis C viruses spread by the shared use of dirty needles amongst drug users is serious issue with widespread consequences beyond HIV and Hep C.\nObviously, the services on offer do not stop with the Needle Exchange programme. Together in partnership with organisations including Raphael, the Bavarian Red Cross, Drogenhilfe and Caritas, the Oberfalz AIDS counselling service also looks to educate and rehabilate drug users as well as providing Hepatitis B vacination services. Beyond this, the centre provides crucial counselling services for persons affected by HIV and their relatives as they mentally and pyschologically overcome the challenges that an HIV infection can often indirectly lead to.\npascom donation to the AIDS counselling service\rQuirin Pasquay, pascom CEO: Stigma and taboo within society are hard to dislodge. However, the efforts of charities who operate in stigmatised fields is just as vital to society, but funding is often extremely challenging to source. This is true for the AIDS Beratungsstelle in the Oberfalz and it is our hope that through our donation, we can help fund their Needle Exchange programme, that not only helps combat the transmission of HIV and Hep c, but also provides a vital life line to drug users and an opportunity to reach out to them and support their rehabilitation in the future.\nHans-Peter Dorsch, Head of the Aids-Beratungsstelle Oberpfalz Alongside all the engagement, psychosocial work also requires a significant amount of financial suppot. pascom\u0026rsquo;s donation will help us to provide important prevention work and in individual cases to provide persons with HIV, who are in need, with financial support.\nAbout Aids Beratungsstelle Oberpfalz The Aids Beratungsstelle in Oberpfalz is a member of the Niederbayern / Oberpfalz district of the Bayerisches Rotes Kreuz (Bavarian Red Cross) and has been offering Aids support services since 1988. The centre is based in Regensburg and offers a range of HIV/Aids support and prevention services to the Oberpfalz and Niederbayern region of Bavaria, including testing, personalised counselling and telephone support as well as educational campaigns and awareness training.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"December 12, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-dontation-aids-beratungsstelle-counselling-service/","title":"pascom Supporting AIDS Beratungsstelle Counselling Service"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"December 14th, 2023 | Deggendorf, Germany — Addiction is a serious issue in society and one that is growing alarmingly. When people think of addiction, drugs, alcohol and nicotine automatically spring to mind. However, there are many more forms of addiction which people pay little to no attention to, but their consequences can be just as tragic. Thankfully, organisations such as Suchthilfe Deutschland (Addiction Support Germany) are looking to address and combat all forms of addiction through raising prevention awareness, education and providing support services by raising and distributing funds for a wide of variety of projects that tackle and deal with addiction. By partnering with and providing financial assistance to Suchthilfe Deutschland, we at pascom are proud to be supporting an organisation that is so vital to our community.\nIn order to give back to our community and contribute to the well-being of individuals facing addiction challenges, pascom has made a €2,000 donation to Suchthilfe Deutschland. This donation reflects pascom\u0026rsquo;s strong commitment to social responsibility and underscores the company\u0026rsquo;s belief in the importance of supporting organizations that selflessly serve our community in order to make a positive impact on the people in the region in which we live.\nRegardless of the form it takes, the problem with addiction is that it is not something that just happens. It is an ongoing process and in order to tackle addiction we must all be aware of and recognise the tell-tale signs of addicition both within ourselves and around us. Therefore, awareness and education are vital to addiction prevention and are just as crucial as ongoing support as society continues to tackle all forms of addiction.\nhttps://www.pascom.net/blog/pascom-suchthilfe-donation-23.JPG does not exist\rMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO: We are thrilled to support the vital work of Suchthilfe Deutschland through this donation. At pascom, we believe in the power of technology to create positive change and improve lives. By partnering with Suchthilfe Deutschland, we aim to make a meaningful impact on individuals facing addiction challenges and contribute to the overall well-being of our communities.\nManfred Zeilinger, Vertretung für die Suchthilfe Deutschland With pascom\u0026rsquo;s donation, we will be supporting our largest campaign \u0026ldquo;Drugs in Schools\u0026rdquo; by providing high schools in Deggendorf with learning materials, brochures and seminar sessions in order to increase awares of addiction issues with the school environment and how to confront them. As such we would like to offer pascom our heartfelt thanks for their generous support.\nAbout Suchthilfe Deutschland Suchthilfe Deutschland is an organisation the provides prevention to addiction services nationwide. Focussing primarly on drugs, Suchthilfe Deutschland actively approach schools and businesses to hold presentations regarding issues surrounding drugs and to provide care and support services to parents, teachers, and young people as well as apprentices and company owners in order to build awareness regarding the different dangers of addiction, focussing predominantly on drugs. Beyond this, Suchthilfe Deutschland is an organisation that acts as an essential networking and cooperations point for many other organisations. We work with a number of different services which focus on depression and other consequences of addiction.\nNo-one is ever left behind by us.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"December 12, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-suchthilfe-deutschland-donation-2023/","title":"pascom targets awareness for problems with addiction with Suchthilfe Deutschland donation"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom launch free pascom-to-pascom calls 16. October 2023 | Deggendorf, Germany pascom GmbH, a leading developer of business VoIP phone systems, is pleased to announce that since mid September, pascom ONE SIP trunking customers have been benefitting from free calls when they call another pascom ONE SIP trunking customer.\nHow does pascom-to-pascom calling work? The new free cross-system VoIP calling feature is the first step in our \u0026ldquo;Everyone with Everyone\u0026rdquo; vision, which will eventually allow any pascom customer to freely connect and communicate with other pascom customers directly over the pascom network. Compared to \u0026ldquo;conventional\u0026rdquo; phone calls which are routed over the ITSP\u0026rsquo;s network and therefore incur a charge, calls from one pascom trunk to another pascom trunk are routed over the pascom platform, meaning that these phone calls no longer leave the pascom network.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nCost saving benefits of pascom-to-pascom calling As calls between pascom ONE SIP trunking customers are now routed directly over the pascom network, they will no longer incur any 3rd party Provider call charges. Obviously, calls routed over the pascom network add additional load and therefore create cost. As such, it would not be unreasonable to follow suit as other providers and invoice pascom-to-pascom calls at a reduced rate. However, we have decided to celebrate the first milestone towards our strategic vision and reward our customers by passing 100% of the savings on.\nInitially, the savings that our pascom ONE trunking customers will see, will be minimal. However, the combination of increasing new business and the ongoing pascom ONE migration for existing customers continues to pick up pace, the number of pascom Trunking customers will continue to increase, therefore increasing the potential for further savings in future.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO Everyone with Everyone is how we envision the future of communication. That means breaking down the barriers of communication and giving every pascom user the ability to connect with all other pascom users, independant of company and phone system. Our newly launched free pascom-to-pascom calls service is the first technological milestone on our journey and we\u0026rsquo;re proud that we are in a position to thank our pascom ONE VoIP customers by with even greater telecommunication cost savings.\nDiscover pascom ONE We have helped thousands of companies just like yours, from Small Office Home Office sized businesses to multi-location call centres, to get their Cloud Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions up and running smoothly, quickly, and efficiently. So if you are looking for a trusted partner to help you with your business\u0026rsquo; migration to cloud communications, then get in touch and our pascom team will happily guide you through the process.\n","date":"October 16, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/free-pascom-to-pascom-calling/","title":"New: free pascom to pascom calls"},{"categories":["Blog","pascom Life"],"contents":"pascom Get Fit Challenge 2023 Since 2021, pascom has been rewarding employees for keeping fit as part of the company\u0026rsquo;s employee engagement strategy. The challenge, which takes place between January 1st to October 31st, aims to promote employee welfare and togetherness through fitness. The original concept stemmed from the 2020 lockdowns and the need to keep employees mentally sharp and connected whilst working from home. Through incentivising employees with financial rewards combined with raising money for charity, the challenge has been massively successful. Thankfully, as we fast forward to 2023, things look very different to 2020. As such, the challenge has evolved as a team-building exercise, with many employees now training and completing activities together.\nHaving successfully reached the targets in 2021 and 2022, it is no surprise that the pascom Get Fit Challenge 2023 target has been raised once again. However, last year, the team reached its 70,000 points target with just a few days to spare, so the new 75,000 points goal promised to be a much more challenging prospect. What is more, the qualifying activities have been redefined for 2023, with only the following activities qualifying:\nCycling (\u0026ldquo;Normal\u0026rdquo;, E-Bike, Virtual) Alpine Skiing Rowing Running/Walking/Hiking Nordic Skiing Swimming Weight Training Yoga Fitness Training The new target and qualifying activities combined to mean that the team really would have their work cut out for them. The desired outcome is that the team must work together, involve more employees and motivate each other to succeed and hit both the individual and team targets. If successful, the team would raise a considerable sum of money (a minimum of €7,500) for local charities and earn a €1,000 bonus for each employee who had accumulated a minimum of 1,000 points over the 10 months.\nExtra Spice Challenges To add further motivation, the 2023 challenge included new \u0026ldquo;One-Off\u0026rdquo; swimming, running, walking and cycling challenges. The distances and times required for each discipline follow the Deutsches Sportabzeichen (German Sports Awards), a non-governmental part of the German Olympic Sports Confederation. As such, these challenges were anything but easy.\nTo go along with the sense of achievement, employees who successfully completed a challenge are set to receive a bonus (per challenge) ranging between €50 for a Bronze time and €75 and €100 for Silver and Gold respectively.\n75,000 - Is it really a challenge? To put 75,000 points into perspective, the pascom challenge runs for 10 months (303 days) and is designed in a way that each type of activity is awarded a specified amount of points per kilometre or per hour. Simple maths shows us that to hit the target, the team would need to consistently hit a minimum of 1732 points per week.\nIf the team had completed the challenge just by cycling, by the end of the 10 months, each individual would have needed to have ridden a minimum of 1,000 km (just to qualify) and the team must have ridden a combined total of 75,000 km. Meanwhile, running would have required a collective total of 25,000km and weight/fitness training would have needed a total of 3,750 hours in the gym - that\u0026rsquo;s more than 12 hours per day for 10 months!\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nTeam pascom Rises to the Challenge Team pascom set off at lightning pace, hitting the required weekly points with ease. In previous years, we have seen significant Skiing points being accumulated. However, the milder temperatures and lack of Snow this winter meant the team took to other sports instead, including putting the new fitness equipment in the pascom gym to good use! That said, when it did get cold, a few brave members of team pascom plunged into the freezing waters of a local lake to \u0026ldquo;enjoy\u0026rdquo; a spot of Ice Bathing! The result is that the team didn\u0026rsquo;t drop points until the last week of June, a week in which a large number of the team were involved in exhibitions and the pascom Partner Summit.\nOnce the late spring/early summer wet weather gave way to the warmth of mid-summer, team pascom really took off. What was really noticeable was the massive uptake in team fitness sessions. pascom Health Manager, Magdalena Hambach oversaw BodyPump/BodyBalance sessions twice a week. The pascom running club also enjoyed a surge in popularity as did the bike club which saw more members of team pascom take to commuting to work on their bikes on an even more regular basis compared to previous years.\nIt was also great to see pascom employees taking on plenty of other team activities outside of \u0026ldquo;office\u0026rdquo; life. For example, it was common for employees to get together and take on the extra spice challenges and the 2023 Heimat Trails Trophy provided the perfect opportunity for weekend get-togethers to enjoy a few hours hiking through the natural beauty of the mountains of the Bavarian Forest.\nGiven the tone in which this article has been written, especially considering the title and publication date, it should not surprise anyone to learn that team pascom has indeed rocked the 2023 challenge. We surpassed the required 75,000 points on September 17th as a number of the team were hiking Großer Arber, which is the highest peak in the Bavarian Forest standing at 1,456m (4777ft) tall.\nIt was hard, but rewarding work, especially considering that when the targets were revealed, few thought it was achievable. But this is the power of teamwork, by sticking together, motivating and sometimes pushing our colleagues to achieve more, the unachievable suddenly doesn\u0026rsquo;t look so insurmountable!\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO Promoting teamwork and motivation is one of the main objectives of the challenge and is fantastic to see that it is having the desired effect as evidenced by the fact that so many employees have bettered their personal points tally this year and that we overcame a challenging target with a month and a half still to go. What makes this all the more pleasing is that I was starting to worry we wouldn\u0026rsquo;t hit our goal, especially as it was literally by the skin of our teeth last year. Hitting 75,000 points goes to show just how connected and motivated the team has been, both in terms of the challenge and within the workplace. I am proud of the team and am looking forward to announcing which organisations we will be supporting this year, all thanks to our team\u0026rsquo;s drive and commitment.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"October 9, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-get-fit-challenge-2023/","title":"Team PASCOM Rocks The Get Fit Challenge 2023"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Give Employees More Benefits with the 4-Day Working Week Since September 1st 2023, pascom employees have been enjoying an additional day off thanks to the company\u0026rsquo;s introduction of 4-day working week.\nBased on the 100:80:100 model, the pascom 4 day working week is designed to ensure that pascom employees are not burdened financially or by workloads by decreasing wages or by \u0026ldquo;compressing\u0026rdquo; the working week into 4 days. Instead, the company\u0026rsquo; motto is 4/32/100 which means 4 days, 32 hours and 100% pay.\n4 Day Working Week Company Objectives As with most employement strategies, the overall objective is to increase productivity and efficiency. Therefore, it is not surprising that by adding the 4-day week to pascom\u0026rsquo;S already attractive employee package, the company is looking maintain and strenghten its competiveness within the employement market in order to attract the top talent both locally as well as across the DACH Telecommunications industry.\nFurthermore, the company recognises that society has changed significantly since the conception of the 5 day work week. The concept of the 9 to 5 workday has been eroded as the lines between work and life have blurred significantly. It is not longer the norm that one partner stays at home and manages the household. These changes in technology, the modern workplace and society have placed considerable stresses and burden on the workforce.\nTherefore, by giving employees an additional free day per week, the company aims to considerably improve and enrich the work-life balance for all it\u0026rsquo;s employees. For example, thanks to the four day week pascom employees have more time and flexibility to pursue personal goals outside of the workplace whether they be for family time, hobbies, part-time jobs or simply just more downtime to relax, recuperate and recharge, so that they come to work engaged, motivated and full of energy.\nUltimately, by providing employees with more downtime, they will have more downtime in which to recuperate and recharge it is the company\u0026rsquo; goal to benefit from the increases in productivity that by highly talented, highly motivated and happy healthy staff invariably deliver.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO As a family friendly IT business, our employees already enjoy an excellent range of workplace and flexibility benefits. As such, we are fortunate that we do not have any employee engagement issues and that is what makes us switching to four-day workweek even simpler for us. We see working 4 days a week as the future, particularly in the telecoms industry, and it is our goal to provide our employees with some extra, well-deserved downtime to further enrich their personal lives. In addition, we hope that by proactively switching to the 4-day working model, we will further strengthen our image as one of the best employers regionally and across the German telecoms industry which in turn will enable us to continue to attract the best talent and further improve our solutions and services thanks to our highly skilled and motivated team.\nDiscover pascom ONE We have helped thousands of companies just like yours, from Small Office Home Office sized businesses to multi-location call centres, to get their Cloud Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions up and running smoothly, quickly, and efficiently. So if you are looking for a trusted partner to help you with your business\u0026rsquo; migration to cloud communications, then contact the pascom team today!\n","date":"September 27, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-introduce-4-day-working-week/","title":"pascom Introduce the 4 Day Week"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom ONE Business VoIP Telephony Services Now Available in Austria September 21st, 2023 | Deggendorf, Germany \u0026amp; Vienna Austria - pascom GmbH, a leading provider of Cloud-based VoIP and Business Communications solutions, today announce the formation of pascom Austria and the company\u0026rsquo; expansion into the Austrian VoIP SIP trunking market. Since the launch of pascom ONE and pascom fixed-line voice services, the company has been committed to expanding its SIP trunking services into further European markets and the Austria launch sees the company passing yet another milestone in its growth strategy.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nThe launch of pascom Austria will provide pascom ONE customers in Austria even further benefit thanks to the addition of pascom SIP trunking services. Furthermore, the new VoIP telephony services will further benefit pascom partners in Austria by simplifying the sales process and adding more value to their customers through the provision of all-in-one cloud-based VoIP telephony and communications solutions. What\u0026rsquo;s more, our partners will also have greater opportunity to grow their revenue streams in the form of commission on pascom ONE voice tarifs and minutes.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO Adding pascom ONE SIP services for Austria is a significant milestone for us as we look to grow our presence in the Austrian VoIP telecommunications market. The new services will benefit both our existing customers who will now be able to benefit from an all-in-one solution. Moreover, pascom partners in Austria will also benefit from a simpler sales process and increased monthly revenues. We look forward to working together with our partners to ensure that pascom ONE remains at the forefront of the market in terms of competition and performance.\nDiscover pascom ONE If you have any questions about PASCOM ONE, our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help upgrade your business communications, then we are here to help. Visit our website and arrange to speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"September 21, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-one-austria-sip-trunking/","title":"pascom ONE SIP Trunking now available in Austria"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"pascom Desktop UC Apps Yealink Headset Integration You asked and we listened which means that together with Yealink, we have successfully completed interoperability testing for Yealink\u0026rsquo;s range of UC (Unified Communications) headsets. Recent feedback from our channel partners has reflected the increasing demand for Yealink headset support as a high performing, cost-effective headset to compliment our desktop and mobile softphone apps.\nThe new integration that is available with pascom App version 100.R3266 and newer ensures that pascom existing customers who use a combination of the pascom softphone and Yealink headsets will now benefit from desktop app compatibility with Yealink\u0026rsquo;s full range of headset functionality, including pickup, hangup, mute and volume control. Moreover, the recently released interoperabilty support means that customers looking to upgrade their headset will benefit from a greater range of choice when choosing the headset that best suits their requirements.\nFurthermore, adding support for Yealink\u0026rsquo;s range of wired, DECT and bluetooth headsets not only provides existing customers with an excellent range of choice, but also enables pascom reseller partners to provide more added value with a \u0026ldquo;tried and tested\u0026rdquo;, fully unified communication solution. Channel partners who have reseller agreements with both pascom and Yealink will benefit from greater margins, making combined pascom Yealink solutions more attractive and easy to resell.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO Demand for us to include Support for Yealink\u0026rsquo;s WH and UH Headset ranges has been steadily growing, with feedback from our partners having grown significantly recently. Therefore, so we\u0026rsquo;re proud to say that we have listened to your feedback and are delighted to announce that our compatibility testing with Yealink\u0026rsquo;s range of UC headset has been successfully completed and look forward to working closely with Yealink as we continue offer our customers and partners more features, comfort and usability at great value for money.\nDiscover pascom ONE We have helped thousands of companies just like yours, from Small Office Home Office sized businesses to multi-location call centres, to get their Cloud Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions up and running smoothly, quickly, and efficiently. So if you are looking for a trusted partner to help you with your business\u0026rsquo; migration to cloud communications, then contact the pascom team today!\n","date":"August 2, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-yealink-headset-integration/","title":"pascom Desktop UC Apps Support Yealink Headsets"},{"categories":null,"contents":"VoIP Phone System Guide to Network Integration Continuing on in our VoIP phone system guide, this article focuses on VoIP Network Integration. In other words, we are getting to grips with the question of how to integrate your IP PBX (VoIP phone system) into your existing infrastructure. Compared to a legacy PBX in which the telephones are connected via a separate network, IP based systems offer a number of advantages. For example, you need only maintain one network and a host of additional functions are available such as desktop and mobile UC applications plus the option to connect to CRM / Ticket systems or phone books is always available. Beyond this, with an IP PBX (or VoIP phone system software) voice calls are no longer transmitted over traditional telephone lines, such as the ISDN or POTS, but rather sent in encrypted packet form over the Internet.\nA typical VoIP software based phone system is a hugely comprehensive product that includes a multitude of features. These range from Auto Attendant automatic answering functions and advanced call and contact centre tools such as Skills Based Routing through to the features required to video telephony and conferencing. So create a list of all the features that are essential for you, your employees and your customers and you will be some way to deciding which solution is right for you. You will also likely notice that there are a number of integration options which are based of different frameworks which we will cover in more detail. Moreover, we will separately cover which important functions are must haves and should be offered by a VoIP telephone system.\nHow to choose the right VoIP software solution? A professional telephone system will support your business in portraying a high value professional image to your customers. The phone system configuration and applications available will have a decisive influence on how professionally you manage your call volumes, making choosing the right business communications platform essential to ensure the optimal performance and benefits are gained. This is as true for larger organisations as it is for small business and start-ups. Perhaps it is even more essential in the highly competitive SOHO / SMB segments where business need to stand out from the crowd in order to succeed.\nHow many employees should use the solution? Not every solution presented below is ideally suited to every business. For example, choosing a cloud solution has many advantages such as lower cost to entry for startups and SMBs. However, a production house may require on-site hardware for health and safety reasons. In the past, people only views cloud solutions as only being suitable for businesses up to ca. 25 employees.\nHowever, this is arguement really only ever considered user licensing and the Total Cost of Ownership based on the number of users and ignored all the other benefits that cloud phones systems have to offer. Therefore, larger companies should ignore the cloud. There are considerably more benefits to Cloud solutions than simply lowering upfront costs.\nIf your business has reached a certain size, the technology itself almost plays a secondary role. What comes to the fore with our customers is the need to centralise and standardise the communications platform. It is, however, often the case with large enterprise that the company has a central HQ that is fully independent of the smaller business locations.\nAs a result, the branch locations will generally have an in-house IT team who manage an on-premise phone system – whether virtual or hardware based. As a result, for large enterprise customers it is important to find a solution that enables them to integrate a centralised communication solution.\nOption A: Integrating into an Existing Company Network In particular, it is relatively straightforward to integrate a new phone system directly into small and medium sized networks as such integrations only require relatively minor modifications to the existing IT landscape. If you have a pre-existing DHCP server, this can be used for and by the telephone system. Alternatively, pascom on-premise VoIP solutions come with an inbuilt DHCP server that can be utilized by the complete network or configured to be used only by the phone system and desktop phones.\nMost modern IP desktop phones are equipped with an internal switch (gigabit has become the standard). This can be used to connect the phone directly to a workstation PC or to integrate further endpoints to the network. This can save excess cabling and is particularly useful when there is an insufficient number of LAN ports available on the network.\nOption B: Separate Telephony and Company Networks For maximum flexibility and operational security, the telephone system should be deployed and run inside a telephony network separated from the company network. Such network architectures offer a multitude of benefits including:\nProblems with bandwidth assignment (Quality of Service) and conflicts with existing network services can be avoided. A notable example is avoiding your telephony traffic becoming affected by high volume usage on the company network. Access to the telephony network can be controlled via a Firewall. Some VoIP phone systems, such as pascom’s, deliver a DHCP server interface for the telephony network, meaning no additional DHCP service modifications are required on the company network. It is not necessary to physically separate the two networks. Modern switches are designed to allow you to setup so-called VLANs (Virtual Local Area Network). For example, when using a 48 port switch it is possible to connect all phones on ports 1-24 and on ports 25-48 all PC workstations.\nOption C: Integration and Migration of an Existing Telephone System Top of the range IP phone systems like pascom’s can be connected to an existing ISDN telephone system with relative ease. This allows for a step-by-step move away, or soft-migration, from the ISDN system to the new modern IP solution IP should for example an immediate switch out of endpoints not be possible or extremely impractical.\nSuch integrations should only be undertaken after careful consideration, particularly as a soft migration involves two phone system solutions to be maintained simultaneously which requires additional resources in terms of manpower and man-hours.\nOption D: Switch to a Hosted Cloud Phone System Switching to a cloud phone system is now the most popular option so it is no wonder that adoption of cloud technology has really taken off in the last few years. Within the world of telecommunications, Cloud phone systems (cloud PBX) are now the preferred choice for many businesses and with good reason.\nHosted cloud PBX solutions deliver a number of advantages over the on-premise variations, in fact there are very few scenarios in which an on-premise solution is actually more suitable. The question remains however, what should the required network infrastructure look like?\nIn terms of networking, the cabling required for a cloud solution is similar to that required by an on-premise VoIP phone system, but considerably less than for a legacy solution. You will require a router with Internet access and depending on the size of your company, a number of switches to connect workstations and any desktop phones that you may require. Through using softphones, it is possible to further reduce the amount of cabling required.\nThe main difference lies in that once the initial set up and software installation has been completed. From this point on, you should be able to significanlty reduce your administrative overheads as you will no longer need to maintain your business phone system as this is done by your provider. Nor will you need to maintain any cumbersome hardware or VPN infrastructures that your previous telephony solution required.\nNetwork Summary How you choose to construct your network is entirely up to you. A competent VoIP phone system provider will also have a good knowledge concerning network infrastructures and will be able to advise you on the setup.\nIn principle, you can cancel your existing conventional landline connection or migrate the account to a SIP provider. With a VoIP software based telephonysolution, you will be able to almost immediately start making IP calls over the Internet to the PSTN, from you mobile or via video Internet telephony. However, it is recommended to check beforehand if any other endpoints or terminals in your fleet of devices require access to the conventional landline.\nA business phone system is more than just a server and a few desktop phones. Thanks to the interconnecting PCs, work locations, desktop phones and mobile devices, a first-class business VoIP phone system will offer you a high degree of comfort. You will require IP compatible phones. IP telephones communicate using the same network technology as PCs – namely IP or Internet Protocol. Options such as the CTI interface for connecting phones and PCs will only function with IP phones and therefore ensure the out dated ISDN endpoints become obsolete.\nAs mentioned above, it is possible to migrate or port your existing phone numbers from the ISDN to a VoIP provider, quite often free of charge. However, you should inform your current provider in advance and set the porting process in motion.\nFor more information regarding pascom VoIP solutions and the move to ALL IP, contact us and our team will be happy to advise on the best solution for your business.\n","date":"June 7, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/voip-phone-system-guide-to-voip-network-integration/","title":"VoIP Phone System Guide to Network Integration"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is a Cloud PBX? A Cloud PBX is a phone system hosted in the cloud, allowing businesses to make and receive calls through the internet.\nWhat advantages does a Cloud PBX offer? A Cloud PBX offers cost savings, scalability, and flexibility, allowing businesses to pay only for the features they need, add users easily, and work from anywhere.\nIs security an issue with a Cloud PBX? Security should be a top priority for any cloud-based service, and Cloud PBX providers implement multiple security measures, including encryption and multi-factor authentication, to protect customer data.\nCan a Cloud PBX integrate with other systems? Cloud PBX can easily integrate with other cloud-based systems, such as CRM, to improve communication and collaboration between different teams.\nHow does a Cloud PBX compare to traditional phone systems? Cloud PBX eliminates the need for costly hardware and maintenance and offers more advanced features at a lower price. Plus, users can work from anywhere with internet access.\n","date":"June 1, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/cloud-pbx/","title":"Cloud PBX"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does PBX stand for? What is a PBX system? PBX, or Private Branch Exchange, is a business phone system that allows internal communication within an organization and connects to external phone lines.\nWhat are the benefits of using a PBX system? PBX systems offer various benefits, including cost savings, increased productivity, advanced features like call routing and voicemail, and scalability.\nWhat types of PBX systems are available? There are three types of PBX systems: traditional PBX, IP PBX, and hosted PBX. Traditional PBX systems use analog technology, IP PBX systems use internet protocol, and hosted PBX is a cloud-based solution.\nHow does a PBX system work? A PBX system works by routing incoming calls to specific extensions or departments within an organization. It also allows for internal communication and external calls through traditional phone lines or internet-based communication.\nWhat features should I look for in a PBX system? Important features to consider when choosing a PBX system include call routing, voicemail, auto-attendant, conference calling, call recording, and analytics. It\u0026rsquo;s also important to consider the scalability of the system to meet your organization\u0026rsquo;s future needs.\n","date":"June 1, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/pbx/","title":"Private Branch Exchange"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"Learn everything you need to know about SIP Trunks and SIP Trunking Anybody who has shown an interest in Voice over IP (VoIP) or business phone systems, will very likely have come across the term SIP trunk. But what does the term mean, what does SIP stand for, what does a SIP trunk do and how does it work? This article will answer all these questions as well as going into more detail regarding why businesses should use SIP trunking, how your business can benefit from the technology as well as looking at any possible downsides to SIP trunking.\nContents In this article, we will cover the following:\nWhat is a SIP Trunk? How SIP trunking works Benefits of SIP Trunking Example SIP deployments Why should your business switch to SIP trunking? Disadvantages of SIP Trunking SIP Trunking FAQs 1. What is a SIP Trunk? A SIP Trunk is a telephone connection for businesses. SIP trunks and SIP trunking are now the standard method of connecting a business\u0026rsquo; phone system (PBX - Private Branch Exchange) to the telephone network. In simple terms, SIP trunking allows a business phone system to work via an Internet connection as opposed to traditional phone lines.\nAny business with a modern business phone system, i.e. an IP PBX (a PBX that supports using SIP for voice and data transfers), will also require a way for the phone system to connect to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Until recently, this was done using ISDN. However, many countries have already shutdown their ISDN networks and others, like the UK, are in the process of doing so. As a result, SIP trunks have become more mainstream and are now the industry standard option for connecting business telephony networks via the internet.\nBut what is SIP and what is a trunk and how do they work?\n2. How SIP Trunking works Before we go into the benefits of SIP trunking, let\u0026rsquo;s first take a look at SIP and how SIP trunks actually work.\nSIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol and handles the setup and termination of communication sessions (voice, video, data, \u0026hellip; etc.) over IP-based (Internet Protocal)networks, such as the Internet.\nA trunk is the traditional name given to the point where all your business phone lines are bundled together so that they can function correctly. Since the move to digital communications, modern trunking now refers to a virtual link between the provider and your phone system (PBX) and is in fact a collection of assigned \u0026ldquo;channels\u0026rdquo;, with each channel handling a certain number of concurrent calls.\nSIP trunks, also often referred to as SIP trunking, are the digital alternative to traditional analogue telephone lines. SIP trunks are \u0026ldquo;connected\u0026rdquo; to your business phone system (PBX) and transmits all your voice calls over your Internet connection. As everything runs over the Internet, physical phone line limitations are removed, making it possible to connect a flexible number of SIP channels to your business communications platform.\n3. What are the benefits of SIP Trunking Looking beyond the obvious benefits of modernising your business and ticking off another box on your digital transformation checklist, there are many benefits of SIP trunking that you should be aware of.\nStreamline network \u0026 infrastructure requirements Until recently, it was normal practice for businesses to maintain separate networks for Voice and for Data. This practice was time and resouce intensive. As SIP converts voice to data packets, businesses are able to combine voice and data into a single network which in turn reduces the capital and resources required for network maintenance.\nMoreover, SIP significantly reduces your infrastructure requirements and helps improve your business\u0026rsquo; agility when reacting to changes in requirements. For example, in the past, moving to or connecting a new office location involved long wait times as businesses had to wait for the their telecoms provider to implement the changes required. Furthermore, SIP makes connecting remote workers much simpler because all that is required by remote/home office employees to make and receive calls on their office extension need is an Internet connection, their laptop and/or smartphone.\nScalability and Reach SIP Trunking also offers considerable benefits when it comes to scalability. Firstly, ISDN and E1/T1 connections only allow between 2 and 30 voice channels whereas SIP trunks allow an almost limitless number of channels.\nSecondly, adding new SIP trunks is straightforward and involves next to no lead time, meaning as your business grows, so too can your SIP trunking solution which ensures your customers can always reach you.\nNext, as SIP trunks utilise IP networks to combine voice and data transmissions, they are not tied to a physical location, SIP trunking allows you to gear up your business for expansion in that connecting remote workers is much simpler, meaning you can attract the top talent independant of your business geographical location. The same is also true when it comes to phone numbers which makes it possible to include international phone numbers, providing your business with a local presence in international markets.\nMore functionality: Unified Communications Another benefit of SIP that is often overlooked is the increased functionality that combining voice and data in one network allows. SIP and all-IP technologies form the basis of Unified Communications and All-In-One Cloud Business Communications solutions, such as PASCOM ONE. By leveraging the benefits of all-in-one IP based solutions, businesses can significantly enhance efficiencies and drive employee productivity whilst achieving a more attractive and professional image within both the employement and consumer markets.\nCall, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nWorkplace Mobility Mobile working is now the norm and SIP trunking is one of the most effective technologies to enable seamless mobile employee and remote team integration. Just as SIP allows businesses to build the Unified Communications solution, it also enables simpler, more effective integration of mobile devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets. Cloud communication providers and VoIP providers that offer 1st party VoIP apps such as the pascom VoIP apps for Desktop and Mobile, provide remote users with quick and simple access to all their business communications channels, from softphones for voice to Instant Messaging and web meeting tools for Chat, Team Messaging and Video meetings.\nBeyond this, incorportating SIP softphones on mobile devices are also excellent for improving your business continuity and contigency planning as they can be connected to mobile data networks and Wifi, allowing users to continue working productively even if the office loses it\u0026rsquo;s Internet connection.\nBusiness Continuity Just as SIP bolsters mobility and therefore Business Continuity, there are other aspects of SIP that allows you to make your business more robust and agile when reacting to changes. Worst case Force majeure scenarios such as extreme weather or as seen with the Covid pandemic, can force businesses in to a position where they need to have the tools to adapt immediately.\nSIP trunks registered to a cloud communications platform are accessible from anywhere via the Internet, so even if one site goes dark, another site can still be online and remote workers will most likely not be affected at all, allowing your business to continue operating as normal, making SIP trunking and Cloud technology essential to any business\u0026rsquo; disaster recovery plan.\nCost Savings Finally, SIP trunking has the potential to save your business a significant amount of money. All of the above benefits will help your business become more profitable by helping prevent unpredictable costs, downtimes and wait times. However, SIP trunking is also cheaper than traditional telephony. First off, the cost of acquisition is low compared to traditional telephony as no physical lines are required. Internal calls within an organisations business phone system are free and international or long-distance calls are significantly cheaper as they are routed over the Internet.\nAdditionally, SIP trunks offer flexibility in terms of scaling the number of channels you need, allowing you to pay for what you use. Moreover, traditionally telephony has been billed on a per-minute basis and did not included minute bundles. This first began to change with mobile contracts within the world of the end consumer and SIP has now changed this again for business customers with the addition of flat rate packages including landline and mobile network minutes.\n4. Example SIP Trunking deployments Legacy Analogue PBX If you are looking for a quick and easy way to start transforming your business communications, but do not want to completely do away with your analog on-site telephony system infrastructure, then SIP trunking is a good option.\nBe warned though, this will involve upfront investment in Media Gateways that are required to make your old legacy systems compatible with SIP technology.\nOnsite IP enabled PBX If you are switching to SIP trunking but already have an on-premise IP PBX solution, then you may potentially need to invest in your network, Internet connectivity, Session Border Controller and Quality of Service (QoS) infrastructure in order to ensure VoIP security and audio quality.\nCloud PBX Depending on your circumstances and requirements, it would probably be more prudent to switch to an all-in-one cloud phone system (Cloud PBX) such as pascom ONE.\nEven if you want to keep your existing phone numbers, all you need to do is port them to your new VoIP provider. The process is relatively painless, but you will need to plan approximately 30 days for it to be completed. In the meantime, it is possible to use features like CLIP no screening to transmit your existing Caller ID numbers when making calls and redirects can be used to make sure your customers can still reach you before the switch has been successfully completed.\n5. Why should your business switch to SIP trunking? From the above benefits, it is clear to see that businesses can immediately benefit from SIP trunking. With limited initial investment being required and hardware acquisition and maintenance costs effectively being eliminated, businesses can start enjoying the benefits of SIP trunking immediately when it comes to cost savings.\nBut there are long-term benefits to. By enabling remote working, SIP trunking helps make your business more flexible whne it come to accomodating the needs and requirements of the modern worker in terms of HomeOffice, remote working, and even how employees prefer to communicate (phone, chat, and video) and on which device.\nFurthermore, by combining SIP trunking with Cloud based Unified Communications in a cloud business phone system with user-friendly mobile UC VoIP apps on employee devices, SIP trunking provides business owners and IT managers with a central application for all their business communications. This gives them the opportunity to improve customer care by eliminating information silos, streamling communication processes and giving employees to connect with customers from anywhere.\nFinally, another reason to use SIP trunks is to help grow employee satisfaction. By providing your team with everything they need to work flexibly and effectively from anywhere, your employees will be able to more easily find a health work-life balance which in turn grows their motivation and this can only have a positive effect on your company\u0026rsquo;s bottom line.\n6. Are there any disadvantages of SIP Trunking? As with everything, there is inevitably a downside to switching technology. SIP trunking is no different, but with a little forward planning and investment, the downsides are easy to overcome and the long-term benefits easily outweight the minimal expenditure required.\nNetwork \u0026 Connectivity Issues One of the main benefits of SIP trunking is the bundling of voice and data into one network. However, this can also be a disadvantage as having everything run over one network can put an extra burden on your existing network and Internet connection. This means there is the potential risk of suffering from network and connectivity issues due to the higher capacity and bandwidth requirements.\nPotential additional infrastructure requirements If you choose not to go down the all-in-one cloud route, you will have to invest in additional infrastructure.\nThis may include solutions for:\nVPNs (Virtual Private Network) Session Border Control Quality of Service (QoS) A VPN may be required in order to allow remote workers and offices to securely connect to the centralised communications platform. While the SBC also performs this role, it may be wished for as another security layer.\nA Session Border Controller adds an additional security layer to the SIP traffic and acts as an authentication protocol when routing SIP traffic to and from your business phone system.\nQuality of Service (QoS) prioritises real-time network traffic that is sensitive to network delays, such as voice and video streams, to ensure that they are handled with more priority over less sensitve network traffic, e.g. PDF downloads etc.\nIn order to overcome network capacity issues, it may be necessary to upgrade your Internet connection and invest in new network infrastructure, particularly if your existing network infrastructure does not support enabling QoS.\nMoreover, to monitor and identify and future potential network issues and QoS improvements you may need You may need to invest in Application Performance Management (APM) technology.\n7. SIP Trunking FAQs How many SIP channels will I need? The number of SIP channels that your business will need depends on the number of simultaneous calls that your business makes and receives.\nA good business communications solution / SIP provider will be able to help you with this calculation.\nDoes SIP trunking require higher bandwidth? Since all your voice and data are transmitted over the same network, it is likely that you will need more bandwidth compared. The amount of bandwidth required for SIP trunking depends on the number of concurrent calls (simultaneous calls - i.e.calls at the same time) your business makes and the codec used. As a general rule, each call requires around 100Kbps, so if you make 2 simultaneous calls, you will require 200kbs bandwidth.\nWhat factors affect SIP trunking bandwidth requirements? There are a number of factors which affect SIP trunking bandwidth requirements. These include the number of users, the audio codec being used, the Internet connection quality, and the type of traffic on the network.\nChoosing a provider that supports HD codecs such as OPUS and G.722 will help ensure higher audio quality, while QoS will prioritise voice traffic over less sensitive network traffic to help minimise quality losses.\nAre SIP Trunks reliable? Yes, SIP Trunking solutions are reliable as SIP trunking providers will have inbuilt redundancies, DDoS protection, and active monitoring solutions in place.\nCan SIP Trunks work with existing phone systems? Yes, SIP Trunks can work with most modern phone systems, and Gateway adapters are available for legacy systems.\nHow can SIP Trunks improve flexibility? SIP Trunks allow for geographic number portability, remote working, and scalability. For maximum flexibility, it is advised to choose a SIP trunking provider who also offers cloud phone system solutions as an all-in-one solution, as this provides the added flexibility of Cloud services, SIP and all for one low monthly cost.\nDoes SIP Trunking support emergency calls? Yes, SIP Trunking providers are required to support emergency services calls, and businesses should always test their emergency capabilities before implementation.\nHow can I choose the right SIP Trunking provider? Businesses should evaluate providers based on their pricing, quality of service, reliability, support options, and additional features such as international calling and routing. Researching reviews and contacting potential providers can also help to make an informed decision.\nDiscover pascom ONE We have helped thousands of companies just like yours, from Small Office Home Office sized businesses to multi-location call centres, to get their Cloud Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions up and running smoothly, quickly, and efficiently. So if you are looking for a trusted partner to help you with your business\u0026rsquo; migration to cloud communications, then contact the pascom team today!\n","date":"May 30, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/sip-trunk/","title":"What is a SIP Trunk?"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"Discover everything you need to know about Cloud Migrations Migrating on-premises business communications systems to the cloud has the potential to revolutionise businesses of all sizes. Switching to the cloud enables businesses to free up time and resources which can then be reinvested in other important business projects and opportunities. So it is no wonder that so many businesses are moving their business communications to the cloud.\nBut what exactly is a Cloud Migration, what is involved and what are the potential benefits and risks of migrating your communications to the cloud? We answer all these questions and more in the following article which covers:\nTable of Contents What is a cloud migration? Benefits of a cloud migration Potential risks of a cloud migration How to migrate your communications to the cloud Getting help with your cloud migration 1. What is a Cloud Migration? The term \u0026ldquo;Cloud Migration\u0026rdquo; refers to the process of either moving your organisation\u0026rsquo;s on-site systems to a cloud infrastructure or from one cloud environment to another, i.e. moving from the private cloud to the public cloud or when switching providers.\nIn the case of communications, a cloud migration refers to moving your business phone system and collaboration to a new cloud-based solution. Some businesse will choose to move all their data solutions all at once, while others opt to move single elements or business units at a time in a form of so-called \u0026ldquo;soft migration\u0026rdquo;. Other businesses choose a so-called hybrid approach in that they only move certain elements to the cloud and leave other specific elements on-site.\n2. Benefits of a Cloud Migration From digitalisation to productivity and efficiency increases, the number of benefits that attract businesses to migration to cloud solutions is growing fast and here are what we think are the most compelling arguements:\nSimpler mobile and remote working The rise in remote working and hybrid workplace models are major drivers behind the increasing need for more flexibile, agile communications. The need to work from home trend during the pandemic effectively pushed the need for simple, easy mobile and remote worker connectivity right to top of the list of business needs.\nPost pandemic, the trend is set to continually gain momentum as more businesses adapt to the changing dynamics of the modern workplace and demands of the modern worker.\nBy migrating to cloud-based solutions and communications, businesses are able to give remote employees secure, flexible access to business tools and applications from anywhere providing they have an Internet connection. A further benefit of migrating to cloud communications is having the ability to increase a business\u0026rsquo; reach both in terms of attracting talent and customer acquistion as the business is no longer tied to a geographical location.\nGreater integration with business applications Call, Chat, Share \u0026amp; Meet Upgrade your business communications with the pascom all-in-one cloud communications platform.\nBy migrating to cloud-based solutions and communications, businesses are able to give remote employees secure, flexible access to business tools and applications from anywhere providing they have an Internet connection. A further benefit of migrating to cloud communications is having the ability to increase a business\u0026rsquo; reach both in terms of attracting talent and customer acquistion as the business is no longer tied to a geographical location.\nCommunication is crucial to staying connected with both colleagues and customers. Effective communication is essential to enabling efficient team collaboration and your communications solution is normally the first point of customer contact and has a big role to play in almost all your everyday business activities. However, one of the greatest problems facing the modern work is app fatigue. The modern knowledge worker is overloaded with business apps and uses an average 9.39 enterprise apps at any given time. Beyond this, the time spent toggling between apps, searching for contact information or even walking to the fax machine is counter-productive.\nThankfully, there are many ways to connect pascom ONE cloud communication solutions to other business applications and processes including the following:\nCloud Telephony: By integrating business telephony into your essential business apps, you and your team can use to Click-to-Dial to make calls simply by clicking on any phone number in apps such as your web browser, MS Outlook, tomedo® and DATEV. pascom ONE cloud solutions come with an integrated faxing solution to allow users to send faxes directly from their pascom desktop app.\nTeam Collaboration: Communication and collaboration are essential for productive teamwork. As teams become more dispersed and remote/hybrid working continues to become more popular, effective team collaboration tools that promote teamwork and breakdown information silos are now must-have tools. Chat, team messaging, file sharing, screen sharing and web meeting tools have become core components of cloud communications and with pascom they are available on all your devices from anywhere via the cloud.\nCutting-edge tech that's always up-to-date It is well-known that delays are costly and those that do not adapt to change will eventually be left behind. So why is it that on-premise solutions are not updated as regularly as they should be. Is it because either the updates take longer or because the existing hardware has reached the end of its life cycle? Eitherway, on-premise solutions are maintained as they should be simply because the updates and maintenance are done by the customer (whose priorities are elsewhere) and not the provider.\nTraditional on-premise solution users also have another obstacle to overcome, namely that the solution provider must build in a reasonable level of backwards hardware compatibility in order to ensure functionality. This complicates the development process and adds additional delays to the roll-out process.\nWhatever the cause for the delay in update process, by not updating their systems, businesses that rely on on-premise solutions are putting their competitive ability at risk and this is where Cloud solutions have a major advantage over on-premise solutions.\nCloud solution providers are continually updating their solutions, hosting and security measures which are deployed by the provider, not the customer. By migrating to the cloud, businesses can realise a number of significant advantages thanks to the early adoption of the latest in technology and freeing up time, resources and finances to focus on other important business projects.\nMoreover, with a cloud solution, new app updates are announced immediately allowing users to update when they want. To make things even easier, apps like the pascom apps are self updating, meaning new feature and security updates are installed automatically without the user have to do anything.\nImproved security and greater resiliency Protecting business intelligence and confidential customer information is crucial to any business and migrating to a cloud communications solution will deliver the latest and best in security and resiliency. In fact, cloud security and resiliency are some of the greatest advantages of migrating to a cloud phone system.\nThe updates mentioned previously ensure that your solution is kept up-to-date with the latest security protocols. Furthermore, cloud solution providers worth their salt will have dedicated IT security teams who focus solely on ensuring solution, application, and infrastructure security. At pascom we have dedicated cloud infrastructure and data security and protection teams who conduct regular penetration tests and data security reviews. Are apps encrypt all our communication from calls to chat and when connecting with 3rd party systems, we use encrypted URLs for provisioning and web meetings. We are also ISO 27001 certified, the international gold standard in Information Management and Security.\nBeyond this, the data centres where cloud solutions are hosted are subject to stringent regulations that ensure availability and data security. In comparison, it is highly unlikely that your typical SMB will have the resources to implement and maintain such levels of security.\nWhat this means is that in reality, cloud migrations enable businesses to add even greater resiliency to their solutions and systems and are then well positioned to quickly react to potential threats and changes in business operations.\nLower, easily manageable costs Cloud migrations deliver many cost benefits. Firstly, cloud solutions are normally licensed on a per-user-per-month basis and the licence fees will typically include hosting and software updates. Therefore, businesses will no longer need to fork out large amounts on one-off expensive on-premise server hardware. In addition, maintaining and updating on-premise solutions involves more costly, annual maintaince contracts.\nA number of providers, including pascom, have tried annual subscription and user bunble licensing models. Ultimately though, the flexiblitly afforded by monthly subscriptions delivers the most advantage as this allows you to scale your cloud solution as your business and user base grows.\nThere are other cloud migration cost advantages too. By moving to the cloud and reducing / eliminating your on-site system infrastructure, it is possible to reduce both your business\u0026rsquo; physical and environmental footprint. On-premise server and network hardware requires server rooms, which need to be kept cool 24/7 which drove energy consumption and costs.\nAs a result, reducing your on-site hardware means reduce physical space requirements. By migrating to the cloud, you can reduce your phyiscal office space which translates to less expenditure on rent and utilities. Altenatively, you can repurpose the space more effectively - which ever option better suits your business goals.\nIn terms of your environmental footprint, doing away with on-site infrastructures will reduce the amount of energy your business consumes as you will no longer have on-site hardware constantly consuming energy, further reducing your energy bill and reducing the environmental impact of your business operations.\nOf course, it is true to cloud hosting requires energy but as your cloud solutions will be hosted in the providers data centre, the cost and environmental impact is spread across the entire customer base, making cloud solutions much more energy efficient.\n3. Potential Cloud Migration Risks Given all the clear benefits and the significant increase in popularity and adoption of cloud communications, why is it then that the majority of companies still operate on-premise solutions? As a cloud communications specialist, we\u0026rsquo;ve heard all the arguements from VoIP security and Data Protection to Total Cost of Ownership and everything in between.\nHowever, as a cloud communications specialist we are well aware that each customer has their own unique set of requirements and challenges which make business owners and IT admins reluctant to move all their systems to the cloud at the drop of a hat - and here\u0026rsquo;s the kicker, they\u0026rsquo;re right to think twice. As with most things, a cloud migration does pose a potential risk and it is our opinion that most of the risk stems from poor planning.\nSo what are the risks and how can you minimise them? The most significant risk is data loss, which at best is embarrassing and at worst extremely costly. Next, there is always the risk of choosing the wrong cloud solutions provider and then having to repeat the process. Ultimately, getting your cloud migration wrong will cost your business money, resources, and time and could do damage to your business reputation and your business could potentially lose out to the competition.\n4. How to migrate your communications to the cloud Before performing a cloud migration, it is imperative to plan the migration properly, perform backups of all your data systems and then go through the migration process as follows:\nPerform an IT Audit The first step to a successful cloud migration is to perform an IT audit, an internal assessment of your current IT systems. Look for the strengths, weaknesses and identify any opportunities and threats using a SWOT analysis. By highlight your strengths and weaknesses, you will gain an understanding of what functionality is must have and which new features you need to have when migrating to the cloud and will therefore help clarify how to reach your goal, which provider to choose and so on.\nChoose the right cloud solutions provider Choosing the right provider is crucial, so much so that many people will put at the top of the list and start from here. However, we advise against this. If you don\u0026rsquo;t really know what you are looking for, how can you make an effective decision. So once you have performed your IT audit and clarified what it is that you want/need, then it is time to start looking for the right provider that will deliver the professional support, features and service that your business requires.\nIt is not always easy to do, particularly in an industry like telecommunications and collaboration where there are so many providers to choose from. Therefore, it is important to find a provider than not only offers all the functionality that your business, employees and customers need, but will be your professional, go-to partner throughout the cloud migration and beyond.\nThankfully, established providers such as pascom, have years of experience in cloud migrations and will with you every step of the way, from planning to deployment and ongoing support. Choosing such a provider greatly simplies the whole process and will ensure you get your new cloud communications solution deployed and running exactly to your requirements with the minimum of fuss.\nPlan the cloud migration Having already undertaken your IT audit, it is time to plan your journey to the cloud. Together with your choosen provider, use the information from your IT audit to build a migration concept. Your partner will guide you through important aspects any necessary considerations and/or improvements. Lean on their knowledge and experience to create a timeline of all the necessary steps and milestones, such as backups, documentation, training any new acquistions such as headsets and/or headsets.\nIn terms of cloud communications, if, like pascom, your chosen provider is a complete communications provider that also offers cloud phone systems, hosting and fixed-line telephony services, you will also need to consider the following before going live with your cloud migration:\nThe number porting / ordering process Create a call flow management overview Source your phone system prompts and Music on Hold Check all your existing infrastructure is compatible and up-to-date Once you are satisified with your cloud migration plan, it is time to enact the plan and start the implementation and go-live process.\nThe Cloud Migration It does not matter how good your planning and preparation is, there will always be a transitional period in which you can expect some teething problems as you put your cloud migration plan in to action.\nThis is where it is definitely a major advantage of having a professional, experienced partner at your side. As you put your plan into action, you can bet your bottom dollar you will be faced with some stressful challenges. For whatever reason, your number porting process my not be completed, or your prompts are ready yet. Eitherway, there is almost always a solution and a professional solutions provider will have seen it all before, providing them with the experience to calmly and expectly work around the problems and make sure you stay on track.\nReview, monitor, and adapt your cloud migration Just because all your cloud migration is done in the sense that your systems are now in the cloud, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean your finished. As with every project implementation, there is always an ongoing review process, especially these days when your customer expectations are higher than ever which makes your cloud communication systems that much more important.\nYour provider is also a valuable asset here. Additional services that may not have been required when you planned and implemented your cloud migration, may now be essential. Services such as technical support, employee training, service level agreements (SLAs), flat rate voice tarifs and/or any new services that your provider now offers are all things to monitor and evaluate their applicability to your business.\n5. Getting help with your cloud migration At pascom, we understand that your primary focus is on your business, your employees and your customers. Your goals are to drive growth and manage your return on investments (ROI). You want to make the right decisions, but don\u0026rsquo;t have the time nor resources to micro manage every aspect of your business\u0026rsquo; cloud migration as this will negatively impact your ability to focus on your main business activities.\nWith 25 years experience in the delivery of IT communications solutions, pascom is now one of the leading providers of Cloud Communications solutions. We believe in taking the complexity out of solutions, that\u0026rsquo;s why we offer complete All-in-One cloud communications solutions. Our licensing is simple to understand and our team are with you at every step of the way from cloud migration consultancy to post-deployment support and updates.\nWhatever your requirements, however big, small or dispersed your teams are, and regardless of where you are in your cloud migration journey, our team will work together with you to understand your needs in order to provide you with the solution that perfectly matches your business goals. Throughout, we will help you plan and manage your migration to the cloud; from managing the phone number porting process, to the deployment and initial setup of your pascom ONE cloud phone system. Our guaranteed response times mean our support team are always at your disposal to help you with post-deployment technical support and the pascom Managed Services mean that your cloud communications solution will always be kept up-to-date with the latest in security and functionality.\nWe have helped thousands of companies just like yours, from Small Office Home Office sized businesses to multi-location call centres, to get their Cloud Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions up and running smoothly, quickly, and efficiently. So if you are looking for a trusted partner to help you with your business\u0026rsquo; migration to cloud communications, then contact the pascom team today!\nFree Trial Contact Sales ","date":"May 2, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/cloud-migration-guide/","title":"What is a Cloud Migration? Discover all you need to know."},{"categories":["News","pascom Life"],"contents":"Let\u0026rsquo;s go! Team pascom is ready, are you? The sun is shinning, the weather is warming up and spring is in the air. And this can only mean that the Heimat Trails Trophy 2023 is just around the corner and team pascom can\u0026rsquo;t wait to get going. Once again, pascom are proud sponsors of the Heimat Trails Trophy (HTT) regional outdoor sports event and our team will be out there on every route, supporting, motivating and pushing each other as we galavant acrosss the stunning Bavarian countryside and this year, we\u0026rsquo;re determined to get a podium finish!\nIt\u0026rsquo;ll be tough, there will be blisters, cuts, scrapes and some very sore limbs, but none of these will stop us. We love the challenge, and we enjoy the commardarie on the trails even more. Then there is of course the pascom Get Fit Challenge, something that we at pascom are very proud of. As many of you will know as a company, we\u0026rsquo;re very active in the community, especially when it comes to sports and child welfare, so it goes without saying that the efforts of all our employees will be rewarded, podium finish or not, as for every KM of each route, they will be raising money for charity.\nWhat Is The Heimat Trails Trophy? Frequent readers of our blog will know that over the last few years, we\u0026rsquo;ve mentioned the trophy a few times in connection the pascom Get Fit Challenge, but actually is it, what is pascom\u0026rsquo;s involvement and why? Well, it\u0026rsquo;s in the name - Heimat means \u0026ldquo;home\u0026rdquo;, so it\u0026rsquo;s literally an outdoor sports trophy where the competitors compete across local biking or hiking trails. The event takes place from May 1st to October 21st and includes six locations and includes 4 sporting disciplines - Mountain Biking, eMTB, Hiking and Trail Running.\nUnlike other outdoor competitions, the Heimat Trails Trophy is designed to promote our local region as an adventure and outdoor sports destination. Therefore, it is not purely for professional atheletes who then compete against each other on race day. It is open to everyone and each trail is open for a 2 week period in order everyone to find the time to get involved. Furthermore, there are differing routes for different experience and fitness levels, meaning that even families get involved and discover the wonder of the Bavarian Forest Natural Park.\nWhy is pascom a Sponsor? Sponsoring the Heimat Trails Trophy is almost like a win win win for us, our employees and the local community. Our goal is to show people what it means to be a member of TEAM pascom. pascom is a place where we work hard, but we also have fun doing it. We treat everyone equally and we\u0026rsquo;re always there for others when they need help.\nEmployee Welfare Benefits Firstly, as we all know a healthy body promotes a healthy mind and employee welfare and health has always been central to us as employers. However, during the pandemic, many of the activities that we used to do where no longer an option, so we started the pascom Get Fit Challenge as a way of reconnecting and engaging with our colleagues.\nAfter months of HomeOffice and remote working, the concept behind how the Heimat Trails Trophy is organised actually fitted perfectly and provided a COVID safe opportunity to get outside and do some sports with out colleagues, so we actively encouraged pascom employees to register, get involved with the trophy as way of keeping fit and connected with each other socially.\nAs such, we pay registration fees for our employees and we even enable the team to do the trails during working hours, often providing transport to get to the far flung locations.\nEmployer Branding Benefits Secondly, we weren\u0026rsquo;t the only ones who took to sport and the outdoors during the pandemic. In fact, HTT participant numbers have grown significantly year on year.\nIn fact, in 2022 8,000 people took part and there were 5,500 media uploads related to the event. These figures only tell half a story, as they only cover the people who actually registered and the routes are open to everyone. Obviously, as an IT Telecommunications company looking to boost brand awareness as a great place to work and excellent potential employer, sponsoring an event that we already found really cool just made sense!\nIncreasing our Standing in the Community Getting actively involved and becoming an event sponsor has dramatically increased our visibility amongst businesses and local governments across the region and we\u0026rsquo;re not talking about lead generation. Having these connections means that have become more integrated into the community and can therefore become even more involved in local events and causes. For example, last year our paricitpation in the Heimat Trails Trophy led to schools approaching us to present at career days, or help with class projects. Given that our objective is to help our employees and find new employees, these kinds of reactions are exactly what we are looking for again in 2023.\nLast but by no means least, when it comes to community, by enabling our employees to participate, they wave the pascom flag for us - both literally and metaphorically, both online and offline.\nAs reward and incentive, every activity that the team undertakes, counts towards the pascom Get Fit Challenge, which means towards employee bonuses and the company supporting local causes with its annual donation. The more activities and fitness training the team does, the more money we raise to help causes such as the Kinderschutzbund (Child Protection Agency), Sportler helfen Sportlern (Athletes helping athletes), Grass roots football teams or the charitable donations made by our TEAM pascom colleagues in Serbia last year.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom as the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over their organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse the workforce or dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom, our solutions and the pascom Team.\n","date":"March 20, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/heimat-trails-trophy-2023/","title":"Team pascom Going For Gold as Heimat Trails Trophy Sponsor"},{"categories":["HowTo"],"contents":"pascom Microsoft Teams Integration The new pascom Cloud Phone System MS teams integration is available! The new release has been designed to offer greater comfort and ease of use to pascom app users who regularly use MS Teams for online meeting purposes.\nWhy Integrate with MS365 and MS Teams? The way in which we work has changed - we keep saying it and everybody knows it. As a result of virtual teams and remote working practices growing in popularity, video and online meetings have now become mainstream. Much of this change has led to good, but it also meant that changes to the tools that we use and how we approach the working day also had to change. As the usage of MS Teams rocketed, it was clear that many pascom customers would also be MS Teams users who would use pascom for Telephony and Teams for meetings for obvious reasons. This scenario created a challenge - at pascom, our USPs lie in our strengths which come from the world of Business Telephony and our softphone apps and for a while we didn\u0026rsquo;t want anything to do with Microsoft. However, we also listen to our customers and our partners and one of the most common themes that kept cropping up was to somehow integrate with MS Teams as it would solve a number of problems that had arisen due to the parallel usage of the the two platforms, namely call interruptions and headset binding.\nThis is when things started to change, we started looking at how we could do this without weakening our solution by becoming just another routing platform for MS Teams. The more we looked, the more ways we found to not only connect into the Microsoft 365 world, but also strengthen our solution, starting wiht enabling the integration with Microsoft Teams.\nWhat is the pascom MS Teams integration? Last week\u0026rsquo;s pascom cloud phone system update (07.03.2023) saw the release of pascom Microsoft 365 Status connector. This is a crucial element in our future development when it comes to integrating in to the Microsoft world. As part of the release, the highly requested MS Teams integration has become available and has been fully rolled out to all pascom Cloud customers.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Through using the pascom Microsoft 365 status connector, it is now possible to call up the status of a user within the Microsoft world. We then use this information to change and influence the state of the user within the pascom world. In the case of Microsoft Teams, when a user is in a Teams Meeting or call, the Microsoft 365 \u0026ldquo;In-Call Status\u0026rdquo; is enabled. We then use this information as a trigger to enable/disable a specifically developed Teams Meeting pascom client profile.\nAs any pascom app user who has ever used a pascom profile will know, the profiles can be setup to perform certain actions and the new MS Teams profile is no different. The first thing that the new profile does is to change your online presence within the pascom apps to \u0026ldquo;Teams Meeting\u0026rdquo;. This informs all your colleagues that you currently in a meeting and therefore unavailable. Should a colleague wish to contact you, your entry in the contact list will show that you are in a MS Teams meeting and will therefore help them with their decision making in that they could decide to request a call back, send you a quick chat message or simply wait until your meeting is over.\nThe next thing the profile does is to change your device follow me settings to ensure that when the profile is active, all pascom calls to all your devices will be disabled. Doing so ensures that you will not receive any phone calls via the pascom apps, guaranteeing an interuption free meeting. What\u0026rsquo;s more, by deactivating calls, the teams meeting profile also eliminates any issues with headset connection sharing as you toggle between the two apps.\nUpdating the Teams Meeting profile according to requirements The initial Teams Meeting profile is a server side profile and cannot be edited by app users. In most cases, this should be more than sufficient as most users do not want to be disturbed during their teams meetings and in 95% of the time a chat message should be more than enough.\nEditing the Server Side MS Team Profile As a pascom cloud phone system admin, if you think that the out-of-the-box pascom MS Team profile does not fulfil your organisations requirements, then you can edit the server-based profile actions. To do this, simply login into your pascom cloud phone system management UI, select and then edit the \u0026ldquo;Teams Meeting\u0026rdquo; under Teams \u0026gt; Client Profiles:\nA word of warning, if the server profile is edited, the changes made will affect ALL your pascom app users. If they all have the same requirements, then this may be sufficient for your purposes.\nAdding Customer User-Defined MS Team Profiles Should you and your users have differing requirements and preferences, then our suggestion would be to allow them to create their own profiles using the Teams Status connector as a trigger. By configuring your own Teams Metting client profile, the client will still recognise the MS365 user status and you will also have the ability to configure all your devices, calls and team membership settings precisely according to your requirments.\nIf you have not worked with profiles before, you can find out more about them, what they do, and how to add and edit client profiles in our Client Profiles HowTo Guide. pascom Client Profiles How To Guide\n1. Add A New Profile In the settings menu, select Profile Settings and click the and then configure how the profile should appear in the client, including name, colour and icon.\n2. Configure Profile Actions Under the tab, you can now define which actions you would like the profile to perform, for example change your follow me settings so that you are still available on your mobile, but only for internal users i.e. your colleagues.\n3. Configure Profile Trigger In order to activate your new profile automatically when you\u0026rsquo;re in a Teams Meeting, you will need to add the MS Teams Trigger. This is done under the tab as follows:\nOnce done, all you need to do is press save and your custom MS Teams profile is ready to go and the next time you enter a MS Teams meeting, your profile will automatically activate.\nWe’re here to help If you have any questions about our new Microsoft Teams Integration, any other pascom app feature or the pascom cloud phone system, then we’re here to help, so just drop us a line and discover how we can help your business prepare for tomorrow’s workplace. Call us on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with your 30 day free cloud phone system trial today.\n","date":"March 13, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-ms-teams-integration/","title":"pascom MS Teams and Microsoft 365 Integration Now Available"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"We\u0026rsquo;re proud to announce our ISO 27001 Certification The team at pascom are delighted to announce that we have successfully completed our ISO/IEC 27001 : 2013 for all our company office locations! As the internationally recognised standard Information Security Management System (ISMS) certification, our ISO 27001 certification upgrades our previous ISIS12/CISIS12 certification and confirms our proactive and continued commitment to Data Protection and Data Security and keeping your data protected.\nWhy ISO 27001? ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization and the ISO/IEC 27001 certification is globally recognised international standard for Information Security Management Systems. To become ISO 27001 certified, a business must pass a rigerous assesment of all their Data Protection and Information Security practices including the implementation, maintaining and continual assessment of secure information management systems. As such, the ISO standard specifies the criteria and requirements that must be met in order to continually maintain and improve Data Protection and data security, including undertaking regular risk assessments in order to identify and rule out any potential information security threats.\nQuirin Pasquay, pascom CEO At pascom, we have always been committed to keeping all our data protected and secure. We work hard to ensure that everything we do is secure, whether it be encrypted real-time communication, penetrating testing and information management and security. Implementing, evaluating and constantly upgrading our ISMS processes is as essential element of our business, particularly as we continue to expand our service offering in new markets, and with increased functionality. Therefore, we\u0026rsquo;re delighted to announce that we are now ISO 27001 certified and are able to offer our customers and partners additional assurances that we take every precaution in protecting their data, no matter the form that this data takes.\nAchieving ISO 27001 certification is the result of a whole team effort across all our offices. The certification is much more than creating, implementing, monitoring and analysing information management workflows and processes. Each individual employee has been provided with training on the correct data handling processes as well as being briefed as to why correct data handling is so essential and the potential and real implications of threats to our information security proceedures.\nDiscover pascom ONE If you have any questions about PASCOM or our PASCOM ONE cloud phone system and how we can help upgrade your business communications, our team will be more than happy to help you any way we can. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\nFor more information concerning our Data Protection policies, GDPR compliance and hosting certifications, please read our Data Protection Documentation\n","date":"February 10, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/iso-27001-certification/","title":"pascom is now ISO 27001 Certified"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems"],"contents":"Updated 02.01.2024\n5 Reasons To Move Your Communications to the Cloud So your business is growing. Sounds great, right?! Well yes, every business wants to expand and see the bottom line grow. Unfortunately, with business growth the number of complications also grows. More staff and locations to keep connected, more IT systems to manage and so on. With a traditional business phone system, such things were never exactly easy. Fast forward to 2024, things have become extremely tricky with a traditional on-premise PBX (Private Branch Exchange). Generational changes in the workplace, advances in technology, the gig economy and freelancers and most recently the need to implement homeoffice, mobile, hybrid and remote working models have all combined and changed how businesses view their communications solutions.\nFor these reasons, more and more successful businesses are moving their phone systems to modern cloud-based phone systems as they deliver much greater benefit when it comes to flexibility, performance and continuity. For this reason, we have decided to take another look at the top reasons why businesses are moving their communications to the cloud in 2024:\n1. Simplicity \u0026amp; Ease of Use No Hardware or Hosting Requirements Unlike an on-premise VoIP phone system solution, cloud phone systems and cloud telephony solutions are software based and therefore do not require any additional onsite server hardware or virtualization infrastructure. As such, a cloud phone system greatly reduces IT workloads as ongoing system administration is no longer required.\nHardware is also a problem in that it has a finite life cycle and as we\u0026rsquo;ve seen over the last year subject to supply issues. As a result, forward thinking businesses now look to software solutions such as phone systems that offer desktop and mobile business communications apps that deliver all the tools they need to keep their teams and customers connected and working effectively.\nQuick Cloud Phone System Setup Having no or limited hardware requirements also makes the Cloud phone system setup process much easier and you can get started rigth away.\nIn the past, managing a traditional on-premise phone system meant that businesses and their IT administrators were responsible for the ongoing management and maintenance of the solution. This entailed managing all aspects from the network integration to security patches, installing updates and Firewall and VPN configurations to allow authorised remote user access. All of these tasks are time consuming and often required expert technical knowledge which either meant outsourcing or higher personnel costs. As a result, tasks were often overlooked, security patches were not installed and new feature updates went unnoticed with the end result being a low performing, out-dated phone system that both your users and your customers hated.\nWith a cloud phone system, all you need to do is simply setup your account, do the initial phone system configuration and download the desktop and mobile VoIP softphone and collaboration apps and you\u0026rsquo;re pretty much good to go in under 5 minutes. Most cloud phone system providers even offer a free trial period so you can setup and configure your cloud phone system even before committing to any financial investment.\nMore Secure and Always Up-to-date Cloud phone system providers make things much simpler as they often offer a range of managed services. Such services will invariably include managing, maintaining, and securing the cloud hosting platform and ensuring that your business phone system is always kept up-to-date. As part of the offering, your chosen cloud phone system provider will then be responsible for ensuring the agreed levels of uptime and availability, ensuring that all backups are done for you and automatically installing all the latest updates, providing you and your team with the latest features and security updates without you having to lift a finger.\nMore Features What\u0026rsquo;s more, as the hosting platform is managed by the provider, they know the infrastructure inside out, reducing the need for compatibility testing against the differing hardware servers and virtualisation platforms. This makes the development, testing and release of new cloud phone system features and functions much more efficient compared to traditional on-premise phone systems, meaning that your business as a cloud phone system customer receives all the updates and new features much quicker and allowing you to find new innovative ways to connect with your customers and therefore maintain a competitive advantage over your competitors.\n2. Cost Savings No Capital Expenditure Traditional business phone systems were licensed on a perpetual user licence basis and often included recurring maintenance fees. This meant that the purchase of a new phone system involved considerable upfront investment on hardware and user licences plus the ongoing operational costs relating to server maintenance and hardware deprecation. What\u0026rsquo;s more, as mentioned above on-premise systems are normally managed \u0026ldquo;in-house\u0026rdquo; which incurs yet more financial and resource costs. Compare this to a cloud phone system that delivers everything required (PBX, Hosting, Updates, Apps, and Phone Number) in one solution, then it\u0026rsquo;s easy to see the cost savings fits that business can benefit from.\nOne Low Monthly Fee Cloud phone systems are licensed on a subscription, meaning companies are able to spread the costs with an easy to manage monthly subscription. Subscriptions are normally sold on a per user basis, meaning businesses only pay for number of users that they need. What\u0026rsquo;s more, choose a cloud phone system provider that offers all-in-one pricing as this reduces the complexity in the decision making process and provides all the tools, features and functions you could require and eliminates the need to manage mutliple suppliers.\nNo Hosting and Maintenance Costs A further benefit of a cloud phone system is that the subscription price should be all-inclusive. That means support, hosting, and maintenance should all be included in the monthly subscription invoice. This means no additional costs that you have consider, making budget planning simpler and saving time and money that previously was spent by dedicating resources to technical problem solving, installing updates, and managing your server infrastructure.\nLower Call Costs It is also definitely worth mentioning that cost savings that businesses are able benefit from thanks to VoIP telephony. Compared to traditional fixed-line (wired landline) telephony call charges, VoIP telephony connection charges are considerably cheaper. On top of this, internal VoIP calls are free of charge, so making calls to remote colleagues and branch busines locations will not incur any additional charge. This is especially advantageous if you have international colleagues and business locations as long as they are connected to the cloud phone system. Even calls to colleagues who are travelling won\u0026rsquo;t cost you a connection fee if they are using their desktop or mobile sotfphone. In fact, research from 2006 estimated that VoIP phone services can reduce a business\u0026rsquo; telecoms expenses by upto 30%. These days, this figure may likely be higher as businesses switch long-distance international calls to virtual online web-meetings and video conferences which are often included in the cloud phone system subscription at no or little extra cost.\n3. Freedom to Work From Anywhere, At Anytime, On Any Device Work From Anywhere with a pascom Cloud Phone System\rOne of the most attractive benefits of cloud phone systems is that they offer an unparrelled ability to work from anywhere and not just the office. As the phone system is hosted in the cloud and accessed via the Internet, all that is required to connect is a stable Internet connection. As such, a cloud phone system removes the need for complicated, cumbersome VPN solutions and therefore makes light work of connecting global offices, branch locations and homeoffices. Even field sales, remote employees, and freelancers can be effortlessly connected to the rest of the team and your customers.\nWhile at their core, cloud phone systems are designed for telephony purposes, modern solutions have evolved into complete cloud communications platforms that deliver all the telephony, messaging and meeting functionality your business needs in one place. In addition, top of the range cloud phone systems also include softphone apps for desktop and mobile. Such apps are perfect for keeping your team connected and making them available on their office number no matter where they work from or which device they prefer to use. On this note, even colleagues who prefer hardware phones can be catered for as the majority of cloud phone system providers support a range of leading IP Phone vendors.\n4. Greater Flexibilty Grows with your Business Quickly \u0026amp; effortlessly scale your business communcations\rOne of the most attractive benefits of a cloud phone system is scalability. Compared to a traditional PBX, virtual cloud phone systems are not restricted by limited hardware resources, performance requirements, or expensive perpetual user licensing. As a result, they offer greater flexibility and can be scaled as your company grows and your busines will only pay for what you actually use. Adding new users and phone numbers can be done in a matter of seconds via your choosen cloud provider\u0026rsquo;s web portal. Once booked, setting up new users and extensions could not be simpler and requires limited expert knowledge thanks to the easy-to-use phone system admin UI. pascom\u0026rsquo;s new user e-mail invite tool is so user-friendly that most of the process can be done via the self-service setup assistant allowing you to connect your new office or workspace with just a few clicks of the mouse.\nIncrease your Geographical Reach Whether you are looking to expand into new regions or attract new talent to your workforce, setting up new offices and onboarding remote employees with a cloud telephone system is quick and easy. This greatly enhances your business\u0026rsquo; ability to search for, attract and retain the best talent within the workforce, even if your Head Office is located in the middle of nowhere. Furthermore, as cloud phone systems are accessible from anywhere via the Internet, they can be centrally managed. As a result, opening new national or international offices no longer requires additional onsite phone systems per office or complicated call routing and VPNs to connect back to the head office. Even if you need local numbers for new international markets, the Bring Your Own Provider concept ensures that you can boost your local presence by choosing a VoIP provider that best suits your business requirements.\nChoose The Device and Channel For You Thanks to all-in-one softphone and collaboration apps, your new employees can be online and connected with the rest of the team in no time. Unified Communications tools, such as Video conferencing, Instant Messaging, and Presence Management, ensure that remote employees and subsidiary offices are immediately connected and available to colleagues and customers on their preferred channel and device. Even if you require new hardware phones, they can be onboarded in a matter of minutes with a minimum of fuss.\n5. Continuity \u0026amp; Redundancy Business Continuity Finally, another major benefit of cloud communications that pre-pandemic was often overlooked is business continuity and redundancy. As mentioned above, cloud phone systems are accessed via the Internet and deliver users the ability to work from anywhere. This is obviously a perk for the employee, but it is also an excellent business continuity tool. The importance of having the ability to instantly switch from office-based working to remote working was highlighted early in March of 2020. If your business solutions and processes were not up to the task, then it is quite likely that while you were playing catch up, your customers who had been trying to get hold of you had moved on and purchased from someone else who they could get in contact with.\nMaximum Availability pascom Cloud Phone System Redundancy\rWhen it comes to redunancy, any serious cloud phone system provider will host their solutions in approved Data Centres which are monitored round the clock and kept up-to-date with the latest security protocols. Some business still think inside the box when it comes to redundancy and quote Internet outages as a reason for maintaining an on-premise solution. Yes it\u0026rsquo;s true that without Internet access, your VoIP phone system won\u0026rsquo;t function. But what\u0026rsquo;s more likely, the Internet going down at your office or at a state of the art Data Centre? Should your office suffer from an Internet or power outage, then your on-premise solution will go completely dark and can\u0026rsquo;t be accessed by anyone, anywhere. Conversely, a cloud phone system will ensure that all your telephony services are still accessible to remote employees and branch offices. Even your office based team will still be available to customers and colleagues thanks to their mobile apps.\nDiscover pascom If you have any questions about pascom\u0026rsquo;s Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and the pascom phone system and how they can help your business prepare for tomorrow\u0026rsquo;s workplace, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\n","date":"January 9, 2023","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/cloud-phone-system-benefits/","title":"Why you should switch to cloud communications in 2024"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"December 28th, 2022 | Niš, Serbia - Today we are extremely proud to share that our pascom Serbia colleagues have made their 2022 annual donation. In a wide ranging action, the pascom Serbia have choosen to support the amazing work of the Mara Center for the provision of social protection services, as well as the Clinical Center Niš Children\u0026rsquo;s Hematology-Oncology Department, and the University Clinical Center of Serbia\u0026rsquo;s Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinic.\npascom Serbia annual donation 2022\rAs opposed to simply making a financial donation to each institution, the team in Serbia cooperated directly with the Mara Center to determine how best to support their work Children and Adults with Autism and similar disabilities. The Mara Center specifically asked for a new TV and desktop computer and peripherals to aide and further the educational activites for the children under their care. Stefan Tosic, pascom Serbia CEO, and Ina Hrvat, pascom Serbia HR Manager personally delivered the equipment to the Mara Center on Monday 26th December 2022 where they were able to meet the Center team and witness first-hand the amazing work that they do.\npascom donation to the Mara Center in Niš\rIn cooperation with NURDOR, the National Association of Parents of Children with Cancer, pascom also provided the Niš Clinical Center Children\u0026rsquo;s Hematology-Oncology Department with IT equipment. Through cooperating with the Jedi Movement in Niš, pascom Serbia joined a campaign to support the Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinic at the University Clinical Center of Serbia by contributing towards the funding of a resuscitation table for extremely premature infants. The Jedi Movement, who have long been active in humanitarian campaigns in Niš, organised the campaign and invited all the IT companies in Niš to show their support as donors.\nStefan Tosic, pascom Serbia CEO: Like our colleagues in Germany, we decided to focus primarily on children\u0026rsquo;s health and welfare with our donation. We wanted to help those children who face a number of developmental difficulties which is why the largest part of our donation went to the \u0026ldquo;Mara\u0026rdquo; Social Center and children with autism. We hope that the equipment we donated will make their holidays more beautiful and help and aide the centers educators in furthering their work with the children. I also want to thank other organizations, the NURDOR association and the Niš Jedi Movement, who were brilliant in helping to make sure that the rest of our donation went to the right organisation, cause and purpose.\u0026quot;\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"December 28, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-serbia-2022-donations/","title":"pascom Serbia Support Children's Health, Education and Welfare Organisations with Annual Donation"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year From pascom 2022 has flown by and 2023 is fast approaching, meaning that it\u0026rsquo;s that time of year again to wish all our customers, partners, and users a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.\nAs is customary at this time of year, we would like to thank all our customers, partners, users and colleagues for their continued loyalty and trust in us and our solutions throughout 2022. Before we bid 2022 adieu, we would also like to take this opportunity to provide you all with some important information regarding support, tips for managing your phone system during the holidays and how to catch up with pascom at upcoming events in January.\nTechnical Support \u0026amp; Christmas Opening Times The pascom Support team will be available as normal (with reaction times according to SLA) throughout the Christmas / New Year break, meaning our pascom customers will still be able to access our support services throughout the holidays. For response times, please refer to your pascom Service Level Agreement.\nFor all other enquiries, the pascom offices will be closed from Friday 23rd December and will reopen again on Monday 2nd January 2023 at which point, our team will ready and raring to get 2023 off to a flying start.\nGet Your Business Communications Fit for The Holidays \u0026amp; Beyond As is always the case at this time of year, it is important to make sure that your phone system is setup according to the holiday season. So, as we race into the holidays and New Year period, businesses of all shapes and sizes must prepare their business communications platform for the festive season and beyond. Depending on your business model, this will entail a number of changes to the normal configuration:\nBusiness Hours, Public Holiday Calendar Checks \u0026amp; Prompts If your business hours change or services/departments close for the holidays, then you will need to update your opening hours and time checks to reflect your business hours during the Christmas / New Year period.\nTo do this, simply log in to your phone system admin UI and follow the instructions as described in our documentation.\nOnce you\u0026rsquo;ve got your calendars and business hours checks sorted, it is time to update your phone system prompts and music on hold to match the holiday season. A tip from us is to share the festive cheer this year with warm season greetings and some appropriate music on hold as well as to provide additional information such as opening hours in your prompts - just be sure to check for any music licensing requirements.\nUpdate All Your Channels While your business phone system is central to how you communicate with customers, it is not your only communication channel, so be sure to update, change and modify your messaging across all channels as appropriate. There are things than are easy to do and make a big difference when it comes to managing customer expectations and experiences but are often forgotten.\nAutomatic \u0026ldquo;Out of Office\u0026rdquo; E-Mails Setting up good automatic out of office e-mail replies is a great way to share information with customers who e-mail you. To make them effective, your auto reply must give the customer all the information they need in a friendly and informative manner. Therefore, your auto reply should contain the dates that you are unavailable when you are back and information on what to do if the enquiry is urgent and can\u0026rsquo;t wait until your return to the office.\nSocial Media Updates As you would expect, most businesses are pretty good at posting their best wishes for the holiday season - they don\u0026rsquo;t want to appear as Scrooge or Grampus etc. However, posting information regarding opening hours \u0026amp; tips for customers who are trying to contact your business is something worth doing as it helps avoid customer disappointment. A great example is updating your Facebook Messenger auto responder.\nUpdate Your Google Opening Hours This is one of my pet hates - how annoying is it when you google a company for contact and opening information, only to find that the information hasn\u0026rsquo;t been updated and you\u0026rsquo;re left in the lurch. Updating your My Business google listing is simple and can be done in less than five minutes. Therefore, you have no excuses for keeping this information up-to-date and not just at Christmas!\nFuture Proof Your Business Communications in 2023 Looking at the holidays and beyond, for many businesses the Christmas break provides IT admins and phone system managers with the ideal time to plan and implement a number of optimisations. Once again, this year has been a year of change within the IT landscape with Hybrid Working, Cloud Communications, Mobile VoIP Apps and Video Conferencing all continuing to grow in the world of business communications. For many businesses, 2022 has been a consolidation year whereby they have been replacing the stop gap solutions they adopted in 2020 and 2021 with all-in-one solutions that they can rely on a permanent basis going forward. This trend looks set to continue into 2023 meaning that for businesses with lower call volumes and demand over the holidays can use this period to update and upgrade their infrastructure and solutions before 2023 kicks-off.\nThe benefits of adopting an all-in-one business communications solution are as far reaching as they are varied. Firstly, all-in-one solutions simplify your life in that you only have one platform to manage and your users only one app to use. This will also help reduce and minimise the threat posed by shadow IT. Next, if your boss loves fancy new stuff, they will love having the latest fancy stuff in one app. Plus, they will see a rise in employee productivity. Finally, your accounts team will likely thank you for reducing the number of monthly invoices they have to process which has the added benefit of making your decision look great on the balance sheet.\nSo if your business experiences a lull over the Christmas period, then this is the perfect time to try and test.\nUpcoming Events Regardless of whether you are a pascom customer, partner, or pascom mobile / desktop client user, January 2023 will provide you with plenty of opportunities to catch up with us as we hit the road running.\nFirst up, we have our regular monthly reseller partner briefing on the 11th of January. As a pascom partner, you will receive an email in the first week of January 2023 with information on how to register.\nNext, the 12th of January sees our weekly pascom BOOTCAMP webinars returning after the Christmas / New Year break and we can’t wait to see lots of pascom phone system customers, partners, and prospects joining us as we kick-off 2023.\nThe next pascom DIRECT YouTube live stream is scheduled for January 25th. If you don’t know about pascom DIRECT yet, it’s the perfect place for pascom desktop and mobile app users to get informed on all the latest new features, get questions answered and of course pick up plenty of useful tricks along the way.\nTo round off an action-packed start to year, you can meet the pascom team in person at the TAXArena expo in Hannover on January 31st, where we will be show casing how pascom ONE helps tax advisors, in particular DATEV users, upgrade their business communications.\nFor more info on pascom events, please visit our events page:\nhttps://www.pascom.net/en/pascom-events/\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here to help If you have any queries about pascom phone system features and how to use them, then check out some more Video Collaboration posts as well as our desktop client, mobile app and web client user guides listed in our documentation.\nIf you, your team, your colleagues, or customers could benefit from an effective all-in-one video and business collaboration solution, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\nWishing you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2023!\n","date":"December 20, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/christmas-2022-pascom-support-and-opening-times/","title":"Christmas 2022 pascom Support and Opening Times"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"December 6th, 2022 | Deggendorf, Germany - Throughout 2022, pascom employees have been out and about challenging themselves as a part of the pascom Get Fit Challenge. The goal has never purely been about self-improvement, as the team has always had another objective in mind - to raise as much money as possible for charitable and non-profit organisations that provide invaluable services within our community. Thanks to the team\u0026rsquo;s incredible efforts, the company is again supporting the incredible Kinderschutzbund Ortsverband Deggendorf-Plattling e.V. and the amazing work of the organisation to support children and families within our community who are in need.\npascom donation to the Kinderschutzbund Deggendorf-Plattling\rChildren are often unable to stand up for themselves and as a result children are sometimes overlooked and their welfare is not priotised as it should be. The Kinderschutzbund recognises that children are our future and its mission is address the issues and inequality that children face by primarily focussing on protecting the rights of children, ensuring their well-being and protecting them from harm. It is a challenging, yet essential mission that incredible team at the Kinderschutzbund never waiver from, regardless of the conditions they are confronted with, whether it be facing the devasting consquences of a pandemic or, as is now the case, the energy crisis and crippling inflation that has left many children exposed to a painfully harsh reality, the Kinderschutzbund are always there to provide much needed assistance, support and guidance as they work to ensure the well-being of all the children in our region.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO: When we made our annual donation to the Kinderschutzbund in 2020, our goal was to help those children and their families in our region who as a result of the pandemic, where in desparate need of help. Sadly, for many the scars have not faded and now we are facing the challenges of inflation and the energy crisis, both jeopardising the welfare and rights of children, which is why we have again decided to support the exceptional team at the Kinderschutzbund in Deggendorf to hopefully help them and their team of selfless volunteers provide some much need help, support and hope to those children and families who are in desperate need.\nGerti Iglhaut, Stellvertretende Vorsitzende Kinderschutzbund Ortsverband Deggendorf-Plattling e.V. Unfortunately, for months now the Kinderschutzbund has been receiving cries for help from families who are no longer able to pay their bills as a result of the rising inflation. Their money is no longer enough for food and essentials! With pascom\u0026rsquo;s dontation we provide quick and unbureaucratic help: we support the families with food coupons as well as vouchers for warm winter childrens shows. In our kids clothing shop, we are giving out warm childrens clothing to ensure they don\u0026rsquo;t have to freeze - for which we have to thank local families who provide us with regular donations of good quality clothing. The Kinderschutzbund also participates in paying for warm lunch time school meals, should the family no longer be able to afford it and would otherwise have to cancel school meals for their children. We are networked with social workers in schools, youth welfare offices and various institutions such as Donum Vitae and Caritas. Together, we discuss how we can help the families in emergency situation as fast and effectively as possible. At Christmas time, children in need can write to the Kinderschutzbund with their christmas wish list. The presents, which are worth approx €35) are wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper and given to the parents so that these children and also unwrap a present from Father Christmas on Christmas Eve.\nAbout the Kinderschutzbund Deggendorf-Plattling Our mission is to ensure the rights of children are recognised, protecting children from harm, helping families, providing support in emergencies, hospital visits and providing children with a safe, fun and enjoyable time together, for example by hosting kids festivals and organising family trips.\nwww.kinderschutzbund-deggendorf.de\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"December 6, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-kinderschutzbund-donation-2022/","title":"pascom Support Children and Families in Need With 2022 Annual Donation to Kinderschutzbund Deggendorf"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"pascom Make Donation to Support Grass Roots Football Clubs 06. December 2022 | Deggendorf, Germany As a young(er), dynamic team, sport is part of pascom\u0026rsquo;s ethos. Therefore, it\u0026rsquo;s hardly surprising that many pascom employees are actively involved in their local sports clubs, whether it be playing, ferrying their kids around from venue to venue every weekend or as is the case for a number of our team, volunteering as youth coaches and youth team leaders.\nAs a result, we have decided to reward those team members who voluntarily spend their time helping their local youth football teams by donating €1,000 per club from the proceeds of the 2022 pascom Get Fit Challenge to the G-Jugend (U7 age group) teams of SV Auerbach and DJK Grattersdorf as well as the F-Jugend (U9) team of SV Lalling - three local sports clubs where the three of members of team pascom can be found every week coaching and supporting grass roots football.\nWolfgang Egner, Youth Leader DJK Grattersdorf pascom donation to DJK Grattersdorf football club\rTobias Loher, Youth Leader SV Auerbach pascom donation to SV Auerbach football club\rHelmut Riedl, Youth Leader SV Lalling pascom donation to SV Lalling football club\rMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO: We\u0026rsquo;re thrilled to be able to support not only three excellent local football teams with our donation, but also have the opportunity to reward our team members who are heavily involved in the clubs. Traditionally, we have always looked to support Childrens Charities and this year it feels great to be able do that and simultaneously give back to our employees Seb, Werner and James who dedicate so much time and energy to their clubs every week. Let\u0026rsquo;s just hope that when their teams play each other, the rivarly stays on the pitch!\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom as the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over their organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse the workforce or dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom, our solutions and the pascom Team.\n","date":"December 6, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/supporting-grass-roots-football/","title":"pascom Supporting Local Grass Roots Football"},{"categories":["News","pascom Life"],"contents":" After the team stormed through in reaching the 20,000 point target of last year's Get Fit Challenge with 224 days remaining and hit 60,000 points at the end of October 2021, we've raised the stakes with the 2022 pascom Get Fit Challenge and set the team a much more challenging 70,000 points - a significant 250% hike compared to 2021. However, just like everyone else, we weren\u0026rsquo;t exactly sure how the year would pan out regarding the pandemic, so we introduced a tiered points system to build in different target levels to cover every eventuality. But we need not have worried as is typical for our team, the effect was resoundingly positive and the team pulled together and set about the task with the now typical #teamPASCOM spirit.\npascom Employees Rock The 2022 Challenge Starting in the cold of winter, the pascom 2022 Get Fit Challenge got underway despite the cold and still being in some form of Lockdown. Thankfully, that didn\u0026rsquo;t deter the more steely members of team pascom and snowy cross-country hikes were the order of the day.\nAs winter turned to spring, the situation improved significantly as restrictions were steadily eased throughout the first holf of the year. The result; the full force of team pascom got active and have well and truly rocked the pascom Get Fit Challenge 2022! We\u0026rsquo;ve had all sorts of sporting and fitness activities from Mountain Biking, Running, Hill Walking, Football and Skiing, to SUPing, Kayaking, Swimming, Yoga and even cricket! What\u0026rsquo;s especially great to see is that fitness sessions in the office have been held in the office gym and conference room for the first time since pre-corona!\nWhat this means is that as we crossed the finish line on October 31st, we had earnt a total of 75,000 points - a stunning effort which the whole team can truly be proud of. What\u0026rsquo;s more, these points translate a total of €7,500 being raised for donation to well-deserving, regional non-profits and charitable organisations that are close to our hearts. Furthermore and for the first time, we will also be supporting our colleagues in Serbia to make a donation to a cause of their choice, which is a reflection of how much they have grown as a team over the last 24 months - so stay tuned for more info on exactly who we will be supporting in the coming weeks, but in the mean time checkout this quick highlights reel of what the team has been upto throughout the year!\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Stand Out Performances Of cources there have been plenty of exception individual achievements, for example Leonhard Radonic (pascom Serbia) running the Ljubljana Half Marathon and and the Niš Business Run in Serbia. Massive kudos also have to go to pascom\u0026rsquo;s head of Accounts and Logistics Beate Weber who once again topping the table for the second year running, although this year Sebastian Damm and yours truly gave it our all to give her a run for her money.\nCompleting the Ljubljana Half Marathon\rCompleting the Nis Business Run\rBut what really stood out throughout 2022 is just strong our team spirit as pascom employees took it upon themselves to get active and out there together whether it be fitness in the office, riding to work, company events or organised events, which is clearly reflected in the Challenge leaderboard.\nGreat examples of this can be seen in the team\u0026rsquo;s participation in the Niederbayerisch Heimat Trails Trophy, the fact that the pascom morning Run Club has made a comeback, the pascom Serbia Ski Club hit the slopes and there have even been \u0026ldquo;Hybrid\u0026rdquo; BodyPump workout sessions including both presence and remote participants via screensharing!\nThe Heimat Trails Trophy The largest of the Team Events was undoutably the Heimat Trails Trophy (HTT), a regional sporting time trial competition in Bavaria. Spread across 6 locations and involving 4 sport disciplines, the Heimat Trails Trophy is organised by three local regional authorites and is designed to increase awareness of what the region as to offer and therefore boost adventure tourism, the 2022 event attracted over 4,000 participants.\nAs a 2022 HTT gold sponsor, pascom employees teamed up to form hiking, running and biking groups to compete over 5 different mountains (Brotjacklriegel, Rusel, Großer Pfahl, Großer Arber, and Almberg) as well as enjoying the route along the scenic Isar River Floodplains.\nA few employees even had so much fun that they repeated the routes multiple times often with different colleagues and to compete in different disciplines or simply to improve their time. That said, I very much doubt that many team pascom are looking forward to revisiting the stairway to Jackl, which drew a few explitives from certain members of the hiking group!\nSpeaking of the hiking group, team pascom proved their metal as they came a very respectable 9th place in the overal team rankings for nordic walking - and the resolve is already there to better this in 2023!\nWhat is the Get Fit Challenge? The pascom Get Fit Challenge is a company rewards incentive that incorporates employee welfare, employee engagement and corporate social responsibility in to a fitness challenge. The challenge runs annually from January 1st to October 31st and the goal is simple; to get fit and in the process earn reward points which are added to your individual and the team score.\nBut unlike other \u0026ldquo;Get Fit Challenges\u0026rdquo;, it\u0026rsquo;s not all about doing sit-ups or push-ups and earning points. The pascom Get Fit Challenge is designed to include everyone and focuses primarily on being active together and keeping each other motivated in order to achieve common goals.\nBut why did we design the challenge to be so? Because, by promoting working together in social and sporting activites, we are able to support the team in maintaining their physical and mental health which in turn supports everyone in the workplace, especially when we consider that there is still a significant amount of remote work going on as we move out of pandemic. It is with this thinking that we launched the challenge in 2021 and immediately saw the benefits as the monotony of the home office and winter lockdown was broken and employee motivation and engagement soared as evidenced by the team smashing the target inside of 3 months. It is for exactly for benefits like these that we decided not only to go again in 2022, but also to raise the bar even higher to really test the team\u0026rsquo;s metal!\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom as the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over their organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse the workforce or dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom, our solutions and the pascom Team.\n","date":"November 14, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-get-fit-challenge-2022/","title":"We raised €7,500 - pascom Get Fit Challenge 2022"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Friday 28th October, 2022 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading European provider of secure cloud-based Business Communication solutions, today announce the worldwide release of pascom ONE, the company's all-in-one cloud business communications solution.\nAs announced at the November 2021 pascom ONE German launch, pascom ONE is the cornerstone of the company\u0026rsquo;s vision and today\u0026rsquo;s announcement is a significant milestone in pascom\u0026rsquo;s transition to a \u0026ldquo;Cloud Only\u0026rdquo; telecommunications and collaboration solutions provider. The launch of pascom ONE outside of Germany is a major step away from the world of onsite PBX solutions and allows the company to strengthen its focus on cloud communications moving forward.\nThe worldwide availability of pascom ONE solutions ensures that all existing and new pascom customers are able to benefit from the greater flexibility, functionality and secure communicatons that pascom ONE phone systems have to offer. Existing customers can now effortlessly upgrade their solutions to the new pascom ONE using the ONE-Click migration tool. Meanwhile, new and prospective customers can now adopt pascom solutions assured in the knowledge that their business communication solutions are future proofed beyond the 2025 End of Support deadline for previous pascom solutions.\nThe pascom ONE global release also menas that the cloud solution\u0026rsquo;s per concurrent user monthly subscription is now available to all pascom customers and partners. By upgrading to pascom ONE, existing annual subscription customers will have the freedom to scale their pascom phone system exactly according to their business needs. Moreover, pascom ONE\u0026rsquo;s monthly subscription model provides customers with more financial flexibility and greater control over their telecommunication costs.\nFurthermore, pascom ONE includes free web meeting guest licences (5 web guests / concurrent user licence), meaning pascom customers will no longer require additional licences for web meetings. As such, the newly available pascom ONE solution elmininates many of the previous concurrent user annual subscription model\u0026rsquo;s most significant drawbacks.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO Expanding pascom ONE and launching the service outside of Germany is an exciting and vital step in our growth as a European Cloud Communications provider. Now all our customers are able to enjoy the advantages and flexible licensing pascom ONE has to offer. What\u0026rsquo;s more, by launching and making pascom ONE available across all our markets, not only are we delivering a far superior and more beneficial service to our customers, we are also streamlining out internal processes which in turn will enable us to deliver greater customer service and bring new, innovative features and services to the market much quicker which is obviously a win win for all our pascom customers and partners.\nDiscover pascom ONE If you have any questions about PASCOM ONE, our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help upgrade your business communications, then we are here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\n","date":"October 28, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-one-world-launch/","title":"pascom ONE Cloud Phone System Global Release"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"July 18th, 2022 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading Business Communications solutions provider, today announce the launch of the pascom Fair Flats, the company's new flat-rate Business Telephony offering for the German market. The pascom Fair Flats are the latest step in pascom's evolution as an all-in-one cloud communications solution provider and will further enhance the company's position within the German cloud phone system and collaboration market.\nFollowing on from the launch of pascom ONE and the addition of Business Voice and SIP Trunking services in November 2021, the new Fair Flat tariffs are a significant milestone as the company transitions into a complete cloud communications provider and will ensure that pascom solutions retain their competitive edge within the market as customers look to consolidate their telephony and collaboration solutions with all-in-one solutions.\nThe addition of flat rate SIP trunking tariffs will enable pascom customers to save further on their telephony bill whilst delivering extra financial transparency thanks to reducing the number of suppliers and monthly invoices. The four voice minute bundle options (S, M, L, and XL) offer pascom customers the freedom to choose the voice tariff that perfectly suits their business requirements and goals, whether per minute or as a flat-rate option. Depending on call volumes, by opting for a pascom fair flat bundle, pascom customers can enjoy an up to 66% reduction in monthly phone bill costs 1.\nAs the market trend toward all-in-one business communication solutions continues to strengthen, pascom\u0026rsquo;s flat-rate voice options will also offer significant advantages to pascom partners. With pascom ONE and the new Fair Flat options, pascom partners are well equipped to provide customer solutions that meet all the demands of the modern workplace for all business sizes. As such, the Fair Flat SIP trunking add-ons for pascom ONE offer pascom partners an additional revenue source and allow pascom partners to add even more value as they meet and go beyond customer expectations.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO Cloud telephony customer expectations have moved away from the simple PBX. Today, customers demand all-in-one business communications solutions that combine all their communications channels into one platform, available everywhere and all for an affordable monthly fee. With pascom Fair Flats, we now tick all the boxes from Business Voice to Team Messaging, Mobile Collaboration and Video Conferencing. In doing so, we have created a compelling argument for customers to choose pascom and pascom ONE.\nDiscover pascom If you have any questions about PASCOM ONE, our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help your business prepare for tomorrow\u0026rsquo;s workplace, then we are here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\n1 When compared to pascom per minute pricing.\n","date":"July 18, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-fair-flats/","title":"pascom Fair Flat: New Flat-Rate Voice Tariffs"},{"categories":["HowTo"],"contents":"pascom Client Profiles – What are they and what do they do? The pascom client profiles are a new presence management feature that we have added to the pascom cloud phone system desktop and mobile apps. The profiles tool has been developed to enrich the end-user experience and allows the more precise management of how, when and which device you use to make and receive calls depending on your workspace, schedule and even workload.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES By using the pascom client profiles, users can control how they appear online and automatically change their preferred device, team membership, and follow me settings for any number of different scenarios, such as working from home, or in a meeting or even on holiday.\nWhy should pascom users use client profiles? All the above could be done before, so why do we need profiles? Simply put, by using the pascom client profiles tool, a user can set up the profile once and then simply activate it each time they need it as opposed to having to individually adjust multiple settings each time their requirements change, for example, when they switch workspaces from the office to home office.\nWhat’s more, the business world has become extremely hectic and communication channels are more complex and varied than ever before. We work from home, in the office and while on the go. We call, we chat, we share files, and we jump into video meetings and possibly even send a fax now and then. For each of those scenarios, we use different devices such as softphones, mobiles, tablets, and the odd desktop phone. We also have different expectations on how all these workspaces, devices and channels should work in harmony and we all feel the same pain and frustration when things don’t work as we want or expect.\nThat’s where the pascom client profiles deliver real benefit to each user as they allow every pascom app user to customize and manage everything precisely according to them, their needs and their preferred way of working in any given circumstance, as opposed to having to work in accordance with some predefined, rigid out of the box template.\nHow to setup, manage and use pascom’s new Client Profiles feature Before we go any further, it is important to know that there are two default client profiles that are available to you: Available and DND.\nSelecting either one of these default profiles basically turns your devices on (Available) and off (DND). This may be what you expect, but for many users, this functionality is too simplistic, especially in the world of hybrid and mobile working. So, let’s look at how we can improve things and upgrade our profiles to really match our everyday work needs and to make things simple, we are going to use working from home and the office as an example.\nAdd a New Profile To set up a new profile, simply open either your pascom desktop or mobile app, access the settings menu and go to the “Profile Settings” section:\nNext, you will need to add a profile name - in our case “Home Office”. The profile name should be sensible and informative as not only does it tell you immediately what this profile is for, but the name is also displayed in the pascom apps to tell other users what your current presence/availability status is.\nAs we continue, you will see that you can choose a colour and symbol for your profile. Again choosing a colour that communicates your status effectively is essential, as it helps other users quickly identify what your availability is, particularly on smaller mobile screens. Our recommendation would be to use the colours “Green” for available and “Red” for unavailable. Similarly, the choice of symbol is crucial as it can communicate exactly what, where and/or how of your current workspace. For example, when working in home office, choosing the colour green and the house icon clearly shows that you are available and working at home.\nAnother great example would be to set up a meeting profile. In this case, our suggestion would be “red” and either the “DND” or “Meeting” icons to show that you are currently not available and do not want to be disturbed.\nGiven that the icon provides a visual reference to other users to immediately understand another user’s current working situation, the “Make icon visible to other users” is turned on per default. While we do not recommend doing so, there are certain scenarios where being able to hide the icon is important.\nIf you press the Save button now, your new profile will be available to select in the desktop and mobile apps. However, the reality is that the profile will only change your status and add a colour and an icon to said status, but will not change anything in terms of how you make and receive calls. For this, we need to add some actions.\nAdd Actions to Your Profile Adding actions to your client profile gives you the power to control every aspect of how you make and receive calls, from which device you use (FollowMe) to where you are working (workspace). With actions, it is even possible to manage the types of calls you receive according to your current situation. For example, if you are working from home, actions can be used to make your mobile your default device, GSM mode can be enabled if your home/mobile network connections are not overly reliable, and delays can be added for team calls to make sure you can answer them on your desktop softphone and headset etc.\nExample Home Office Profile Configuration Before we go further in configuring our HomeOffice profile, it is important to understand what each action does. For this purpose, a detailed explanation can be found in the define new action section in our pascom App User Guide.\nTo add an action, simply select the \u0026ldquo;Actions\u0026rdquo; tab from the top options and then press the \u0026ldquo;Add Action\u0026rdquo; button. If your client is not the newest version, the Add Action button will be listed below the Profile Name section.\nYour client should automatically update, giving you the latest in usability, functionality and security. So if your client is not the latest version, it means your admin has disabled this feature and you should speak to them.\nEither way, clicking the \u0026ldquo;Add Action\u0026rdquo; button will open the screen shown below and you can now work through the list from top to bottom or however it makes sense to you. For me as an experienced pascom user, the first action I would set up is to change my workspace to my Home Office. The reason I do it this way, is the following actions are specific to my workspace, so it helps me think about what I am trying to achieve with this profile.\nIf you do not already use workspaces i.e. Office and Home Office, we highly recommend doing so as it makes life so much simpler. Firstly, by working with workspaces, it is possible to assign devices to a workspace as opposed to a user. This enables features such as HotDesking which allows users to log in and out of a workspace and automatically take over all workspace devices. Moreover, we can also save more time in our profile configuration as well as we can ignore devices that are assigned to different workspaces.\nNext, I would configure my FollowMe settings to manage my devices. For example, I can configure my mobile device to have a delay. To do this, I simply choose the follow me action and select \u0026ldquo;Mobile\u0026rdquo; from the device drop down list:\nNow that my Mobile is selected, I can configure any ring delays according to my preferences. In the example below, I have added a 3 second delay to Internal Calls, and am about to do the same to External Calls (calls direct to my office number). I have also toggled Team Calls to off (Red is on), meaning I will not receive any calls on my mobile app that arrived at my extension DIRECTLY via a call queue (sales, switchboard etc). Colleagues will still be able to transfer these calls to me.\nMeanwhile, I can setup my pascom softphone app on my laptop will continue to ring as normal. This will ensure that both phones will not ring at the same time and provides extra comfort if, for example, I am currently helping the kids with their homework and don\u0026rsquo;t want two phones ringing at the same time being a distraction.\nIn the end, your configuration will look something similar to this:\nTo finialise your settings, all that remains is to press the Save button. This will save your profile as the associated actions, so that when you need to activate the profile in the future all you need to do is select it as you would normally change your online presence status: So that’s it, my perfect HomeOffice setup that works for me. However, should you need or want to, you can go even further. Options such as pausing or logging out of specific teams can be setup if, for example, you do not wish to receive calls via your company’ sales hotline.\nWe’re here to help If you have any questions about our new profiles feature, any other pascom app features or the pascom cloud phone system, then we’re here to help, so just drop us a line and discover how we can help your business prepare for tomorrow’s workplace. Call us on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with your 30 day free cloud phone system trial today.\n","date":"July 12, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/getting-started-with-pascom-client-profiles/","title":"How to setup and use the pascom client profiles"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems","Unified Communications","Mobile VoIP"],"contents":"Fixed Mobile Convergence, or FMC, is a telecomms industry term that essentially means being available on one number on any device, no matter where you are. Some might say, well that\u0026rsquo;s simple I have my mobile phone and in the private consumer world, your mobile phone number may well be just the ticket. In the business world, this is definitely not the case. Despite this, many smaller to medium sized businesses have tended to dismiss mobile Voice-over-IP (VoIP) and FMC as nice to have features, but not essential must have tools. However using personal mobile phone numbers for business is far from ideal in so many ways and this is why FMC has become increasingly important.\nSo let’s take a look at what it is, how it works and why FMC has become such an important part of any professional business phone system, especially these days with so many employees working from home and having to rely on personal devices.\nWhat Is FMC And How Does It Work? As mentioned above, Fixed Mobile Convergence describes the technology that allows someone to be available on one number independant of device and location. So far so good, but in practice things are a little more complicated, so let’s break it down:\nFixed refers to fixed-line, otherwise known as the traditional landline i.e. existing wired networks. Mobile clearly refers to mobile phones and mobile communication technology. Convergence means the merging of the wired and mobile worlds. At it’s core, the purpose of FMC has always remained the same - make people available on one number and in business, that’s your office number.\nIn it’s infancy, the concept of FMC was to converge fixed landline numbers with GSM mobile phone numbers, thus allowing people to make and receive landline calls via GSM on their mobile phone. With the advent of mobile Internet and as SIP / VoIP telephony became mainstream, softphone apps were developed and the advancements in technology opened a host of new possibilites. Voice over WiFi and Voice over LTE are not only excellent cost savers but also incredible efficiency enhancers.\nSo how does FMC work in the business world? Imagine you have the following setup: a desktop VoIP phone, laptop with softphone and a mobile (also with softphone). Firstly, a FMC enabled business VoIP phone system is required as this what connects all the devices and is where all the tech stuff happens. Without going into too much technical detail, let’s take a look at what happens with an inbound call to your office number:\nThe call comes in and the phone system tries to route it to your office extension by first calling the VoIP phones assigned to your extension. If the phone system can’t reach any of your VoIP phones because they’re offline or you don’t pickup, then the phone system can be configured to route the call by “transferring” it to your GSM mobile phone number. Your mobile phone will then ring, just like a normal GSM call and you can talk away. Obviously, for this to work, the phone system needs to know your mobile phone number.\npascom FMC Inbound Call\rNow let’s take a look at an outbound calls. Thanks to mobile VoIP apps, the need to make business calls via GSM is becoming less everyday. But lets say you don’t have a WiFi connection and there’s limited mobile internet available. Then, as is the case with pascom, you can select to make the call via GSM directly within the app. When you dial the intended number, the app starts calling a preconfigured number thats been setup on the phone system server for exactly this purpose. The phone system receives the call and at the same time, the app tells the phone system which number you are trying to call. The phone system uses this information to transfer the call to the intended number and simultaneously transcribe your mobile phone caller ID to your business phone number.\npascom FMC Outbound Call\rWhy is FMC Growing in Importance? Roll the clock back two and a bit years and FMC within the small to medium sized business market segment was mostly adopted for use by field roles such as sales or service technicians. The reason for this is that the majority of the workforce went to the office every day, sat at their desks and used their company supplied desktop phone or softphone. However, businesses were already under increasing pressure to adopt business mobile VoIP and FMC. As “Digital Natives”, Millenials and Gen Z aged employees are much more at home on their mobile devices and as they entered the workplace, the trend towards mobile working and mobile VoIP started to gain considerable momentum.\nThen, as we all know, the last 18 to 24 months happened and the concept of how, when and where we work was irrevocably changed. The switch from office-based to remote and hyrbid working practices saw businesses scrambling to stay connected. Without question, Video Conferencing stole the headlines, but it is technologies such as IP telephony, mobile softphone apps and business messaging services that actually kept teams connected and productive. For this reason, it is essential to choose the Mobile VoIP app and business phone system that best fits your overall business strategy and fulfils the following criteria:\n1. Consistent Identity From Anywhere, Anytime Anywhere, anytime means that employees are able to make and receive business calls wherever they are and not just when they are sat their office desks. You and your team will also be able to make calls to customers using your business number and not your mobile (cell) phone number. As you can imagine, this functionality was particularly useful throughout the COVID-19 pandemic as everybody switched to working from home and is great at helping employees strike a more positive work-life balance as they are able to separate their private number from their business phone number. Looking post-pandemic and to the future, location independant connectivity to the office will continue to grow in importance as employees push businesses to adopt more flexible working models.\nMobile First with pascom FMC\r2. Integrated Desktop Phone Functions, Mobile Convenience The requirements for the modern workplace have extended way beyond simply being available on your business number. To be truly effective, your mobile device needs to become a part of your business phone system. That means a mobile VoIP app that has the same funcitonality of desktop phones and desktop VoIP apps. Must have features including having the ability to make and receive calls on your office extension, see who’s available, transfer calls to colleagues, receive transfers from colleagues, and have the ability to start and take part in conferences. Having these features ensures that no matter where someone is working from, it will always be “business as usual” when they communicate with colleagues and customers, an especially useful benefit as more and more businesses adopt hybrid and remote working strategies.\npascom Mobile VoIP App Telephony Functions\rBut the functionality alone is not enough, they need to be user-friendly, otherwise employees will look elsewhere for tools that they find easier to use. Otherwise known as Shadow IT, these unapproved tools present a threat to productivity as information gets siloed in different apps and channels, making it harder to keep track off and this also creates a risk to data security.\n3. Security and Encryption Data Protection and Security have never been more important to both businesses and customers. While this has always been the case, the contents of your business calls must be confidential and that means two things. Firstly, calls need to be encrypted and secondly, they must be made using “company approved” devices AND channels. This is another excellent arguement for choosing an established business phone system vendor who’s offering includes native mobile VoIP apps. Not only will the calls be encrypted, you can rest assured that the VoIP services will be hosted in approved data centres.\nBeyond this, top of the range native business phone system mobile apps offer additional levels of security such as encrypted device onboarding (e.g. QR Code app pairing), and centralised password management. Moreover, such apps are operated using the same user-friendly workflows as their desktop counterparts, meaning users will quickly and easily learn their way around the app, ensuring end-user acceptance is far higher and reducing the risks posed by Information Silos and shadow IT.\n4. Reliable, Continual Service Business phone system service downtime is costly and not just in the sense of immediate lost revenues. Winning callers callers back who have lost trust after unsuccessfully trying to reach your business is hard and takes time - and its not just those callers, they will have told others. In order to prevent this, your business phone system and mobile Apps must be so robust that they are there when you need them.\nFixed Mobile Convergence and Cloud Phone Systems provide companies with an excellent business continuity tool to maximise uptime and deliver reliable service. For example, reliable Cloud Phone System vendors will host their VoIP PBX services in approved data centres and offer guaranteed uptimes. What’s more, they constantly monitor and manage their cloud services to ensure reliability and security, meaning your business phone system will always be up-to-date, protected and available. If this vendor also offers native FMC mobile VoIP apps, then your business will enjoy even greater protection as cloud-based mobile VoIP and FMC offer additional safety nets.\nFor example, should the office internet connection go down, yes your office’s connection to the phone system will be disrupted, but your office-based employees will still be available on their mobiles. Meanwhile external HomeOffice / remote workers will be unaffected and may not even be aware that there is an issue.\npascom Cloud FMC Business Continuity\rBut what about if you find yourself in an area with limited mobile Internet? Then the cloud phone system server’s GSM fallback will automatically route inbound calls to your mobile device via GSM and the app’s inbuilt GSM fallback can be switched on to make outbound calls using GSM, thus ensuring you and your team can keep going as if nothing has happened and without your customers noticing.\n5. Call Quality In-call experiences and the customer experience are essential to business success. Get it right and you’re in business. Get it wrong and well you know what happens. As first impressions count, you need to make a good one. Just like downtime and poorly implemented call flow management, poor audio quality will negatively affect how customers perceive your business. If call audio is garbled and constantly dropping in and out, then the opportunity to communicate effectively will be lost and your customers will move on to a business that they perceive as offering a higher quality of service. For this reason, one arguement against FMC and mobile VoIP that always comes up is poor audio quality.\nHowever, for much of the past decade this is simply no longer true. Quality of Service, vastly improved internet connections and improved HD audio and audio codecs, such as Opus, have all combined to become very good at delivering excellent audio quality even at low bandwidths. In fact, Opus is so good that mobile VoIP calls with the pascom VoIP app often sound better, louder and clearer than when using a HD audio enabled desktop VoIP phone of IP DECT handset.\nFocus On FMC Efficiency and Productivity Gains It’s clear to see that FMC and mobile VoIP apps have a lot to offer and will be critical going forward, but choosing the cheapest mobile VoIP app from the App / Play Store just to save on cost is not a long-term business solution. What’s required is a focus on the efficiency and productivty gains that your business can benefit from. Yes, technically speaking, it is possible to choose any old mobile VoIP app and somehow connect it to your business phone system, but what’s the point? Users who do this won’t be able to see if particular colleagues are online, on a call or currently otherwise not available. Phonebook searches won’t be possible and you can forget call transfers.\nThankfully, leading busines VoIP phone system software vendors like pascom have long-since offered mobile VoIP apps for Android and iOS that offer all the above. As is the case with pascom, our apps offer even more allowing you to transform your mobile phone into an integral business communications tool with all the calling, chatting and conferencing functionality needed to stay connected and productive no matter where you work.\nWe’re here to help If you have any queries about Fixed Mobile Convergence, the pascom phone system, the pascom app features and how they can help your business prepare for tomorrow’s workplace, then we’re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\n","date":"February 26, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/fixed-mobile-convergence-fmc/","title":"Fixed Mobile Convergence - Everything You Need to Know"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems"],"contents":"Your Smartphone as your business communications hub, is that possible? The modern workplace has transformed in to considerably more than an office desk and phone and your business communication solution must be up to the task of delivering all the flexibility and resiliency that is required to meet the expectations and requirements of modern business. But just how flexible can our communication really be in the future?\nOf course, connecting with colleagues and customers can be done with a simple phone call. However, the channels we use and the way we communicate have become much more extensive and more complex. Our business day is more stressful and packed full of meetings. I think it\u0026rsquo;s fair to say that all of us have had similar experiences of being of the go but simultaneously having to jump on to a video conference. Then things get even more hectic, a colleague needs an essential document, meanwhile you still need to check your e-mail to bring yourself up to date on all the latest developments and all the while toggling through a flood of different applications and tools. Such days are stressful, exhausting and becoming ever more common and we\u0026rsquo;ve all thought it; on a stressful day like today what I need, aside from a break, is one communication tool that supports all the demands of my everyday work.\nFlexibility, freedom and independance - that\u0026rsquo;s the modern way I am sure you\u0026rsquo;re familiar with the notion that customers and employees demand ever more versatility. The pascom Business Communications solution provides customers with an exceptional caller experience whilst simultaneously fulfilling all the needs of the workforce. Independant of your location, in HomeOffice, in the office and even on the go, all your essential tools are always available. The best part, all your business communication tools which can be found on your desktop PC, VoIP phone and smartphone have been packed in to one, user-friendly UCC solution app.\nChoices, choices - a problem that\u0026rsquo;s nice to have How, where and with what does one work today? This question is not easily answered. Some want to work from home, some in the office. Some users only want to use their brand new smartphone while others prefer to work using a headset and their laptop. And the traditional hardware telephone cannot be forgotten either. Then user requirements will change depending on where and when they are working. Some users may work from home a few days a week, while others, such as field sales, do not have a fixed workplace. As you can see, the choice of device is anything but simple. So why not make things simpler and let the user decide by making all their devices available at the same time?\nWith the pascom cloud telephone system, users can use multiple devices simultaneously while the phone system keeps everything synchronised. As such, the decision over which device to use when and where is taken away from the IT department and all the hassle of setting up devices is eliminated. As such, each user can simply choose their preferred device from their assigned devices. For those users who want more flexibility, pascom provides them with the ability to individually manage the sequence in which each device should ring and this per workplace, making it possible to have a different setup for the office and home office.\npascom FindMe FollowMe Mobile VoIP App\rIt is even possible to go a step further and provide even more flexibility and user comfort thanks to pascom\u0026rsquo;s smartphone Computer Telephone Integration (CTI) function. Similar to VoIP desktop phone CTI, this allows users to remote control their smartphone app from the comfort of their desktop app, meaning users can enjoy the flexibility of their smartphone when making and receiving calls combined with the comfort of the desktop for address book searches, chat and video calls.\nWork more productively with UCC tools Unified Communication tools are great and everyone has heard of and used at least one UC tool. Naturally, we\u0026rsquo;re talking about chat (Instant Messaging), which is ideal for quick, uncomplicate sharing of information, documents and images. But of course, there are many more tools in the UCC armoury. Video conferencing, screen sharing and online web meetings are used almost daily. Now imagine if you had to use a separate application for each of these UC tools, would this not be everything but productive and user-friendly. The pascom phone system unifies all of the above UC tools in one user-friendly platform, which is available on all leading Operating Systems and offers the same consistent and intuitive experience from your desktop to your tablet and smartphone. This reduces the need to switch between multiple apps and makes working together in a team a new experience every day.\nMobile Only - is it even possible? pascom FMC mobile app telephony functions\rIf we look back in the history of business communications and extrapolate the trends to predict the future, one thing is clear: the demand for more flexibility and mobility is growing stronger day by day. These days, smartphones have evolved into little super computers, which is why at pascom we have a vision of an office workspace that fits into your pocket.\nHard to imagine, right? Enter the pascom phone system, which delivers an identical twin of the desktop app for your mobile device, with which all your business workplace functions can be used even when on the go. That means no comprimises - all UC tols, Contact Centre functions, call logs, phone books, and much more, in one native mobile app for your pocket. On top of this, the pascom mobile app delivers the same intuitive user-experience and stands out from the crowd thanks to its exceptional audio quality and performance.\nDiscover pascom Call, Chat, Share, Meet and Fax in one app. With the pascom UCC phone system solution at the heart of your business communications, your business will benefit from a centralised, intelligent communications platform that gives you complete control over your business communications – no matter how diverse your workforce.\nStart your free cloud phone system trial today and experience first-hand what pascom can do for your business.\n","date":"February 16, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/smartphone-as-business-communications-hub/","title":"Your Smartphone, your Business Communications hub"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does All-IP mean? All-IP describes the transition to Internet Protocol (IP) based voice networks. Such networks use IP technologies in order to connect phone calls and allow users to communicate across their IP network. The process is similar to how computers connect and communicate using the Internet when exchanging information.\nThe term All-IP became popular in the telecoms industry when Voice Providers started switching off their ISDN networks in favour of SIP (Session Iniatated Protocol) trunks. That said, All-IP does not just refer to SIP trunking. The practice of deploying media gateways to connect ISDN and Analog networks to IP networks can (in theory) be referred to as All-IP, although the process of using Gateways is becoming less and less common place as businesses switch to cloud communication platforms.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/all-ip/","title":"All-IP"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does Analog Information Mean? There are 2 forms of information - Analog \u0026amp; digital. Traditional POTS telephones use analog transmission technologies. Meanwhile, modern IP based desktop and software phones use the digital form of information transmission.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/analog-information/","title":"Analog Information"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Asynchronous Communication? Within the field of telecommunications, Asynchronous communication is a data transfer method whereby the exchange of messages is undertaken without the aid of a synchronised clock or time source meaning the reading and responding is completed as schedules permit rather than according to a clock that is synchronised for both the sender and receiver or in real time. It is usually used to describe communications in which data can be transmitted intermittently rather than in a steady stream.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/asynchronous-communication/","title":"Asynchronous Communication"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is an ATA Telephone Adapter? ATA is short for Analog Telephone Adapter. An ATA device enables the connection of standard analog telephone devices to a digital phone system, such as a VoIP phone system, so that users can make phone calls over the internet. An ATA device is normally a small box device which has a power supply, an ethernet port and an FXS (Foreign Exchange Station) port as well as possibly an FXO link to other phones and the PBX etc.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/ata-adapter/","title":"ATA"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Audio Encoding? Audio Encoding is a method by which calls are signalled, setup and then broken down again using Audio Codecs to relay Audio streams over an IP network. The International Telecommunication Union has defined multiple audio codecs for use with H.323, which incidentally are all also compatible with SIP as this technology is codec agnostic. The various codecs in use today include:\nG.711 is 3 kHz audio encoded at 64-kbps. G.711 is PCM audio, the format used for voice delivery over traditional telephone networks and exchanges.\nG.722 is high-quality 7kHz audio in 48-, 56-, or 64-kbps streams. Two lower-quality, narrow-band revisions exist: G.722.1 encodes the audio at 24- or 32-kbps, and G.722.2 encodes at around 16kbps.\nG.723.1 is used for compressing speech at very low bit rates: 5.3- and 6.3-kbps.\nG.728 is 3.4kHz audio encoded at 16-kbps, but uses much smaller packet sizes (.625 millisecond compared to 37.5ms with G.723.1) to guarantee lower delays.\nG.729 is a newer voice codec that utilises 8-kbps streams and 15ms packet sizes. Two variations, G.729 and G.729A, are available and which differ only in terms of their mathematical implementation.\nOpen Source Codecs: Speex is an open source speech codec. In contrast to the G-series codecs listed above, it is not protected by patents. It encodes at variable bitrates, from 2.15- to 44.2-kbps.\nGSM6.10 is another open source codec, encoding at 13.3-kbps. At this time there is an unresolved patent dispute surrounding the codec, but is still supported by multiple software programs.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/audio-encoding/","title":"Audio Encoding"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is an Audio Menu? Audio Menus provide a verbal choice platform in the form of an over the phone recording. Commonly implemented within Automated Attendant, IVRs and Fax on demand systems, they prompt callers for their input and can instruct callers to vocalise and speak commands or use DTMF touch tone keys as input methods.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/audio-menu/","title":"Audio Menu"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What Are Audio Response Units? Audio Response Units (ARUs)are defined as computer telephony systems which combine voice store and forwarding technologies to playback pre recorded messages. ARUs can be implemented in both passive and interactive forms in that the passive forms playback messages and interactive systems will playback messages depending on caller input.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/audio-response-units/","title":"Audio Response Units"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is an AutoAttendant? Auto-Attendant enables the automatic transfer of callers without the need for an operator or receptionist distributing the calls. Many Auto Attendants will provide an options menu, such as press 1 for sales, 2 for support as well as offering callers the opportunity to \u0026ldquo;zero out\u0026rdquo; by pressing an option number (normally \u0026ldquo;0\u0026rdquo;) which enables the caller to speak to a \u0026ldquo;live\u0026rdquo; person.\nOften referred to as automated attendant, auto attendant, autoattendant, AA or virtual receptionist, Auto-Attendants differ from IVRs in that IVRs are a more advanced version of an Auto Attendant and IVRs serve a dual purpose i.e. call distribution and provide the caller with self-service options.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/auto-attendant/","title":"Auto Attendant"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is AutoProvisioning? AutoProvisioning is the name give to the process of onboarding IP endpoints onto a VoIP phone system. In the past, the adding of telephones to business phones system was a manual process, which become more tedious with every device added.\nThanks to AutoProvisioning, adding new devices can be done quickly and with little effort. What\u0026rsquo;s more, with a little bit of thought, it is possible to configure all the new devices that are to be added with a certain firmware AND a pre defined base configuration saving you loads of headaches going forward.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/auto-provisioning/","title":"Auto Provisioning"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is ACD? ACD is an abbreviation meaning Automatic Call Distribution. Within telephony systems, ACD systems often form part a CTI (Computer telephony integration) system and are implemented in environments which have high call volumes where callers do not require a specific contact, but rather the next available person. So in essence ACD systems are call queueing systems\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/automatic-call-distribution/","title":"Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What Does Bandwidth Mean? Bandwidth refers to the amount of data that can be transferred over a communication line/channel in a fixed time period. Expressed in bits (or bytes) per second (bps) within digital systems and cycles per second (or Hertz) when referencing an analog system.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/bandwidth/","title":"Bandwidth"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)? Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is the practice of allowing employees to utilise personally owned mobile devices (laptops, Tablets, Phablets and smartphones) in the work place in order to access company information, systems and applications. Occasionaly some times referred to as bring your own technology (BYOT), bring your own phone (BYOP), and bring your own PC (BYOPC), BYOD forms part of a companies mobility and mobile device management strategy.\nMore Information For more information on Bring Your Own Device and Mobile VoIP, here is a list of articles for your reference:\nMobile VoIP: BYOD vs CYOD BYOD vs CYOD: Which is Best? 6 Tips to sucessfully implementing BYOD and CYOD ","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/bring-your-own-device/","title":"Bring Your Own Device"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Bring Your Own Provider (BYOP)? Bring Your Own Provider is similar to all the Brind/Choose Your Own strategies. Sometimes referred to as Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC) or Choose Your Own Provider (CYOP), Bring Your Own Provider means having the ability to either bring your existing provider or choose the Voice provider that best suits your business requirements and then connect them to your telephony platform as opposed to utlising your phone system provider\u0026rsquo;s voice services.\nBYOP has been around even since before Cloud Communications became mainstream. As the VoIP telephony industry started to take off, developers of VoIP telephone systems were often reliant on 3rd party providers for voice transmission services while legacy phone systems often required plug-ins with 3rd party Unified Communications or Contact Centre solution providers. That said, Bring Your Own Provider has been growing in recent times, driven mostly by the switch from on-premise to cloud-based telephony solutions which offer companies significantly more flexibility, scalability and cost savings compared to legacy on-premise PBX systems and now become synonomous with the option of choosing a different voice provider to your phone system provider.\nBenefits of BYOP As mentioned above, BYOP has become synonomous with a business using a 3rd party voice carrier as opposed to using the voice services as offered by your phone system provider. In many circumstance choosing the all-in-one bundle offered by phone system providers is the right way go, but sometimes going the BYOP route makes more sense. For example, it could be the case that your phone system platform does not include voice provider services, or does not offer the coverage your business needs.\nAnother reason could be that you want to change to an all-in-one phone system provider platform, but are locked into a contract with your existing provider but do not want to or cannot afford to hang on to your old phone system because it is a drain on your resources. In this scenario BYOP makes perfect sense as it enables a so-called soft migration that means you can upgrade your phone system to get all those much needed extra features, functions and tools but continue using your existing provider before switching to your new provider as the contract ends.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/bring-your-own-provider/","title":"Bring Your Own Provider"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What are Call Detail Records? Call Detail Records (abbreviation CDR) are the data records that are automatically produced by a phone system, telecoms exchange or other telecommunications equipment. CDR records are produced for every phone call that passes through the system and contains all the data pertaining to that call, ranging from time, date, duration, source number and destination number. Of course, modern technology has evolved and modern CDR records can be much more detailed than the above example and can included further information such as the to be billed number, call type (voice, SMS etc), call status (completed, dropped etc).\nAs such, CDR records are an excellent tool for documentating call information for the purpose of call logging, call analytics, wallboards, call volume forecasting and of course billing. In fact, the wikipedia entry for CDR mentions that Call Detail Records are the automated equivalent of the paper toll tickets that manual telephone exchange operators used to write for international calls.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/call-detail-records/","title":"Call Detail Records"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Call Flip? Call Flip is a VoIP / cloud phone system feature that allows users to move live phone calls from one device to another, i.e. from desk phone to softphone app on your laptop or mobile phone.\nOften referred to as Call Pushing, the concept behind Call Flipping is provide users with extra mobility without having to \u0026ldquo;drop\u0026rdquo; the call or transfer the call to another colleague. Practical use case scenarios could be, for example, needing to move a call from your smartphone to your laptop softphone because your smartphone battery needs charging.\nThe opposite could also be true when for example, you are on a call in the office but need to leave, but don\u0026rsquo;t want to cut the call short because your in deep conversation with a potential new customer. In this case, simply \u0026ldquo;push\u0026rdquo; the call from your desk phone / desktop softphone app to your smartphone app and carry on talking.\nHow Call Flip Works Simply put, using call flip puts the active call on hold and then calls all the devices assigned to the user wishing to change the device on which to continue the call. Once the user accepts the incoming call on the new device, the held call is reconnected. In the past, each action in the process had to be done manually. Indeed, many VoIP phone system vendors still use the manual approach. However, as mobile working continues to rise, the need for a more user-friendly method has arisen.\nTherefore, thanks to the newest (2024) desktop and mobile VoIP apps, the process literally only takes a second. All the new apps now include a \u0026ldquo;switch device\u0026rdquo; button, which when pushed / clicked will call all the user assigned devices and once accepted on the new device, the call can then be continued on this device.\nReady to benefit from Call Flip and many more features? The pascom ONE cloud phone system is a complete all-in-one business communications solution. As a pascom customer, you will benefit from having access to 150+ features and functions, including CallFlip and many more features that make your everyday business communications more professional, more efficient and more enjoyable. pascom makes upgrading your business communications easy, so what are you waiting for?\nStart Your Free Trial ","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/call-flip-call-push/","title":"Call Flip / Call Pushing"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Choose Your Own Device? Choose Your Own Device or CYOD is similar to Bring Your Own Device(BYOD) but differs in that CYOD allows employees to choose from a selection of pre approved company mobile devices. This enables IT departments to gain greater control over data and network security whilst ensuring reliability and durability as well as compatibility with existing solutions.\nThe downside of CYOD is that it is more expensive for the company and more often than not, the company devices are not updated as frequently as private devices or indeed to the apps installed on the devices, meaning that it can happen that compatibility is only guarenteed in the short-term.\nRelated to CYOD Mobile VoIP: BYOD vs CYOD BYOD vs CYOD: Which is Best? 6 Tips to sucessfully implementing BYOD and CYOD ","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/choose-your-own-device/","title":"Choose Your Own Device"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Choose Your Own Provider? Essentially, Choose Your Own Provider (CYOP) is the same as Bring Your Own Provider (BYOP). If there is a difference, it lies in the circumstances and is a question of symantics more than anything. If we were to define Choose Your Own Provider, it would be BYOP but rather than bringing an existing voice provider with you when choosing you new phone system, it would be to choose a completely different voice provider to compliment your new phone system. A scenario where this is common practice is when switching from legacy ISDN voice services to SIP services and therefore also having to simultaneously change your phone system provider.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/choose-your-own-provider/","title":"Choose Your Own Provider"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Click-to-Dial? Click-to-Dial (CTD) is a VoIP function that integrates a users\u0026rsquo; web browser into their phone system, meaning they can make phone calls via the simple use of a shortcut key from any webpage or document.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/click-to-dial/","title":"Click-to-Dial"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is CLIP No Screening? CLIP stands for calling line identification presentation, more commonly known as Caller ID. The CLIP No Screening function is a provisioning mode which allows you to transmit any number which will not be verified by your provider when making external calls to the PSTN. This is not a standard behaviour and therefore to enable this functionality, you may need to contact your network provider.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/clip-no-screening/","title":"CLIP No Screening"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does Cloud Communications mean? Cloud communications refer to a communications solution that is Cloud hosted, normally by your choosen provider and are then made accessible via the Internet. When it comes to telecommunications, a cloud communications solution is normally deployed as a complete all-in-one solution encompassing Telephony, Contact Centre and Collaboration.\nCloud Communications Benefits Firstly, cloud-based phone systems are accessible via the Internet, they can be accessed, managed and used from everywhere. This ensures that you are your team can stay connected with customers and one another from anywhere as long as you have an Internet connection.\nSecondly, cloud-based communications are much simpler to deploy and access. The hosting, ongoing management and system maintenaince is done by your provider, freeing up your IT resources to focus on other essential business systems. Moreover, as your cloud communications provider is responsible for system maintenance etc, they will also offer levels of redundancy and guaranteed availability (uptime).\nThirdly, cloud communications solutions providers will usually offer managed services to ensure your business benefits from always having the latest in functionality and security upgrades and updates.\nFinally, compared to on-premise solutions, cloud phone systems and communications solutions are 100% software subscription based and therefore extremely scalable, meaning cloud communications solutions can scale inline with your company growth simply by adding or reducing user licenses. No additional hardware is required to deploy or scale the solution and as a software based solution, the life cycle of the solution is considerably longer than hardware based solutions, ensuring you and your business will enjoy a much greater return on investment long-term.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/cloud-communications/","title":"Cloud Communications"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What are Codecs? Codecs are either a device or programme for the encoding and decoding of audio streams. The word Codec itself is a combination of two words in that it came about through the shortening and combining of the words coder and decoder. Codecs are essential for converting analog information into digital information and then reassembling the information again. E.g. when making a telephone call via VoIP, a codec will encode your voice (analog) into digital and then decode it again so other callers can here your voice.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/codecs/","title":"Codecs"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Digital Technology? Digital technology describes how information is broken down into a series of digits which can then be used with computers and/or transmitted across networks such as the internet.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/digital-technology/","title":"Digital Technology"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is the Digital Transformation? Digital Transformation is a term that describes the adoption of digital technology by organisations and companies. The reason behind adopting digital technology can be varied, but common goals will include improving efficiency, adding value, promoting innovation through the creation of new (or updating existing) business practices and processes.\nIn fact, the digital transformation can impact every aspect of a business from operations to culture and customer engagement. As such, any business looking to digitally transform must first look at how they imaging engaging with customers and employees in the digital era and not just look to digital technology as a way of cutting costs and driving productivity. What\u0026rsquo;s required is a considered approach and taking the time to plan not only for today, but also for tomorrow and the day after and to consider how businesses, their internal operations and customer contact points will evolve going forward.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/digital-transformation/","title":"Digital Transformation"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM)? Enterprise Mobility Management (or EMM) refers to management of the increasing number of mobile devices and mobile technologies within an organisation. Emerging from the increasing trend towards mobile working and using mobile technology within the modern workplace (e.g. BYOD) have become more prevalent, the field has become increasingly important as enterprises attempt to reduce the risk that mobile technology poses in terms of exposing company networks and data through unsecured wireless networks and devices.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/enterprise-mobility-management/","title":"Enterprise Mobility Management"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is an Extension Number? In the world of business telephony, an extension number refers to an internal telephone line (and it\u0026rsquo;s phone number) assigned to a terminal (endpoint) that is connected to the phone system or PBX (Private Branch Exchange) and allows for the communication between internal users with the minimum of fuss and a no or low cost.\nTo keep things clear and simple, at pascom we refer to this number as a user\u0026rsquo;s internal extension number.\nSince the VoIP, the IP PBX and cloud communications have become mainstream for businesses worldwide, calling internal user extension numbers is normally free and therefore greatly reduces telephony costs, particularly for organisations that have multiple locations. All internal users need to do is dial the interal externsion number of the party they wish to call and the call is then transmitted via the IP network (i.e. company Intranet or the Internet).\nThanks to VoIP, it is even possible to connect remote workers and their telephones and configure these telephones to appear as it they are part of the phone system and to make and receive calls using their extension number. This set up is often referred to as an off-premises extension and refers to the device itself as opposed to the internal extension number. However, this practice is no longer very common and thanks to desktop and mobile VoIP and UCC apps, not really needed any more.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/extension-number/","title":"Extension Number"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is an Extension Switch? In the pascom phone systems, specific features and functions can be assigned an extension number and this number can be configured as an extension switch which can be used to toggle specific features and functions on or off depending on your requirements.\nIn other words, extension switches can be used to control certain behaviours within the pascom phone system.\nMore Information pascom Extension Switch Documentation ","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/extension-switch/","title":"Extension Switch"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Fax-to-E-Mail? Fax-to-Email is a useful little tool that allows organisations to better manage their faxes by being able to send them via e-mail and receive incoming faxes as PDF attachments direct in their (or a designated) e-mail inbox. Fax to e-mail also supports company reduce paper usage as well as providing a way of keeping digital records of their facsimiles without having to scan and save every document by hand.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/fax-to-email/","title":"Fax-to-E-Mail"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Find Me Follow Me? Find Me Follow Me is a telephony device management feature that allows users to control when, where and in which order their telephony devices should ring. With Find Me Follow Me users can adapt their settings to match the requirements of different scenarios. For example, when working in Home Office a user may wish to receive calls direct to their extension from colleagues and customers on both their mobile and desktop softphones, but calls which arrive at their office phone number via a team (call queue) should only ring on the desktop softphone. Find Me Follow Me also allows the user to ensure that while they are working from home, calls will never ring on their desktop phone in the office.\nIt is also possible to add delays to when a call should ring, helping users define the order in which devices should ring for each scenario. For example, if a user has multiple phones, they may not wish them all to ring at once and can setup a delay to match their preference.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/find-me-follow-me/","title":"Find Me Follow Me"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Fixed Mobile Convergence? Fixed Mobile Convergence, or FMC, is a telecomms industry term that essentially means the combining of fixed-line and mobile technologies to make users available on one specific number regardless of the device they use or where they work.\nFor the average consumer this is simple as they pretty much only use their mobile phones and many don\u0026rsquo;t even have a private landline anymore.\nHowever, the business world requires a different approach as customers expect to reach businesses on a single phone number or range of numbers and employees don\u0026rsquo;t like handing out private mobile numbers or having to carry a second \u0026ldquo;Work\u0026rdquo; mobile.\nUntil recently, many smaller to medium sized businesses have either dismissed mobile VoIP and FMC as either nice to have features or something that is for large enterprise and by association too expensive. However, this is not the case as the feature comes as standard with pascom and overcomes a number of issues for both customers and employees, meaning FMC has become is now an essential part of any business communications solution.\nThis might also interest you Everything you need to know about FMC ","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/fixed-mobile-convergence-fmc/","title":"Fixed Mobile Convergence"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does FoIP stand for? Where the \u0026ldquo;V\u0026rdquo; in VoIP means Voice, the \u0026ldquo;F\u0026rdquo; in FoIP means Fax over IP.\nSadly, that means we have not quite managed to get rid of the fax machine just yet. Actually at pascom, we\u0026rsquo;re pretty good at faxing, although we definitely do it the digital way. If you still want to connect your dinosaur of an analog fax machine, you can but you\u0026rsquo;ll require a so-called ATA Adapter\nEach pascom cloud phone system includes a virtual fax server and each user and/or team can be assigned with a virtual fax extension number. This means that pascom users, can send faxes directly from the desktop apps and can receiving incoming faxs as a PDF attachment thanks to Fax-2-Email.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/foip/","title":"FoIP"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is a Gateway? A gateway is point on a network that acts as an entrance to another network. For example, if you have an internet connection at home you will have a gateway that acts as the junction between your home network and the internet which makes sure your data packets are sent and received (routed) correctly. A media gateway, often referred to a gateway or VoIP Gateway, within the world of VoIP communications, is similar in purpose but different in that it is a translation device or service that converts digital media streams.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/gateway/","title":"Gateway"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does Hardware as a Service mean? Hardware as a Service referres to the operational costing model that sees a business renting or leasing their telephony hardware as opposed to purchasing them outright.\nTrue Hardware as a Service models will involve the hardware being leased over a fixed term period e.g. 2 years with the option of upgrading to the latest models at the period end when renewing the contract.\nHardware as a Service models have been adopted by hardware vendors, but are often most successful when offered in combination with another service offering. The most well known Hardware as a Service model offered in combination with another service are pay-monthly mobile phone contracts whereby the customer can upgrade their phone every two years.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/hardware-as-a-service/","title":"Hardware as a Service"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does High Definition Video mean? High Defintion video can be defined as any video that is of higher resolution and quality than standard definition.\nIn the film and television industries there is technically no standardized minium requirement, but most modern TVs greatly exceed the resolutions that we consider high definition when the term was first used and these days the generally accepted minimum resolution for an HDTV is 1280 x 720 pixels. Most content for computer and TV screens is shot in at least full HD (1920 x 1080) and there of course greater resolutions including 2k, 4k and most recently 8k.\nIn telecoms and collaboration, HD video is often used to refer to the quality of video that can be transported during a video call and is normally full HD standard. However, this is sometimes a bit misleading as video quality is not just dependant on what the codec can support, it is also dependant on the upload and download speeds of all participants.\nWhile it is true that both Internet speeds and connection stability have improved 10 fold in recent years, it is also true that it could be the case that in a video conference the quality may be crystal clear for one person, but jittery and lagging for other participants who may have lower bandwith and slower download speeds.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/hd-video/","title":"HD Video"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What Is HD Voice? High Definition (HD) Voice is a telecoms industry term that refers to high definition audio and speech quality when making and receiving calls.\nIn the non-telecoms world, HD Voice is most often referred to as HD Audio, so we have put the full definition here.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/hd-voice/","title":"HD Voice"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does High Defnition (HD) Audio mean? Orginally from the music \u0026amp; sound industry, HD audio refers to a method of recording music and audio using high bandwidths. Without getting into the complicated stuff, HD audio is recorded with a greater frequency and more depth to give the audio / music more clarity and a crystal clear sound.\nIn the telecoms industry, HD Audio can also be referred to as HD voice, wideband audio or wideband voice. The wideband variations are the correct terminology for telecoms as they focus specifically on telephony audio quality and have been developed to enhance speech quality and the clarity of prompts played within a phone system.\nAs with all audio quality, HD Audio is achieved using audio codecs, of which there are many. The newer codecs such as Opus are much more effective across a greater range of bandwidths at producing high quality voice - which is why we use Opus for all our softphone calls.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/hd-audio/","title":"High Definition Audio"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What Is Inbound Telephony? Inbound Telephony is a term used in telecoms to describe the direction when setting up a call. The term is often used by Voice Providers and Contact Centre operators to describe the services they offer.\nIn laymans terms, inbound telephony describes all the calls that you and your business receive from customers etc. To non-industry professionals, i.e. phone system users, the term is synonomous with inbound calls, incoming calls and received calls. In this sense, inbound telephony should also include Missed, Dropped, and Abandoned Calls in so far as these calls were made to you and your business.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/inbound-telephony/","title":"Inbound Telephony"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What Is Instant Messaging? Instant Messaging is the industry term used to referred to chat, either one to one or within as a group chat. Instant Messaging originally came to promience with SMS Text Messaging. However, as technology advanced so did Instant Messaging and now includes all forms or text messaging and can also be used to describe media sharing within a text messaging environment.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/instant-messaging/","title":"Instant Messaging"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Menu? Interactive Voice Response systems or IVR menus for short, are a phone system feature that allows incoming callers to interact with the phone system via their keypad (using DTMF tones) or through speech recognition. While it can be argued that IVRs are basically the same as AutoAttendants, there is a significance difference in that IVRs try to clarify what a caller is actually trying to achieve (get support, pay a bill etc) as opposed to connecting the caller with a specific extension or person.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/interactive-voice-response-ivr/","title":"Interactive Voice Response"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is an Intercom? The [Merriam Webster Dictionary](The https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intercom \u0026ldquo;Link to Merriam Webster Intercom Defintion\u0026rdquo;) defines Intercom as an electronic devices that enables one-way or two-way communication system that includes a microphone (one-way) and loudspeak (two-way) at each station for localised use.\nWithin the telecoms industry, the term Intercom stems from two words \u0026ldquo;Internal\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Communicator\u0026rdquo; (Communication). As such, the word intercom is sometimes and confusingly used to describe multiple scenarios.\nIntercom System In modern telecommunications, an Intercom System is a system that enables the communication between two internal points within a system, for example between a door entry system and the front desk of your company. Such solutions can also be deployed on car park barriers or car park ticketing machines etc.\nThanks to cloud technology, the two points no longer need to be localised or connected to a Local Network via VPN, as the communication data packets are now securely transported via the Internet between the two points.\nMoreover, thanks to Cloud and IP technology, modern Intercoms System are no longer limited to just voice, but also include Video. Choosing a IP Video Intercom is an excellent choice for door entry solutions on all business premise door entry areas, as it not only allows verbal communication between your office staff and office visitors, but also enables your staff to visually screen the visitor which ensures greater security.\nPhone as an Intercom Some IP phone vendors have developed a function that allows a user to broadcast a voice message to all connected IP phones and immediately activate the connected phones\u0026rsquo; loudspeaker to broadcast the message. Technically speaking the function is the same as an Intercom System, but to more than two stations. That said, in everyday non-professional language we would describe this function as an Intercom function.\nOther Meanings In mid 20th century telecommunications when phone systems required exchange services, the first phone in the system was known as the \u0026ldquo;Main Station\u0026rdquo; and all further phones in the system were known as \u0026ldquo;Extensions\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;Intercoms\u0026rdquo;. This practice no longer exists, but don\u0026rsquo;t be surprised if you find this information when searching Intercom Systems.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/intercom/","title":"Intercom"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is an Internal Extension? An internal extension is a device or phone line that is available inside of the telecommunications environment, for example a specific device or number that is used for internal purposes.\nAt pascom, when we refer Internal Extensions we are usually talking about the internal extension numbers assigned to each internal user or object (call queue / team etc). While some phone system providers operate in a similar way, in the pascom phone system the internal extension numbers are always assigned to the user (or objects) and never to a device. The reason we do this is is that it makes setting up things much simpler from user and device management to extension mapping (mapping internal extension numbers to external extension numbers otherwise known as DIDs). The only exception to this scenario is with fax devices and analog devices systems such as lift intercoms or alarming systems.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s more, assigning the extension number to the user as opposed to the endpoint ensures a significantly simpler configuration and use of functions such as our mobile apps, HotDesking tools and connecting HomeOffice location.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/internal-extension/","title":"Internal Extension"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What Is Internet Telephony? Internet Telephony is a term that describes making and receiving phone calls via the Internet.\nSometimes referred to as IP Telephony, Online Telephony, and Digtial Telephony, Internet Telephony actually refers to Voice over IP (VoIP) and you can find more information on VoIP here.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/internet-telephony/","title":"Internet Telephony"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is an IP Address? An IP Address is short for Internet Protocol Address and is a unique string of numerical values that are assigned to each device on a network for purposes of device identification. Depending on your network configuration, the IP address will look similar to:\n192.168.1.1 or Computers and devices then use the IP address in order to firstly identify each other and then to enable communication with each other either via the Internet, inside an internal network as well as on other networks (if they are available to each other).\nIP address can either be assigned manually or automatically. The recommended practice for smaller networks is assigning the devices automatically using the network\u0026rsquo;s DHCP server.\nFor larger, more complex networks it may be recommended to assign the addresses manually and group devices together according to type (PCs, Printers, IP Phones etc.). Providing you keep a detailed record of the addresses, it is easier to manage, control and troubleshoot any network issues.\nPrivate and Public IP Addresses There are different types of IP addresses, but most commonly people ask what\u0026rsquo;s the difference between Private and Public. A private IP address is the unique address that is assigned within a private network and ensures that all devices connected to the network can connect to and communicate with one another.\nThe public IP address is similar, but it is the unique address that identifies you / your computer to the Internet. It is used to ensure that all the information that you have been searching for can find you.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/ip-address/","title":"IP Address"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is an IP Phone? An IP Phone is any phone that uses the IP (Internet Protocol) to make and receive calls. Commonly referred to as VoIP Phones (Voice over IP phones), IP phones make and receive calls via the Internet (or Intranet).\nIP phones are considerably more affordable than older non-IP enabled devices. As such, they offer a far greater level of flexibility and scalability when it comes to a business communications solution, compared to the traditional wired PSTN phones which required labour intensive setup and therefore a significantly higher cost for a much lower feature set.\nBasically any standard desktop phones (an ATA adapter may be required), smartphone and tablet devices, and softphone apps can all be used to as a VoIP phone.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/ip-phone/","title":"IP Phone"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What Is The ISDN? ISDN stands for Integrated Services Digital Network and was developed in the 1980s at Bell Labs. It was developed as a worldwide standard for a digital communication network to transmit voice, video, data, and other network services via the digital aspects of the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network)\nWhile it found some uptake, particularly in specific localities, on the whole the ISDN was quickly replaced by faster, more high performing technologies such as DSL (Digital Line Subscriber). The ISDN also found some niche markets, for example, for small business digital connections whereby the voice lines were used to transport data including IP voice.\nThese days, the ISDN is pretty much obsolete and has been either switched off or is currently being phased out in most countries. As a result, most businesses have already made the switch to faster, more reliable IP technologies and are now enjoying the benefits of Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony and modern collaboration tools made available via the Cloud.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/isdn/","title":"ISDN"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does LAN mean? LAN stands for Local Area Network and is the IT industry term that describes a group of computers networked together in a \u0026ldquo;Local\u0026rdquo; environment.\nThese computers could be within an office premises and are connected either via LAN (ethernet) cable or more recently via WLAN (WiFi). However, thanks to Virtual Private Networks (VPN), the connected computers and network peripherals do not need to be in the same physical location as the VPN allows secure access to the LAN network via the Internet.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/lan/","title":"LAN"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is a Landline Number? The term landline number refers to a telephone number on the fixed-line phone network. Fixed-line phone numbers form part of the PSTN and are called landline or fixed-line numbers as traditionally they were fixed to a specific location such as a house address or office location and historically used the phone network over-land cabling to transmit phone calls, hence both names landline and fixed-line.\nSince the advent of VoIP and SIP technology, the name has stayed, but the reality is that landline numbers are no longer fixed to an exact location.\nLandline numbers are constructed as a series of numbers that make up a phone number and are used to identify callers and called parties to ensure phone calls are transmitted correctly. As a mimimum, a landline number will consist of at least three parts:\nCountry Code + Area Code + Phone Number + Extension Number For example, a landline number in London, UK, in E.164 Format (International Standard Numbering Plan for the worldwide PSTN) may look something like this:\nWhen dialling nationally, the E.164 numbering plan is not required and therefore the country code is not required. However, in this case the standard local formatting is required and therefore, the full area code must be dialled.\nSo the same number again would look like this:\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/landline-number/","title":"Landline Number"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is the Local Area Code? The local area code is a component of your landline (fixed-line) telephone number. As landline numbers are used as a unique identifier for each landline user, and the number of phone numbers in operation increased, a standardised format was developed to be able to increase the number of phone numbers that can be issued without making the phone numbers unbelievably long and complex.\nThe simplest way to achieve this was to break down geographical areas in more localised areas and assign a numeric identification to each area. This number then became known as the Local Area Code.\nAreas with larger popuplations and therefore greater demand for phone numbers where eventually broken down even further and assigned multiple area codes. For example, London as the capital of the UK was originally assigned \u0026ldquo;01\u0026rdquo; in 1958. By 1990, London had outgrown the possible combinations and was split into inner and and outer London with \u0026ldquo;071\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;081\u0026rdquo;.\nThis process can also happen nationally, for example in the UK in 1995 where an additional \u0026ldquo;1\u0026rdquo; was assigned to all area codes to ensure all area codes started with \u0026ldquo;01\u0026rdquo; which changed the London codes to \u0026ldquo;0171\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;0181\u0026rdquo;. This event is commonly known as \u0026ldquo;PhONEday\u0026rdquo;.\nIn 2000 and again in the UK, all the phone numbers were reorganised and London went back to a single area code \u0026ldquo;020\u0026rdquo;, but the \u0026ldquo;7\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;8\u0026rdquo; where kept to transform the area code to \u0026ldquo;020(7)\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;020(8)\u0026rdquo;. By 2019 more numbers were added to London, with \u0026ldquo;020(3)\u0026rdquo; in 2005 allowing for an extra 10 million phone numbers and \u0026ldquo;020(4)\u0026rdquo; in 2019 as the available phone numbers started running out again.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/local-area-code/","title":"Local Area Code"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is a MAC Address? MAC is the abbreviation for Media Access Control. Originally designed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), MAC addresses are unique 12 digit hexadecimal numbers and are used as unique as the unique hardware address of a network adapter or interface that help identify all devices on a network to enable communication between devices.\nAll MAC addresses are tied to the Network Interface Controller (NIC) which is where you physically connected a device to the network, i.e. via an Ethernet Cable or WiFi. The NIC is part of a larger device and is sometimes referred to as the Network Interface Card, Network Adapter or LAN Adapter.\nMAC Address vs IP Address While they are both addresses, a MAC address is a permanent address and cannot be changed. IP addresses on the other hand are dynamic and can be changed either automatically or manually. While it is true IP addresses can be made static, this change is not permanent which means IP addresses can be assigned to other devices on a network.\nHow Are MAC Addresses Used? The IP address is the network location while the MAC address is the hardware address. When communicating over a network, computers use both addresses to ensure the secured, correct delivery of data packets to the intended recipient.\nIn Telecoms, we use MAC Addresses to identify specific hardware such as Desktop VoIP Phones, ensure that they are provisioned with the correct base configurations and finally to route calls to and from these phones.\nWe can access and manage the phones on a network via their IP address, but in order to ensure we are managing the correct phone, we need the MAC address.\nLost? Here\u0026rsquo;s an example from something completely different As a simple example, you can imagine the IP address as your street address and your MAC address as your post code.\nIf you move one house up the road, your street (IP) address will change but your postal code (MAC) will not.\nIn the same way, moving to a different town BUT to the same street name and house number will keep your street (IP) address the same, your postal code (MAC) will be different.\nAs a result, the postal services can use both pieces of information to ensure that your post is delivered securely and correctly.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/mac-address/","title":"MAC Address"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is a Managed Service Provider? A Managed Service Provider (MSP) is a third-party solutions provider that remotely manages a customer\u0026rsquo;s IT solutions and systems. The managed service provider is responsible for managing the day-to-day aspects of the solution.\nIn telecoms, these services range from hosting to ensuring availability, deploying server updates, and performing ongoing maintenance tasks. Depending on the MSP, some providers also offer Support Services included within the user subscription in the form of Service Level Agreeements.\nBusiness of all sizes, especially Small to Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs), benefit from outsourcing their IT requirements to MSPs as it allows them a focus their business, freeing up resources and making them available to improve their offering, service without having to be concerned with system maintenance, downtime or interruptions.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/managed-service-provider-msp/","title":"Managed Service Provider"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is a Media Gateway? A media gateway is a translation device or service that converts (transcodes) digital media streams to enable connections between varying telecommunications technologies.\nWithin the VoIP world, the most common gateways transcode inbound communications from the PSTN (Analog/ISDN) networks and / or GSM networks into SIP (Session Initiated Protocol).\nSee Also Gateway Definition ","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/media-gateway/","title":"Media Gateway"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"Mobile Application Management (MAM) Mobile Application Management (MAM) refers to software (and services) used for provisioning and managing access to applications used by mobile devices on both CYOD and BYOD devices within the company\u0026rsquo;s IT infrastructure. As such MAM is a component of an organisation\u0026rsquo;s Enterprise Mobility Management.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/mobile-application-management/","title":"Mobile Application Management"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What Is Mobile Device Management (MDM)? MDM or Mobile Device Management is a term applied to the administration of mobile devices such as, smartphones, phablets, tablets and laptops within an company\u0026rsquo;s IT infrastructure. As such, MDM solutions will form a part of a company\u0026rsquo;s Enterprise Mobility Management Strategy and will usually consist of a 3rd party solution that incorporates management features for mobile devices. MDM is a more thorough method of mobile device management compared to Mobile Application Management (MAM) which is primarily more concerned with the mobile apps as opposed to the device itself.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/mobile-device-management/","title":"Mobile Device Management"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What are Mobile VoIP Apps? A mobile VoIP app is a software application for smartphones and tablets that enable users to make and receive VoIP calls directly via the app.\nAll-In-One Business Communication solution providers, such as pascom, will offer their own mobile VoIP apps for both Android and iOS. Choosing a native app as opposed to a 3rd party app ensures that all the functionality from mobile softphones to video conferencing and instant messaging. In this regard, such mobile VoIP apps are actually complete UCC apps for your mobile devices and can be referred to as Mobile UC apps.\nThe benefit of using your choosen providers native apps is that they will have been developed to ensure the full functionality of the solution is available to mobile users as and the apps will have been designed to offer the same user-friendliness and user-experience as their desktop applications ensuring user benefit from having the ability to work from anywhere.\nMore Mobile VoIP Articles pascom Mobile VoIP Blog ","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/mobile-voip-apps/","title":"Mobile VoIP Apps"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What Does Network Address Translation Mean? Network Address Translation or NAT is a method used to remap an IP address in to a different IP address. The process involves modifying the network address information contained within the Internet Protocol (IP) packet headers as they are transmitted over a routing device, e.g. a router. Commonly used to remap private network IP addresses into a public IP address in order to be able to access public networks i.e. the Internet.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/network-address-translation/","title":"Network Address Translation"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What Is The One Number Concept? The One Number Concept is often referred to as a Single-identity number, extension mobility, or single number reach and enables employees to make and receive calls from all of their devices (including personal mobile devices) using their office number no matter where they are.\nThis is particular useful for remote and homeoffice working as well as in open plan offices that use hotdesking. One of the main advantages of the one number concept is that remote workers no longer require company mobile phones or to use their private mobile phone number when making and receiving calls. This has a number of benefits from protecting employee privacy to reducing costs and importantly providing callers with a constant experience and single point of contact when communicating with your company.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/one-number-concept/","title":"One Number Concept"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What Is Online Status? The term Online Status describes whether a user (or device) is available or not. In Unified Communications and Presence Management, a user\u0026rsquo;s online status can be managed to reflect whether they are currently available, away, in a meeting (DND mode), or offline.\nWith solution providers such as pascom, a user can also configure pre-defined profiles as well as customise their status to show other users more information about their current availability, such as workplace, device etc.\nThe online status can also be used to show other users the availability of a user\u0026rsquo;s telephone. Green normally reflects online, grey offline, yellow ringing and red for in-call.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/online-status/","title":"Online Status"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What Is Outbound Telephony? Outbound Telephony is a term used in telecoms to describe the direction when setting up a call and refers to your business making a call to a customer etc.\nOutbound telephony describes all the calls that you and your business make to customers etc. To non-industry professionals the term is synonomous with made calls.\nThe term is often used by Voice Providers and Call \u0026amp; Contact Centre operators to describe the services they offer i.e. outbound routes or outbound call campaigns on behalf of your business.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/outbound-telephony/","title":"Outbound Telephony"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does POTS Stand For? POTS or Plain Old Telephone Service describes the oldest form of public telecommunications infrastructure and is based on analog signal transmission and formed the basis of the PSTN which was then advanced to include both POTS and ISDN and now SIP.\nAs a phrase, POTS has become less and less common place. This is mainly due to larger carrier networks focusing more on IP based communications combined with the increase in popularity of cloud-based business communication solutions. As a result, POTS is now historically important but as most businesses have already transitioned to their communications away from analog and ISDN solutions in favour of SIP and cloud, it is referenced less and less.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/pots-plain-old-telephone-service/","title":"POTS"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Presence Management? In terms of business telephony and communications, Presence is a status display in a contact list (also known as a “buddy list”) which indicates your availability status and that of your contacts. Thanks to presence management, it is possible to gain an instant overview of who is online, in a meeting, in DND mode or offline.\nThrough using presence information users who are connected within the same phone system or UC solution can immediately see whether a colleague is available or not. Rich Presence goes a step further and includes further information such as the state of a colleagues telephone, where they are working from etc., allowing users to see whether a colleague is on the phone, working from home and so on.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/presence-management/","title":"Presence Management"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is the PSTN? PSTN or Public Switched Telephone Network describes the collection of the world\u0026rsquo;s circuit switched telephone networks which are operated by national, regional and even local telecom providers (Carriers or Operators) and provide the infrastructure \u0026amp; services for public telecommunications. The PSTN can be divided in to two forms subscriber categories, POTS and ISDN.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/public-switched-telephone-network-pstn/","title":"PSTN"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does Quality of Service (Qos) mean? Quality of Service (QoS) is a telecoms term which describes the process of prioritising voice traffic over other network traffic such as downloads. This has the benefit of reducing packet data loss, thus improving call quality and reducing the dropped call rates.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/quality-of-service/","title":"Quality of Service"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does the term Remote Working mean? Remote Working is describes the practice of working away from the office. Since HomeOffice working became the norm in early 2020, Remote Working has become synonomous with working from home and Remote Working tools and policies have become extremely important to business communications.\nHowever, Remote Working has been around much longer and encompasses not just HomeOffice working as it includes all employees who routinely work away from the office workplace, for example, field sales representatives.\nIn order to successfully implement a remote working strategy, business will need to consider many aspects ranging from phone system deployment type, PBX security, Team Collaboration tools, web meeting/video conferencing requirements and mobile VoIP apps.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/remote-working/","title":"Remote Working"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does REST API mean? REST stands for Representational State Transfer which is a software architecural style based on Internet Protocol technology.\nAPI means Application Programming Interface and is the point where two systems can connect and interact with one another via the internet.\nTherefore, a REST API (also known as RESTful API) is an API that conforms to framework of REST architectural style and enables the interaction between RESTful web services in a client server relationshsip.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/rest-api/","title":"REST API"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is a Session Border Controller? Session Border Controllers, or SBCs for short, are devices/software solutions deployed within VoIP networks and are design to deliver greater control over the various media streams and signalling generated by your business communication channels.\nYou can imagine SBCs as a firewall for your cloud phone system. As such, SBCs control all the routing to your business phone system and in doing so they ensure both Quality of Service (QoS) and secure all your communication streams.\nIn order to truly understand what a SBC is, we first need to break down the terminology. In the VoIP industry, when we talk about a Session, we mean the duration of a media stream, i.e. the construction, transmission and break down of data packets within that media stream. For example, in a normal person to person VoIP phone call there are two sessions, one for each person in the call. The session can include multiple media streams including Voice, Video and Data (i.e. Instant Messaging \u0026amp; File Sharing)\nThe term “Border” refers to boundary where one network ends and the other begins, for example the edge of your corporate network and the outside world. Effectively, what a Session Border Controller does is sit at the border and acts as a checkpoint designed to support system admins ensure the safe and secure flow of information across these border points.\nBut of course, there\u0026rsquo;s more to a SBC than simply ensuring the secure border crossing for the media streams. The “Controller” aspect of a SBC is also tasked with managing all the streams in terms of authentication and access control as well as measuring and routing all the connections within their environment.\nMore Information Session Border Controllers Explained ","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/session-border-controller-sbc/","title":"Session Border Controllers"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is SIP? SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol and is a communications protocol for starting (signalling) and managing multimedia, including voice, video, and data, sessions between IP end points and is most commonly used in Voice over IP telephony systems. SIP consists of 3 distinct components:\nFirstly, there is Session Initiation, which as the term suggests, is the starting point of a SIP-based communication session.\nNext, we have the Session Description Protocol (SDP) which provides a description of the session, for example which codecs are to be used, which port should be used and so on.\nThe final part of a SIP session is the payload. This refers to the protocol for delivering content (voice, video, data), i.e. real-time transport protocol (RTP) / secure real-time transport protocol (sRTP).\nMore Information VoIP Guys: What is SIP ","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/sip/","title":"SIP"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is a SIP Provider? A SIP Provider is a telecommunications company that provides SIP trunking services to it\u0026rsquo;s customers. The term is often used interchanably with \u0026ldquo;VoIP Provider\u0026rdquo; although this is not entirely accurate. VoIP focuses solely on Voice traffic being transmitted via the Internet hence the name Voice over IP. In contrast, SIP trunking is a protocol which focuses on multimedia sessions i.e. Video, fax, and chat etc.\nVoIP calls can be transmitted without SIP when we are only transmitting voice. However, as soon as other data types are required, a different transmission protocol is required and this is what makes SIP an essential aspect of any business communications platform as it can transmit voice, video and more.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/sip-provider/","title":"SIP Provider"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is SIP Trunking? The term \u0026ldquo;SIP Trunking\u0026rdquo; is probably quite a familiar term to anyone who works within or is an enthusiast of the field of Voice of IP (VoIP) solutions. Until the late 2010s, the term was rarely used, but its importance was steadily increasing.\nBasically SIP Trunking is a technique where by an IP based phone system can manage numerous telephone numbers from one individual account.\nThe classical SIP method is characterised in that each end user device for each number requires its own account. In contrast, SIP Trunking makes it possible, to manage multiple extension numbers via one account.\nSince the ISDN shutdown in many countries, the transition to SIP and SIP trunking has seen companies and organisations around the world adopting SIP trunking services and reaping numerous benefits from lower costs to greater flexibility and scalability as employees can now be reached on the same number, on multiple devices without any complex call forwarding etc.\nMore Information The Business Case For SIP Trunking ","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/sip-trunking/","title":"SIP Trunking"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is a Softphone? If you have spent any time working with or looking into business phone systems, you will have undoutably come across the term softphone. But what is a softphone and how is it different from a regular IP phone?\nFirstly, a softphone is a software programme that runs on your desktop computer, laptop or smartphone and can be used to make and receive calls via the internet.\nHow to install a softphone If you have opted for an all-in-one business communications provider, chances are all you will need to do is install their app and your softphone will be ready to go. The benefit of this is that everything is immediately available in a nice, user-friendly application and no complicated softphone setup will be required on any of your internet connected devices.\npascom business phone system sotphone apps\rIf you are just starting out, make sure to look for a provider, like pascom, that offers apps for both desktop and mobile and make sure you are not reliant on any 3rd party softphone apps. The reason for this is simple, connecting 3rd party apps is always more complicated and troubleshooting them when even one of your providers updates something will cause many a headache down the line.\nHow are they different from IP Phones? In theory, there is not much difference in that both softphones and desktop IP phones as they both use IP technologies to make and receive calls, but that\u0026rsquo;s where the similarities end.\nBeing software based, Softphones are much more flexible and versatile meaning softphone users are to. All a user needs to do is open their laptop and connect their headset and as long as they have an internet connection, they can make and receive business calls from where ever they are currently working from. Mobile softphone app users have it even better, as they are available where ever, when ever they need to be and don\u0026rsquo;t even need to carry a headset around with them.\nA great example is remote workers in Home Office. Kitting out all your employees with a second desktop IP phone for their home office is expensive and often not practical as it relies on the employee have a LAN connection with PoE or at the least power sockets free and WiFi enabled desktop IP phones which cost more.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/softphone/","title":"Softphone"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does the term SOHO mean? SOHO is an abbreviation for Small Office/Home Office and categorises companies who generally have 10 or fewer employees, although in recent years this number has been refined to between 1 and 4 employees. Often privately owned or individuals who are self employed, SOHO companies are considered to be smallest of any business size.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/small-office-home-office-soho/","title":"SOHO"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does T.38 mean? T.38 is a real-time communications protocol that was developed in 1998 for the purpose of transmitting of fax messages over IP networks (FoIP - Fax over IP). T.38 works by converting the original fax message into a format that is compatible with and therefore can be transported over an IP network and is now commonly used on most VoIP Gateways.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/t-38/","title":"T.38"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What does TAPI mean? TAPI stands for Telephony Application Program Interface and is a standard program interface that is required to enable the cross-hardware communication between the phone system or telephone and PC computers. In essence, TAPI applications are used to allow you to operate your hardware phone directly from your PC, making receiving and making calls extremely user-friendly and optimising business work flows.\nOriginally developed by Microsoft and Intel, TAPI has become the standard for CTI (Computer Telephony Interface) applications that enable the communication between desktop applications and telephony hardware and has been further developed to support both IP telephony and Audio/ Video Conferencing streams.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/tapi/","title":"TAPI"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Team Collaboration? Team Collaboration is the term used within the telecoms and unified communications industry to describe teams working together within a business environment. Such teams work together in order to achieve common goals either as a department, project team or a customer account team. The team members can be either remote or on-premise, but usually will involve at least a hybrid mix of remote and presence employees.\nTeam Collaboration tools include instant messaging, group chats, group audio and video conferences, file sharing and desktop sharing as well as non-UC Telephony tools such as cloud storage, ticket management systems etc.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/team-collaboration/","title":"Team Collaboration"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What is Teleworking? Teleworking is an industry term that describes working from home thanks to having the ability to use the Internet to manage e-mails, calls, chat and collaboration tools. More popular in the USA, the term can also be referred to Work From Home, Work from Anywhere, Remote Working, and mobile working.\nFor Teleworking strategies to be successful, there needs to be a strong level of trust between management and their employees. This is achieved through open communication channels, the use of project management software, unified communications and collaboration tools such as presence, screen sharing and video conferencing solutions.\nAs a result of the Corona pandemic, teleworking became the defacto mode of working for knowledge workers and while many businesses have adopted a Hybrid Work model, teleworking remains extremely popular with many employees relucant to go back to the office full time.\n","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/teleworking/","title":"Teleworking"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"What are Unified Communications? Unified communications (UC) is a business concept that can be defined and described as the integration of a company\u0026rsquo; real-time and non-real-time (often referred to as unified messaging) communications tools including:\nVoice (Business Telephony) Instant Messaging Group Messaging File Sharing Presence Information Audio Conferencing Video Conferencing Web Conferencing Desktop Sharing Voicemail Fax Fixed Mobile Convergence Mobile VoIP Apps Contact Centre \u0026hellip;.. and combining them into a single interface (i.e. desktop \u0026amp; mobile VoIP apps) and makes accessing them simple thanks to the delivery of a unified user experience - i.e. user-friendly and comfortable to work with.\npascom business phone system UCC apps\rUnified Communication strategies are sometimes not limited to one product or service, but these days most UC phone system providers, such as pascom, offer a complete all-in-one communications platform that provide everything a user needs to call, chat, share and meet directly from their laptop or mobile phone.\nOf course these days, the way we communicate has changed which has lead to the evolution of Unified Communications and Collaboration or UCC. This describes the incorporation of team collaboration tools such as chat, screen sharing and video which previously required stand alone apps.\nWhat makes a good UCC solution stand out is ease of use. All-in-One Business Communication solution providers combine all of the above tools and more into one platform and apps for desktop and mobile. As you can imagine, packing all those features into an UCC app could make that app difficult to use and managing the platform extremely complex, so what makes a UCC stand out is the user experience that it offers from the apps to the admin UI. If these aren\u0026rsquo;t up to task, then the solution is not worth investing in as it will lead to more problems than it will solve.\nRecommended Further Reading 5 Reasons for Unified Communications What are Unified Communications Benefits of Unified Communications as a Service pascom Unified Communications Blog ","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/unified-communications/","title":"Unified Communications"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"VoIP Definition Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a method that combines numerous technologies to transmit Voice communication and data (multimedia) over internet protocol networks, such as the internet. Also referred to as IP Telephony, Internet Telephony, how VoIP works is an often asked question. Basically VoIP is a collection of hardware and software technologies that enables users to use the internet as a communications medium by converting analog voice signals into digital packets which are then transferred using the Internet Protocol based technologies such as SIP.\nVoIP offers numerous benefits, the most attractive of which is the potentially huge cost savings. Originally used for voice, IP technology has grown to incorporate other media and data streams such as Video, Fax (FoIP), Instant Messaging (IM). The combination of all these functions combined with the almost limitless integration possibilities VoIP and huge advancements in cloud has seen the development and massive growth of the Unified Communications (UC) solutions which have now become must have technologies and solutions for businesses of any size and industry.\nFurther Reading What is VoIP and how does it work ","date":"January 1, 2022","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/voip/","title":"VoIP"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"December 10th, 2021 | Deggendorf, Germany - As any sportsperson knows, working together effectively as a team is essential to success. This sentiment is true in all aspects of life but nowhere is it more so or important than at home, in your local community. In supporting \"Sportler helfen Sportlern 1997 e.V.\" (engl. Athletes Helping Athletes), pascom are honoured to be supporting a local charitable sporting organisation whose sole purpose is to provide invaluable assistance to local amateur and recreational sportspersons in need, whether through illness or injury.\npascom donation to Sportler Helfen Sportlern\rSportler helfen Sportlern focus primarily on supporting sporting individuals and their families from across the region who find themselves in need. As the organisation recognises, one of the most difficult aspects of their task is that the people who most desperately need help are often those who do not or cannot ask for help - a situation that has significantly worsened during the pandemic. Therefore, the organisation is totally reliant on community support in identifying such people and bring them to their attention.\nThe organisation recognises and operates under the principle that charity begins at home and traditionally work closely with sports clubs and local media to organise fundraising and awareness campaigns aimed at supporting individuals in need. However, as with many aspects of life, the pandemic has severely hampered Sportler helfen Sportlern\u0026rsquo;s fundraising and awareness efforts, creating a gaping hole in the organisations fundraising ability.\nFor example, a current campaign involves the heartbreaking story of a youth American Football player who as a result of a stroke, now suffers from Cerebral palsy. The family are now faced with considerable financial hardship in coming to terms with the everyday, from house modifications to suitable family transport.\nSportler helfen Sportlern have actively been pushing a media awareness campaign, but traditional efforts such a Benefit Tournaments that reach the community directly must once again be put on hold, delaying much needed help for the family.\nIt is pascom\u0026rsquo;s hope, that while €6,000 is a mere drop in the water, it will go some way to helping individuals across Deggendorf facing similiar hardships and helping them return to as much normalacy as possible.\nManfred Karger, 1. Vorsitzender, Sportler helfen Sportlern 1997 e.V. We were taken completely by surprise and were flabbergasted when we heard about pascom\u0026rsquo;s fundraising campaign and the amount of money being donated to our Friends\u0026rsquo; Association. In these difficult Corona times, we have not neglected our charitable projects, so we are all the more pleased that there are companies like pascom who are willing to help and support us. In order to be able to donate us this sensational sum of €6,000, what the pascom team has done throughout their Get Fit Challenge is a fantastic achievement in terms of both sport and community spirit.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO Throughout 2021, separation and division have sadly been the norm once again. Like people everywhere, at pascom we looked to sport to make the best of the situation. The pascom Get Fit Challenge was designed to engage with our employees, promote their physical and mental health. We wanted to create a positive atmosphere by actively encouraging competition, co-operation and solidarity, attributes common to sport. By setting the team the goal of getting fit and raising for charity, I have been blown away by the response from the team and I know that through supporting the excellent work of Sportler helfen Sportlern, our efforts will see much need assistance being given to those in our community who desparately need help, but are sadly all too frequently fall through the cracks or, as is often the chase, are too afraid or proud to ask.\nAbout Sportler helfen Sportlern Because need starts on our doorstep. As those people who are worst off don\u0026rsquo;t ask for help themselves and therefore we never hear about their plight, we ask for your help and support so that we can react quickly with much needed support and help.\nSince 1997, Sportler helfen Sportlern have been helping amateur and recreational athletes who through injury or illness are in dire need of help. The organisation\u0026rsquo;s support service are deliberately unbureaucratic so that help can be provided as quickly as possible.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"November 24, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-sportler-helfen-sportlern-challenge-donation/","title":"pascom Get Fit Challenge €6,000 donation to Sportler helfen Sportlern"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"November 24th, 2021 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading Business Communications solutions provider, today unveil the Cloud Only future of pascom business communication solutions with the eagerly awaited release of PASCOM ONE, a completely new pascom product. PASCOM ONE is a complete cloud-based business communications solution which allows customers to enjoy more performance, flexibility and cost saving benefits.\nInitially available to pascom customers and partners within the German market, the addition of SIP Trunking services serves as one of the most significant milestones in the company\u0026rsquo;s history and transforms the pascom phone system into an All-in-One Business Communications solution. Furthermore, adding carrier services to the already feature-rich solution creates an even greater, more beneficial value proposition and ensures pascom will further enhance it\u0026rsquo;s reputation and competiveness within the German market and further afield as plans to expand PASCOM ONE to additional markets are well underway.\nFor PASCOM ONE customers and partners, the new solution offers significantly more benefits and flexibility. The new VoIP services enable customers to benefit from provider consolidation and delivers more communications features and functionality directly without requiring 3rd party providers. Through access to all their essential communication channels available in one platform, PASCOM ONE customers will enjoy simpler platform management, lower administration workloads and reliable professional platform support.\nThe release of PASCOM ONE delivers an update to the company\u0026rsquo;s Concurrent User subscription licensing model. Designed to deliver greater flexibility and functionality, the same all-inclusive functionality is now available on a per user subscription basis. Compared to the previous user packages, pascom ONE customers now have the freedom to build their communications solution exactly according to the business needs. Furthermore, alongside the new SIP trunking services, each PASCOM ONE Concurrent User subscription now includes five (5) web guests per pascom Concurrent User licence, ensuring customers no longer need to purchase additional subscriptions solely for the purpose of Web Meetings.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO With PASCOM ONE we have transformed pascom into a complete communications solution. The new SIP servives are not only the next logical step in the technological evolution of pascom, but with PASCOM ONE we saw an opportunity to listen, rethink and improve. The new PASCOM ONE licensing is designed to offer our customers more services, more flexibility, more functionality and more performance. The introductions of per Concurrent User subscriptions, monthly invoicing and the 5 Web Meeting Guests per Concurrent User are excellent examples of how we\u0026rsquo;ve taken critique onboard and worked to overcome them in order to offer our customers and partners greater value and benefits.\nDiscover pascom If you have any questions about PASCOM ONE, our Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and how pascom can help your business prepare for tomorrow\u0026rsquo;s workplace, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\n","date":"November 24, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-one-release/","title":"pascom Launch New PASCOM ONE Solution"},{"categories":["Unified Communications"],"contents":"Messaging apps are great; they offer a quick, convenient and easy way to communicate. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that so many people rely on text messaging apps for their everyday communication. As for business communications, messaging apps can be an effective productivity enhancer, so it is no wonder that customers, employees and business leaders all want to adopt messaging apps as they look to upgrade how they communicate.\nThe problem is, personal messaging apps are just not suitable for the business world. To gain real benefit and add value, companies need to focus on effective collaboration. That means unified business messaging apps. And here is why.\n1. More Than Chat - Everything and Everyone In One Place As Adam Richardson writes in the Harvard Business Review, the problems facing businesses today are more complex than ever and solving them requires a diverse range of skills, perspectives and approaches.\nIn other words, businesses need multiple people to work together effectively to achieve common goals, an effort that requires an effective collaboration solution. Personal messaging apps are great for connecting friends but are inefficient at keeping groups of people on the same page as everybody has their own preferred app. In reality, not everyone will use the same app or have access to all the same tools, an issue that obviously makes it nearly impossible to connect, communicate and collaborate effectively and will eventually lead to app overload.\nWhat is best for businesses is a single, approved platform where colleagues can effortlessly connect with one another. Team collaboration and unified business messaging apps are designed to do just that. You log on using your work credentials, your whole team is instantly available to you, and everyone has access to all the necessary tools required to get the job done, from chat to team messaging to calls and video meetings.\n2. Shadow IT, Security \u0026amp; Data Protection Mixing business with pleasure will get you into trouble, which is where your business will be headed if you leave employees to their own devices and apps. In the IT world, the use of unapproved tech is known as Shadow IT and has far-reaching data security, data protection and productivity consequences.\nProtecting company data is essential and not only because data protection laws require you to. Your company data is also what gives you your competitive edge. When personal instant text messaging apps are used for work purposes, not only do businesses lose control over their data, employees will invariably choose app convenience over app security.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s more, the confusion that results from mixing personal and business messaging, employees will lose their overview and unwittingly make mistakes such as sending confidential information to the wrong recipient. All of these issues expose company data and pose security risks.\nA central business messaging platform that all employees can use will help ensure businesses retain control over company data. However, it\u0026rsquo;s worth noting that not all business messaging apps are equal. So it\u0026rsquo;s worth researching what security protocols are in place, where the data is stored and which features are included.\nBy choosing the right dedicated business messaging app, businesses can enhance security while employees can keep their work and private messaging separate, which has the added benefit of driving productivity (more on that below).\n3. Business Messaging \u0026amp; Collaboration Apps Enhance Productivity Information silos, where the flow of information from one system to another cannot be adequately shared, are bad for productivity. Without easy access to information, employees cannot perform their tasks to the best of their abilities. Unfortunately, no matter how hard anyone tries, they will always exist. Business leaders and managers must focus on minimising the risk posed by existing silos and preventing new ones from developing.\nUnlike consumer-grade text messaging apps, business messaging apps unify all the channels into one application. This ensures that no matter how information is distributed, it is readily available to all users as and when they need it. This is essential as it empowers project teams to work more effectively, which will enable them to complete projects quicker and to higher standards.\nWhen we apply this theory to the real world, the move to remote and hybrid working has created a highly dispersed workforce. Keeping dispersed teams productive has clearly demonstrated the importance of business messaging apps. As we look post-pandemic, their significance will only continue to grow as employees demand more flexibility and hybrid working becomes standard for knowledge workers.\n4. Flexibility Is Key To Effective Collaboration A 2012 Salesforce survey found that a massive 86% of employees blamed a lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures. While this survey is relatively old, it is not outdated. The underlying issues have not changed, as evidenced by the core takeaway from a 2021 survey being that of the 856 respondents, 80% of workers want to choose how they collaborate, i.e. via chat, video, audio conferences etc.\nFurther insights show that 76% of knowledge workers feel that effective collaboration positively affects company culture, with 50% believing chat and channel-based tools, such as pascom Groups, lead to less rigid culture, and 48% feel that such tools result in more effective project management.\nThis information is crucial as it shows that driving productivity can only be done with effective workplace collaboration. This requires the right tools, making them accessible to everyone and available on their preferred devices - something that is simply not possible with consumer apps.\n5. Effective Communication Affects The Bottom Line When we talk about productivity, we think about output. What we often don\u0026rsquo;t think about is efficiency, cost and quality. For example, a business can produce all the products it wants. If those products are of low quality, are manufactured using inefficient processes that then transfer into high costs, that business will fail.\nIf things change and efficiencies improve, costs will go down, the manufacturing process will improve, which will give the company a chance of success. But this doesn\u0026rsquo;t happen on its own. Positive change requires people to work well together, which requires trust. This can only be achieved with effective communication throughout the organisation, from top to bottom.\nGreat things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.”\nSteve Jobs\nBy creating, encouraging and optimising effective communication channels, business leaders can affect change and grow trust within the workforce. Given the right tools and work atmosphere, employee satisfaction will increase, which will promote creativity and more innovative problem-solving. In short, Input affects output and when the input is good, this will have a positive impact on a company’s bottom line.\nDiscover pascom If you have any questions about pascom\u0026rsquo;s Team Messaging and Collaboration apps and the pascom phone system and how they can help your business prepare for tomorrow\u0026rsquo;s workplace, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and speak to one of our experts. Alternatively, get started today with our free cloud phone system trial.\n","date":"October 26, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/why-are-business-messaging-apps-so-important/","title":"5 Reasons Why Business Messaging Apps Are Essential"},{"categories":["News","pascom Life"],"contents":"What\u0026rsquo;s Happening in the pascom Get Fit Challenge? Summer has arrived and gone again, at least for now, but the rainy weather hasn\u0026rsquo;t stopped Team pascom in their efforts to get fit and raise money for worthy local causes in the process. Since our last update in March when we had already smashed our goal of 20,000 points and €2,000 for charity inside of three months, the team have been out there running, cycling and logging all their efforts. The result of all this hard work, team pascom has cruised past the 50,000 points milestone and therefore now raised an incredible €5,000 and there\u0026rsquo;s still September and October to go!\nGet Fit Challenge News Before we start praising individual achievements, let me update you on some of the latest team activities and give a shout out to the bosses who have been working feverishly behind the scenes to motivate, engage and support employees in their efforts. Alongside actively encouraging and motivating staff, the pascom CEOs have been busy finding new and innovative ways to bring the team together as we continue our hybrid working strategy and allow team members to work remotely.\nAn excellent example of this can be seen in our participation in the Heimat Trails Trophy. Not only is pascom funding the entrance fee, the CEOs have also actively promoted and encouraged participation, scheduled event days, organised teams and transportation. In the process, the pascom C-suite has ensured that all individuals who want to participate can do so by planning all event days to take place during the working day, on the company time and dime.\nThe Heimat Trails Tropy So what is the Heimat Trails Trophy? Well, it\u0026rsquo;s a 4 part sport event that sees competitors compete across in one of four discipline (running, mountain biking, e-biking and hiking) across 4 well-known routes within the Lower Bavarian region of the Bayerischer Wald. What makes the trophy unique is that it is a \u0026ldquo;virtual\u0026rdquo; sport event designed to get family, friends and small teams of colleagues out in the fresh air of the local countryside. In the age of COVID-19 safe events, there is no big day with hundreds of competitors lining up on the start line. Instead, competitors must track their progress on their smartphone or watch, take a selfy at the finish line and then submit their times and pictures within the allocated time-frame within which each of the four courses have to be completed.\nStand Out Performers So on to the stand out performers. With a lead of over 3,000 points over her closest competitor, pascom Accounts and Logistics Lead, Beate Weber is leading the pack and it will take a monumental effort to catch her. From January to today, Beate has hiked an astonishing 1,244.1 km over 414 hours and 28 minutes with a total ascent of just shy of 41,000 meters and on top of that she does Pilates and Yoga as well - all I can say here is wow and respect!\nThe 4,000 Club Having been put firmly in our place by Beate\u0026rsquo;s achievements, it is now time to look at the best of the rest. Occupying second place and leading the 4,000 club is pascom CEO Mathias Pasquay who has amassed 4721 points whilst galavanting around Bavaria on his bike. Spots 3, 4 and 5 are currently occupied by Tanja Richter (Logistics), Jan Lorenz (Development) and Christina Dörr (Support), but with only 100 points separating them, these spots are up for grabs. The newest member of the 4,000 club is pascom newbie Sebastian Damm, who is well and truly on the charge. Having only joined us in February and not being able to participate much during his relocation to sunny Bavaria, Sebastian is now leaping up the table and leaving the rest of the pack in his dust!\npascom Get Fit Challenge August Top Athletes\rTop Individual Performances As far as stand out activities go, team pascom in Serbia are still dominating the rankings with their Skiing escapdes from earlier in this year. That said, when it has not been raining too much, the summer months have provided enough opportunity to get outside and enjoy the forest and mountain air.\nOne particular activity that caught my eye was pascom Head of Support Sebastian Cornely\u0026rsquo;s struggling to push a pram through the rugged terrain of Bad Goisern am Hallstättersee in the Austrian Alps - I am sure that there are plenty paths were this is possible, but the one he found himself on was definitely not one of them.\npascom Get Fit Challenge in Austria\rThe good news is that they made it and Seb has learnt his lesson and on the next trip, the scenary was much more welcoming and the going much more forgiving:\npascom Get Fit Challenge in Austria\rFurther mountain accomplishments include the boss taking on and conquering the \u0026ldquo;Münchner Hausberg\u0026rdquo; - The Rotwand. With it\u0026rsquo;s Via Ferrata, hiking trails and the countless waterfalls, the Rotwand is a bavarian favourite which offers routes for all nature enthusiasts, but standing at 1,884 meters, you have to be fit to get to the summit.\npascom Get Fit Challenge The Rotwand\rAside from trekking through the mountains, there has also been a fair amount of watersports going on including ocean and lake SUPing, kayaking, pedalo boat trips with the kids and even yours truly braved the cold temperatures for a spot of freshwater swimming.\npascom Get Fit Challenge Stand Up Paddling\rAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom as the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over their organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse the workforce or dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses to upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"August 30, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-get-fit-2021-august-update/","title":"pascom Get Fit Challenge 2021 - €5,000 Raised!"},{"categories":["Unified Communications"],"contents":"Traditionally, business leaders have held the belief that to be innovative and to collaborate effectively, employees must be in the office, working together in person. As such, it\u0026rsquo;s no surprise that business leaders are now considering recalling employees back to the workplace. But does this make business sense? Recalling staff back to the office is not without its challenges, there are a significant number of considerations to take and are we doing it just because that\u0026rsquo;s the way it has always been and we don\u0026rsquo;t know any better?\nPerhaps there\u0026rsquo;s a better approach, one that sees employees as people and only requires leaders to have better understanding of how employees collaborate, regardless of whether your business has a remote, office or hybrid working environment.\nIf we look more closely, most in-person innovation has traditionally happened by accident. That great idea during a coffee break chat and so on. This is not a reflection of leaders sparking innovation, but more something that happened by chance. Whatsmore, remote working throughout the pandemic has shown us that employees are just as effective if not more so when working from home, but only when there is design and structure to how individuals work together.\nIn other words, leaders need to understand how employees collaborate and intentionally create scenarios where innovation has a higher chance of happening.\nHow Employees Work \u0026amp; Collaborate Understanding how each employee works and collaborate with colleagues is critical in everyday business. According to Gartner, collaboration occurs either Asynchronously or Synchronously and how employees work together can be grouped into 4 modes of collaboration depending on whether they are colocated (Together Together \u0026amp; Alone Together) or dispersed (Together Apart \u0026amp; Alone Apart).\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s required in today\u0026rsquo;s remote and hybrid working environments is the knowledge of how and when to use each mode to strike the right balance to provide the best conditions for effective collaboration.\nUnderstanding Asynchronous vs Synchronous Collaboration Regardless of the working environment, all businesses utilise some form of Asynchronous and Synchronous collaboration. Recently, business leaders have placed great emphasis on synchronous collaboration, but effective collaboration requires both. How much of both will depend on the employee and how they work best - do they respond to team meetings or are they more effective as a lone wolf.\nWhat is Asynchronous Collaboration? Asynchronous communication and collaboration refers to people working together but independently of one another and often at different times and locations. Often this is due to geographical locations, time zones or the communication channel. Typical examples of asynchronous collaboration include e-mail and working with enterprise project management software platforms. We write e-mails, leave comments and upload documents to project tickets, but we usually do not actively work together at the same time.\nWhat is Synchronous Collaboration? Synchronous collaboration refers to people working on the same project at the same time. In the workplace, synchronous collaboration will see employees working in project teams together in the form of in-person brainstorming, team meetings and huddle room sessions.\nIn the world of digital communication, examples can be seen with phone calls, video conferences, web meetings and screen sharing sessions. In each scenario, employees communicate and collaborate at the same time.\n4 Modes of Collaboration As mentioned above, remote working and hybrid working environments will utilise both asynchronous and synchronous collaboration practices. Especially over the last 12 to 18 months, the tendency has been shifting towards synchronous collaboration as we strive to replace the lost in-person face-to-face aspects.\nTogether Together This is perhaps the mode of collaboration that business leaders instantly envision when they think of employees working together and that\u0026rsquo;s colocated, all in the office taking part in meetings and working together within a shared space.\nAlone Together Another traditional mode of collaboration, Alone Together sees all employees co-located in a shared space but not necessarily working together at the same time. This could be performing their daily tasks independently of colleagues or in the form of \u0026ldquo;office days\u0026rdquo;, as may have been the case over the past 12 to 18 months.\nTogether Apart While not new, Together Apart became a standard mode of collaboration throughout 2020 and remains so in 2021. Together Apart describes working in distributed teams but taking part in virtual meetings and collaboration sessions. Tools such as video conferencing, web meetings and screen sharing rose to prominence as businesses worldwide looked to keep their teams together despite the physical separation that home office working created.\nAlone Apart Again, nothing new here as it has been the standard operating mode for many an IT field salesperson or technical support engineer for quite a long time. In essence, this mode of collaboration describes a widely dispersed team with members working independently from the team. Due to the nature of this mode of collaboration, there is little synchronous communication between team members.\nWhich Mode Is Best? The short answer is none and all. Pre-pandemic, Together Together and Alone Together were probably the standard for a large number of employees. From a pure collaboration standpoint, requiring employees to come back to the office full-time just because that is how we\u0026rsquo;ve always done it, will likely cause resentment and not have much of a positive impact on collaboration. Likewise, staying fully remote and focusing solely on synchronous collaboration such as video meetings will create fatigue and hinder collaboration as employees end up going from virtual meeting to virtual meeting.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s needed is a measured approach that combines all modes of collaboration. That means analysing how, when and where individual employees work best and adopting a strategy that incorporates individual personal and technological needs. For example, The lone wolf will like Alone Apart. Meanwhile, the Team Player craves Together Together. Therefore, leaders must identify which methods and tools work best for their workforce and build a strategy based on these factors. But remember, to get the best results, leaders have to strike the right balance encompassing all modes of collaboration.\nIn my opinion, adopting a hybrid working environment for most of your workforce will likely make the most business sense as hybrid working enables the best of both worlds for both the employee and the employer.\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here to help If you have any queries about pascom phone systems, the pascom apps and features and how they can help your business prepare for tomorrow\u0026rsquo;s workplace, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\n","date":"July 22, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/the-four-modes-of-collaboration/","title":"Tomorrow's Workplace: 4 Modes of Collabortion "},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems","Home Office"],"contents":"Here in Germany, the mandatory work at home order has been lifted and as a marketing professional, a semblance of normality is returning to my job role. I am planning on-site events again, we will soon be re-starting our video tutorial series and yes this means I am finally heading back to the office. Such calls to head back to the office are getting louder - and not just from business leaders. Many employees are eager to swap their kitchen and dinning room tables for a proper desk. Despite falling numbers and increases in vaccinations in many areas, returning employees back to the workplace will not be as straightforward and it won\u0026rsquo;t be business as usual. Before we all rush back, companies and leaders need a plan in order to ensure that 1. they are heading back to office for the right reasons and 2. the transition is as smooth and safe as possible.\nWhile the finer points of an individual business\u0026rsquo; plan will be different, here is a checklist guide to what we think business leaders should, as a bare minimum, consider before returning staff to the office.\n1. Workplace Safety Employee health and wellbeing is crucical and employers must ensure that their workplaces are a safe as possible. With the COVID-19 pandemic, workplace safety policies need updating. It is also perfectly reasonable for employees and visitors to harbour certain fears about returning to business as usual, so clear guidelines, policies, and communication are essential.\nThe following list is intented to provide some guidelines to get started, but is by no means complete. While all elements are essential, legally the most critical element is to understand, implement and comply with local Workplace Health and Safety and COVID Laws.\nEstablishing social distancing protocols within the office Staggered breaks and lunch times to ensure not all employees are in communal areas at the same time Limiting the maximum number of people allowed in certain areas / offices / company cars Creating an in-office rotation policy to limit number of on-site staff Provide remote staff with the technology required to work remotely Moving workstations to create more physical distance between employees Centrally accessible documentation \u0026amp; floor plan to graphically represent social distancing measures and restrictions Testing \u0026amp; Contact Tracing Procedures Clarify self-isolation proceedures Implement office access control with Video Intercoms \u0026amp; RFID chips Implement and update testing requirements to enter the workplace Implement contact tracing policies for within the workplace Update stay at home requirements incl. non COVID-19 related illnesses Effective guidelines and communication channels for potentially exposed employees Personal Protection Equipement \u0026amp; Hygiene Protocols Provision of FFP2 masks or legally required equivalent for staff Establishing guidelines for when and where masks must be worn Personal hand sanitisiers and hand sanitation stations Establish ventilation protocols to ensure fresh air either through open window policy or air filters Ensure ongoing supplies, particularly for personnel with regular in-person customer contact - i.e. Technical Support, Field Sales etc On-site Customer Visits \u0026amp; Office Visitors Establish and safely direct traffic channels throughout the workplace Limit the number of onsite visitors \u0026amp; manage remote working to not exceed max allowed number of people within the workplace Limit Business Travel to essential travel only Use web, video \u0026amp; audio conferencing to limit number of in-person meetings Establish contactless pickup and delivery of products, post etc. 2. Return to Work Strategy A measured, phased in approach to recalling staff to the office is required. Enforcing a mandatory return to work strategy where all employees must return to the office on a certain day may not be feasible given the workplace health and safety measures above. For many employees, a mass return to the office may be overwelhming and could well be unsafe. That your business is considering returning to the office does not mean that other institutions are lifting restrictions. Therefore, employees may require extra flexibility with regards to childcare etc. Also consider employees may be shielding high-risk category family members.\nGradual Return to the Office Adopt a non-discriminatory approach to returning to the office i.e. by senority or department Establish a schedule to outline which employees need to be in the office and on which days Communicate with employees to establish plans for not only High-Risk category staff but also family members Communicate and support employees who require extra flexibility due to child care, family obligations etc. Consider employees who commute on public transport and whether they and other staff are comfortable with reentering the office If your offices are located in a business complex, consult with the building management on any additional guidelines such as stagged timings to enter the building.\nUpdated Workplace Health and Safety Training Train and brief staff on any updates to your workplace health and safety protocols Document changes and inform employees how and where they can access the policy Continually monitor government COVID-19 guidelines \u0026amp; restrictions to stay informed of developements Regularly communicate with employees to ensure policies are followed and inform them of changes 3. Remote Work Remote working has definitely been an invaluable tool in protecting employees and helping limit the spread of COVID-19. It has enabled both businesses and employees in many sectors to keep operating and therefore help prevent the economic impact of the pandemic from being far worse. Consider using remote work not only as disaster response tool, but as a long-term, productivity enhancing employee benefit and cost-saving tool.\nRemote Working Technology Evaluate your current remote working tools and update as necessary Provide employee training focussed on effective remote collaboration \u0026amp; tools Consolidate multi-vendor solutions with cloud based all-in-one solutions to boost productivity and save costs Implement project management enterprise software to remotely lead and manage dispersed teams Further Considerations Explore hybrid working to rotate office and home-office days Be approachable to employees who wish to continue to work remotely Consider any contractual changes that may be required i.e. contracts, work mobile phones, utility bills etc. Investigate long-term cost savings, productivity, and environmental benefits of permanent remote working 4. Business Continuity Plans The pandemic has highlighted the need for Business Continuity plans and many valuable lessons have been learnt over the past year. As we return to the workplace, now is the time to review, implement, update and document your plans for future disruptions.\nDocument The Plan If a Business Continuity plan didn\u0026rsquo;t exist pre-pandemic, now\u0026rsquo;s the time to implement one Establish a Business Continuity Team to plan, test and review Include Infectious Disease Control including the common cold and the flu Update any contact information and review dates to ensure ongoing accuracy Inform and train staff, test knowledge and response and revise accordingly Plan for Future Pandemic Disruptions \u0026amp; Restrictions Plan for future Stay-at-Home / mandatory remote working orders Plan for supply chain disruptions, particularly PPE and tech hardware Establish on-site staff rotation pölicies for essential office staff Plan remote working protocols and communication proceedures We\u0026rsquo;re here to help As mentioned above, the return to the office will not be as straightforward as many think. The above list provides a template from which to work from and highlights questions and aspects that business leaders must consider before recalling staff to the office. In all likelyhood, most businesses will want to adopt a hybrid working strategy. Doing so offers a comprise that will appeal to employers and employees as hybrid working delivers a \u0026ldquo;best of both worlds\u0026rdquo; approach to the modern workplace. Whatever approach you business adopts, agile communications will be crucial to its success, whether that be internally with your team or communicating externally with customers, suppliers and business partners.\nIf you have any queries about pascom phone systems, the pascom apps and features and how they can help your business prepare for tomorrow\u0026rsquo;s workplace, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\n","date":"July 5, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/return-to-office-working-guide/","title":"Tomorrow's Workplace: Back To Office Guide"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems","Unified Communications"],"contents":"Undoubtedly, remote working has been a success. It is fairly safe to say both employers and employees now recognise the many benefits of remoting working. Increased flexibility and a better work-life balance for workers, potentially lower overheads and expanded hiring reach are attractive to employers and businesses. That said, prolonged remote working has not been without its downsides, meaning calls from business leaders to a return to office-based working are growing louder by the day.\nThe Challenges Facing Business Leaders It is perhaps an understandable reaction after such a long time out of the office, but with remote working now the new normal, getting everyone back to the office will not be that simple. Throughout our Tomorrow’s Workplace series, we will discuss the reasons for and against heading back to the office, what workplace models are available and what steps leaders should take to engage staff moving forward.\nThe Problems of Going Back Firstly, businesses looking to get staff back to the office on a full-time basis will need to make significant adjustments to the physical aspects of their offices. They will need to ensure extra space for distancing, install hand sanitisers, improve ventilation, and implement building access control and logging measures. The list goes on and on, so check out this guide to returning to office-based working.\nBut there is another issue that many business leaders are overlooking or ignoring. A significant number of employees don’t want to go back to the office, at least not full time. People have become accustomed to not commuting to work every day and enjoy the extra flexibility this entails. Further to this, many commuters are saving significant amounts of money by foregoing the rush hour grind and have lots of extra time for themselves and their families.\nBy taking these benefits away, business leaders should expect push back from their employees. A good number of employees have never been so productive as they have over the past year. Meanwhile, other employees have had to make significant changes and sacrifices as they twisted and contorted their lives to stay productive to balance work, homeschooling and life.\nIf leaders exclude employees from the discussion, the reaction will be instant dissatisfaction, resulting in potentially lower output and higher staff turnover.\nSo Why Go Back to the Office? The reasons cited by business leaders range from reduced productivity and creativity to erosion of trust and company culture stemming from months of home office working. Interestingly, many of these concerns have been raised most vocally by larger, more traditional, and hierarchical organisations such as those within the banking and finance sector.\nNevertheless, such concerns are valid and, given the difficulties of lockdown, easy to understand. For example, employees with younger children or less space at home will have found remote working particularly challenging and may have struggled to maintain pre-pandemic output and quality levels.\nWhat’s more, people are naturally social. Even the most strong-minded employee will at some point struggle with the feeling of separation that comes from long-term remote working. And what about office chat, the source of creativity within a company? Remote working does mean opportunities for office chitchat are few and far between if companies do not find alternative channels for employees to connect on informally.\nTThen, there’s the issue of trust. Trust comes from communicating, connecting and being together. You instantly trust someone more when you see them every day, and in business, this applies to both leaders and employees. It is well-known that remote workers are often at a higher risk of “burnout” due to working longer hours, partly because it’s difficult to switch off and partly because they strive harder just to be “seen” to be working effectively, an effect known as Digital presenteeism. Presenteeism and Digital presenteeism is a serious issue for businesses that affects pay, promotions and more, so we will take a closer look in an upcoming post.\nThis all speaks for a return to the office and the way things were, but the question is should we?\nShould We Keep Working Remotely? Remote working has the potential to deliver considerable business benefits from lower overheads to increased reach and productivity. Remote working can help Businesses can save considerable sums in overheads in terms of lower office space requirements, utility consumption and so on. But does this saving automatically transform into greater profitability?\nThe Tech industry believes it can and therefore has a much more optimistic view with regards to remote working and are keen to promote the numerous benefits and see remote working playing an ever-increasingly important role in tomorrow\u0026rsquo;s workplace.\nWhy does remote working work for tech and not finance? Because tech companies are innovators and disruptive by nature. The whole company is structured around innovation and as a result have adopted applications, practices and a company culture that promote remote working, trust and collaboration.\nWithout remote working, big tech companies would need branch offices in literally every city worldwide to maintain their global presence and attract the best talent. Without collaboration tools, that talent and the dispersed teams they work with couldn\u0026rsquo;t operate as an effective unit and given the growth of the Tech Industry over not just the last year but also the past decade - it seems to be working.\nThe difference between Tech and Finance is their differing approach to business and this translates into individual strengths and needs being recognised and promoted as opposed to employees being pigeonholed to all work the same way, in the same place. As a result, there is a higher degree of flexibility and trust within Tech organisations which in turn creates a productive, creative and engaged workforce.\nSo Who\u0026rsquo;s Right, Tech or Finance? Unfortunately, both approaches are neither right nor wrong and here\u0026rsquo;s why: tech companies had significantly more remote working experience pre-pandemic and were therefore well placed to maintain productivity. In more traditional sectors like finance, employee level remote working was previously unheard of and such companies were therefore not well enough equipped either technologically or organisationally. So the approach you adopt will depend on your business\u0026rsquo;s technological and organisational capabilities.\nNaturally, there is a middle ground, which most businesses will likely look to adopt in some form and that\u0026rsquo;s Hybrid Working, a mixture of office-based and remote working, which will be the topic of one of our next posts.\n","date":"July 1, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/return-to-office-working-or-stay-remote/","title":"Tomorrow's Workplace: Remote vs Office Based Working"},{"categories":["Unified Communications"],"contents":"Workplaces around the globe are shifting towards digital at a rapid pace. With more remote work arrangements and international teams becoming commonplace, it’s no surprise that Unified Communications (UC) are becoming more prevalent. Research by Nemertes on the use of Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) reveals that 19.1% of all companies are already employing UCaaS. In fact, the UC industry is projected to reach a value of €65 billion (£55.97 billion) by 2024. And these companies are taking the leap because it’s a great way to maximise resources, both financial and human.\nUnderstanding Unified Communications UC is the integration of all business communications. In traditional businesses, workers use multiple channels to interact with each other and with customers. In a single day, a business uses e-mails, phone calls, faxes, and instant messaging – all on separate channels. With UC technology, they are all streamlined into a single platform so workers won’t have to keep shifting between different devices and software. Another reason why UC has become so popular is its benefits to the daily workflow.\nHow Unified Communications boosts productivity It makes files extremely accessible Sharing files through e-mails is time-consuming, not to mention impractical. Naturally, there would be a lot of back-and-forth. This poses a high risk when it comes to miscommunication, lost files, and confusion. UC comes with collaboration tools. The tools securely store files within the UC platform. Come time for sharing, files are transferred smoothly to recipients or collaboration groups. This gives instant access to anyone that needs it within the organisation, wherever they may be working from. UC even has screen-sharing capabilities that let the point person apply live edits. Coupled with video conferences, this simplifies the collaborative process immensely. It delivers visual cues, ensuring that teams are all on the same page.\nIt lets you refocus on value-adding tasks Establishing lines of communication usually takes several steps, but UC reduces this immensely. A guide on working from home by James Gonzales emphasises how new apps and technology enhance the way you do previously time-consuming tasks, particularly when it comes to collaborative work. With UC, you can reach team members quicker, and through whichever device you’re using. This cuts down on the time it takes to make calls or send files back and forth. It frees you up to do more value-adding tasks that can’t be automated, like tasks that require critical thinking or planning.\nIt allows for greater mobility The future of work is remote, or at least a mix of remote and in-person arrangements. As a Workplace Insight column on hybrid working reports, 53% of organisations are adopting hybrid arrangements (only 1-3 days in the office); and 14% say that they’re shifting to remote work completely. Luckily, UC has robust mobility features that keep teams connected no matter where they are. UC phone systems aren’t limited by physical spaces. They offer mobile communication dashboards on smartphones and online video conferencing tools. This ensures that team members are always available to each other during work hours, doing away with waiting times.\nIt streamlines different communication formats Business communication can come in different formats, especially when one end is outside of the organisation. Thanks to UC technology like the pascom business phone system and Unified Communications, you won’t be missing any important messages again. Its fax and voicemail-to-email feature, in particular, allows your business to be more intuitive. Even if you’re communicating with a client or supplier that still uses faxes or voicemail, they can be sent automatically to your e-mail inbox as an audio file. This means you won’t need other communication devices, as UC streamlines lots of different formats to the one that’s most accessible for your team.\nUnified Communications can be a game-changer for businesses, especially as you are entering a highly competitive digital world.\nArticle written by: Roanne Judson\nSolely for pascom.net\n","date":"June 17, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/how-unified-communications-can-boost-employee-productivity/","title":"How Unified Communications Can Boost Employee Productivity"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"April 30th, 2021 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading Business Communications solutions provider, today announce the successful completion of compatibility testing with Intercom company 2N, a leading European developer and manufacturer of building premises security systems. The new interoperability guarantees that 2N IP based intercom systems can now be easily integrated into the pascom communications platform.\nThanks to the recently released pascom Intercom Deluxe functionality, the 2N device onboarding process allows for a seamless integration that is achieved in a few simple steps. Once integrated, pascom phone system administrators can assign specific roles to individual 2N IP intercom devices making the devices accessible only to the permitted pascom users within the \u0026ldquo;role group\u0026rdquo;.\nFurthermore, the new interoperability provides pascom desktop and mobile UCC app users with the ability to view the 2N IP intercom camera feed and remotely control to entry system directly from their pascom app. As such, the new integration provides 2N pascom customers with the ability to fully incorporate their door entry systems into their unified communication workflows.\nJames Barton, pascom Marketing: Thanks to the successful interoperability between 2N and pascom, our customers can now add a further layer to their building and employee security. Having the ability to see who\u0026rsquo;s at the door and controlling visitor access direct from your desktop or mobile app is an excellent tool to have at ones disposal, particularly as we all come to terms with the new way to work.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom as the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over their organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse the workforce or dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more on pascom and pascom 19.15, please visit www.pascom.net.\n","date":"April 30, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-announce-2n-ip-intercom-interoperability/","title":"pascom Announce 2N IP Intercom Interoperability"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"April 26th, 2021 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading Business Communications solutions provider, today announce the successful completion of compatibility testing with Intercom company Telecom Behnke GmbH, a leading German manufacturer of building access \u0026amp; security systems. The new interoperability ensures that Behnke Intercom units can now be effortlessly integrated into the pascom platform to create a fully unified Business Communications solution.\nWith the release of pascom 19.15 and the new \u0026ldquo;Intercom Deluxe\u0026rdquo; functionality , the onboarding process for Behnke Intercoms is now extremely simple and straightforward. Furthermore, through using pascom\u0026rsquo;s permissions tool, \u0026ldquo;roles\u0026rdquo; can be assigned to each Behnke Intercom unit in order to increase device security. In doing so, each Behnke Intercom device can be made available only to users with the required permissions.\nBeyond the server-side integration, the new interoperability allows pascom desktop and mobile app users are able to receive audio / visual communication from the Intercom unit. Calls from Telecom Behnke intercom devices are routed directly to the permiited pascom users who using either their preferred pascom UCC app can immediately view the intercom\u0026rsquo;s camera feed, answer calls as well as having the ability to allow / deny entry to the office premise with a simple button click.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Sales: The new interoperability between pascom and Telecom Behnke is great news for our customers and partners who now have the ability add an additional layer of security and comfort. The server side configuration has been significantly simplified and by combining access control and intercom audio and video into the pascom UCC apps for desktop and mobile, pascom Telecom Behkne customers can easily integrate both solutions to create a fully unified, user-friendly office access control solution that is both functional and mobile.\nRalf Michels, Sales Manager Telecom Behnke GmbH: We are really happy about the successful completion of compatibility testing between Telecom Behnke and pascom. The integration of Behnke Intercoms into the pascom platform ensures a that our customers benefit fully unified business communications solution. The modular concept of Behnke systems fulfils numerous design and function aspects and allows for plenty of flexibility for bespoke implementations. The configuration can be adapted to match onsite requirements. Flexible systems such as from Behnke and pascom provide users with added value especially with regards to security and comport.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom as the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over their organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse the workforce or dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more on pascom and pascom 19.15, please visit www.pascom.net and read the full release notes:\n19.15 Release Notes\nAbout Telecom Behnke Telecom Behnke GmbH is a leading provider of Door, Industry and Emergency Call Intercom systems and offers a wide range of solutions to enable secure yet comfortable building access for every day purposes plus emergency and danger situations.\nThe Behnke Intercom range of models combine modern design with innovative functionality and can be seamlessly integrated into existing telecoms and data networks. The metal front cover ensure long lifecycles and vandalism protection even under the most demanding of circumstances.\nFor further information, please visit www.behnke-online.de.\n","date":"April 26, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-announce-telecom-behnke-ip-intercom-interoperability/","title":"pascom Announce Telecom Behnke IP Intercom Interoperability"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"April 20th, 2021 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading Business Communications solutions provider, today unveil further Unified Communications and Interoperability features available with pascom 19.15 business communications platform. The recently released 19.14 provides pascom users with yet more control over their VoIP devices as well as adding a new level of interoperability with Door Entry Systems.\nAlongside pascom 19.15\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;Mobile First\u0026rdquo; concept, the VoIP telephone has not been overlooked and desktop phone power users are now able to quickly personalise their desktop phones from the comfort of the pascom Desktop UCC client. The new user-configurable BLF (Busy Lamp Field) keys feature provides Snom and Yealink desktop phone users with the ability to customise their desktop phone line keys to their exact requirements whilst simultaneously eliminating the need to directly access and reconfigure phone settings. Furthermore, the new BLF key implementation has been so developed as to minimise technical knowledge requirements, making the new tools extremely straightforward to use, creating an even greater unified User Experience and simultaneously reducing phone system administrator workloads.\nA further upgrade is the new Door Intercom connector which enables businesses to incorporate on-premise door intercom systems as an additional UC endpoint for office-based users. Tried and tested on Baudisch, Behnke Telekom, 2N and Grandstream solutions, the new door entry integration is designed to enable IT admins to seamlessly connect and integrate any IP based Intercom system into the pascom phone system. By assigning office employees with the appropriate permissions, pascom app users now have the ability to answer incoming intercom calls, view live video / jpg streams (vendor dependent) and of course permit entry to office visitors all from the comfort of their pascom Desktop or Mobile app. Thomas Schmidt, pascom Sales: The innovation, interoperability and functionality that pascom 19.15 delivers is incredible and opens up a whole range of new possibities where pascom solutions will have a pivotal role in transforming how businesses communicate. Particularly in today\u0026rsquo; remote working environment, functionality such as the user-configurable BLF keys are huge productivity enhancers while integrating Intercom solutions into pascom will provide a huge asset to office based employees in terms of both office security and more importantly employee welfare.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom as the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over their organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse the workforce or dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more on pascom and pascom 19.15, please visit www.pascom.net and read the full release notes:\n19.15 Release Notes\n","date":"April 20, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/unified-interoperability-with-pascom-19.15/","title":"Unified Interoperability with pascom 19.15"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"April 14th, 2021 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading Business Communications solutions provider, today announce the release of pascom 19.15, the lastest version of the company\u0026rsquo; business communications platform. The newly available pascom 19.15 delivers a wide spectrum of enhancments with particular focus on team collaboration and mobile communication.\npascom 19.15 builds on the company\u0026rsquo; comprehensive set of Unified Communication and Collaboration functionality with a number of new feature enhancements designed to provide pascom app users with an enriched user experience (UX).\nThe latest pascom 19.15 update and the v71 app release also combine to deliver an anywhere, anytime communications experience by bringing file sharing capabilites to the pascom Groups, the pascom Web App and the iOS and Android mobile apps. What\u0026rsquo;s more, the latest release provides further UX improvements thanks to file transfers now being directly visible within pascom chats, thus providing users with a unified messaging tool for chat and file sharing.\npascom 19.15\u0026rsquo;s focus on mobile communication delivers significant advancements for the \u0026ldquo;Mobile First\u0026rdquo; user which allow the user to setup their smartphone or tablet as their preferred device for making and receiving calls. An extra level of usability comfort has also been added thanks to desktop mobile device CTI functionality which enables pascom desktop client users to remote control their pascom mobile UC apps and therefore benefit from the best of both worlds.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Sales: pascom 19.15 packs a hefty punch in terms of new features, tools and possiblities. I particularly like the concept of \u0026ldquo;mobile first\u0026rdquo; as it means users are no longer tied to their desk phone or headset range. By all conventions, I was a power desktop phone user, but not anymore. The shift to remote working means the comfort, freedom and flexibility that the mobile offers is what\u0026rsquo;s needed. Coupled with all the upgrades to our file sharing tools, the pascom mobile and desktop apps deliver all the tools one could need to stay connected and work from anywhere.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom as the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over their organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse the workforce or dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more on pascom and pascom 19.15, please visit www.pascom.net and read the full release notes:\n19.15 Release Notes\n","date":"April 14, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/mobile-first-with-pascom-19.15/","title":"Mobile First with pascom 19.15"},{"categories":["News","pascom Life"],"contents":"Misson Accomplished!? It\u0026rsquo;s late evening on Saturday 20th March 2021 and the pascom team needs just 9 points to hit our goal. The day so far has been a hive of activity. The pascom team has been out running, hiking, cycling, rowing, walking the dog, doing Yoga and Gymnastics and even chopping logs. So as tempted as I was to get us over the line by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Donate a Cake\u0026rdquo; button, it would have felt like cheating. It would have been quick and easy to do, but it would not have been a fair reflection of Team pascom\u0026rsquo; accomplishments thus far. Even though it is within the rules, it would have been a cop-out. But later that evening, the 20k points were in the bank. So does this mean that it is Misson Accomplished? No, far from it.\nThrough sweat, hard work and possibly even tears, Team pascom has pulled together and have so far raised over €2,000 for charity - something the whole team can be proud of. What\u0026rsquo;s more, the team have earnt themselves a little bonus as part of pascom\u0026rsquo;s employee engagement programme. But now the real work starts, from here on out employee motivation relies purely on the knowledge that by getting fit they will not only help themselves personally but also their efforts will be converted into real-world help for those in need within our community.\nTop Athletes Before we get into what\u0026rsquo;s next for Team pascom and the Get Fit Challenge 2021, it is time to reflect on the past two and a bit months and celebrate the star performers and activities.\nWhile it might all look and sound like that Team pascom have just been having fun, that\u0026rsquo;s sort of the point, especially as the Team in Germany approaches 6 months in Lockdown. Which is why the focus of the pascom Get Fit Challenge is keeping employee engagement and motivation high AND investing in our community.\npascom Get Fit Challenge Top Athletes\rA quick look at the leaderboard paints a clear picture: the challenge is having the desired effect and there are many employees performances to be celebrated. So let\u0026rsquo;s start with some superstar performers.\nThe 2000 Club Standing out head and shoulders above the rest of the team, special accolades must be given to the 2,000 club - 3 ladies whose efforts have been phenomenal. Way out in front and putting the rest of us to shame is Beate Weber (pascom Accounts and Logistics Team Lead) who is now just 99 points shy of 3,000. Meanwhile, Tanja Richter (pascom Accounts and Logistics) and Christina Dörr (pascom Support) are leading the rest of the pack with 2289 and 2014 points respectively.\nFollowing closely behind is Jan Lorenz (pascom Dev Team) who is set to join the 2,000 club while pascom CEO Mathias Pasquay is catching up having joined the 1,000 club this morning. At this point, it\u0026rsquo;s worth noting that not a single one of their fitness activities makes it into the top 10 activities list, which just goes to prove that consistency and routine are just as important to success as mammoth activities.\nTop Activities Speaking of spectacular individual activities, there have been a few and Team pascom in Serbia are dominating the Top Activities list. The team in Serbia definitely used the wintery weather to good effect as they took to the slopes for a spot of Alpine Skiing.\nMy personal favourite comes from pascom Serbia CEO, Stefan Tosic, who took to the slopes to Ski Jahorina which was the venue for the Women\u0026rsquo;s Alpine Skiing in the 1984 Winter Olympics - that\u0026rsquo;s just cool!\npascom Get Fit Challenge in Jahorina\rMeanwhile Leonhard Radonic\u0026rsquo; (pascom Dev Team) trip to the mountain resort of Kopaonik comes in as a very very close second, I mean that view is just special.\npascom Get Fit Challenge Kopaonik Mountain\rWhat\u0026rsquo;s Next? We may have smashed our goal of 20,000 points by a swashbuckling 224 days but as evidenced by the continued engagement from the pascom team our mission is far from over. Congratulations have been shared in the pascom Get Fit Challenge Chat Group but the message is simple:\nWe have only just started, we need to do more, go further, run harder, ride longer as part of our charity drive and support our community as much as we possibly can.\npascom Chat Get Fit Challenge\rThe dashboard has already been updated and we\u0026rsquo;re back in the red zone in terms of points accumulated. This means there\u0026rsquo;s still a mountain of work to do as the team continues to raise money for our chosen charity or charities - which will be announced in due course. Now, given that a further 252 points have been racked up since we hit our original goal, it\u0026rsquo;s clear to see that #Teampascom is up for the challenge.\npascom Get Fit Challenge\rAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom as the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over their organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse the workforce or dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses to upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"March 22, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-get-fit-2021-we-did-it/","title":"pascom Get Fit 2021: We Did It!"},{"categories":["Mobile VoIP"],"contents":"Mobile First: The Future of Business Communications Everywhere you look, they are there to see. The mobile dominates the communication landscape and is now taking hold in the business world. As with all tech, as popularity grows, common misconceptions are bounced around as arguments against using said new technology. In the case of mobile VoIP, the technology is not in its infancy. It has been around for yonks and while there may be a slither of truth to the misconceptions, in most cases they are outdated and in some just plain wrong. So let\u0026rsquo;s take a look at the top misconceptions and debunk them.\n1. Sharing Private Mobile Number If your company decides on a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approach to mobile communications, you will need to use your own personal device to make and receive business calls. This leads many to think that their private mobile phone number will be shared with colleagues and customers. This is simply not the case. A well planned and extensively developed mobile communications app will never share your private number with the outside world.\nFor example, the pascom mobile VoIP apps for Android and iOS has an optional step to add your mobile number. For users and businesses alike, adding your mobile number is acctually extremely beneficial and highly recommended. In the case of pascom, the pascom Mobile Hub makes light work of integrating mobile phones and delivers a whole host of functionality such as the \u0026ldquo;One Number Concept\u0026rdquo; and GSM fallback. As the name suggests, the One Number Concept means making and receiving calls using just one number. Now this is the clever bit, the pascom phone system knows your office number and mobile phone number and uses this information to \u0026ldquo;translate\u0026rdquo; technologies to ensure you only ever share one number when making and receiving calls via the pascom mobile number and you guessed it, that number is your office number.\n2. 24/7 Availability Yes, mobile VoIP apps are designed to increase employee availabilty and therefore productivity. On the flip side, you might feel you can\u0026rsquo;t switch off and disconnect from work. This phenonmen is actually quite a serious issue as many feel the line between employer expectations and employee downtime are becoming too blurred, so much so that in some countries there is even legislation to protect employees.\nThat said, there are a few things that employers and employees can do to mitigate things. First up, as an employer it is possible to enacted intelligent Automated Call Distribution (ACD) (the fancy term for how calls to certain numbers are routed) and integrate business hour time checks to ensure calls to \u0026ldquo;hotlines\u0026rdquo; or queues are only routed during those times. As an employee, most mobile VoIP apps will include a DND mode which basically tells colleagues and the phone system that you are not available.\nThe pascom mobile VoIP app has even more tools that can be used and takes protecting your private time to another level. If your phone system administrator provides the required permissions, users can use their mobile app to dynamically log in and out of queues while pascom\u0026rsquo;s Find Me Follow Me settings can be used to turn off calls to your mobile device.\npascom Mobile App Follow Me\r3. Audio Quality Just like it\u0026rsquo;s desktop predecessor, mobile VoIP is dogged by claims of poor audio quality. And just like with it\u0026rsquo;s older sibling there is some truth to the matter. Firstly, in days gone by, mobile network internet coverage and speeds where just not there and mobile devices did not have the capability to support higher speeds. This has changed and will continue to change for the better thanks to 5G. What this means is that faster, more stable internet connections are more widely available whether using mobile Internet or WiFi.\nFurther to this, advancements in Audio Codec technology mean that bandwidth requirements to transmit clear, understandable audio have been significanlty reduced. For example, the OPUS codec is amazing at delivering crystal clear audio even when internet speeds are slow and sluggish.\n4. Connectivity Issues Again, the issue with connectivity problems did have some merit to it. But again, as with Audio Quality, the availability, speed and reliabity of mobile Internet has improved dramatically to the point where the argument is almost mute.\nBut what if you\u0026rsquo;re in the middle of nowhere, up a mountain or in the middle of the woods with limited Internet? Well, the mobile Hub from point 1 comes to the rescue here. The ability to incorporate GSM technology into the pascom phone system allows calls to still be routed via GSM if required. If you receive an inbound call on your office extension and your smartphone is not reachable via the Internet, the phone system will automatically push the call to your GSM phone number. Currently (pascom 19.15) an internet connection is still required to make calls, but it is still possible to make an outbound call even if have a weak internet connection - all you need to do is use the GSM toggle switch in the dialpad.\npascom Mobile App GSM Number\r5. Mobile VoIP App Features and Usability The arguement that Mobile VoIP apps provide users with a limited, difficult to use feature set no longer holds true. The leaps in developement of mobile technologies over the last 10 years mean that business mobile VoIP apps now have all the functionality one needs and more.\nMoreover, as competition within the telecoms industry has heated up, competiting on feature sets alone is no longer viable and there has been a massive focus on reliability and usablitity. It is this focus on the User Experience (UX) that means cumbersome, low feature apps are now very much a thing of the past.\npascom Mobile Team Collaboration\rA case in point, our pascom mobile VoIP apps are developed on exactly the same framework as their desktop counterparts. This delivers an exact look and feel to the apps and ensures accessing features and performing telephony functions can all be done using the same workflow no matter which app you use.\nOf course there are differences as the mobile apps have to be developed and optimised for smartphones and tablets, but these differences are so minimal that even the most exacting user would likely simply skip over them.\n6. Simple Deployment Another often quoted arguement is that enterprise mobility strategies are often complex to deploy and manage. This may be true for some companies and vendors because there is a lot of complicated technical information that is required to onboard a smartphone or tablet as a SIP softphone.\nHowever, it need not be the case. One thing that will greatly simplify the whole process is to choose a phone system supplier who have developed their own mobile VoIP apps as opposed to integrating 3rd party apps.\nA great example of this is that a lot of the technical stuff can be packed into a QR code that can then be scanned using the mobile devices camera, removing any complexity from the deployment. In fact, onboarding a mobile device can be down in as few as three simple steps that any end-user can do - just take a look at last month\u0026rsquo;s HowTo Mobile VoIP Apps post.\npascom Mobile App Pairing\rAnother potential obstacle that can complicate deployment is disunity. Every mobile phone vendor is different, each version of Android is different and that can create some serious issues both for deployment and security.\nAgain choosing a vendor that develop and test their own Mobile VoIP apps for Android and iOS will save time and hassle and reduce ongoing management workloads. That means the only real deployment decision that companies and their IT departments need to make is whether to adopt a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or Choose Your Own Device strategy (CYOD).\n7. Mobile VoIP Security Security concerns surrounding VoIP telephony and mobile VoIP are very valid, particularly in today\u0026rsquo;s climate where the threat from cyber crime has risen significantly. Cyber threats invaribly search for the weakest link in the chain and often private devices such as mobiles are more exposed than company controlled devices. As such, effective mobile device management (MDM) and Identity Management (IdM) protocols are essential regardless of whether you choose a BYOD or CYOD mobility strategy.\nFocussing purely on the apps and the VoIP telephony side of things, choosing a phone system vendor, like pascom, that places great emphasis on security will be one of your greatest assets here. Without going into too much technical detail, there are a number of steps that phone system and mobile VoIP app vendors can take.\nFirstly, the QR code that is scanned is only valid for a limited period of time meaning that it cannot be easily copied and replicated to be used by a nefarious 3rd party. Secondly, voice traffic encryption is a vital defense against VoIP fraud. Per default all voice traffic accross a pascom communications solution is encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols which is now the industry standard.\nThe final obstacle to mobile VoIP security is the interconnect between the secured phone system network and the inherently less secure mobile / WiFi networks. One of the best countermeasures, which incidently is included in all pascom phone systems, is to look to cloud technology and deploy a Session Border Controller (SBC). The SBC not only authenticates all Sessions (traffic) at the Border of the phone system\u0026rsquo;s network, it also encrypts all the traffic as well.\nDetailed User Guides As a further source of information, we\u0026rsquo;ve updated our phone system documentation with some useful user guides which are written specifically for you, the pascom app users.\nThey cover every aspect of the pascom desktop and mobile apps, so are definitely worth checking out:\nDesktop App Mobile App Web Client We\u0026rsquo;re here to help If you have any queries about pascom phone system, the pascom apps and features and how to use them, then check out some more posts one our blog as well as our desktop client, mobile app and web client user guides as link above.\nIf you, your team, your colleagues or customers could benefit from an effective all-in-one business communications solution, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\nGet Your Free Phone System ","date":"March 8, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/7-mobile-voip-myths-debunked/","title":"7 Mobile VoIP Myths Debunked"},{"categories":["HowTo"],"contents":"pascom Uncovered - Mobile Collaboration Everybody has one, some people (like me) have two - yes the world is mobile centric. They are convient to use, provide extra flexibility, mobility and availability and as such it should not come as a surprise that mobile communicaitons are now maintstream within the business world. Even the most mobile phobic business professional that I know now prefers their mobile phone over their VoIP desktop phone. So let\u0026rsquo;s take a look at how to get started with the pascom Mobile UCC Apps for Android and iOS and examine some of the key points that pascom users love about their mobile apps.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s Get Mobile in 3 Steps Please accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Taking your office number with you whereever you go is a significant advantage when it comes to collaboration and customer service. Getting started with the pascom Mobile Apps is easy, all you need to do is download the app from either the Play Store or App Store. Just like any other app, once the instal is finished you can go ahead and open it which will lead you to the welcome screen. To view the marketing stuff, simply swipe to the left with your finger, otherwise press the start button in the bottom right:\nWelcome to the pascom Mobile VoIP App\rStep 1 - The Pairing Process In order to connect and integrate your mobile device into your company\u0026rsquo; pascom phone system, you will first need to \u0026ldquo;pair\u0026rdquo; your device. This can be done by simply scanning a QR code. This code can be found in three different places all of which cater for different scenarios, the most common method is via the desktop app:\nDesktop App Setup Assistant pascom Admin UI Via the pascom Desktop App For existing pascom users, the most common use case is to pair your mobile app via the pascom desktop app. Open and login to the pascom desktop app on your PC or laptop and navigate to the \"My Devices\" section of the settings menu. As long as your phone system admin has assigned a mobile device to your account, this device will appear in the list of available devices. pascom mobile app desktop app pairing\rIf you can\u0026rsquo;t see a mobile device in this list, speak to your admin and make sure that they assign you one and check that the mobile device is accessible from all your assigned work locations (Office, HomeOffice etc). As soon as the device is visible, you can pair it by clicking the pair button.\nYou will now be prompted to enter your password in the desktop app. This is a step designed to prevent misuse and increase security. Once entered, the QR code will appear. Now scan the code with the mobile app and follow the on screen instructions as described in step 2.\nJump to Step 2\nVia the setup assistant If you are a new pascom user, it is highly likely that your pascom phone system administration sent you an automated invitations e-mail with a link to setup your account. Click the link and the pascom user account setup assistant will open in your browser and will among other things allow you to setup and pair your mobile app. As a step by step process, the on-screen instructions are easy to follow and will get you up and running in no time.\nJump to Step 2\nVia the pascom Commander UI This one is for admins, particularly if your company supplies approved mobile devices and pre-configure everything as part of a Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) approach to enterprise mobility management. A lot of buzz words there, but the take away is simple and important for you to know just in case: your admin may need to perform the pairing process for you via the pascom Commander i.e. the phone system admin UI.\nStep 2 - Enter Your Mobile Phone Number Mobile number, cell number, what ever you call it, the next step in the pascom mobile app pairing process is to enter your mobile number. This step is optional, but recommended to enable fallbacks on to your GSM number should your mobile device not be reachable via the Internet. Before we go further, there\u0026rsquo;s no need to worry; some under the hood wizardy and the One Number Concept ensures that your private number will never be transmitted as a caller ID when making a call with the pascom Mobile App.\npascom Mobile App GSM Number\rWhere do I enter my number?\nIf the enter phone number screen does not appear, this means that the pascom mobile hub has not been configured. The configuration is straightforward and enables the GSM fallback function allowing you and your team to gain maximum benefit from the mobile app and communicate from anywhere - just ask your admin to setup it. pascom mobile hub documentation Step 3 - Get Communicating Having followed the two steps above, you are now all setup and ready to get communicating with your team and customers. If you are an experienced pascom user, you will immediately know your way around the mobile app. Aside from some functionality differences, the mobile app has an identical look, feel and workflow to the desktop app. As a new user, the layout and overall user experience is very easy to understand and you\u0026rsquo;ll be communicating like a mobile pro in no time.\npascom Mobile VoIP Features Desktop vs Mobile So what\u0026rsquo;s different in the mobile app? Well for starters, we\u0026rsquo;ve already touched on one big difference and that\u0026rsquo;s your mobile number. The second difference is PUSH notifications that are used to deliver chat messages and notifications. The final very important difference is video collaboration.\nOtherwise, the pascom mobile app has all the same functionality as the desktop client except for fax. That means, you can rest assured that no matter where you are, you will never miss an important call again and you can connect and collaborate with ease with your both your customers and your team.\nGSM Fallback \u0026amp; One Number Concept Providing that your phone system admin has configured the mobile hub, pascom Mobile Apps have the ability to utilise an inbuilt GSM functionality for inbound and outbound calls. If your phone can\u0026rsquo;t be reached via VoIP, then inbound calls to your office extension will automatically be pushed to your GSM mobile number.\nIf you need to make an outbound call, but you have a unstable or weak Internet connection, then simply toggle the GSM button above the phone dialpad to on (red) and the call will be started using GSM.\npascom Mobile App GSM Number\rIn the telecoms industry this functionality is known as the One Number Concept and Fixed Mobile Convergence. What this means for you is simple; you will remain available on your office number and can make and recieve calls via VoIP AND GSM as the situation requires.\nAs mentioned above, making an outbound GSM call will not display your mobile number as your caller ID. What actually happens is the app calls the pascom phone system and the phone system calls the contact using your office extension. In doing so, your called contacts will see your office number and not your mobile number.\nPUSH Notifications We all know what a mobile notification looks like so I don\u0026rsquo;t think we need to go into too much detail about how they work, you just need to know that they do and that they help save your mobile device battery and reduce data usage.\npascom Mobile UCC App PUSH notifications\rWhat is important to understand is that if you work with both the pascom desktop and mobile apps simultaneously, we will automatically prefer the desktop app as the default for chat notifications. That doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean that the notification won\u0026rsquo;t be delivered to your mobile device, it will but only if the message is not read within a pre-determined length of time (10 seconds per default).\nIt is also worthing noting that this behaviour only applies to chat notifications. Calls are automatically pushed to both devices or routed according to your Find Me Follow Me settings.\npascom Mobile App Follow Me\rMobile Video Collaboration This may seem like a small difference and logical to be honest, but most people don\u0026rsquo;t think of realise how potentially useful it is. Have you ever been on a call and just wished they could show you what they are looking at? Well now you can thanks to the pascom mobile app and the ability to actively switch between front and rear cameras during the video conference.\nTo do so, simply follow these steps:\npress the screen so the menu options appear press the 3 dots on the left of the menu to open hidden functions press switch camera pascom Mobile UC app camera toggle\rThis ability is a great for customer service and technical support. Let me give you an example. Not so long ago, a colleague was in our film studio and getting ready for a virtual event. Normally this is routine for us, but this time we needed to adjust some settings on our video production platform. They called me for help. They tried explaining what they were trying to and we didn\u0026rsquo;t get very far. So I asked them to switch to video, toggle to the rear camera and show me - we got to the problem in seconds and the solution inside of a minute.\nDetailed User Guides As a further source of information, we\u0026rsquo;ve updated our phone system documentation with some useful user guides which are written specifically for you, the pascom app users.\nThey cover every aspect of the pascom desktop and mobile apps, so are definitely worth checking out:\nDesktop App Mobile App Web Client We\u0026rsquo;re here to help If you have any queries about pascom phone system, the pascom apps and features and how to use them, then check out some more posts one our blog as well as our desktop client, mobile app and web client user guides as link above.\nIf you, your team, your colleagues or customers could benefit from an effective all-in-one business communications solution, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\nClaim Your Free Phone System ","date":"February 23, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/getting-started-with-the-pascom-mobile-app/","title":"Getting Started with the pascom Mobile App"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Direct - The Online Event For pascom Users Ever wondered how easy the pascom apps make it to start a video call, send a quick chat message from your mobile or quickly and efficiently change your preferred phone to suit where you are working from? Then pascom Direct, our new series of online pascom events where our users can discover the latest features, tips and tricks AND get your questions answered in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere.\nWhy Should I Take Part? Do you know all the features, functions and benefits of the pascom apps? No, we didn\u0026rsquo;t think so. As such, pascom direct provides you, our users, the ideal opportunity to discover the full scope of pascom tools and experience first hand how using them will help make your work life simpler, more enjoyable and keep you working like the pro that you are.\nWhat can I expect? First things first, this is not a business networking event. It is an info event, designed to keep our users upto date on all the latest tools and how best to use them. As such, we will have a quick keynote to highlight the newest features, tips and tricks and insider insights into whatever is trending in the world of Business Communications before we open up the session and answer your questions.\nTo wet your apetite, we\u0026rsquo;ve got loads to show you and here\u0026rsquo;s a little teaser:\nA massive upgrade to the pascom Groups is being developed right now. Who knows, by the first pascom Direct event takes place, the new tools may already be available. Either way, rest assured that desktop, mobile and web team collorabation with pascom is about to become even better with some really cool \u0026amp; exciting new stuff on the way.\nJames Barton, pascom Marketing\nI\u0026rsquo;m In, When is it? Launching in Germany for our customers across the D-A-CH region, the first event will be held on Wednesday 24th March at 10am (CET) and we will then host future sessions every few months as we bring new features and tools online.\nDate: 24. March 2021 Time: 10.00 CET Platform: @pascomnet YouTube Don't speak German? Don't worry, we're working on our English series as well, so stay tuned! How To Join Joining is easy and does not require any registration. Simply click on the link in your pascom desktop app news section and you will be directed to the new pascom Direct page which will list all the information you need to know about both upcoming and previous events. To make sure you do not miss any upcoming events, be sure to use the \u0026ldquo;Add to Calendar\u0026rdquo; button and set up reminders.\nBeyond this, by subscribing, liking and following us on our social media channels, you will also always be up to date on the latest pascom news, events, tutorials and expert tips on how to make the way you communicate amazing.\n","date":"February 22, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-direct/","title":"pascom Direct"},{"categories":["News","pascom Life"],"contents":"A Fresh, Creative Approach To Employee Engagement Keeping employees connected in HomeOffice is easy, you just need pascom. However, keeping employees connected in terms of thinking and motivation from HomeOffice, not so much. In fact, it’s an entirely different ball game. And so with Autumn 2020 and the looming lockdown fast approaching, we realised that we needed to think outside of the box and adopt a new, fresh approach to employee engagement.\nWe have known and promoted the benefits of working from home for years now. But the problem with working from home long-term is that a sense of team detachment eventually develops. Throw Home Schooling into the mix, as is the case for many of our team, and stress levels will inevitably start to creep up. So it’s with a touch of irony that one of our main objectives is to keep our staff motivated and prevent them from getting stuck in the “HomeOffice rut”.\nAs we all know, the best stress relief is a clear mind and there’s nothing better than getting out in the fresh air and doing a bit of exercise. As such, the positive trends of 2020 shouldn’t come as a surprise. The bike made a massive comeback, hiking and walking became mainstream and even the home TV workout sensation of the 70s and 80s became box office on our TV and computer screens: for Jane Fonda and VHS read Joe Wicks and YouTube!\nAt pascom, our team are no different and we were more than eager uptakers of these healthy lifestyle trends. I suppose this was to be expected, particularly as we’ve always been a very active company. Whether it be in the office gym and weekly BackCare training sessions or running around the local park before work in the morning, our team love being active. A few employees have even taken the ride to work scheme to the extreme by riding a 40 km round-trip across the Bavarian forest. To put this into perspective, several climbs require cars (at least my old Fiesta) to be in first or second gear. Anyway, by putting two and two together we came up with a corker of an idea and the pascom Get Fit Challenge 2021 began to take shape, but the question remained: how do you encourage people to get fit and turn this into a team-building strategy?\nSimple, you make it a challenge that is inclusive, competitive, rewarding AND motivating all at the same time.\nThe Challenge When most people think of a “Get Fit Challenge”, they think of doing 100 sit-ups for 100 days or the Plank challenge and so on. These challenges are perfect for some, but generally they are better suited to individuals. The concept of individualism didn’t work for us, so we decided to go down a different path.\nRunning between January 1st and October 31st, the pascom Get Fit Challenge 2021 is designed to cater for the whole team. The aim is to give employees an opportunity to connect with, challenge and motivate each other by getting fit and working towards a common goal - to hit 20,000 points. As such, it doesn’t matter what you’re in to; walking, hiking, cycling or even snowshoeing. As long as you track and post your activities to the pascom club on Strava, you’ll earn points not just for you, but also for the whole pascom team and receive motivation along the way in the form of “kudos” and comments.\nThe Points System Hit those 20,000 points and two things happen. Each and every member of the pascom team will receive an attractive financial reward. As if this wasn’t incentivising enough, we want to go further. As a telecommunications solution software developer, we know we’re one of the winners of the current health crisis. We believe that we should use this position and invest in our community by helping those in need. Therefore, we will be supporting one or more charitable organisations to the tune of 10 cents per point achieved, even, as seems likely, the team hits double the points target or more.\nSo how are the points calculated? Depending on activity type, points are awarded for every kilometre or hour of activity. Go cycling for 10 km and you’ll earn 10 points regardless of whether you’re on a traditional bike, e-bike or even an indoor bike trainer. Rowing and water paddle sports will earn a tidy 2 points per km whilst running, walking and hiking will earn a respectable 3 points per kilometre. If you want to jump out of the boat or off the board and go swimming, then you’ll earn a whopping 20 points/km.\nOf course, activities such as weight training, yoga and gymnastics can’t be tracked in kilometres, so hitting the weights or getting down on the living room floor for some core body training, back exercises or Vinyasa Flow Yoga will contribute a very healthy 25 points per hour.\nCakes and Salads But what if an employee isn’t comfortable tracking their activity or simply wants to top up their account quickly and easily? Then, social distancing rules allowing, refuelling the team with a cake or making a salad for the Summer BBQs will not only earn some brownie points with colleagues but also keep their account on track to the tune of 50 points per cake or 30 points per salad.\nOn the surface, earning more points for a cake seems counter-productive, but it’s not. For one, every athlete needs a healthy, balanced diet and secondly, cakes require a higher level of investment in terms of TLC (Time, Love, Cost). Finally, we just like cakes as demonstrated by the @Kuchen pascom chat group. As one of the first company-wide group chats ever setup, this channel is solely dedicated to the organization of who is bringing a cake to work on any given day.\npascom Get Fit Challenge Progress To keep track of data from multiple sources and provide clear and understandable progress monitoring, we’ve taken a leaf out of the Call \u0026amp; Contact Centre world and developed our very own Get Fit Challenge Analytics Wallboard.\npascom Get Fit Challenge Wallboard\rIncorporating real-time access to the Strava API and an inbuild donate a cake / salad button, the Get Fit Challenge 2021 wallboard was designed to make the challenge even more inclusive, accessible and of course motivating. By providing the pascom team with an instant real-time overview of the company’ progress, latest activities and top athletes, the pascom Challenge wallboard makes it easy to see how close we are to achieving our goals and provides an added competive edge by allowing colleagues to compete against one another and promote a great sense of accomplishment and reward when their names appear on the leaderboard.\nTo further drive employee engagement and raise awareness for the excellent work of our chosen charitable organisation(s), pascom will be posting regular progress reports on our company social media accounts while employees are welcome to post their activities to their social media channels using the hashtag #pascomGetFitChallenge21.\nBy doing so, the pascom team can promote and highlight both the excellent work of the organisation(s) we have chosen to support while at the same time showing how with a little imagination and hard work, employees and companies can bond together, have fun getting fit and support their local community in a time when it is more essential to work together than ever.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of All-in-One Communication and Collaboration Solutions that upgrade how businesses communicate.\nWith pascom’s innovative UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses to upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"January 29, 2021","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/the-pascom-get-fit-challenge/","title":"The pascom Get Fit Challenge"},{"categories":null,"contents":"2020: Challenge and Opportunity As is often the case, with every challenge comes opportunity, so while 2020 has most definitely been a trying year dominated by the pandemic, it has also been a year of opportunity for the telecommunication industry software vendors. Further to this, 2020 has shown that Working From Home is possible and despite all the challenges of remote working, 2020 has seen pascom achieve several important milestones in terms of growth and expansion.\nBusiness as Usual Our reaction to the pandemic was to continue with \u0026ldquo;Business as Normal\u0026rdquo; as much as possible whilst ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees. As a business communication and collaboration solutions vendor, we already had all the tools and are well acquainted with working from home. As a result, we did the responsible thing and switched our entire operation to Remote Working. For us, all this entailed was a single group chat message and less than half a morning of moving desktop computers (and monitors) from the office to the required HomeOffices.\nIn terms of how we communicated as a business, we deliberately decided against getting involved in the “Free” fanfare. Instead, we made sure our focus lay on our customers and partners and advising them on how best to scale and manage their solutions to accommodate remote working, which tools to use and when. In this way, we ensured the reliable, smooth running of our services whilst retaining the ability to scale our cloud infrastructure capacity as demand soared both in terms of new customers and average seat deployment sizes.\nCompany Growth Continues As a telecoms specialist, is it not surprising that 2020 has been a strong year for pascom growth. We’ve witnessed a 15% increase in new business phone system deployments, 30 % channel growth in terms of partner acquisition and revenue, a 60 % increase in web traffic plus a record number of new employees joining the team. Furthermore, deployment statistics show cloud phone systems are now unequivocally the preferred deployment type (78% in 2020) while usage analysis indicates a dramatic surge in popularity for pascom\u0026rsquo;s desktop and mobile UCC apps predominantly across Europe but globally as well - notably in North and South America.\npascom UC client usage 2019 pascom app worldwide usage\rpascom UC client usage 2020 pascom app worldwide usage\rChannel Growth Despite 30 % growth in channel partner acquisition and channel sales, 2020 broke the trend of recent years as direct sales overtook channel sales. Most likely, this is symptomatic of organisations opting for cloud solutions and preferring to deal directly with Managed Service Provider vendors as opposed to resellers.\nWhile not specific to the pandemic, the pandemic definitely worsened the situation by highlighting the issues facing the channel and demonstrating the importance of strong channel partner programmes that support and allow partners to resell vendor managed services and cloud solutions.\npascom Recruitment Drive Throughout 2020, pascom enjoyed significant team growth as we welcomed our 30th employee and onboarded nine new colleagues over the year. Our offices in Serbia enjoyed accelerated expansion over the last 12 months growth with five new members of staff joining the pascom family. That said, growing a team from scratch whilst facing the restrictions of a pandemic and limitations of remote working was not without it\u0026rsquo;s challenges, so it a great testament to the team that they have grown so smoothly, perhaps in part because they took the time to bond during a weekend hiking and caving adventure in the Mountains of Serbia.\npascom Team Serbia Team Building\rThe growth of the pascom team in Germany and Serbia has resulted in a significant increase in our software development, infrastructure management and quality assurance capacities. That means we are now in a stronger position in terms of future pascom business communications platform development and simultaneously ensuring our customers continue to receive the highest levels of service in terms of quality and performance.\nVideo Collaboration Now Mainstream The 2019 release of pascom 19 saw the introduction of the new pascom desktop and mobile video and team collaboration tools.\npascom Video Collaboration\rEarly in 2020, we further enhanced our video collaboration suite by integrating WebRTC video technology and our new web meeting tools. The new functionality enabled pascom users to create virtual video meeting rooms and invite external participants, i.e. customers and prospects, to join and participate via their web browser.\nThe release of the pascom web client had long been in the pipeline which when coupled with the surge in remote working and the resulting rise in video and mobile collaboration, cemented pascom\u0026rsquo;s reputation as a leading all-in-one communications solution provider.\nNew BETA Programme In previous years, we have proactively encouraged pascom partners and select customers to actively participate in desktop and mobile client BETA testing programmes. In 2020, we expanded our BETA programme to include the pascom phone system server. The concept of the new BETA scheme is to further enhance our in-house ALPHA and BETA testing by uncovering a broader range of potential issues thanks to more in-depth and widespread testing within production environments. Participation in the new BETA programme is restricted to pascom Certified partners and above, thus ensuring qualified feedback and in turn guaranteeing release version platform stability and enhanced performance levels.\nBusiness Communications in 2020 and 2021 Even at the end of 2019, Video Conferencing was still considered nice-to-have, not a must-have and mobile VoIP apps were for the boss and field sales. Well, 2020 has taken the rule book, turned it inside out before ripping it to shreds and leaving it in tatters. In short, 2020 has likely changed the way we work forever.\nOne positive of the situation is that the experience has demonstrated that the tech is up to the challenge and that the global workforce can quickly adapt. Becoming increasingly popular in recent years, the emergence of cloud communication, video collaboration and mobile communication apps have proved crucial in enabling remote working and assuring business continuity.\nCompanies that had already transformed were perhaps better equipped to face the challenge. Those that had not needed to quickly find stop-gap solutions by adopting a plethora of communication apps and platforms. Such a communication infrastructure can be effective in the short-term to fulfil an immediate need. However, disjointed communication solutions have several long-term drawbacks, ranging from complex management to inefficient and insecure workflows leading to productivity losses.\nAs we look forward to 2021, what we expect to see is more of the same in terms of remote working. That means softphone and mobile VoIP app usage will continue to be mainstream and the importance of team collaboration tools (video, messaging and file sharing) will continue to grow. Alongside the tools, we believe that businesses will look to increase the productivity of their remote workforces in terms of employee collaboration and the customer contact experience.\nAs such, we expect the result will be more and more business conducting some form of vendor consolidation through adopting all-in-one cloud communication platforms as they look to future proof their business communications and provide their employees will the complete package in terms of communication tools and usability.\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here to help If you have any queries about pascom phone system features and how to use them, then check out some more Video Collaboration posts as well as our desktop client, mobile app and web client user guides listed in our documentation.\nIf you, your team, your colleagues or customers could benefit from an all-in-one video and business collaboration solution, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\n","date":"December 21, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-2020-year-in-review/","title":"pascom 2020 Year in Review"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year From pascom 2020 has been a challenging year for us all, and even though we can\u0026rsquo;t be together in-person this Christmas and New Year, that doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean we can\u0026rsquo;t or shouldn\u0026rsquo;t share the festive spirit. So it is without further adieu that we gladly bid 2020 farewell and look forward to welcoming 2021 with optimism renewed.\nWith this is mind, we would like to thank all our customers, partners and colleagues for their renewed loyalty and faith in us throughout 2020 and we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year 2021. May your holidays be safe and filled with virtual joy whether that be on the phone, video or both.\nChristmas Opening Times and Support The pascom Support team will be available as normal (according to SLA) throughout the Christmas / New Year break, meaning our pascom customers will still be able to access our support services throughout the holidays. For response times, please refer to your pascom Service Level Agreement. The rest of the pascom team from sales to accounts will be enjoying a much needed break from the routine of HomeOffice from Thursday 24th December until Monday 4th January 2021. The pascom Support Hotline will be staffed throughout the holidays.\nGet Your Business Communications Fit For The Holidays \u0026amp; Beyond In a year where changes to business opening hours, operating proceedures and phone system configuration have been performed far too often, here\u0026rsquo;s a few more. As we build up to the holidays and the new year, businesses of all shapes and sizes must prepare their business communications platform for the festive season and beyond. Depending on your business model, this will entail a number of changes to the normal configuration:\nMove The Christmas Staff Party Online Just because we\u0026rsquo;re all working from home and it\u0026rsquo;s not possible to hold in-person Christmas staff parties this year doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean that business should forego the annual tradition. Per default, we limit the max number of video stream per session to 6 for productivity reasons (less screens = more interactive meetings), but increasing the number is easy. Simply update your pascom Video Settings within the admin UI (System Settings \u0026gt; sys.xmpp.properties.video.maxpublishers) and increase the maximum number of permitted video streams to allow the required number of employees to join in the virtual fun.\nA good tip for larger companies is to break it down into teams or departments in order to avoid screen clutter. Another fun thing to do to share some festive cheer could be to arrange some sort of gift or beverage to be sent to your employees in HomeOffice whilst perhaps stipulating a Xmas dress code and so on.\nWhile it\u0026rsquo;s true that the secret to great, engaging and productive video meeting to keep them small, updating this setting could actually be beneficial in the long run for those few times when more video streams are simply unavoidable.\nBusiness Hours, Holiday Checks \u0026amp; Prompts If your business hours change or services/departments close down for the holidays, then you will need to update your opening hours and time checks to reflect your business hours during the Christmas / New Year period. This should be communicated across all your communication channels from your online presence to updating your phone system prompts and music on hold. A tip from us is to share the festive cheer this year with warm season greetings and some appropriate music on hold (be sure to check any music licensing requirements) as well as to provide additional information such as opening hours in your prompts.\nFuture Proof Your Business Communications Looking at the holidays and beyond, for a large number of businesses the Christmas break provides IT admins and phone system managers with the ideal time to plan and implement a number of optimisations. 2020 has seen a lot of changes to the IT landscape with HomeOffice, Cloud Communications, Mobile VoIP Apps and Video Conferencing all becoming mainstream. For many businesses, the adoption of such technologies has been done on the fly as a coping mechanism to ensure some sense of continuity. But stop gap measures are never meant to be permanent and can actually damage your business long-term.\nThe benefits of adopting converged all-in-one solutions are as far reaching as they are varied and definitely should not to be ignored. Firstly, it will make your life easier on a number of levels; you will only have a single platform to manage and the threat of shadow IT will be significantly reduced. The boss will love it as they will have the latest fancy stuff and they will see a rise in employee productivity. Finally, the accounts team will likely thank you for reducing the number of monthly invoices they have to process which also has the added benefit of making your decision look great on the balance sheet.\nSo if your business experiences a lull over the Christmas period, then this is the perfect time to try and test better equipped platforms that offer a more rounded \u0026ldquo;all-in-one\u0026rdquo; solution. Not only will this help get your business communications back on track and up to task in 2021.\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here to help If you have any queries about pascom phone system features and how to use them, then check out some more Video Collaboration posts as well as our desktop client, mobile app and web client user guides listed in our documentation.\nIf you, your team, your colleagues or customers could benefit from an effective all-in-one video and business collaboration solution, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\nMerry Christmas, stay safe, stay heathy and see you in 2021!\n","date":"December 17, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/christmas-2020-pascom-support-and-opening-times/","title":"Christmas 2020 pascom Support and Opening Times"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"As with all things; when there’s a will, there’s a way and Saint Nicholas’ (a.k.a, St Nick, Father Christmas, Santa Claus) immense determination has never been in doubt. Through the cold of winter, he’s always been the beacon of joy for kids big and small around the world. That means that when Saint Nicholas\u0026rsquo; go-to IT experts in Germany sent us an e-mail asking for our help in sharing the festive spirit this year, we jumped for joy and danced to the jingle bell rock.\nTo say the least, 2020 has been a difficult year and a huge helping of festive cheer is exactly what’s required right now. In previous years, St Nicholas has relied on the magic of Christmas to make sure he’s in the right place at the right time. But with so much uncertainty in world and with so much at stake, Saint Nicholas decided he too had to play his part in keeping everybody safe this Christmas. So it was with a saddened heart but a determined mind that he made the decision to go virtual, after all as an ace aviator he is very familiar with clouds and he had even heard something about Video Collaboration, but being the old-school type that he is he didn\u0026rsquo;t even have a mobile (just in case Mrs Nick called), he definitely needed some help to get started.\nThankfully, he turned to an IT company, citrotec, that in previous years had helped manage his event bookings. The team at citrotec, who is a pascom partner, immediately knew what was to be done and dropped us a line asking if we were willing to jump aboard the polar express and support Nicholas with a cloud communications platform including contact centre, mobile VoIP and Video Collaboration tools.\nIt goes without saying that of course we were up for the challenge - it is what we do after all. But this time, this solution, it’s different. It meant that it is now up to us and our partner to keep the good saint connected on his quest to share the festive magic and Christmas joy. It was now up to us to make sure that we guided him and his team of helpers as they flew to a different type of cloud and embraced the world of mobile communications and virtual video meetings this Christmas.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO: Luckily, at pascom we have helped so many customers go virtual this year and when St. Nick came calling, we knew we could and must help. Keeping St Nicholas connected and ensuring he continues to share the magic of Christmas is a huge responsibility and no small undertaking. With so much riding of our platform, we can’t thank St. Nicholas\u0026rsquo; team enough, they have been amazing in every way. From citrotec managing the platform to the helpers manning Nicholas\u0026rsquo; cloud contact centre and making the appointments to keep Nick on track and on time for all his virtual video meetings. Helping Nick on his journey this festive season has been a huge team effort and we are immensely proud to be a part of it!\nMichael Ludwig, citrotech CEO: I can\u0026rsquo;t emphasise enough how good it is that, despite all the uncertainty and constant changes of the previous weeks and months, we’ve had one constant we could rely on - the pascom communications platform. The pascom phone system is incredibly flexible and truly first-class, which has been crucial in handling the constant changes and overcoming the challenges we faced with the minimum of fuss. Saint Nicholas, his team and the team at citrotech all agree that pascom have done an exceptional job with the pascom phone system and are extremely grateful for their support in making sure Nicholas can share the magic of Christmas in a year where the importance of community and festive spirit cannot be understated.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"December 9, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/saint-nicholas-goes-virtual-in-2020-with-pascom/","title":"Saint Nicholas goes virtual in 2020 with pascom"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"December 7th, 2020 | Deggendorf, Germany - Lockdowns, quarantine, work from home, virtual homeschooling, furlough schemes, unemployment and worse - 2020 has been a difficult year. The corona pandemic has brought about hardship and uncertainty for an unprecedented number of people and has put an incredible strain on us all. For families and in particular children, the burden has been harder to bear. By supporting the invaluable work of the Kinderschutzbund Ortsverband Deggendorf-Plattling e.V., our intention is to give back to our community and help children and their families who have been negatively affected by the pandemic.\npascom support the Kinderschutzbund Deggendorf-Plattling\rChildren are incredibly resilient, tolerant and adapt quickly. Perhaps this is why sometimes their voices are not heard and why their welfare can often be overlooked. This is not the way it should be, children are our future and thankfully, organisations such as the Kinderschutzbund make caring for children their priority. Their invaluable work focusses on standing up for the rights of children and protecting their wellbeing and safe guarding them from harm. It\u0026rsquo;s a challenging mission at the best of times, even more so in the grips of a pandemic, making the work of the Kinderschutzbund even more vital.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO: The pandemic has had a terrible impact. From the masks we wear to social distancing and worse, it\u0026rsquo;s effects can be seen and felt everywhere. At times like these, we need to rally round and support each other. But with social distancing, the question is \u0026ldquo;how?\u0026rdquo;. We hope that by financially supporting the Kinderschutzbund in Deggendorf-Plattling, we can make a difference and can bring some much-needed joy and optimism to children and their families for who 2020 has been so difficult.\nYvonne Pletl-Schäfer, Vorstand Kinderschutzbund Ortsverband Deggendorf-Plattling e.V. This years\u0026rsquo; Christmas action of the Kinderschutzbund Deggendorf-Plattling focuses primarily on helping and supporting families from across our area who have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, by providing children with gift vouchers to buy winter shoes, not only can we reduce the financial burden on their families, but also continue to support the children by protecting their health and promoting outdoor activity with essential footwear appropriate to the time of year. Furthermore, supporters of the Kinderschutzbund are also helping to ensure that every child will have their Christmas wish fulfilled, which given the year we\u0026rsquo;ve endured is perhaps the most valuable gift we can give.\nAbout the Kinderschutzbund Deggendorf-Plattling Our mission is to ensure the rights of children are recognised, protecting children from harm, helping families, providing support in emergencies, hospital visits and providing children with a safe, fun and enjoyable time together, for example by hosting kids festivals and organising family trips.\nwww.kinderschutzbund-deggendorf.de\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"December 2, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-donation-to-help-children-and-families-in-need/","title":"pascom Donation to Help Children and Families in Need"},{"categories":["HowTo"],"contents":"pascom Uncovered - pascom Team Collaboration Given the dispersed nature of the workforce, team working and collaboration has never been more important nor more challenging. Thankfully, pascom users have all the required tools at their fingertips to continue working effectively and productively with teams, project groups and external collaborators. The purpose of this article is to provide a quick overview of how to create, setup and use the pascom Team Collaboration tools to help you take your team collaboration to the next level.\nGetting Started With Team Collaboration Before we go any further, there are a few important things to know. Firstly, pascom\u0026rsquo;s Group tools are the basis of all collaboration functionality, whether that be Team Messaging, Audio and Video Conferencing or Web Meetings and Screen Sharing - all the tools can be found in one place. Secondly, you can add as many collaboration groups as you require, which is good news because it\u0026rsquo;s a well known fact that working in smaller teams is actually far more effective. It is also worth mentioning, that while all the images in this guide are from the pascom desktop application, the process is exactly the same on your mobile device.\nStep 1 - Create \u0026amp; Setup a Collaboration Group Creating a collaboration group is really simple, all you need to do is press the plus symbol in the profile section of the client (left, above the contact list).\nAdd new pascom Group\rOnce open, you will need to enter a group name and can customise the group. Make it stand out in the contacts roster by adding a profile picture. If you do not add a picture, the profile image will be automatically set to the first two letters of the name or the first letter of the first two words (if the name has mutliple words).\nCustomise pascom Group\rStep 2 - Add Participants The next step to improving team collaboration is to add your internal collaborators to the group. All available participants are listed in the Select Participants section. If the list is particularly long, the filter function allows you to search for specific colleagues. If you forget someone, don\u0026rsquo;t worry they can always be added aftwards.\nAdd pascom Group Pariticipants\rNext, you need to consider whether the group needs to be accessible to external participants. If so, move on to step 3. If not, press the disk symbol to save your group which will now up and running and ready to be used.\nStep 3 - Invite External Participants The pascom Collaboration tools are not only ideal for employee and team collaboration, but are the perfect for incorporating customers and external participants (freelancers, business partners and so on) in to your business meetings - you just need to be able to invite them. Firstly, you will have to set the group to public using the allow guests switch. Simply toggle the switch right to turn on (red) the public mode enable guests to join using their browsers.\npascom Group Web Meetings\rNext, to copy the invite in full press the copy to clipboard button. Alternatively, it is possible to copy only the web meeting link by clicking the clipboard icon .\nPhone Dial-in If the following red error messages appears, it\u0026rsquo;s not your fault - it is simply that the phone dial option has not been configured by your phone system administrator.\npascom Group Phone Dial-in\rYou can still hold web meetings using the URL, the only difference is that participants will not be able to dial in using their phone. Giving your guests the option to dial in is recommended, so you should send your phone system admin a quick chat message with the link to our documentation: https://www.pascom.net/doc/en/clients/webclient-configuration/ and ask them to set it up for future meetings.\nStep 4 - Make Your Group a Favourite The final step is is not essential, but we do recommend making your new group a favourite by clicking the star symbol next to the groups entry in the roster. Making an object a favourite ensures that they are always listed in the upper part of the client contact list. In the case of groups, doing so ensures that the group is more visible and easier to find.\nMake pascom group a favourite\rWhat\u0026rsquo;s more, as soon as there is any sort of telephony / video action in the group, the room turns green in the contact list which is then only visible if it is above the scroll line within the contact list.\nActive pascom group\rIf a new instant message is received, the room will spring to the top of the list and the message indicator will be clearly visible.\npascom Team Messaging\rGet Collaborating Now that you\u0026rsquo;ve finished setting up your collaboration group, it\u0026rsquo;s time to get collaborating, so let\u0026rsquo;s take a look at all the tools available to you.\nTeam Messaging The first collaboration tool that is instantly available to all internal group members is Team Messaging. All you need to do is enter your message in the chat box, just as you would for a normal chat / instant message.\nAs mentioned above, new messages will trigger the entry in the contact list to spring to the top as well as a new message counter being display both on the entry plus on your profile picture.\npascom Group Collaboration - send new message\rAudio Conferencing Starting an audio conference is simple. All you need to do is click on the green phone icon next to the group\u0026rsquo;s entry in the contact list.\nAlternatively, if you are actively using the group for an instant messaging brainstorming session, simply clicking either the phone symbol next to the chat box or under the softphone dial-pad will also call the group - using the dial pad requires a double clicks: one click to load the group extension, the second to call the group.\npascom Group Collaboration - audio conferencing\rAs soon as the call is active, the group\u0026rsquo;s entry in the contact list will turn green for both you and other internal group members, thus notifying them that a conference has started. By opening the group within the client, you will be able to instantly see who is already active within the call.\npascom Group Collaboration - audio conferencing\rElevate to a Video Conference Video should now be your go-to first choice when collaborating with colleagues. This is even more important these days due to the workplace separation working from home inevitably causes. For more information on how to run productive and engaging video meetings, please refer read our recent posts: How to run great and effective virtual meetings and How to run engaging video meetings.\nTo start a video call, simply click the start video button that is found in the phone section and hey presto, you\u0026rsquo;re in a video meeting.\nObviously, before you start the call it is wise to check that your web camera is correctly configured. This can be done within the client settings menu as shown here:\npascom Group Collaboration - Video conferencing\rGet Detailed with Screen Sharing Some topics are too complex to explain with words alone. What\u0026rsquo;s really needed is the visual aspect of communication. While video goes a long way thanks to being able to read facial expressions and body language, screen sharing* takes this even further allowing meeting moderators to deliver virtual presentations, explaining complex topics and deliver product demonstrations online.\nIf, as is likely, you are already in a video conference, sharing your screen is done using the conference control menu. Simply move your mouse and the menu will appear. Next, click the laptop symbol.\npascom Group Collaboration - screen sharing\rIf you are single monitor, this screen will automatically be shared. However, should you use multiple monitors, you can choose which screen to share as shown here:\npascom Group Collaboration - select screen share\rShould you only be in an audio conference, then simply click the share screen button in order to share your screen:\npascom Group Collaboration screen sharing\r*mobile users can currently view screenshares but not share their screen\nUsing the Web Meeting Tools Firstly, when collaborating with external participants it is worth noting that you, as a pascom user, do not need to alter your worklow. All the steps and tools are the same as described above. The only difference is that your meeting participants will join by using their web browser. That said, understanding how the pascom web meeting suite works is important so that you can then help your guests should they encounter issues logging in to a meeting - this should not happen often as even my Dad, the biggest technophobe around, can do it!\nInvite External Participants If you haven\u0026rsquo;t already done so (s. step 3 above), now is the time to copy the invitation and send it to your intended participants. The invitation can be found by clicking on the info symbol within the group overview:\npascom Group Collaboration - Web Meeting Participants\rOnce they click on the link, their browser will take them to the correct meeting room.\nLogging in via Web When a participant enters a pascom web meeting room, they will first be prompted to enter their name.\npascom Group Collaboration - Web Meeting Login\rNext, the meeting room may request browser permission to access their mircophone and camera - this depends on whether this is already granted or not.\nThe final log in step is for the participant to is setup their video and audio options by selecting their preferred camera and microphone options. If a participant wishes to join using dial-in audio, they will need to select the phone option (this requires the phone dial-in option to be configured - s. step 3 phone dial-in) and press join.\npascom Group Collaboration - Web Meeting AV setup\rOnce done, the participant will be directed to the meeting room. Should a moderator not yet have entered the meeting, all guests will be held in the \u0026ldquo;lobby\u0026rdquo; and will enjoy their time their listening to some relaxing music.\nAt this point, meeting moderators will be notified that guests have entered the meeting room as the Group entry in the contacts list will turn green and all new participants will be listed in the Group overview panel.\nStarting a Web Meeting To start a web meeting, a moderator (i.e. you or another pascom client user who is a member of the group) must enter the meeting room by dialing into the group as you would for an internal collaboration session.\nAs a moderator, you will have access to all the collaboration tools described above meaning you can chat with your guests using instant messaging, join using audio and video as well as sharing your screen.\nGuests have the ability to see who else is in the meeting , can of course chat with all meeting participants plus controlling their video and microphones to turn video on or off and mute / unmute themselves using the meeting control menu:\npascom Group Collaboration - Web Meeting Controls\rEt voila - you\u0026rsquo;re all good to give your team and external communication a collaboration efficiency boost.\nDetailed User Guides As a further source of information, we\u0026rsquo;ve updated our phone system documentation with some useful user guides which are written specifically for end users.\nThey cover every aspect of the pascom desktop and mobile apps, so are definitely worth checking out:\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here to help If you have any queries about pascom phone system features and how to use them, then check out some more Video Collaboration posts as well as our desktop client, mobile app and web client user guides as link above.\nIf you, your team, your colleagues or customers could benefit from an effective all-in-one video and business collaboration solution, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call on +49 991 291691 0 and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\nClaim Your Free Phone System","date":"October 26, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/introducing-pascom-team-collaboration/","title":"Introducing pascom Team Collaboration"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Keeping Track of Calls with Understandable, Usable Call Histories October 14th, 2020 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of business Unified Communication (UC) phone systems, today announce the release of pascom 19.09, the lastest version of the company\u0026rsquo; business communications platform. pascom 19.09 focuses on upgrading SMB and contact centre business phone call logging with the addition of advanced contact centre queue call histories, search and filtering direct in the pascom UCC apps.\nUsers of previous pascom UCC apps already had access to a comprehensive global call history that enabled them to filter call direction, result and even type (voicemail, system vs customer calls) as well as view detailed call information such as recordings, call flow and call transfers.\nWith pascom 19.09, the existing functionality has been expanded to include queue level call logging and makes the information accessible to all pascom desktop and mobile UCC app users in an easy to understand and therefore useful format. In doing so, the new call logging feature is intented to provide both knowledge workers and call agents with an intuitive yet detailed call history to support them keep track of all their important business phone calls.\nThe newly added functionality provides pascom app users with an extremely simple method to instantly identify, search and filter all call types. The newly redesigned global call history includes specific markers (icon and queue name) to highlight queue calls. Furthermore, the new functionality includes a new Team Call History which provides users detailed access to the call history for each specific queue they are a member of.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Sales Director: Business phone call logging may seem like a simple feature that every phone system offers. While that\u0026rsquo;s true, what most don\u0026rsquo;t understand is just how essential effective call tracking is for great customer service. What\u0026rsquo;s more, in recent times its importance has grown significantly as a result of how dispersed the workforce has become and the nature of how modern businesses are now operating. The new global and team call histories make it easy for users to distinguish which calls are direct to their extension or via a team as well as identifing who actually answered the call, ensuring that a customer call is never overlooked and users do not need to chase colleagues or look up records to find out who spoke to who when.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\nVisit www.pascom.net","date":"October 14, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/make-managing-business-phone-calls-simple-pascom-19.09/","title":"Make managing business phone calls simple - pascom 19.09"},{"categories":["Contact Center"],"contents":"pascom Uncovered - New \u0026amp; Improved Queue Call Tracking Staying on top of and keeping track of all your calls is essential to business productivity and customer service. With pascom, tracking all your calls is easy no matter whether they are direct on your office number or via a call queue that you are a member of. In order to help our customers and their users quickly and efficiently keep on top of their calls, we\u0026rsquo;ve added a host of new functionality to our call history tools.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Understanding the pascom call history tool First things first, with the new call history tools, we have updated the existing tool to add more visible, easy to understand information. We have also added a number of new filter options as well as a new call logs area which is specific to individual call queues (Team Calls). To make this clear to understand, we will now refer to the global call history i.e. all calls on your extension and the team call history i.e. calls to your extension via a call queue.\nHow to use the global call history To access your global call history simply click on the \u0026ldquo;history\u0026rdquo; symbol in the menu ribbon. The icon is found either on the top left of the desktop app or in the middle of the ribbon at the bottom of the app if you are on your mobile or if you have resized your desktop app.\nOnce open, your complete call history will be displayed and will allow you to track incoming, outgoing and missed calls to your extension either directly or via any teams (queues) that you are a member of.\nEach call entry is colour coded to indicate answered, missed or answered by someone else. Furthermore, the arrow indicates the direction of the call as shown below:\nColour Code Description answered outgoing call answered incoming call diverted / answered by someone else missed incoming call unanswered outgoing call Alongside the colour code and direction indicator, each call entry includes the number (or phone book entry name), a text description. Queue calls via a team are highlighted with the headset symbol and team name and include who answered a call if you it wasn\u0026rsquo;t you:\npascom Team Call logs\rHow to set and save call history filters For some of you, all this information maybe too much - particularly if you are a member of multiple call queues. Not to worry, we thought of that as well and so we introduced a new filtering tool to help you filter your global call history.\n1. Go to your call history As described above, open your global call history within either pascom desktop app or mobile app. At the top, below the \u0026ldquo;Call History\u0026rdquo; header, click on Filter Options.\nThis will open to following filter menu where you can customise and save which calls you want to see in your global call history:\npascom Global Call History filter menu\r2. Customise which calls are important to you The top three settings allow to you control which call types are important in terms of origin, call direction, and result.\nFilter Description Call type view only internal calls from colleagues, external calls or both call types Call direction view only incoming, outgoing or both directions Call result view only answered calls, missed calls or display all calls regardless of result 3. Customise which call types are important to you The next settings allow you to further customise which types of calls you wish to see in your global call history. For example, system calls and voicemails aren\u0026rsquo;t that important to you, then turn them off by clicking the toggle switch to the left position as shown here:\nToggle call filters on and off\r4. Customise which team calls are important to you Finally, the last section of the filter menu lists all the teams that you are a member of and allows you to control whether calls via these teams should be displayed in the global call history or not:\nFilter teams in global call history\rOnce your done customising your filter settings, simply close the filter options screen via the red X button and you will see that your global call history will now only show you the calls that are important to you.\nHow to access specific team call histories If you are a member of one or more call queue teams, you will be able to view the call history for each individual team that you are a member of.\n1. Select the desired queue team To access the call history for a specific team that you are a member of, the first step select the desired team from the roster within the pascom UC client. Doing so will open the default Team Overview window:\npascom Team Overview\rWithin the Team Overview, you have all the tools required to keep track of other team members, see who is paused, log in and out of the team, pause yourself, monitor calls waiting, and access the call history for the the team.\n2. Open the team call history Next, click the Team Call History tab in order to open the call logs for this specific call queue:\nAccess pascom Team Call History\r3. Search the team call history Once you are in the Team Call History view a search field will appear above the call logs. This search can be used to find specific calls to the selected Team.\npascom Team Call History search\r4. Using the team call history filters By clicking the Filter Options button it is possible to setup custom filters that are specific for each team that you are a member of:\nCustom pascom team call history filters\rAs with the Global Call History, it is possible to customise which call types, directions and result are displayed within the Team Call History. Furthermore, it is also possible to filter more specific call types such as voicemails, system calls etc.\nDetailed User Guides As a further source of information, we\u0026rsquo;ve updated our phone system documentation with some useful user guides which are written specifically for end users.\nThey cover every aspect of the pascom desktop and mobile apps, so are definitely worth checking out:\nDesktop User Guide Mobile User Guide\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here to help If you have any queries about pascom phone system features and how to use them, then check out some more Video Collaboration posts as well as our desktop client, mobile app and web client user guides as link above.\nIf you, your team, your colleagues or customers could benefit from an effective all-in-one video and business collaboration solution, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call (+49 991 291691 0) and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\n","date":"October 5, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/new-feature-pascom-global-and-team-call-histories/","title":"New Feature: pascom Global and Team Call Histories"},{"categories":["Video Collaboration"],"contents":"pascom Uncovered - New Web Meeting Feature Introducing pascom Web Meetings, the latest addition to the pascom Video Collaboration suite. In the following video tutorial and the below quick start guide, we take a quick look at how to invite customers and business partners to join your online video conferences using the pascom Web Meeting tool.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES How To Start a pascom Web Meeting To help you get started with the new pascom Web Meeting Tools, we\u0026rsquo;ve out together a quick start guide that outlines the steps you should follow in order to get your meetings up and running.\n1. Create a pascom Group Just like you would for an internal video conference, you must first create a pascom Group in order to setup a web meeting session. Within the pascom client, simply click the red plus symbol above your internal contacts list. This will open the create group section where you will need to enter a Group name, e.g. Web Meeting, and turn on \u0026ldquo;Allow Guests\u0026rdquo; (it will turn red when it\u0026rsquo;s on).\nNow click the save icon on the top right of the new group section.\n2. Invite Participants Now that the group has been saved, click the group info button to open the group settings.\npascom Webmeeting Group Info\rWithin this screen, the following will be listed below the group avatar:\nPhone Dial In PIN Group URL pascom Webmeeting Setup\rIf you see a red warning message saying the phone dial-in is not enabled, speak to your phone system administrator - it\u0026rsquo;s really easy to configure!\nUse the Copy Invitation to Clipboard button and then send the information to your desired contact via e-mail. Your invitees will now be able to join your video meeting using their web browser.\n3. Start The Meeting As a pascom user, you do not need to open and join the meeting in your browser. Instead, you can start and control the meeting from the pascom client.\nOnce your participants have started joining the meeting, the group you setup in step 1 will turn green in the contacts list. These attendees will be waiting in a virtual lobby and all you need to do now is call into the group by clicking the phone symbol.\npascom Webmeeting start\rIf participants haven\u0026rsquo;t joined the meeting yet, the group will appear as \u0026ldquo;normal\u0026rdquo; within the contact list\nAs an external participant, using the web meeting client is very simple and user-friendly. However, in the rare case that your attendees are having issues joining the meeting, get them to read the pascom Web Client User Guide.\n4. Use Video Collaboration Tools As a web meeting moderator, you will now have a number of tools at your disposal, including video, screen sharing and in-built instant messaging tools. The video and screen sharing tools can be found within the \u0026ldquo;dialpad\u0026rdquo; section of the pascom client:\npascom Webmeeting video controls\rBy turning on your video, you can create a more personalised connection with the meeting attendees and the screen sharing tools allow you to generate even more visual impact by sharing presentations and breaking down complex issues into understandable segments. The Instant Messaging tools allow all users to chat with one another via text chat to share additional information such as links or statistics and so on.\nJust remember that when collaborating with remote colleagues, customers and partners, video should now be channel of choice for online meetings, but keep in mind that audio conferencing is still an excellent tool.\nDetailed User Guides As a further source of information, we\u0026rsquo;ve updated our phone system documentation with some useful user guides which are written specifically for end users.\nThey cover every aspect of the pascom desktop, mobile and web apps, so are definitely worth checking out:\nDesktop User Guide Mobile User Guide Web Client User Guide\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here to help If you have any queries about pascom phone system features and how to use them, then check out some more Video Collaboration posts as well as our desktop client, mobile app and web client user guides as link above.\nIf you, your team, your colleagues or customers could benefit from an effective all-in-one video and business collaboration solution, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call (+49 991 291691 0) and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\n","date":"August 13, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/new-feature-pascom-web-meetings/","title":"New Feature: pascom Web Meetings"},{"categories":["Video Collaboration"],"contents":"pascom Uncovered - a Video Collaboration Best Practice Guide For many, 2020 has meant working from home and collaborating with colleagues, customers and business partners using a mish mash of different communication tools. As pascom user, this does not need to be the case as you already have all the tools you need to communicate effectively, stay productive and maintain your usual excellent standards. One of the key \u0026ldquo;must have\u0026rdquo; business communications tools is video collaboration - so let\u0026rsquo;s take a look at how best to use the pascom Video Conferencing suite.\nWhy Is Video Important? Well, as we all sit in our home offices around the world, that essential visual element of communication has been lost. The visual aspect is especially important when it comes to employee collaboration, team projects but it is also equally important as an engagement tool when communicating with customers and business partners, which is why we\u0026rsquo;ve put together the above video tutorial which explains how to regain that all important face-to-face communication by using pascom\u0026rsquo;s Video Collaboration suite and covers several aspects including internal meetings, web meetings and desktop sharing seesions.\nMore Useful Video Collaboration Tips There is obviously more to successful video collaboration and great communication than simply having the right rools, you also need to know how to use them, when to use them and just as importantly how to \u0026ldquo;behave\u0026rdquo; when using them. Just like with traditional business meetings, there is a process and an etiquette to follow during video conferences.\nLearn How To Use pascom Web Meetings Please accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES 1. Video First When collaborating with remote colleagues, customers and partners, video should now be channel of choice for online meetings, but keep in mind that audio conferencing is still an excellent tool.\n2. Desktop Sharing We\u0026rsquo;ve all been there as someone tries to explain a complicated topic without visual aids, so dreak down complex issues and improve meeting effectiveness and understanding with screen sharing.\n3. Keep Apps Updated Keeping you apps up-to-date is essential for security and being able to benefit from new functionality, but there\u0026rsquo;s nothing worse than planning a meeting and then everything being ruined by updating at the last minute or worse an auto update - so plan, update and test before the meeting.\n4. Plan \u0026amp; Keep to Protocols Business meeting etiquette should be kept to at all times from planning to presentation. That means dressing appropriately, being punctual and ensuring your content is well-planned in advance.\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here to help If you have any queries about pascom phone system features and how to use them, then check out some more Video Collaboration posts as well as our desktop client, mobile app and web client user guides.\nVideo Collaboration Desktop User Guide Mobile User Guide Web Client User Guide If you, your team, your colleagues or customers could benefit from an effective all-in-one video and business collaboration solution, then we\u0026rsquo;re here to help. Just give us a call (+49 991 291691 0) and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\nGet your free phone system\n","date":"August 12, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/howto-guide-to-pascom-video-collaboration/","title":"HowTo Guide to pascom Video Collaboration"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems","Unified Communications","Video Collaboration"],"contents":"The Digital Transformation and The App Economy. The core principle behind the Digital Transformation is great. Adopting digital technologies should help streamline and optimise business processes. In short, the Digital Transformation should make us all more effective, more productive and is meant to support businesses become leaner, more flexible and therefore more profitable. After all, we live in the days of the App Economy where there is an app for just about everything, but for businesses and business communications, this is a significant problem.\nThe Problem of Apps Overload Apps are great, they connect us, allow us to quickly share content and manage our days to the second. In fact, there is an App for just about everything. What\u0026rsquo;s more, apps are constantly evolving and bring new innovation to the consumer marketplace which in turn is then adopted in the business world.\nOn the surface, having apps for everything sounds great. For the private consumer, this is excellent news as apps offer an unparalleled level of convenience and connectivity. However, in the business world, adopting and using too many apps is a serious issue, known as app fatigue, that businesses must address in order to remain effective and productive.\nWhat is App Fatigue and Does it Affect Productivity? App fatigue is the name given to the phenomenon of employees being overloaded with apps that are supposed to improve efficiency and productivity. In fact, when adopting too many business apps for individual business tasks, the opposite is true. We all know the feeling when our smartphone screens are cluttered with apps that we may or may not use. The difference is that as a business user, you can\u0026rsquo;t remove said applications from your laptop or smartphone because other employees might use them.\nIn fact, there are volumes of research available that highlights that employees often cite app fatigue and overload as an increasing source of frustration hindering productivity.\nThe Problem With Too Many Apps and Employee Overload Business phone system functionality, customer contact data, e-mail, productivity management, CTI integration, presence, video collaboration, conferencing, screen sharing, file sharing, desktop softphones, mobile softphones, instant messaging, team collaboration and even something as old school as faxing. That\u0026rsquo;s 15 key business processes that are required by almost every business on a daily basis.\nJust like juggling too many tasks at once will have a negative impact on productivity, so too will toggling between too many apps. Constantly switching between apps to perform different tasks is not only time consuming, but it can also be distracting as well as creating a number of inefficiencies, information silos, potential risks and greater cost. According to a 2017 Harmony.ie the modern knowledge worker uses on average 9.39 enterprise apps, with between 5 and 9 being open at one time.\nFrom an employee perspective, with each business application comes a different workflow, a different user experience and a different set of requirements, so it is little wonder that according to the 2017 Harmony survey of how enterprise apps are used in the modern workplace, 43% of respondents agree that they must switch between too many workplace apps. With each app, the risk of human error increases as does the risk of creating information silos, where data is stored in one app and not in the other.\nShadow IT and Apps Overlap From the management and IT perspective, too many apps can also be cause for a massive headache which is generally caused by a lack of overall strategic vision when it comes to infrastructure management.\nFirstly, the survey also highlighted that 48% of employees willingly used apps not approved and distributed by the IT department. Generally, this practice, which is known as Shadow IT, comes about as a result of employee dissatisfaction with the company approved applications. Shadow IT poses a significant threat to the security and control over company data as information is shared and stored with non-approved applications and vendors. In the age of GDPR compliant data protection, Shadow IT can have serious consequences for companies found to be in breach of the regulation.\nSecondly, It is entirely possible for knowledge workers to experience app overlap by having to use App X for a video conference with Team A but App Y with Team B. For IT, this is a nightmare scenario as they have to manage, approve, integrate and secure two apps that serve the same purpose and if both of these workplace apps are paid apps, then don\u0026rsquo;t visit your finance department any time soon as they will not be happy.\nFast-forward three years, throw an even more dispersed workforce and a pandemic into the mix and the glut of enterprise apps used every day has undoubtedly grown and so too has the level of employee dissatisfaction which will inevitably result in productivity downturns and drops in customer satisfaction.\nFinal Word The Digital Transformation and multi-vendor infrastructures are not a new phenomenon, but as we\u0026rsquo;ve seen in the first half of 2020, businesses worldwide have been forced to adopt a number of new applications in order to enable effective Home Office working and collaboration amongst a workforce that has never before been so dispersed. Those companies that literally adopted individual apps for each business process will now be realising that they need to consolidate their infrastructure by adopting vendor solutions which unify as many applications into as few enterprise apps as possible and yes when it comes to the field of business communications and collaboration, we\u0026rsquo;ve got the app for that - it\u0026rsquo;s called pascom!\nIf you would like to know more about how pascom can help your business throughout this difficult time and beyond, then give us a call (+49 991 291691 0) and get off to a flying start with free pascom cloud phone system edition.\n","date":"August 4, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/app-fatigue-and-the-problem-with-too-many-apps/","title":"App Fatigue and The Problem With Too Many Apps"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom and sipcall Announce Interoperability Partnership July 27th, 2020 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of business Unified Communication (UC) phone systems, today announce a new Interoperability partnership with Swiss VoIP Provider sipcall, a leading and innovative Voice over IP Internet Telephony Service Provider by Backbone Solutions AG.\nThe new Interoperability partnership between pascom and sipcall comes after the successful completion of compatibility and interoperability testings between the pascom cloud phone system and the sipcall Voice-over-IP SIP trunking services. The new interoperability guarantees that pascom sipcall customers will be able to benefit from a hassle free open standards SIP Trunk PBX registration that ensures compatiblity and the full range of functionality between sipcall and both the pascom Cloud Communications platform and pascom Onsite solutions.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Sales Director: sipcall are renowned as an innovative VoIP provider with a vast experience in delivering reliable, cost-effective SIP trunking Internet Telephony services to the Swiss market. Our new interop partnership will ensure our existing customers will benefit from greater choice and flexibility when choosing Swiss Telecoms providers coupled with a seamless, simple registration. Furthermore, the new partnership provides sipcall customers with the opportunity to upgrade their business communications with pascom in the knowledge that the full scope of services are supported and without all the hassle of number porting and complicated registration process.\nThomas Kaufmann, sipcall by Backbone Solutions AG Marketing Manager SIP Trunks from sipcall are as flexible as a swiss army knife and are therefore compatible with all leading VoIP enabled PBX solutions including pascom. Today, a considerable number of sipcall customers and installation partners already rely on pascom solutions which is reason enough for us to further strengthen our cooperation and continually add further benefit for our mutual customers. We look forward to further successes as we continue to work together in the future.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\nAbout sipcall Backbone Solutions AG was founded in 1998 and has since developed a reputation for high quality Internet connections and is now an established telecoms industry name. As pioneers of Internet Telephony, the company launched the «sipcall» brand in 2005 to deliver innovative Business solutions based on VoIP technologies. 40,000 statisfied telephony customers and over 700 partner organisations within Switzerland rely on the expertise and experience of sipcall by Backbone Solutions AG.\n","date":"July 27, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-and-sipcall-successfully-complete-interoperability-testing/","title":"pascom and sipcall Successfully Complete Interoperability Testing"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"It Started as a Hobby Open Source Research Project Technology is constantly evolving and so is pascom and the pascom Business Communications platform. So it’s a good thing that as pascom’s head of development, I simply can’t switch off. When it comes to the OpenSource community, I like to have my finger on the pulse as I constantly search and delve into Open Source projects that have the potential to add innovation and upgrade our pascom Cloud Business Communications infrastructure.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s the Problem? Through knowing where we are and where we want and need to be as a business communications company, I have a set out on a path on how to best achieve our goals with two considerations in mind. Firstly, how to constantly improve our solutions for our customers without breaking their existing workflows and secondly, how to effectively achieve this without needing to start from scratch and breaking what we already have.\nWith this vision in mind, I started an open-source research project as I had identified two ideal platforms, Nomad and Podman, that would provide us with a technological solution to achieve our goals and would add significant enhancements to the pascom multi-tenant cloud infrastructure in the future. But the problem is they do not talk to each other, at least not out of the box. Just like in the world of business communication solutions, if two people cannot connect, then they cannot communicate and the same is true here. So here is the what, why and how of my Nomad Podman interoperability prototype plugin.\nNomad - The What and Why? As this is where the story started, let\u0026rsquo;s start with Nomad. A quick look at the HashiCorp Nomad website and you\u0026rsquo;ll see that Nomad is a simple, flexible, and production-grade workload orchestrator. Simply put, Nomad allows platform developers to deploy, manage, and scale cloud applications across multiple regions much more efficiently and effectively. There are alternative solutions available such as Kubernetes (K8S), but for us, Nomad has a few distinct advantages and judging by the requests from the Nomad community many others as well.\nFirst and foremost, Nomad is a perfect fit for our existing infrastructures. We have already implemented and deployed other HashiCorp products including Consul, Packer, and Vault. Adopting Nomad would mean we would face fewer interoperability complications down the line. Secondly, we do not use Docker and we cannot and do not want to use Kubernetes as the concept behind our infrastructure is based on stateful system containers per tenant. Furthermore, Nomad also supports LXC containers which we currently use to containerise each pascom phone system instance (i.e. each PBX Tenant). Moreover, unlike Kubernetes, Nomad is extremely lightweight and therefore does not require a complete rebuild of our infrastructure to be able to enjoy the benefits. As such, Nomad is a perfect fit for what we are looking to achieve.\nPodman - The What and Why? The answer is \u0026ldquo;Podman is a daemonless container engine for developing, managing, and running Open Container Initiative (OCI) Containers\u0026rdquo;[1] and since it’s first release in February 2018, Podman has grown fast and has for many become a replacement for Docker. Lot’s of buzzwords there and as I said at the top, we don’t use Docker, so why do we need Podman?\nThe current core of the pascom business communications platform is based around LXC containers and the plan is to move away from LXC containers and replace the technology using Podman because Podman offers us several advantages over both LXC and Docker. Like Nomad, the beauty of Podman is that compared to LXC and Docker, it is more lightweight, meaning it is simpler to adopt without requiring significant in-depth infrastructure changes. Beyond this, Podman does not use daemon processes, it offers more secure, rootless containers, and has a more user-friendly interface than LXC. Another benefit of Podman is that it uses the OCI image format which provides an ideal framework in which to design open standards for operating system-level virtualisation[2].\nIn short, daemonless and rootless combined equals no need for Docker and a more secure, admin-friendly open standards usability compared to LXC. So it is no wonder then that, just like with Nomad, the Podman community have been searching for an out of the box plugin as well.\nWhat Did I Do Having found what I was looking for, I set out to develop a tool to ensure that it was possible to combine and benefit from both Nomad and Podman within a cloud infrastructure. Thankfully, I was able to call on the support of HashiCorp and the Open Source Community and was, therefore, able to successfully develop a prototype plugin that in the future will enable the combination of Nomad and Podman. Having created the foundations there is still work to be done, but I hope that in the future, the prototype plugin that we have developed will not only provide the basis of our future implementations and deployments but also support the wider community who are looking to take advantage of the excellent benefits that both technologies have to offer.\nYou can download and experiment with the plugin here and read the guides for more information.\nAbout Myself I am the pascom CTO and have been developing integrated, open standards VoIP and Business Communications platforms for over 10 years and have over 20 years experience working in full stack development. At pascom, my role as CTO sees me managing an international team of backend and frontend developers, creating DevOp workflows, maintaining and upgrading the pascom architecture and herding the cloud infrastructure.\nNotes from the Nomad Team: Many thanks to Thomas Weber and pascom for contributing and donating this Podman task driver to Nomad. We encourage our community members to experiment with this new capability, but we recommend against using the plugin in a production environment until we make it generally available.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and is highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about pascom phone systems, please visit pascom.net.\n","date":"July 8, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/innovating-infrastructures-with-nomad-and-podman/","title":"Innovating Infrastructures with Nomad and Podman"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Announce Kuando Busylight Interoperability June 19th, 2020 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of business Unified Communication (UC) phone systems, announced the successful completion of compatability and interoperability testing between the company\u0026rsquo; latest 19.06 VoIP phone system release and Plenom\u0026rsquo;s office intelligence kuando Busylight presence indicator solution.\nThe addition of Interoperability between pascom and the kuando Busylight solution offers pascom business phone system customers further added value by delivering an additional dimension of office intelligence and delivers a highly efficient visualised presence management tool that is compatible with both pascom cloud and on-premise Business Communications platforms.\nFurthermore, the new interoperanility ensures that pascom customers will be able to benefit from a simple, intuitive setup which delivers the ability to not only visually display see employee presence, but also enable users to personalise their workplace experience thanks to the additional kuando Busylight speaker support. As a result, the new integration provides the perfect audio-visual presence management extension to the pascom Unified Communications and Collaboration applications that has practical benefits for both Collaboration and ContactCentre environments.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Sales Director: At it\u0026rsquo;s core, the success of modern business communications is dependant on how efficiently we communicate with one and another. That is why we all strive to become increasingly efficient in our workflows. By adding support for the kuando Busylight to our pascom solutions, we are able to offer our customers with an excellent, easy-to-use, and efficiency boosting presence management tool that delivers a large number of benefits which are applicable across the board, from the normal office environment to large contact centres and even in HomeOffice.\nOle Rytter, Plenom A/S Regional Manager EMEA The Busylight has been an overlooked device in the contact center environment for years but the interest is heavily increasing from both vendors and end users at the moment. It seems they are now realizing how a relatively simple and inexpensive solution can filter out unwanted noise and interruptions, and free up capacity for higher focus and a better customer experience. You can certainly run a Contact Center without using Busylights, but it is by far the most important “nice to have” device available to make effortless improvements.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and how our solutions support businesses upgrade their business communications.\n","date":"June 19, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-kuando-busylight-interoperability/","title":"pascom Kuando Busylight Interoperability"},{"categories":["Video Collaboration"],"contents":"How to run and manage successful virtual video meetings When it comes to remote working, the last few months have demonstrated to businesses worldwide that remote working is no longer a nice perk but is now a must have business continuity tool that can actually enhance productivity when managed correctly. On the whole, the required technology has stood up to the task and employees have successfully adapted to the new way of working. But what has become clear is that when it comes to virtual meetings, people have struggled to come to terms with what it takes to run and manage engaging and productive virtual video meeting effectively. As business collaboration platform specialists, we’re no strangers to working from home and virtual meetings, which is why we’ve put together some tips to help guide you towards virtual meeting greatness.\n1. The Right Technology As we discussed in our previous post, choosing the right technology is essential when it comes to running and managing virtual meetings. In short, we introduced why cloud business communications are so important, why video should now be the de facto communication channel, why audio dial-ins are must haves and how using Team Collaboration tools such as screen sharing ensure that participants are kept on the same page. But the most important aspect of your chosen solution is user-friendliness. If is not easy-to-use, people will struggle and meeting productivity will suffer.\n2. Allow Time for Prior Planning As the old saying goes, poor planning makes for poor performance. We all take the time to prepare for face-to-face meetings, so why do fewer of us put the effort into our virtual meetings? Our tip is to consider the following and build them into your virtual meeting planning process:\nAudience Content Structure By using the above tips, you will go a long way to ensuring that your virtual meetings engage with your audience. By considering who your audience is, you are able to determine whether the content is relevant or not. If the content is irrelevant, remove it as it is a distraction. If aspects of the content are only relevant for a smaller number of the participants, consider hosting a separate meeting just for them.\nPresentations and meetings that flow are the most engaging and a coherent structure to the meeting has many benefits. Well-structured meetings are easier to follow and therefore help bolster understanding. As with face-to-face business meetings, virtual meetings should always have a moderator. The moderator must ensure that people keep to the structure and stay on track whilst having the opportunity to share their input in the meeting, so the better prepared the moderator is, the more engaging and productive the meeting will be.\n3. Keep the audience size to a minimum Regarding audience, it is essential to know your audience. As such, we recommend keeping participant numbers as small as possible in order to ensure that the content is relevant to only those participating. Furthermore, smaller groups are simpler to manage, are more personal and mean that every personality type has the opportunity to actively share their input into the meeting.\nThere’s nothing worse than joining a meeting, virtual or face-to-face, and being a spectator as more dominant personalities take over and people discuss topics that are not relevant to you and your role or objectives. This is particularly true for internal meetings such as brainstorming sessions where too many opinions and ideas will detract from the quality of the session.\nAnother critical aspect to consider when hosting an online virtual business meeting is that the participants will be viewing everything on a relatively small screen. Not every participant will have access to larger screens or multiple monitors and therefore, be keeping the audience size to a minimum it is also possible to reduce screen clutter and keep the attendees focused.\n4. Test \u0026amp; Practice Beforehand Finally, test and practice - we cannot emphasis this enough. Only by testing and practicing will you uncover any potential issues with the content, the structure and your skills with the technology and as a moderator.\nIn our previous post, we highlighted how practicing beforehand helps identify potential issues with the technology. The same is true of the actual content and structure of the meeting. By testing and practicing before the event, you will undoubtably uncover areas that can be improved. Content that is not relevant can be removed and areas where the structure does not flow can be improved.\nPracticing beforehand will also help you become more familiar with the content and ensure that you can identify any potential timing issues and avoid over running. Further to this, as a meeting host, trial runs will help ensure that you come across as confident, well prepared and professional. Obviously, coming across this way is always important but it is essential for any virtual business meeting involving customers, suppliers and/or business partners.\n5. Appropriate Attire, Decoration and Etiquette Working from home is full of images of people lounging on their sofa, laptop in hand while still wearing pyjamas. You wouldn’t turn up to a face-to-face office meeting wearing your pyjamas, so why do it in Home Office, particularly now that video is the go-to communication channel? Beyond this, dressing appropriately has a number of other benefits such as creating the right mindset to work and portraying professionalism.\nFurthermore, considering that virtual meetings have transformed from the traditional audio conference to video and web conferencing, finding an appropriate space in which to work is highly recommended. Sitting at the kitchen table is no-one’s cup of tea and bad lighting, whether too dark or bright, and inappropriate décor is just as big a detraction from meeting effectiveness. If you have the ability to create an office space, do so. It will help your business performance in more ways than you can think of from productivity to striking the right work-life balance.\nFinally, remember everyone can see you so maintaining the right etiquette is paramount and key to creating a positive impression. If you appear tired, distracted or uninterested, then you meeting is doomed to be added to the list of pointless waste of time meetings that everyone has. This means, run the meeting like you would in the office, be punctual, dress appropriately, keep to your plan, interact with the attendess and stay on time and on course.\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here to help Of course, there is much more to hosting great virtual meetings and remaining productive while working from home. We’ve been talking about such topics, tips and tricks for many years, so make use of our other blog articles including which additional UC tools to use, how to work with and manage remote teams, the ergonomics of the ideal Home Office plus what you need for the perfect setup ([check out this post from 2018](/en/the-perfect-home-office-setup/ “Work From Home – The Perfect Setup”)).\nIf you would like to know more about how pascom can help your business throughout this difficult time and beyond, then give us a call (+49 991 291691 0) and get a head start with our free cloud phone system edition.\n","date":"May 26, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/how-to-run-great-and-engaging-video-meetings/","title":"How To Run Great And Engaging Video Meetings"},{"categories":["Video Collaboration"],"contents":"What Does It Take To Run Productive Virtual Meetings Over the past few months, companies across the world have been scrambling to digitally transform as a result of the current pandemic. Their goal has been to ensure not only the protection of their employees by enabling remote working where possible but also the continuity of their business through adopting tools such as cloud Unified Communications combined with Video and Web Conferencing. While the adoption of UCC platforms, Video Conferencing technologies and new work practices has enabled businesses to implement work from home strategies, it has also presented a number of issues that even a business experienced in remote working and virtual meetings have struggled to overcome - namely how to stay productive when working from home AND how to keep virtual video meetings effective and productive - which is the focus of this article.\nWhat is a Virtual Meeting? Before we go further, it is important to define exactly what a virtual meeting is. Is it an audio conference? Is it a video conference or an online business meeting using web conferencing? Well it is the term used to describe all of these, but for the purpose of this article we are going to focus on virtual business meetings using video and web conferencing, but be assured many of the tips below will also hold true for audio conferencing as well, although why anyone would want to hold an audio only conference these days is well and truly beyond us.\nNow that begs the question: what\u0026rsquo;s the difference between a video conference and a web conference? Simply put, a video conference is a virtual meeting taking place using dedicated video conferencing software, such as the pascom UC desktop and mobile apps, and/or hardware whereas a web conference is an online business meeting that takes place using the video and audio streaming capabilities of ones web browser - in other words using WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication).\nSo What\u0026rsquo;s The Problem? Many of us have been on an audio conference where next to nothing has been achieved and we all know from experience that as soon as people have to \u0026ldquo;login\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;dial-in\u0026rdquo;, meetings can be tedious and productivity will start to take a hit. The list of reasons for this is too long and varied to outline in detail here, but the main issue is engagement.\nVirtual meetings are often dominanted by one or two people and the rest of the attendees tend to \u0026ldquo;zone out\u0026rdquo; as they don\u0026rsquo;t feel involved or engaged. Other times, meeting attendees use the virtual gap to seize the opportunity to multi-task meaning their focus is not fully on the topic at hand. Then there\u0026rsquo;s the case that organisers have a tendancy to put less preparation and focus on the design and structure of virtual meetings and therefore are unable to effectively manage the flow of conversation and attendee engagement will also start to suffer.\nBut it need not be so. By applying some simple meeting best practices and through utilising readily available, easy-to-use collaboration tools, holding great and highly effective virtual meetings can be quite simple, even for spur of the moment ad-hoc business meetings.\nKey Technology Host Great Virtual Meetings 1. Use Video As Option 1 We really can\u0026rsquo;t emphasise this enough, upgrade your audio conferences to video meetings and where possible make it clear that video is now the preferred option.\nBeing able to see each participant is a great way to focus everyone\u0026rsquo;s attention on the meeting. Video meetings give everyone the feeling of being in the same \u0026ldquo;room\u0026rdquo; and ensures for more personal virtual meetings. Moreover, using video also allows participants to gauge one anothers body language and therefore helps reduce misunderstandings. Another great benefit of video meetings over audio conferences is that as everyone is visible, it is easy to see when someone is zoning out or focusing on other tasks.\n2. Always Provide An Audio Option This might sound a bit contradictory having just said \u0026ldquo;Use Video\u0026rdquo;, but when holding virtual meetings it is important to consider all the possible attendee requirements. In order to ensure that your virtual meetings enjoy the maximum engagement and therefore effectiveness, you want to keep requirements to a minimum. For example, video conferencing requires more bandwidth, a headset or headphones, a web cam and a microphone. Most laptop and mobile attendees will automatically have a web cam, it is possible to use mobile headphones with inbuilt mircophones but not everyone has a reliable internet connection. Therefore, always provide a \u0026ldquo;dial-in\u0026rdquo; per phone option or at the bare minimum use a video conferencing platform that enables online audio streaming.\n3. Use Desktop Sharing Attendees being literally \u0026ldquo;on the same page\u0026rdquo; is a significant engagement enhancer. If you or another meeting participant needs to present, explain a complex topic or topics, provide remote technical assistance that requires attendee participation, then screen sharing (desktop sharing) offers the optimum tool to guide people through the session and manage the conversation.\nFor example, should you and your team work with any form of ticket system / project management platforms such as Altassian\u0026rsquo;s Jira, then the meeting moderator (or the person presenting) should share their screen during the team meeting. Doing so ensures that all participants are viewing the right ticket or project and helps minimise delays or confusion as individual attendees search for the relevant information themselves.\n4. Test \u0026amp; Practice Before Hand If you have recently adopted the technology and even if you haven\u0026rsquo;t, it is always a good idea to test and practice before going live with the virtual meeting. Familiarising yourself with the technology is really important as it means that you can respond to related questions or issues quickly and effectively during the meeting. This also applies to internal online meetings with colleagues, although it is not as important. The reason is simple, everybody\u0026rsquo;s time is valuable and first impressions count. If, for whatever reason, you can\u0026rsquo;t share your screen or the video doesn\u0026rsquo;t transmit and you only discover this whilst in the meeting then as an organiser you will have wasted everyone\u0026rsquo;s time and if you are presenting to a new customer they won\u0026rsquo;t thank you for it.\n5. Keep Your Apps Updated As with all technology, it is important to keep your applications up to date. Not only is this good for security, but updates also often bring new features, easier workflows, improved video / audio stability and so on.\nOn the other hand, having followed steps 1 through 4 and upon opening your virtual meeting application, up pops a notification saying there\u0026rsquo;s an update available. Sometimes, this can\u0026rsquo;t be helped and is inevitable but resist the tempation for now and do the update afterwards - you never know what the update might bring; a new design you are not familiar with, incompatiblity issues with your video and / or audio devices or worse still and the update doesn\u0026rsquo;t finish in time.\nNow that we have the technology sorted, join us next week when we take a look at some best practices for both hosting and attending virtual meetings.\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here to help There are of course many more tips to remaining productive from home including which additional UC tools to use, how to work with and manage remote teams, the ergonomics of the ideal Home Office plus what you need for the perfect setup (check out this post from 2018).\nIf you would like to know more about how pascom can help your business throughout this difficult time and beyond, then give us a call (+49 991 291691 0) and get a head start with our free cloud phone system edition.\n","date":"May 19, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/how-to-run-great-and-effective-virtual-meetings/","title":"The Technology Needed To Run Great And Effective Virtual Meetings"},{"categories":["Video Collaboration"],"contents":"Making Web Conferencing Simple with WebRTC and pascom Over the recent months, we have seen just how critical modern business communications and the need to digitally transform is to business continuity. With the need to switch from the normal day-to-day to 100% HomeOffice working overnight, it\u0026rsquo;s not a surprise that demand for cloud business communications, VoIP phone systems, Unified Communications, Mobile VoIP/UC apps and Video and Web Conferencing platforms has surged to never before seen levels. With the recent release of the pascom 19.06 phone system, it is now possible to access all these tools in one easy-to-use and manage platform on both desktop and mobile devices, in HomeOffice and yes in the future in the office as well.\nThe release of our WebRTC Webconferencing tools is not something that has been forced by current circumstances. In fact, the journey towards pascom 19.06 started back in 2015 when we released our very first pascom Video Telephony solution. Since then, the pascom UCC solution has seen a steady progression of upgrades all geared towards ensuring that we remain leaders within the business telecommunications industry in terms of innovation, user experience and competion. As part of the process, the pascom phone system solution has constantly evolved from a predominantly onsite IP PBX solution into a scalable, full Unified Communications Cloud Communications platform.\nThroughout this process, we have worked tirelessly to continously improve our clients, mobile apps and platform infrastructure and now that pascom 19.06 has arrived, we have developed the pascom phone system from simple peer to peer video calling to an all-encompassing complete video conferencing, desktop sharing and WebRTC web conferencing suite.\nThe Benefits of WebRTC and pascom Web Conferencing The pascom Web Conferencing tools offer pascom phone system customers an additional customer service tool to further enhance customer engagement. Through enabling external stakeholder participation in online meetings and web conferences, pascom phone system users now have the ideal platfrom from which to invite prospects, customers and business partners to join online meetings, web conferences, online presentations and remote support sessions.\nThe beauty of pascom\u0026rsquo;s WebRTC Web Conferencing solution lies in its consistent ease of use. Neither the pascom user nor the participant require any additional software or hardware. pascom users can simply and efficiently start web conferences using either the pascom Desktop or Mobile Unified Communications app while the intended participant is able to join the meeting using their desktop or mobile web browser - all they need is the link to the WebRTC meeting session.\nAdd Another Dimension to Customer Service As in days gone by, the customer is king, but never before has this been so important. We are now so connected and our digital presence can be seen by anyone, managing a company\u0026rsquo; digital reputation is now arguably more important than managing it\u0026rsquo;s offline reputation. In order to do this, companies need to adapt and become savvy about focusing on customer engagement and experiences across the board. The problem is that even before the current situation, customer expectations had been increasingly shifting towards not only 24/7/365 but also spread over multiple touchpoints, meaning the days of the 9 to 5 have well and truly disappeared.\nThankfully, WebRTC technologies and web conferencing tools offer a superb real-time method to instantly start engaging with customers. Whether we are talking about online business meetings, delivering remote presentations or even providing technical support, having the ability to invite the customer into a video conference, share screens and exchange instant messaging chats within just a matter of seconds will not only improve resolution times but also provide that essential personal and visual element to your customer interactions.\nWork From Anywhere \u0026amp; Reduce Business Travel How times have changed. This time last year, the work from anywhere argument also included staying in contact with customers and business partners whilst on the go on business trips and so on. Moving forward, yes business trips will return but the way we work has changed forever. Therefore, the need to seamlessly integrate Work From Home employees and provide them with instant access to all the collaboration and communication tools they require will be paramount.\nBusinesses and customers have now seen that online meetings can work, employees can remain productive and given the right tools extremely effective. What\u0026rsquo;s more, while a semblance of \u0026ldquo;normality\u0026rdquo; will return, it is fairly safe to say that the way we work has changed. In the future, it was already the case that more people will work from home more often. Now there are calls from some to change the law to make HomeOffice working a legal right not a priviledge. If this becomes the case, the onus will be on business to adapt and provide their employees with the tools they require to stay in the loop and remain productive no matter where they work.\nIt goes without saying that face-to-face in person is always best, but with the aid of video and web conferencing tools, companies worldwide have become accustomed to hosting business meetings online. While this is a must at the moment, there will be no rush to suddenly all jump back in our cars or on a plane for a customer meeting unless it is an absolute necessity. Further to this, not everyone has a particularly enjoyable commute and for most the commute is an expense they can do without. There are environmental reasons to reduce business travel which have been highlighted by the current lockdown. Add all these factors together and it is clear to see that the amount we travel for work will de\nSingle Platform For Voice, Video, Chat and More With the addition of web conferencing in pascom 19.06, the pascom Unified Communications and Video Conferencing suite is effectively \u0026ldquo;feature complete\u0026rdquo;. Now that\u0026rsquo;s not to say that new features are not in the pipeline (there are a few on the way), but it does ensure that pascom customers are excellently equipped with one central platform for Voice, Video, Chat, Mobile and Contact Centre tools.\nIn effect, with the release of pascom 19.06. pascom has now been completely transformed into a full stack business communications solution. Moreover, by opting for the pascom.cloud option, businessess will be able to eliminate all the hosting and multi-site networking headaches that are often associated with on-premise solutions.\nFinal Word The current situation has shown us that the digital transformation is not just a buzz word and that the move to the cloud actually makes sense on a number of levels. With pascom, companies have all the tools they need to digitally transform and bolster business continuity as we move forward in the new way of working.\n","date":"May 15, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-webrtc-web-conferencing/","title":"pascom WebRTC Web Conferencing"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems","News"],"contents":"pascom Announce Gigaset Pro IP DECT Interoperability May 12th, 2020 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of business Unified Communication (UC) phone systems, announced the successful completion of compatability and interoperability testing between the company\u0026rsquo; latest 19.06 VoIP phone system release and the Gigaset PRO IP DECT N870 workplace mobility solution.\nThe addition of Interoperability between pascom and the Gigaset Pro IP DECT N870 offers pascom business phone system customers further choice when deploying workplace mobility solutions and ensures that IT managers and system administrators can now benefit from a more efficient, simpler integration thanks to the new pascom Gigaset provisioning template that enables the automatic onboarding of basis stations and handsets with the minimum of input.\nFurthermore, the new interoperability between pascom and Gigaset guarentees the full range of functionality and compatability between the both pascom cloud and on-premise IP PBX solutions and the Gigaset N870 IP Pro DECT solution, therefore ensuring that mutual customers are able to benefit from a crystal clear business communications experience.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Sales Director: Gigaset are renowned for their highly professional, cost effective range of DECT solutions and interoperability between pascom and Gigaset has been an increasingly demanded feature of the pascom phone system which is why we are delighted to announce that testing and development of our Interoperability template for the Gigaset Pro IP DECT N870 has been completed and is now available and we look forward to furthering our technicial partnership with Gigaset in upcoming pascom phone system editions as we add further Gigaset DECT devices to our range of supported endpoints.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about the pascom and Gigaset, please refer to the pascom phone system endpoint documentation.\n","date":"May 12, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-gigaset-pro-ip-dect-interoperability/","title":"pascom Gigaset Pro IP DECT Interoperability"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"WebRTC Web Conferencing - pascom 19.06 Release April 28th, 2020 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of business Unified Communication (UC) phone systems, today announced the release of the pascom VoIP phone system version 19.06. The pascom 19.06 release signifies the end of the pascom 19 BETA testing phase, ensuring that all pascom customers are now able to benefit from a tried and test feature-rich team collaboration and video conferencing business communications platform including the pascom WebClient, the company\u0026rsquo; latest Web Conferencing Collaboration tool.\nThe new pascom Web Client provides pascom customers with an intuitive, secure option for hosting online business meetings. Built of WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) technology, pascom\u0026rsquo;s Web Conferencing feature empowers pascom UC desktop and mobile app users to invite customers, prospects and business partners to join online meetings using their web browser, eliminating the need for additional hardware or app downloads.\nIncorporating all the functionality of pascom\u0026rsquo;s existing Video Conferencing and Screen Sharing suite, the pascom Web Client is compatible with all leading web browsers. In addition, pascom 19.06 also includes the option of allowing participants to choose how to stream audio, either in browser or via a new dial-in function. The range of functionality included in the pascom 19.06 release combines to in deliver an excellent customer service and engagement tool which is ideal for productive online meetings and delivering indepth remote presentations and exceptional support.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO: In recent weeks, businesses globally have seen the importance of effective, easy-to-use yet secure video conferencing and business communications tools. The release of pascom 19.06 and our WebRTC pascom Web Client therefore delivers the perfect upgrade to compliment our existing collaboration and video tools and further enhance the communication experience independant of device and location, working from home or in the office.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about the latest release, please refer to the pascom 19.06 release notes.\n","date":"April 28, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/web-conferencing-made-simple-with-pascom-webrtc/","title":"Web Conferencing Made Simple With pascom WebRTC"},{"categories":["Unified Communications"],"contents":"Effective Team Collaboration The key to success when working from HomeOffice is clear communication across the board. It does not matter who you are or even what function you have within your organisation, as a knowledge worker, working from HomeOffice presents several significant challenges to overcome. We also understand that as a manager the task of virtual team management can be quite daunting even for if you are experienced in working remotely.\npascom desktop and mobile UC applications\rAt pascom, we have offered HomeOffice opportunities for many years and therefore understand that working from home creates several obstacles for both employees and managers. To overcome these issues we have been using team collaboration tools daily and therefore know a thing or two about remote working and virtual team collaboration. That\u0026rsquo;s why we thought creating a guide to virtual collaboration and team management based on our experiences would be extremely useful for our customers and readers as we all work together and find our way with the new way to work.\nPromote Regular, Proactive, Rich Communication As an office-based worker, the proximity and general day-to-day office banter provide the ideal platform for effortless communication and helps ensure that everyone is on the same page. The problem is maintaining this critical element as we all move to HomeOffice working, particularly if you have limited or no remote working experience. To overcome this, you will need to make sure that you know exactly what is expected and plan accordingly.\nAs a team member, that means you should not be afraid of asking the boss for more contact - 5 minutes to kick start the day or wrap things up at the end of the day. As a manager, make sure to make time to communicate with your team. Make use of your full armoury of Team Messaging and Collaboration tools at your disposal to share quick, general information and ensure that your team, department and organisation feel connected.\nMobile Integration, Softphones and UC Apps Never before has mobile integration been so important. But the truth is, purely from a business continuity viewpoint, a well-deployed mobile integration strategy makes sense as nearly everyone has one which means you can save the hassle of having to add and integrate HomeOffice phones and so on.\nPreviously, the issue with mobile devices had always been the defining line between a mobile user\u0026rsquo;s professional and private life. The advent of Fixed Mobile Convergence and softphone technologies has changed things and the balancing act is no longer an issue. That said, the reality is that mobile users are reachable 24/7/365. This because mobile UC apps are always on by nature and they have to be to function correctly i.e. receive calls and chats etc. So both team members and managers alike will have to respect the boundary between work and private.\npascom anywhere, anytime connectivity on your office number\rThese days, employees can use mobile VoIP apps on their smartphones to make and receive calls on their office number. It is even possible to fall back to GSM technology should a stable Internet connection not be available. And the best bit, with a cloud-based unified communications platform, integrating mobiles and setting up the mobile apps is simple and effortless, meaning it is possible to switch to a mobile communication and collaboration strategy within in a very short space of time and then switch back again.\nVideo Conferencing pascom Home Office video conferencing tools\rIn 2019, social media brand development platform vendor Buffer released the State of Remote Work report showed that the second most common problem remote workers is that working remotely can often be lonely (19%), while the third most common issue was having the ability to collaborate and communicate effectively (17%).\nAn excellent way of communicating with your team is to make use of rich communication tools that offer live and face-to-face interactions such as video telephony and video conferencing tools as well as promoting the use of real-time tools such as chat and presence technologies.\nAnother top tip when it comes to video calls and conferences is to remember that the camera is on and everyone can see you - but that is the topic of our next post, so stay tuned for that one!\nDesktop Screen Sharing Video telephony is great for feeling included, but another excellent productivity-enhancing tip is to make use of screen sharing tools. In terms of Team Collaboration, desktop sharing is probably the single most tool and is a great productivity enhancer.\npascom phone system team collaboration tools\rThanks to screen sharing it is now possible for remote teams to effectively collaborate on tasks and projects despite the distance between them. Where video conferencing can, at times, be a distraction with so much to look at, screen sharing delivers a central focal point and can be used to promote extremely effective online meetings.\nOne of the core benefits of screen sharing is having the ability to deliver in-depth presentations and break down complex issues in a way that is clear and promotes understanding. For teams, screen sharing delivers the collaboration tool that enables members to continue to work normally on projects, demonstrate to their team and most importantly garner instant feedback and/or support without having those endless back and forth phone calls or worse still, the dreaded and counter-productive group E-mail that has developed into a never-ending book.\nTeam Messaging Team messaging tools are great for promoting team collaboration and sharing information quickly without having to jump on the phone or into a video conference. Depending on the size of your organisation, our tip is to set up groups for all levels of your company, from specific teams and departments right through to the entire organisation. If your business is a large multi-national, it might be more appropriate to add team messaging channels for each office location or territory to share location-specific information. Once set up, these channels provide an \u0026ldquo;Always On\u0026rdquo; platform to share announcements to all members at once and keep them apprised of all the important information that they need.\npascom phone system team messaging\rAnother excellent idea is to go one step further and to set up another organisation-wide channel solely for informal chit-chat. This provides a great platform on which employees can share ideas and achievements and can be used for that much-missed office banter - and don\u0026rsquo;t worry about getting annoyed by the channel either - if the messages are getting in the way of that project you are working on, simply mute the channel for the next few hours.\nPresence Technology Presence technology is an often under estimated and under valued communication tool. Simply having the ability to know at a glance whether a colleague is available or not can be a massive time saver as well as a useful customer service tool. By managing your \u0026ldquo;availability\u0026rdquo;, you are providing information to both your colleagues and the phone system. This means that colleagues can decide how best to contact you i.e. call vs chat, avoid unnecessary customer call transfers and unwanted interruptions. Furthermore, modern phone systems can see the user\u0026rsquo;s current presence status and adapt the automated call routing accordingly.\nOnce again, we have already written extensively on the topic of presence technology, just check out this article from 2015 for a full overview of the benefits of presence technology. But to sum up, presence helps boost productivity by resulting in fewer e-mails, increasing response times and ultimately improving remote collaboration - which is obviously great as we are all now working from home.\nBy using the full range of communication and collaboration tools at your disposal, it is often impossible or at least extremely difficult to tell if someone is in Home Office - at least until the Video is turned on - which means that from a technology standpoint one\u0026rsquo;s Internet connection is the only limitation to productive Home Office working. That said, LTE coverage is pretty widespread these days and is, in fact, faster than some of the lower-end bundles from many ITSPs.\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here to help There are many more tips to follow including which tools to use, the ergonomics of the ideal Home Office plus what you need for the perfect setup (check out this post from 2018). Join us next time as we take a look at how to ensure your online video meetings stay productive.\nIf you would like to know more about how pascom can help your business throughout this difficult time and beyond, then give us a call (+49 991 291691 0) and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\n","date":"April 3, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/homeoffice-employee-engagement-and-virtual-team-collaboration/","title":"HomeOffice: Employee Engagement and Virtual Team Collaboration"},{"categories":["Home Office"],"contents":"Whether you are new to Home Office working or a seasoned remote working pro, here\u0026rsquo;s what you need to know to keep productive It won\u0026rsquo;t come as a surprise to anyone that here at pascom, we are very heavy users of our pascom business communications tools. Back in 2015, we wrote an article about remaining effective whilst working in Home Office and given the current situation affecting us all, we thought it prudent to update it to reflect the needs of today. As a specialist telephony and unified communications platform developer, we have switched to 100% Home Office working and it\u0026rsquo;s not been so difficult as most of our workforce is accustomed to working from home at least once a week. Some of our team are even permanent remote workers and over the years we have adapted how we work as our toolset has evolved.\nCreate a Professional Environment For some, this will be the most challenging aspect of working from home. Not everyone has the space to set up an office at home. The kids are home, your partner will also need to work, not everyone lives in the country with a decent sized garden and in the southern hemisphere it\u0026rsquo;s nearly winter - but we\u0026rsquo;re all in the same boat, seasoned veteran or not, so we will all have to figure it out together.\nYour Home Office If you have an office, then use it. Having a Home Office provides the perfect balance between your professional and personal life. If you do not have space, create one as best you can; tucked away in the corner of the living room, even hang a curtain as a divider. It may seem strange, but two of the hardest aspects of working from home is setting boundaries and knowing when to call it a day. At the end of the day, not having to look at your laptop will mean you can unplug, which is essential to be able to unwind and refresh.\nJust as \u0026ldquo;out of sight, out of mind\u0026rdquo; applies to the feeling of loneliness whilst working from home and therefore makes video collaboration essential, it also applies to your workspace. If can set physical boundaries you should as these will also help with other aspects of working from home, such as providing a distinction between when you\u0026rsquo;re on the clock and when you\u0026rsquo;re not.\nRoutine and Attire Try to keep to your routine as best you can. Good hygiene is always important, these days more than ever. So have a shower, wash your hands and face, do all the things you would do on a \u0026ldquo;normal\u0026rdquo; day before heading to the office. Having a routine provides structure around which you can plan your day. There may be reasons that mean it is not possible for you to keep to your previous routine, so create a new one that works.\nAnother top tip is dress appropriately. No matter how appealing it might sound and no matter how comfortable it may be, lounging around in pyjamas will not motivate many people to be in the right mindset to be productive. We are not advocating shirt and tie, but smart casual is perfectly acceptable and more than comfortable.\nEvidence shows, that by maintaining a routine, dressing appropriately and planning your day will kick your mind into \u0026ldquo;work mode\u0026rdquo;, making it easier to stay focused and effective.\nAvoid Distractions But Be Flexible Under the current circumstances, this is the one issue that is going to affect most people. Depending on where you are in your life (single, married, kids, career power couple, etc.), avoiding distractions is going to be an issue for everyone to some degree or other. Just this morning, I was talking to the boss on the phone and his kids could be heard in the background as could my kids. Three weeks ago this would have been (almost) unheard of, but now will be commonplace as people adapt and come to terms with our new way to work.\nIf, like me, both you and your partner work and you have kids you are going to have to work it out between yourselves when each of you does the bulk of your work and then make sure your respective bosses are okay with your arrangements. Your arrangement will likely be determine by the type of job you have. For example, a teacher will stick to the traditional school day, Marketing can be more flexible, and so on. Either way, If you don\u0026rsquo;t figure out your daily routine the kids are going go stir crazy and drive you both mad.\nTake Regular Breaks For me, one of the toughest things about working in Home Office is ensuring that you take enough breaks. The issue here is the stigma that has surrounded working from home and the perception from many that Home Office really means pyjamas, sofa, and generally not doing very much. This has resulted in Home Office workers being reluctant to take breaks and this counter intuitive and counter-productive.\nWe all know that sitting at your desk all day is not actually that productive and by having a good routine means you don\u0026rsquo;t have to be afraid to take a break, have some water, stretch your legs, and get some fresh air. Moreover, taking a break will also break up the montony and will also ensure greater harmony in the household, particularly if you have kids.\nBe Sociable In our original post back in 2015, we advocated for being sociable but not on social media. This is not going to be an option for a while, so get the phone out and chat with friends and family online, use video calls for that invaluable face-to-face contact. In your professional life, use video as a means of replacing the visual contact that the office environment previously provided.\nAs we mentioned above, one of the hardest things about working in Home Office is the feeling of loneliness and this feeling is only going to be exaggerated through-out this challenging time. Therefore, if you feel alienated and left out of the loop, get on the phone, send a colleague an instant message and why not start a Friday afternoon weekend kick-off video session?\nCall It A Day There is plenty of research out there that shows Home Office workers work longer hours. An example can be seen with in the fact that it appears workers in the US have logged on average an extra three hours since the #WorkFromHome movement gain momentum on March 11th. It is so tempting to just finish that article or work a bit more on a project and while this is great for productivity in the short term, long-term it will wear you out. So when the day is done, close the door, get some fresh air and do some exercise. All of these serve to simulate everyone leaving the office and will have the effect of drawing a line between work and private life.\nHealthy LifeStyle Saving the most important to last, a healthy lifestyle and balanced diet have always been important and now that our movement is being restricted, it is even more important to eat healthily, stay hydrated, stay sociable, get some exercise, and get enough rest. Strike the right balance and you will keep your mind sharp and therefore remain productive as we all work together to get through this challenging period.\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here to help There are many more tips to follow including which tools to use, the ergonomics of the ideal Home Office plus what you need for the perfect setup (check out this post from 2018). Join us next week as we take a look at our tips for virtual team managers.\nIf you would like to know more about how pascom can help your business throughout this difficult time and beyond, then give us a call (+49 991 291691 0) and get started with our [free cloud phone system edition](https://www.pascom.net/en/free-trial \u0026ldquo;pascom cloud phone system free edition\u0026rdquo;\nIn the meantime, remember we\u0026rsquo;re all in this together, so keep calm, wash your hands and stay healthy.\n","date":"March 17, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/home-office-work-from-home-the-right-way/","title":"Home Office: Work From Home The Right Way"},{"categories":["Unified Communications","Home Office"],"contents":"HomeOffice Working and the Role of Unified Communications The topic of HomeOffice working is everywhere these days and given the circumstances, it is entirely understandable. It is important to note that the idea is nothing \u0026ldquo;new\u0026rdquo;. Even before the current COVID-19 outbreak, there was already considerable hype surrounding working from home and the future of work - just look back to our 2015 post on HomeOffice working best practices - and the reason is simple; times have changed and now we have the technology to easily work from home or anywhere for that matter.\nUCC and HomeOffice Working Every communication app we use in our private lives is geared around convenience, speed, and efficiency, so why should the world of business communications be any different? The problem is, the business world is different and therefore requires a different set of tools that deliver the same ease of use but within a controlled, productive environment - and this is where Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) fits in.\nFirst and foremost, central to any successful UCC strategy is that it works for everyone with a minimum of fuss. That means catering for each user preference and as the name suggests unifying all the required channels into a single, intuitive application. Taking a selection of apps for each collaboration channel won\u0026rsquo;t cut it. Such a UCC adoption is costly, time-consuming and can damage productivity as users toggle through multiple platforms for voice, video, chat and team collaboration.\nSecondly, as opposed to on-premise solutions that often require VPN infrastructures (or at least an element of port forwarding and network modifications), cloud-based unified communications make connecting remote workers extremely simple. The advent of the softphone integrated into desktop and mobile VoIP apps has enabled users to be reachable on their office phone number from anywhere - all they need is a good Internet connection and a headset.\nFinally, additional UCC tools such as presence information, chat, video conferencing and screen sharing all serve to ensure that employees have all the tools required at their fingertips no matter where they are or which device they are using. The result is that teams can continue to collaborate and remain accessible to their customers. Aside from the Business Continuity benefits, such platforms deliver, there a multitude of reasons to switch to a cloud-based Unified Communications phone system solution. Examples range from improving employee engagement and boosting productivity through to increasing your organisation\u0026rsquo;s reach when it comes to attracting new business and retaining the most talented employees.\nWe\u0026rsquo;re here to help As mentioned, the HomeOffice working trend is nothing new. Neither are the numerous benefits of adopting a well developed and managed Unified Communications strategy. That said, with the current Coronavirus pandemic is forcing businesses to react and rightly so. Protecting the health of employees is paramount and helps protect the wider community. Another aspect that businesses must consider is that by protecting their business, they are also protecting employee incomes which is essential for minimising the potential future economic impact.\nIf you would like to know more about how pascom can help your business throughout this difficult time and beyond, then give us a call (+49 991 291691 0) and get started with our free cloud phone system edition.\n","date":"March 14, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/homeoffice-and-the-future-of-work/","title":"HomeOffice and the Future of Work"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"UPDATE 16.03.2020 ION 2020 will now take place as a virtual event via Live Stream. Further Info will be available soon.\npascom Proud ION 2020 Gold Sponsor ION 2020, the Swiss ICT event of the spring, is the brainchild of pascom Excellence Partner and Cloud Service Provider, Seabix AG in Switzerland and pascom are proud to announce their attendance as a Gold sponsor. Focussing on core aspects of Seabix\u0026rsquo;s DNA; sustainability, security, and quality, ION 2020 has been designed as the springboard for the launch of a host of new strategic Seabix AG initiatives that are unparalled within the Swiss ICT marketplace.\nThe fusion of mobility, ICT services and automation is leading the way into the future of new Service Delivery Models within the market as well as opening exciting new opportunities to end customers in terms of the digital workplace of tomorrow. As a strategic Seabix partner and event sponsor, pascom are proud that their solutions form an integral component of Seabix\u0026rsquo;s existing business model and will continue to play a prominient role within the new initiatives and the next chapter of the company\u0026rsquo;s evolution.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO,\nAs a pascom Excellence and Cloud Hosting partner, Seabix play a strategically important role as we continue to grow within the Swiss ICT market and we are delighted to continue to support them and are very excited to be a part of the next stage of the company\u0026rsquo;s evolution being unveiled at ION 2020.\nAbout Seabix Seabix AG offers modular ICT value added subscription based IT services for SMBs. This translates to significant relief from the burdens of operations management for you as a result of operational outsourcing. As your ICT solutions are managed by us in our controlled hosting environment and support by an extension amount of accumulated Know-How, your business will benefit from essential cost control. Thanks to continuous development of our portfolio in cooperation with our partners, your investment is protected with a future proof guarantee. We only work with standardised and proven products which ensures we are able to provide you with significant price benefits.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more about ION 2020 and other pascom events, please visit our events page.\n","date":"March 3, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-ion-2020-gold-sponsor/","title":"pascom ION 2020 Gold Sponsor"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Designing the Digital Transformation, Sovereignty and pascom at LWsystems Professional Day 2020 Entitled Digitalisierung Souverän Gestalten (Designing Digital Transformation \u0026amp; Sovereignty), pascom are a proud Platinum sponsor of the LWsystem Professional Day 2020 on November 11th 2020 (postponed from March 19th 2020) at the Münster - Osnabrück Airport. Being hosted by Linux Open Standards IT solutions specialist and pascom Certified partner LWsystems GmbH \u0026amp; Co. KG, the event will focus on the role of Linux based Open Source / Open Standards solutions in the Digital Transformation and maintaining your digital sovereignty.\nJoin the discussion with leading industry names such as pascom, owncloud, agorum and FAST LTA and inform yourself on the latest IT-trends concerning the subject of maintaining your digital sovereignty and the digital transformation. Including a number of informative keynotes covering a variety of topics from Digital Identity and Security Digital Processes and of course business communications as pascom Sales Director Thomas Schmidt introduces kicking old habits and taking control of your business communications with pascom UC phone systems.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Sales Director:\nFirstly, supporting our pascom partners in growing their businesses is core to increasing success of our channel partner network. As such, we are excited to be a LWsystems Professional Day Platinum sponsor, particularly considering the focus of the event. No matter where you look these days, the Digital Transformation is being discussed across the board. Particularly with the increase in cloud adoption, the issue surrounding Digital Sovereignty is coming to the fore and as a business communications and collaboration platform vendor with roots as a systems integrator, we understand these issues and develop our solutions to ensure the secure deliver of and access to the digital workplace.\nAbout LWsystems LWsystems GmbH \u0026amp; Co. KG are your partner for tailor-made Linux and Open Source / Open Standards based IT solutions. No matter whether you are looking to optimise your team collaboration, manage the flow of company data or actively optimise your sales and new customer acquisition, LWsystems offer reliable, cost effective and customer orientated IT services.\nwww.lw-systems.de\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more about LWsystems Professional Day 2020 and other pascom events, please visit our events page.\n","date":"March 2, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/lwsystems-professional-day-2020-platinum-sponsor/","title":"LWsystems Professional Day 2020 Platinum Sponsor"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Partner Summit 2020 Hits New Heights February 10th, 2020 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of Unified Communication business phone systems, celebrated their annual partner summit 2020 in style with yet another record attendance in Regensburg.\nThe pascom Partner Summit is the company’ annual get together with leading UCC vendors, Value Added Resellers, Cloud Service Providers and Industry Media. The 2020 edition delivered two action-packed days of TechTalks, workshops, and break out sessions all focused on continuing the success of the company\u0026rsquo;s channel partners.\nOpening the Summit, pascom CEOs Quirin and Mathias Pasquay took the opportunity to welcome the select panel of leading UCC vendors, including pascom Technology partners Gigaset Pro, Grandsteam, Mitel, Sennheiser, Snom, and Yealink as well as SIP trunking solution providers HFO Telecom, peoplefone, and Nextragen Solutions.\nDuring his look back at 2019, Mathias Pasquay personally praised the continued success of the company\u0026rsquo;s channel partners highlighting both the growth of the network and significant increases in sales volumes. Further figures, namely over 75% of new business customers adopting pascom cloud phone system solutions and 99.97% uptime throughout 2019, show 2019 to have been an excellent year for the company and further justify the 2018 overhaul of the company\u0026rsquo;s pricing strategy as well as the significant investment in both the pascom 19 Video Collaboration suite and the pascom.cloud infrastructure.\nLooking to 2020, Mathias Pasquay reiterated pascom\u0026rsquo;s commitment to further expand and enhance the pascom feature range, focussing on adding Interoperability, intuitive platform management, and more end-user and team collaboration functionality. With so much new functionality planned, the platform that is already a force to be reckoned with looks set to continue to go from strength to strength.\npascom Sales Director Thomas Schmidt was not to be outdone. Before unveiling the company\u0026rsquo;s new, exciting #2C20Challenge partner incentive and social media engagement program, Schmidt focussed on increasing recurring partner revenues through upselling and effective brand and social marketing. Finally, Mr. Schmidt rounded off the morning session with an achievement awards presentation for all pascom Premium and Excellence partners.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO:\nFirst and foremost, the summit is great for engaging with and strengthening the relationships we have with our partners. As 2019 has been an excellent year for both pascom and our channel partners, the success of the pascom20 summit confirms that the constant evolution of pascom coupled with the team at pascom remaining true to our roots, we\u0026rsquo;re on the right track and we look forward to celebrating yet more success stories in 2021.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of their communications, businesses have a centralised, intelligent hub giving them total control over the organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic the business communication channels.\nThe pascom platform offers excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. This is why pascom phone systems are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises to communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net for more on the pascom Partner Summit, event sponsors and pascom solutions.\n","date":"February 10, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-partner-summit-2020/","title":"pascom Partner Summit 2020"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems","Unified Communications","Video Collaboration"],"contents":"Video Conferencing Benefits Gone are the days of Video Conferencing being an additional \u0026ldquo;nice to have\u0026rdquo; business communications solution that was so expensive that it\u0026rsquo;s deployment was limited to the realm of Large Enterprise. These days, top of the range business phone systems such as pascom\u0026rsquo;s offer a complete range of Unified Communications (UC) and Video Conferencing tools as standard at little or no additional cost.\nBeyond this, Internet speeds and stability have increased significantly in just a few years. This means that both the quality and stability of video conferencing solutions have dramatically improved, making the solutions both more affordable and practical as a business communications application. The result is simple; regardless whether you operate a SOHO, SMB or Large Enterprise sized business, Video Conferencing is now affordable and has become a must have business communications and collaboration tool. And here\u0026rsquo;s six key reasons why businesses should adopt video conferencing:\n1. Reduced Travel Time and Cost Perhaps one of the most commonly recognised benefits of Video Conferencing technology is the ability to reduce business travel time and costs. Having the ability to connect and communicate from anywhere without requiring any additional hardware or software can significantly drive business productivity as it means that managers and dispersed teams no longer to travel to meetings, saving time and cost both of which positively impact the bottom line.\n2. Increased Remote Employee Engagement One of the drawbacks of remote working is that employees can often feel left out of the loop. Audio conferencing goes some way to recitifying this problem, but in terms of engagement there is no substitute to face time. Another interesting aspect of video meetings is that as soon as the video is on, participants become more focussed i.e. engaged. The reason for this is that people engage more with the visual aspect of communication, meaning participants are less likely to become distracted which will result in more effective, professional meetings.\npascom Screen Sharing\rMany online meeting platforms also include Team Collaboration tools such as Instant Messaging, Screen Sharing and support for mobile devices. This enables remote employees to connect \u0026ldquo;face-to-face\u0026rdquo;, brainstorm, share files, chat with one another and view and share presentations from anywhere, on their preferred device.\n3. More Structured and Improved Communication More face time also means improved communication. It is widely accepted that approximately 55 % of communication is visual so by adding the personal, visual element to business meetings, participants can pick up on visual clues with enhances understanding, particularly when compared to audio conferencing and the constant back and forth e-mails that plague our inboxes on a daily basis. Furthermore, as a video conference is normally scheduled in advance and the opportunity for the idle chit chat that afflicts in-person contact, online meetings are often more structured, leading to more concise outcomes.\nThe result is simple: Video Conferencing breaks down information silos by letting everyone attend from anywhere, saves time and more importantly helps eliminate any confusions and misunderstandings.\n4. Increased Efficiency and Productivity pascom Desktop Mobile Video Conferencing\rThe effect of improving communication during online meetings means that employees are all on the same page enabling them to make decisions more efficiently and effectively. This will result in employees performing and completing daily tasks more efficiently and promoting effective collaboration within teams and project groups which in turn leads to an increase in business productivity.\n5. Greater Employee Retention Another key aspect of Unified Communications and Video Conferencing is that they promote anywhere, anytime communication and collaboration. Now this is great for reducing travel, but savvy businesses also use this to facilitate and promote remote working opportunities which has become to attracting and retaining the best talent within the workforce, particularly when one considers that more and more professionals actively seek opportunities that offer flexible working conditions. Take this a step further and by enabling remote working with UC and Video Conferencing, businesses are better able to break down the traditional geographical barriers to employing and retaining their best employees, which in turn can help promote company growth.\n6. Reduced Carbon Footprint Last, but definitely by no means least, through reducing business travel and enabling remote working, video conferencing also supports businesses to become greener and reduce their carbon footprint. First and foremost, this essential for our environment, but being environmentally aware is also a great branding tool. Customers and employees today are much more environmentally aware today than just 5 years ago and as a result are more environmentally concious when it comes to businesses that they work with either as a customer or an employee.\nFinal Word To sum up, Video Conferencing technologies have come a long way in a short period of time, reducing cost and improving quality. As such, the potential business opportunities that video has to offer have transformed the technology from an expensive, nice to have toy into an affordable must have tool that can provide businesses with a significant competitive edge.\nFor more information or a personalised demonstration, give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 201 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free cloud business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"January 15, 2020","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/6-reasons-why-businesses-should-embrace-video-conferencing/","title":"6 Reasons Why Businesses Should Embrace Video Conferencing"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year From pascom The festive season is fast approaching and before we head off for the holidays, we just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all our customers and partners for yet another excellent year and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2020.\nChristmas Opening Times and Support Throughout the holiday season, our offices will be closed from Monday 23rd December 2019 and reopen again on Thursday 2nd January 2020. The pascom Support Hotline will be staffed throughout the holidays, meaning our pascom customers will still be able to access our support services throughout the holidays. For response times, please refer to your pascom Service Level Agreements.\nIs your phone system ready for the holidays? As we build up to the holidays, businesses of all shapes and sizes are preparing their business communications platform for the festive season. Depending on your business model, this will entail a number of changes to the normal configuration.\nBusiness Hours, Holiday Checks \u0026amp; Prompts Such a change would include updating your opening hours and time checks to reflect your business hours during the Christmas / New Year period. Another consideration would be to update your phone system prompts to festively greet callers and provide additional information such as opening hours.\nReduce Staff Attrition with Intelligent Queueing If you operate a larger business, particularly in the retail sector, peak seasons such as Christmas will undoubtedly add additional strain to your Contact Centre operations. Many factors such as staff holidays, increased call volumes, holiday public transport time plans, and even the weather can affect your staffing levels and staff workloads. Through using intelligent call routing, customers can be directly routed to the correct agent, improving first call resolution and improving your overall customer and employee experiences (CX / EX), which directly impacts your bottom line.\nEnhance CX with Call Labels \u0026amp; Analytics For contact centre agents, utilising technologies such as \u0026ldquo;Call Labels\u0026rdquo; will provide them with essential caller information before they even answer, allowing agents to personally greet callers and avoid time consuming questions that irritate callers. Meanwhile, Customer Service and Contact Centre managers can use wallboards to view real-time call data and performance information enabling them to detect and immediately to detect and react to changes in volumes or behaviours.\nEnhance Employee Experiences with Unified Communications Through enabling Unified Communication tools such as softphones, desktop / mobile UC and team messaging, your employees and customer service team can be available from anywhere, meaning that no matter what, if needs be they are available, can deliver excellent customer service AND still enjoy the holidays.\nNo matter which changes you should be making to your phone system, our best advice is to consider both what is good for your customers and what is good for your employees. Being experience centric ensures that employees have all the tools to do the job effectively and therefore improve employee satisfaction. This in turn will boost your customer satisfaction and therefore positively affect your bottom line.\nMerry Christmas and see you in 2020!\n","date":"December 18, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/merry-christmas-from-pascom/","title":"Merry Christmas from pascom"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom 19 - Collaborate Your Way November 11., 2019 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, ein führender Entwickler von Unified Communication-Telefonsystemen, hat die BETA-Version 19 seiner VoIP-Telefonlösung auf den Markt gebracht. Die pascom 19 BETA bietet eine funktionsreiche Kommunikationsplattform für jede Unternehmensgröße. Durch die neuen Video- und Screensharing- Funktionen in Kombination mit dem verbesserten Benutzerinterface (User Experience, UX ) wird die Zusammenarbeit der Mitarbeiter, unabhängig vom Standort und dem genutzten Gerät, enorm erleichtert und gefördert. Die neuen Features verbessern die Effizienz von Gesprächen und Besprechungen, um somit die Gesamtproduktivität zu steigern, ohne das zusätzliche Software von Drittanbietern erforderlich ist oder zusätzliche Kosten anfallen. Gleichzeitig stehen die neuen Funktionen allen pascom Benutzern zur Verfügung.\npascom 19 bietet mit seinen neu entwickelten UCC-Funktionen eine komplette Suite an Team-Collaboration-Tools, einschließlich verbesserter Team-Messaging- und Audiokonferenzen sowie neuer Videokonferenzen und Screensharing- Funktionen. Alle neuen Features wurden für eine nahtlose Integration auf allen gängigen Plattformen entwickelt, um ein besonderes Nutzungserlebnis für Desktop als auch Mobile User zu ermöglichen.\nDarüber hinaus bietet die BETA Version des pascom 19 Telefonsystem noch weitere Verbesserungen. Desktop und Mobile User profitieren nun von intuitiveren Instant Messaging-Tools, zusätzlichen In-Call-Funktionen und einer schnelleren und intelligenteren Suchfunktion mit extra Smartfiltern. Durch die Implementierung des Android Integration Service bietet pascom 19 nun verbesserte PUSH-Nachrichten für Mobilgeräte, sowie die Möglichkeit Benachrichtigungen auf tragbaren Technologien und Freisprechplattformen zu empfangen.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO: Da sich das moderne Büro und die Nutzer stetig weiterentwickeln und mobiler werden, war der Bedarf an effektiven Kommunikationstools nie größer als Heut. Unabhängige und flexible Benutzer in Verbindung mit einer Vielzahl von Endgeräten belasten nicht nur die Zusammenarbeit untereinander, sondern auch die IT-Abteilungen. Die Verwaltung und Sicherung von unzähligen Cloud-Anwendungen, Infrastrukturen, Plattformen, Geräten und Anwendungen ist eine der größten Herausforderungen. Bei pascom standen wir vor den gleichen Herausforderungen und haben den Trend einer vollumfänglichen, zentralen Kommunikationslösung frühzeitig erkannt. Die Veröffentlichung von pascom 19 spiegelt die digitale Entwicklung aller modernen Unternehmen wider. Der besondere Clou, die pascom Telefonlösung wurde so entwickelt, um in allen unseren Anwendungen die gleichen Funktionen und Benutzererfahrungen zu bieten. Dies bedeutet, dass unsere Kunden von jedem Ort und von jedem Gerät aus zusammenarbeiten können, ohne das zusätzliche Software, Browser oder Plugins erforderlich sind. Die pascom 19 BETA bildet nun die Grundlage für weitere aufregende, innovative und zukunftssichere Funktionen.\nSeit der Veröffentlichung von pascom 16 hat sich das Unternehmen auf die Bereitstellung einer vollumfänglichen Suite für die Geschäftskommunikation konzentriert. Was sich heute auszahlt, denn unabhängig vom Bereitstellungstyp Cloud oder Onsite, sind pascom Kunden in der Lage von derselben flexiblen Infrastruktur zu profitieren. Entscheiden Sie daher selbst, wie Sie mit pascom arbeiten möchten.\nAbout pascom pascom wurde 1997 gegründet und entwickelt UC-Telefonielösungen der nächsten Generation. Wir optimieren Geschäftskommunikation mit innovativen Cloud Telefonielösungen.\nMit pascom als Herzstück Ihrer Kommunikation verfügen Sie über einen zentralen, intelligenten Ort, über den Sie die vollständige Kontrolle der Kommunikation in Ihrem Unternehmens erlangen. Unabhängig davon, wie vielfältig und dynamisch Ihre geschäftlichen Kommunikationskanäle sind. Unsere Lösungen bieten eine hervorragende Skalierbarkeit und sind hochgradig anpassbar, um selbst den spezifischsten Kundenanforderungen gerecht zu werden. Aus diesem Grund ist unsere Telefonlösung die perfekte Wahl, um Unternehmen jeder Größe dabei zu unterstützen, intelligenter, effizienter und kostengünstiger zu kommunizieren.\nBesuchen Sie pascom.net um mehr über pascom und der neusten Release Version zu erfahren.\n","date":"November 11, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-19-beta-release/","title":"pascom 19 BETA Release"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Collaborate Your Way with pascom 19 The eagerly awaited pascom phone system version 19 BETA is here and takes user/team collaboration to a whole new level thanks to the introduction of a host of video and team collaboration tools for desktop and mobile. Furthermore, the new pascom 19 desktop and mobile UCC clients have been designed with the overall User Experience in mind. As such, not only do the pascom 19 clients include new functionality, they also include numerous workflow enhancements - all packaged into the familiar pascom design and usability.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s New Please accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Once again, the design of pascom 19 has focussed not only on delivering new and more intuitive collaboration tools but also on the overall User Experience (UX). As such, the look and feel of the new pascom 19 BETA clients is exactly like that of pascom 16, 17 and 18 - which is what you want as an end-user. That said, the addition of new collaboration tools coupled with several usability enhancements has led to a few minor changes such as updating and improving the pascom Instant Messaging tools and adding a new, more intelligent fast search function.\nFor more detailed information regarding what’s new with the pascom 19 UCC clients, please read our client release notes here.\nTeam Collaboration As the modern office becomes more mobile and the workforce more diverse and widely spread, the need for effective, easy-to-use Team Collaboration tools has never been greater. With the release of the pascom 19 BETA version, many new Unified Communications and Team Collaboration tools have become available and more are currently in development and will be released in future pascom 19 versions.\nTeam Messaging / Group Chat To date, one of the most common feature requests has been the inclusion of Team Messaging / Group Chat. This is a tool that has been available in pascom UC phone systems for a while now and with pascom 19, the Team Chat tool (pascom Groups) has been completely reworked. In previous pascom versions, it was possible to start “On-the-fly” single-use group chats. With the arrival of pascom 19, it is now possible to form “Always On” team messaging channels designed to break down information silos and keep your team members in the loop. As such, Team Messaging and chat tools are essential for promoting employee collaboration and are especially useful for including and facilitating remote employee collaboration and management.\nAudio Conferencing pascom Team Messaging and Conferencing\rThe new pascom Team Messaging tools form the foundation for further innovative Team Collaboration features starting with Team Audio Conference Rooms. By using the new audio conferencing tools, it is possible to turn the group chat into an audio conference as needed. Therefore, should a pressing issue come up that needs to be discussed, the group can be notified via team chat and the conference can be started immediately without any scheduling or virtual conference room sign in or setup issues. Furthermore, as soon as an audio conference has started, it will become visible to both desktop and mobile group members enabling them to simply join the conference from wherever they are on the device they happen to be using.\nVideo Conferencing pascom Desktop Mobile Video Conferencing\r55% of communication is visual and that means sometimes audio conferencing is simply not enough to convey meaning effectively. In such a scenario, video conferencing is the ideal collaboration tool to improve meeting effectiveness and with pascom’s native video conferencing tools, starting a video conference from your desktop, mobile device or conference / huddle room is as simple as clicking a button. There’s no need for any additional software, browsers or plugins ensuring that pascom\u0026rsquo;s video conferencing tools are available to all users and any compatibility issues are avoided - all you need is the pascom UC app and a webcam.\nScreen Sharing pascom Screen Sharing\rWith pascom 19 adding yet more visual aids to your team conferences is just as simple as starting a video conference. During a call, audio or video conference, simply turn on the screen sharing tool in order to deliver amazing presentations, provide detailed demos, training or explanations. Regardless of whether your users are in the office, in HomeOffice or on the go, they will be able to view screen sharing presentations no matter which device they are using[*]. Screen sharing is such an effective collaboration tool that while there\u0026rsquo;s no argument that video conferencing is an essential Team Collaboration tool, screen sharing is arguably just as important if not more so - I guess it depends on the use case of which there are many.\n[*] The pascom 19 BETA does not currently support sharing mobile screens\nEnhanced User Experience Alongside the host of new collaboration tools, the pascom 19 BETA also includes a range of User Experience (UX) enhancements, particularly for mobile users. The Instant Messaging chat UI has been revamped to include a more user-friendly and more intuitive workflow.\nThe inclusion of a new lightweight client protocol ensures that client responsiveness is significantly faster across all platforms (notably on mobile) and that the search and filter tools are not only more intuitive to use, but also more mobile user-friendly. This is particularly notable with the mobile app’s reworked in-call experience and options. A further enhancement with pascom 19 includes the integration of the Android Connection Service to ensure more reliable and consistent call management as well as enabling notifications on Smart Wearables plus improved connectivity with car handsfree systems.\nUpgrading to pascom 19 BETA The pascom 19 BETA is now available and all new pascom.cloud free instances are automatically deployed using the pascom 19 BETA phone system, making this the perfect option for testing the BETA before upgrading.\nDuring the pascom 19 BETA phase, existing pascom.cloud pascom 18 customers will not be automatically updated to pascom 19. Once pascom 19 is no longer in BETA, it will be automatically deployed to all cloud customers. However, should a cloud customer wish to be upgraded to pascom 19, they should contact either the pascom sales team or their pascom reseller partner.\nAs is usual for on-premise customers, they have the option of choosing when to upgrade and can do so using the BETA ISO download file.\n","date":"November 4, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-19-collaborate-your-way/","title":"pascom 19 Collaborate Your Way"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems"],"contents":"How to upgrade your business communications in 8 steps Choosing a new business phone system or business communications platform can be a daunting task. With so many platforms to choose from and a complete dictionary of industry jargon to decipher, it is no wonder that many business owners are left scratching their heads. Couple this with the ever-increasing pressure to digitally transform and keep pace with today’s highly demanding customer, business owners can be forgiven for feeling the pressure.\nThat’s why we decided to keep things simple and put together our 8 Steps to Upgrading Business Communications guide.\nStep 1 - The Right Platform These days, the digital transformation and cloud communications are on the tip of everyone’s tongue - and with good reason. The benefits of cloud phone systems are plentiful and the migration away from legacy technologies is forcing businesses to transform. That said, a cloud or hosted PBX is not always suitable and alongside defining the required feature set, the question of cloud vs on-premise is one of the first questions to answer.\npascom Business VoIP Phone Systems\rOnce you’ve decided which way to go as a business, whittling down the list of potential suppliers becomes significantly easier as unlike our business phone system solutions, not all business communications platforms are available as both cloud and on-premise solutions or if they are, each deployment type might offer differing feature sets.\nFinally, when deciding on a vendor, it is essential to ask hard questions about the setup and on-going management. If you don’t, you run the risk of being left in the dark. This is particularly important when it comes to configuring and managing your new platform correctly as this could well adversely affect the effectiveness of your new business communications platform. Therefore, use the following seven steps as a reference guide and go out of your way to find out whether they offer managed services, how good / detailed their setup assistants and documentation are and what support services they offer.\nIf they offer a free or trial version, make sure you take it for a test drive. Investigate all aspects of the following seven steps to discover just how simple and easy the system setup is. Remember the key to success is: test, re-test, and test again. This will highlight options and issues before moving on to your operational deployment.\nStep 2 - Effective, Simple User Management Now that your testing is done it is paramount to configure your user management before going any further with your productive phone system setup. It is your employees who use your business communications platform daily, so this is critical.\nIn days gone by, managing them was an arduous, repetitive headache for IT and system managers who often had to manually add individual users to the platform. Nowadays, business applications are predominantly IP based, meaning they can talk to each other. For IT and phone system managers, this is excellent news as it has to potential to eliminate several headaches including user management and therefore free them up for other important tasks, but only if the applications are given the right interface over which to communicate.\nAs such, it is our opinion that user management should be centralised and automated - in other words, as simple as possible. As a business, it is more than likely that you already have a central user database, i.e. Microsoft Active Directory, LDAP, Univention’s UCS platform or even a CSV file. So why should you or your IT admin manually enter the same information into your phone system? Especially when, by using the corresponding connector profile, the initial import can be configured and tested in a matter of minutes. Once done, future imports can then be automated, therefore supporting phone system managers in saving time, hassle and more importantly helping them ensure the validity of the data by only needing to maintain one dataset.\nThere are other benefits too. If your user database is stored in AD, LDAP or UCS, it is possible to authenticate your users against these applications and in turn enhance system security by facilitating identity management and global password polices. This is a plus for both admins and users as passwords are stronger, changed more regularly and are applicable across all connected business applications. A further benefit is that it is also possible to manipulate the datasets to include and configure additional information such as office extension numbers (Direct Inward Dials - DIDs), adding desktop VoIP phones and mobile devices as well as team membership settings and hotdesking location settings.\nStep 3 - Eliminate Phonebook Management Headaches An even bigger headache for system admins is phonebook management. Multiple data sources, duplicates, outdated information - it’s enough to give most managers and users a migraine. So wouldn’t it be nice to break down these information silos and have the ability to centrally manage and access to all your customer contact information? Well in the world of business communications, there is no better application to do this with than your phone system, as it is one of the few platforms that all employees need access to.\nTo give an example, let’s assume for a moment that all your customer contact information is stored in Microsoft Exchange or Office365. By choosing the right phone system with appropriate connector templates for said platforms, it is possible to import and automatically synchronise all your contact data with the phone system.\nBeyond on this, modern business phone systems deliver considerably more than simple business telephony tools. Thanks to the seamless integration with 3rd party applications, additional information such as customer number, SLA levels, language and so on can be attached to the contact information and then displayed to your phone system users in the form of call labels. Doing so will further support your employees in delivering exceptional customer service and boosting customer satisfaction.\nThe benefits are twofold; as an IT manager or business owner, you need only maintain a single central database, saving time and administrative hassle. As for phone system users, they now have a single point of access to all your critical customer contact information - all on their preferred device, from anywhere and at any time using the business communication applications to be deployed in steps 4 and 5.\nTherefore, it hardly comes as a surprise that within the Unified Communications and Business Communications industry, there is a lot of talk about the importance of seamless integrations and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Such integrations are critical aspects of any business communications platform. With them, it is possible to integrate critical business applications and facilitate the flow of information and therefore making it accessible where and when it is needed.\nStep 4 - Deploy Desktop UCC Clients For testing purposes as an IT manager, it might be prudent to deploy a desktop client or two during your evaluation phase. As such, it might appear that deploying Unified Communication and Collaboration clients might be out of place at step 4, but it’s not. In this step, we are talking more about your productive business communications environment as opposed to your test setup.\npascom Desktop UC Client for Windows, Mac und Linux\rOnce again, when it comes to UCC clients, not all vendors are equal. While some business communication platform vendors, such as pascom, offer native desktop clients for Windows, macOS, and Linux, others only offer clients for Windows and/or macOS. Then there are the vendors who rely on 3rd party applications. Finally, there are those vendors who offer web browser-based platforms. If possible, stay away from 3rd party applications as this involves another supplier, meaning additional costs and possible support complications. Another tip would be to avoid web-based apps, as they are not as reliable for real-time business communications as should a user close their web browser, they will effectively become offline and no longer reachable.\nAfter ensuring your chosen business communications vendor offers the appropriate clients to match your IT landscape, the next step is to take a look at how best to deploy them. With pascom, there are several options, as documented here. However, assuming you do not have any special requirements, such as terminal server setups, then by far the easiest option is to invite your users using our inbuilt invite tool which directs all your users to our step-by-step user setup guide. This enables a self-service option, which reduces administrative hassle and greatly speeds up the overall deployment time as system admins no longer need to manually send e-mails with download links or, worse still, go to each workstation and perform the installation.\nStep 5 - Mobilise Your Team With Mobile UC Thanks to cloud technologies and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), employee mobility and working from anywhere is now an affordable reality. Beyond this, it has become essential for any company looking to minimise the risk of shadow IT in our ever-increasingly mobile dominated world.\npascom mobile UC\rThat said, deploying any old mobile Unified Communications app simply won’t cut it. It could cause more headaches and cost you more than it is worth. You will likely face compatibility and integration issues between the app and your chosen business communications platform. Then there is the potential for any updates to either the app or your business phone system that could well break the interconnection. On top of this, when using 3rd party apps, the consistent user experience (UX) delivered by business communications platforms such as pascom’s will be lost and this will have a negative impact on workplace productivity. Therefore, when choosing your phone system vendor, be sure to thoroughly test the mobile UC apps and explore the complete range of features, evaluate their effectiveness as a productivity and collaboration tool as well as investigating how simple they are to deploy, manage and update.\nJust like with the pascom desktop UC clients, there are a few options for deploying our mobile UC applications. Once again, the simplest and quickest method is to use the pascom self-service setup assistants as it guides the users through the setup. However, should you need to reconfigure your setup at a later date (changed password, new device, etc.), alternative methods are just as straightforward and are outlined in our documentation.\nStep 6 - Take The Pain Out Of Endpoint Management Rolling out and managing VoIP endpoints (i.e. desktop IP phones) used to be somewhat labour intensive. There still is an element to the process that involves putting phones on desks and connecting them to the network, but providing your desktop phones are supported by your phone system vendor other than noting MAC and IP addresses, with a modern UC business phone system that should be pretty much it as the majority of configuration is done automatically by the phone system - eliminating a significant chunk of the rollout workload and greatly simplifying the on going device management as it can all be done centrally from the phone system admin web UI.\nOnce again, there are a number of options open to IT managers including the self-service option. However, we would not necessarily recommend this course of action, as it relies on end-users finding MAC and IP addresses and logging into the phones admin UI themselves - which is not overly efficient, especially if you have a larger number of users a number of whom will then invariably require IT support to get this done. Sadly, it does not matter how self-explanatory the guide is, there will always be users who simply do not want to follow it.\nOur recommendation would be to import the phone addresses and automatically assign them to the intended users during the user management step. No matter whether you use AD, LDAP, UCS or CSV data sources, this option is available and all that is required is some prior planning and knowledge regarding where each phone will be located and then sticking to this when physically putting the phones on the desks.\nStep 7 - Go Live With Your Chosen SIP Provider Once you have deployed all your UCC clients and endpoints successfully, your team will be in a position to communicate and collaborate from all their preferred devices and from anywhere, unless of course, you used our automated system setup. In that case, you will have already added your SIP provider and can, therefore, skip this step and move on to step 8.\nIf not, here are a few tips on what to look out for when choosing and registering with your provider. Firstly, it is important to understand that while SIP has become the standard in telecoms, it is not standard in implementation. Each provider will require a slightly different configuration. Therefore, where possible opt for a SIP provider supported by your phone system vendor. Sadly this is not always possible. Therefore, to decipher which settings are supported, it is important to speak to both your phone system vendor and your SIP provider.\nIn terms of what to look out for the following information, options and settings are worth having to hand:\n• Authentication options and credentials\n• Transport layer protocol (TLS / UDP / TCP)\n• Domain and host information\n• Supported Codecs (HD, Opus, etc)\n• Number formatting (international vs local and how they are presented)\n• Where number determination, presentation, and restriction can be found\nIf you are using an Asterisk-based platform such as pascom’s and have experience with and access to the Command Line Interface (CLI), you can use the CLI with the appropriate verbosity level to view the registration and identify any potential issues.\nStep 8 - Get Professional With Automatic Call Distribution We’ve all heard of and experienced the horrors of poorly structured call queuing and distribution. On one hand, there is nothing worse than waiting for ages in a queue only to then be sent around the houses and still not have a satisfactory response to why you called in the first place. On the other, listening to a never-ending ringing tone gives the caller impression that their call is not important otherwise it would have been answered. In fact, there’s plenty of research out there that demonstrates how poor call handling has the potential to cost customers.\nOn the flip side, professional call distribution can have a significant positive impact on how customers view your business. Effective ACD delivers the image of a successful, larger well-established company that cares about customer service. Thankfully, setting up effective call distribution with a modern business phone system is not as complicated as it once was and can be broken down into the following aspects that you will need to consider for the most basic, yet effective call routing.\nBusiness Hours Handling calls differently according to your office hours is good practice. It ensures callers are not left waiting for their call to be answered outside of business hours. Combined with custom prompts and more advanced routing options, it is even possible to greet callers differently and route them to voicemail or to a team that is specifically tasked with handling callers outside of your main operating hours.\nCustom prompts and Music on Hold Custom prompts and Music on Hold (MoH) are essential components in any Business Communications platform. As such, they should be professionally produced and customised to your business. Alternatively, Google’s text to speech platform is pretty reliable and can produce your prompts in a matter of minutes.\nYou will need custom prompts for your greetings for both inside and outside of your business hours as well as prompts for your Interactive Voice Response options menus. Adding Music on Hold is also a good way of promoting your brand image. Choose the right genre to reflect your industry and clientele and ensure that the time that your customer is waiting in a queue is as enjoyable or relaxing as possible.\nInteractive Voice Response (IVR) Menus These are great for pre-qualifying callers and then routing them to the correct business department or team. In doing so, your employee productivity will rise as they are only dealing with calls that are relevant to them and your customer satisfaction will also get a boast as your customers will receive a higher standard of customer service.\nTeams, Call Queues and Hunt Groups The by no means last or least important aspect to consider when it comes to ACD is your call queues and groups. At pascom, we call these teams as that is what they reflect - teams of employees working together in a department, on a project, etc.\nDepending on your requirements it is possible to configure teams either as a Queue or a Group and therefore use many different call strategies i.e. the order in which phones ring. Queues, for example, are ideal for larger teams that may require Skills-Based Routing or more complex call strategies. Meanwhile, Call or Hunt Groups are perfect for smaller groups that only require more basic call strategies such as ring all or one after another.\nTest, Monitor and Improve A word of warning though, if you get any aspect of your call routing wrong, the result will be the complete opposite, so it is worth checking out these IVR best practices and using analytics to constantly monitor, review and improve your call routing performance.\nFinal Word While there is obviously more to upgrading your business communications, by following these 8 steps you will have laid solid foundations on which to build on and by choosing a pascom business phone system you will have all the required tools at your disposal and can be up and running inside of 15 minutes, as we demonstrate every Thursday in our pascom Bootcamp.\nFor more information or a personalised demonstration, give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 201 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free cloud business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"September 30, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/upgrade-business-communications-in-8-steps/","title":"Upgrade Business Communications in 8 Steps"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems"],"contents":"VoIP And Emergency Numbers: All You Need To Know One of the main advantages of modern IP communication solutions such as VoIP and SIP trunking services is just how flexible they are. Combine these services with a cloud phone system, then providing there is an Internet connection, your business communications tools can be accessed from literally anywhere in the world. As such, IP and cloud business communications ensure your employees are able to reach new heights in productivity and ultimately drive your business forward, which is what really matters.\nHowever, before you make the switch to a new business phone system or migrate your fixed-line voice services from the ISDN to the new business telephony SIP standard, there are a few things to consider – and none are as important than access to emergency telephone numbers. Just like with traditional telephony services, SIP trunks must adhere to certain regulations. One of the most important of these is that every user must be able to access the emergency services. In itself, this is relatively straightforward – it is just a phone call after all.\nThe Problem With VoIP and Emergency Numbers Paradoxically, when it comes to having the ability to call emergency numbers, these exact benefits present a significant issue that cannot be overlooked. When calling the emergency services, there are few things as important as location tracking. In the not so distant past of fixed line telephony, if someone needed to call the emergency services, they dialled 999, 112, 911 or the local emergency number and their location was tracked and logged via the phone line. Calls made from mobile phones presented another issue, which mobile network operators overcame by incorporating GSM triangulation services into their networks.\nSo what is different with SIP trunking service and cloud based business communications? Simply put, cloud VoIP and SIP services can be accessed from anywhere via the Internet and this makes location tracking a significant and potentially extremely serious obstacle to overcome.\nWhat You Need To Know About SIP and Emergency Numbers Depending on where in the world your business is located, the name for emergency call routing may change (E112 / E999 / E911), as may the number, but the concept is the same. The next step is to perform a detailed analysis of your business, your requirements and your communications infrastructure and here are some key points that you should consider:\nAccess Each user in each country must be able to access the emergency services of their country just as they would if they were using a traditional phone line.\nFor example, if you operate in multiple countries or have multiple offices you need to ensure that each user has access to their local emergency services. This can be done by incorporating SIP trunks for each location into your business phone system. Your phone system vendor will likely have a number of approved SIP providers that can help narrow down any potential options.\nNext, you will need to add each emergency number to the phone system configuration. With pascom, this is relatively straightforward and can be done in a matter of seconds by following these simple steps.\npascom phone system emergency number configuration\rLocation Emergency calls must also transmit the caller location so that the first responders know where to go and the first thing you need to know is that this information is NOT transmitted by the phone system (i.e. PBX) but the carrier over which the call is made.\nThis is where things get a bit murky. The location data attached to a SIP call changes from VoIP provider to VoIP provider, although a general rule is that the location provided to the emergency services would likely be the contract owner address i.e. the invoicing address. However, should your business utilise an internet connection coupled with SIP services such as the services offered by Deutsche Telekom, then the location data provided to the emergency services will be the DSL / FTTH connection address i.e. where the services are delivered/installed. Alternatively, some providers allow you to configure the trunk location data to be transmitted in the setup settings.\nA further consideration regarding location is that the services are accessible from anywhere. This means that the location data may not match where the caller is actually calling from. This is particularly true for hosted cloud phone systems and centralised platforms that have consolidated multiple trunks to one central platform.\nGiven the different approaches by different providers, it is clear that IT and phone system managers must talk to their voice provider(s) and uncover how each provider handles emergency calls.\nDirect Call Routing The call must be routed directly without any phone number / calling line identification (CLI) manipulation. In other words, the number that starts the call should be the number transmitted. This makes it easier for the emergency services to call back if necessary and to identify the user who made the call.\nMake Sure You Test Before you go ahead and dial 999, 112 or 911 to test your business telephony services emergency phone number access, it is your responsibility to check the legalities and recommended best practices for each country you require. Speak to your SIP provider(s) AND local authorities as they will be able to provide you with this information. Once you have checked and configured everything, you will need to check that your phone system correctly handles emergency calls on each of these trunks. This is especially true if you choose a provider that has not been tested with your phone system. But even if your SIP provider is certified with your VoIP phone system, it is still considered best practice to perform a test call.\nAs mentioned above, speak to your provider(s) about the best practices for each area or country where you need to perform tests. Generally, you will need to make an appointment with the local emergency services contact centre (often via the non-emergency number) and then do the call. The centre will provide a time during low call volumes, to ensure that your call does not prevent someone else from getting the help they require.\nAs the purpose is to determine whether you can actually make an emergency call and that the contact / information is accurate, it is best to keep it short and to the point.\nThe information you need to confirm as accurate is as follows:\nThat the caller ID (i.e. phone number received) matches the number you are testing This also includes any direct inward dial (DID) numbers if you use them That the address information attached to the number is correct That the company name is correct That the Call Back Number matches the number you intended to send That the information is populated in the correct fields on the dispatcher\u0026rsquo;s screen This ensures that all the information is mapped to the correct values Test Call Example As such, a test call should go something similar to the following:\nHello, this is a NON-EMERGENCY Voice over IP test call for a new installation. Are you available to confirm the details of my call or should I reschedule?\nAlways check that they are free to do the test – even if you kept your time allotment, you never know what is actually happening.\nDid you receive Caller ID information? Can you confirm the number for me?\nCaller ID can also be referred to as ANI – Automatic Number Identification. If you send a call back number, you can also ask for this number to be confirmed.\nDid you receive any address information? Can you confirm the company name \u0026amp; address for me?\nAddress information can also be referred to as ALI – Automatic Location Identification.\nCan you confirm that the information appears correctly on your screen?\nFinally, check that the information sent appears correctly on the control agent\u0026rsquo;s screen. This ensures that all the contact information is mapped correctly i.e. house number, street, post-code, etc.\nOnce done, remember to thank the operator and hang up.\nNow, you could shorten the process even further by calling and providing all the information and asking for a quick confirmation, but that’s information overload – keep it calm, simple and efficient.\nEmployee Guidelines Finally, employees should be briefed on when to use and when not use the company business phone system for making emergency calls.\nA great example of why this is so important can be seen with HomeOffice or remote workers and branch offices without dedicated systems. Through calling from a desktop softphone or a desktop phone connected to the company phone system, they could inadvertently provide the emergency services with the wrong address and phone information. Obviously, this is far from an ideal scenario, so it is imperative to train employees on what to do in case of an emergency.\nIt may seem odd for a phone system vendor to say this, but the fact is, making the call from one’s mobile phone is probably the best course of action. Why, well firstly, we all carry our mobile phones with us pretty much everywhere we go, so it’s convenient. Secondly, as the location of a mobile device is harder to track, the caller’s exact location is normally confirmed verbally. Finally and perhaps most importantly, you can be sure that the call will work which overcomes any misconfiguration issues or failures beyond your control such as no Internet access.\nIt is for these reasons, that we recently updated our mobile VoIP apps to automatically initiate all emergency calls via the phone’s inbuilt GSM calling applications.\nFinal Word If in doubt, use your mobile. It is almost a given that no matter where you are in the world, by dialling 112 from a mobile phone you will be connected to the local emergency services. That said, it is better to be safe than sorry, so it is your responsibility to know the local emergency service numbers.\nFor more information and a free pascom business communications consultation, give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 201 and discuss your requirements. Before you do, be sure to get your free pascom cloud business VoIP phone system edition up and running in minutes.\n","date":"September 16, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/voip-and-emergency-numbers/","title":"VoIP and Emergency Numbers"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems"],"contents":"Session Border Controllers Uncovered Nowadays, Voice over IP has become the de facto voice communications channel for most companies. Simply put, VoIP is less complicated, more flexible and scalable and more cost effective compared to older, legacy business communications technologies. However, just as with any other technologies, VoIP does come with a number of challenges that need to be overcome. One question in particular stands out from the crowd and that is how to maintain the security of your IP infrastructure.\nWhile there are many aspects to consider while maintaining VoIP Security, one of the core steps to ensuring security is to deploy Session Border Controllers (SBCs) within your VoIP network. Alternatively, choose a cloud business communications platform, such as a pascom phone system, that already includes SBCs within their solution.\nWhat are Session Border Controllers Session Border Controllers are devices deployed within VoIP networks and are design to deliver greater control over the various media streams and signalling generated by your business communication channels. In essence you can imagine SBCs as the firewall for your VoIP phone system. As such, SBCs control all the routing to your business phone system and in doing so they ensure both Quality of Service (QoS) and secure all your communication streams.\nIn order to truly understand what a SBC is, you first need to understand what a “Session” is. Within the world of IP or SIP telephony, when we talk about “Sessions” we are referring to the construction, transmission and break down of the data packets related to a conversation or media streams. In a two-way VoIP call, there are two sessions: one for Jenny and one for Jack. A session can include multiple media streams including voice, video and data. As such, all your business communication channels from phone calls, instant messaging and video conferences are considered sessions.\nTo take the Firewall analogy further, the term “Border” refers to boundary where one network ends and the other begins, for example the edge of your corporate network and the outside world. Effectively, what a Session Border Controller does is sit at the border of these transmissions and acts as a checkpoint designed to support system admins ensure the safe and secure flow of information across these border points.\nBeyond ensuring the secure border crossing for the data streams, the “Controller” aspect of a SBC is tasked with managing all the streams in terms of access control, measurement and routing of all the connections within their environment.\nWhy your phone system needs a Session Border Controller? If the above has evoked an image of border security at an international transport hub, you’re not far off. In fact, you can imagine an SBC as check-in, security and traffic control all rolled into one device.\nGiven the concerns surrounding secure corporate data and that the fact that deploying an SBC supports businesses in rolling out Unified Communications more securely, quickly and efficiently, it is hardly surprising that the Enterprise Session Border Controller market is set to worth $528.4 million by the end of 2022.\nMore focus on security Hardly a day goes by without another security breach or cyber attack making the headlines. Sadly, SIP fraud and SIP attacks are commonplace and can originate from any number of sources and have the potential to be extremely costly in terms of revenue and downtime. On top of this, there is now a host of new legislation all geared towards ensuring business takes customer privacy seriously.\nShould a company fall foul and not react quickly or appropriately enough then the damage to the corporate reputation could potentially be catastrophic. As such, I think it is fairly safe to say that the world today has an obsession with security and privacy and it is imperative that companies make sure they control over their data.\nAs mentioned above, SBCs act in similar role to a firewall and in the case of VoIP and Unified Communications \u0026amp; Collaboration environments are deployed to protect the VoIP / UC networks and defend SIP sessions as they move between insecure and secure devices.\nIntelligent routing As mentioned above, SBCs have a number of roles and not just designed to secure your VoIP and UC traffic; they also ensure that your communications traffic is delivered via the optimum route. In the age of customer experience, this intelligent call routing is fast becoming essentially important in order to ensure that each and every caller is routed to the correct person and therefore boosting customer satisfaction and increasing employee productivity.\nMobile Device Management In the era of Flexi working, the Digital Transformation and the Gig Economy, the workplace is becoming increasing flexible and mobile orientated. The result is that demand for SIP trunking services will continue to rise. Moreover, in order to communicate and collaboration effectively, the need for effective Bring Your Own Device / Choose Your Own Device (BYOD / CYOD) management strategies will become ever more apparent.\nThe increased usage of mobile Unified Communications and VoIP softphones that is evident in the our changing workplace will bring more and more mobile SIP endpoints (smartphones, tablets and other mobile communication devices) into the business communications environment and these need to be secured, managed and controlled effectively. The right SBC or UC phone system with incorporated SBC will be well equipped to handle the growing IP traffic that will be generated from the higher usage of VoIP and Unified Communication tools as businesses transform their communications as part of their digital transformation strategy.\nWhat else do you need to know? A few more useful things to be aware of when it comes to what Session Border Controllers are is the guises they are available in. Firstly, Voice carriers and SIP providers use SBCs within their infrastructure for exactly the same purposes as companies, i.e. to secure, route and measure the flow of information in and out of their networks. Just because your carrier has SBCs deployed does not mean that your business does not need to do the same. Your SBC deployment is designed to protect your communications infrastructure on the border of your network.\nFinally, when it comes to protecting your VoIP networks, you have two choices – one or more on-site hardware SBCs (depending on load \u0026amp; number of locations etcetera) or like us, a software based SBC. At pascom, all our latest phone system instances include a software SBC per default, meaning all our VoIP phone systems since pascom 18 deploy the latest in cloud VoIP technology.\nFinal Word Given the increased adoption of IP communication platforms, the increased security and the demand for excellent customer experiences, it really is not a big surprise that SBC adoption is growing. At pascom, we recognised the need for SBCs in our cloud platform right from the get go and have since updated to our complete phone system infrastructure to include SBCs at the customer level for both cloud and on-premise solutions. As such, by choosing a pascom solution as part of your digital transformation strategy you will not only upgrade your business communications with all the essential, easy-to-use VoIP and UC tools, but will also benefit from higher security, more intelligent routing and greater more effective mobility.\nGive the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 201 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free cloud business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"July 22, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/why-are-session-border-controllers-sbc-important/","title":"Why are Session Border Controllers (SBC) Important"},{"categories":["Unified Communications"],"contents":"How UC Boosts Workplace Productivity Every business wants employees to become more productive. The reason is simple; because more productive employees generate more revenue and more revenue should translate into more profit. As a result, many companies and business people mess around with the newest and latest productivity app, gadget or gimmick all the while trying to find that spark that will ignite the productivity booster. The problem is that productivity gains are achieved by a collection of tools, apps and systems unified in one place to give your employees the right tools to do their job effectively and at the highest standards. And many businesses have discovered that the core to this transformation and actually boosting workplace productivity isn’t some new wonder app, but rather a new Unified Communications (UC) phone system.\nWhy UC Is So Important The concept of UC is simple: to transform how people work by enhancing the technology they use to communicate with customers and other colleagues. As mentioned, Unified Communications is not an app or single tool. UC merges all the every day tools and channels in use in the modern workplace and unifies them into a single platform. This means everything from voice calls to instant messaging and group chat right through to collaboration tools like presence, file transfers and conferencing are now accessible from one central platform.\nNow all of the above sounds great, but also expensive and exclusive to larger enterprises with cash. In the past this was definitely the case, but advancements in PBX software technologies have made all these tools far more accessible at a cost that won\u0026rsquo;t break the bank. As a result, companies can do away with the huge number of disparate apps that they use and that don’t talk to one another and replace them all with one app for almost everything (ongoing innovation means more is still to come).\nSpeaking of innovation and everything being available, one of the most critical elements of successful business today is information. The old adage of Knowledge is Power is just a pertinent today as it ever has been. That means really good UC platforms and phone systems in particular offer clever integrations with things like your Interactive Voice Response menus (IVR), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, Office365 / MS Exchange contacts and so on. In doing so, it is possible to provide employees with finger tip access to information and Business Intelligence (BI) from multiple sources with just a few clicks of the mouse. In days gone by, I would be searching my Rolodex (okay I’ve never used one, but my folks did), but now this information can be searched, filtered and displayed in seconds.\npascom Desktop Mobile Unified Communications\rFurthermore, top of the range UC phone system solutions, such as pascom’s, also ensure a consistent user experience to deliver the exact same look and feel across all major desktop or mobile operating systems. May not sound like much, but it’s a big deal and can be a significant time saver. Just think about how annoying it is every time you switch from macOS to Windows and vice versa. Just finding the @ symbol can be a challenge and you need that for literally everything. I know this because a colleague who uses Windows once asked me for help to login into our film studio mac – okay it was slightly more confusing as this particular colleague is German, the mac has its default language set to English but has a German QWERTZ keyboard attached to it.\nHow Does UC Boost Workplace Productivity? On the surface, it is pretty simple to picture how. One platform to unify business tools together helps reduce the amount of time to complete tasks and highlights routine tasks that can be automated. But in order to understand how UC solutions boost workplace and employee productivity, it is important to take a look at the individual features as well as first understanding the factors that affect productivity in the workplace.\nIn essence, factors influencing productivity in the workplace can be categorized as follows:\nEfficiency In the business world, efficiency refers to the resource usage that is reduced (e.g. capital, time, personnel, etc.) while completing tasks. Speed How quickly tasks are completed and problems are resolved.\nMulti-tasking Empowering employees to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.\nTeam collaboration The extent to which employee / teammate relationships are strengthened to promote greater collaboration and brainstorming.\nHow UC Features Help Boost Productivity Pretty much every feature of a modern UC phone system contributes to boosting employee productivity in some way or other, so let’s take a look at how UC phone system tools boost productivity:\nBusiness Telephony If you thought business telephony has not changed much, think again. The advent of UC phone systems, VoIP and SIP trunking have combined to dramatically boost efficiency. From cost savings with SIP trunking and reduced administrative hassle (time, cost and personnel), UC phone systems have taken the role of a business phone system way beyond just simple calling. In fact, many IT managers report that switching to a UC phone system makes deployment, roll outs and on-going management much simpler, cheaper and less time consuming.\nTelephony SIP trunking is great and is the future of telephony. As everything is Internet based, VoIP and SIP trunking services can save businesses significant capital in terms of telephone bills and business growth. Thanks to SIP, relocating offices or opening new company locations can be achieved without needing new on-site hardware that requires miles of cabling and rocket scientist engineers to manage everything. Then there is the SIP softphone. This nifty communications tool has all the features of a business desktop phone and enables employees to work from anywhere as long as they have an Internet connection. As your employees remain reachable on their company number, they are always reachable by customers and colleagues can call them internally free of charge - no matter where they are and regardless of device they choose to use.\nConferencing In the past, audio conferences used to involve expensive hardware and complex scheduling issues to ensure platform availability or alternatively simply waiting to all your team were in the office. These days, modern UC solutions include audio conferencing as standard and offer the ability to start virtual audio conferences on the fly. Combined with softphones and mobile VoIP, joining audio conferences can now be done from anywhere and therefore promotes team collaboration and ensures that tasks and projects can be completed more efficiently and saves on travel expenses.\nFurthermore, as most modern UC phone systems include audio conferencing as standard, business are able to save on expensive 3rd party platforms. Moreover, all internal calls are generally free of charge and as the solution is available to all system users, companies can further reduce costs by avoiding telecoms charges and the need to pay additional user licences.\nUnified Messaging Unified Messaging is a UC feature that brings together all your messaging channels from voicemail, faxing, instant messaging and group chat. By combining all these tools into one platform, employees are able to multi task more effectively which will translate into faster task completion and greater team collaboration.\nIn addition to this, deploying a UC phone system automatically eliminates the need to deploy, license and maintain multiple platforms for the above named collaboration tools. As a result, businesses save not only on cost but can also reduce IT admin workloads.\nInstant Messaging / Chat These days, everybody uses some form of mobile messaging service whether it is SMS, MMS, Messenger, or WhatsApp etc. The reason is because they are quick, easy and above all else convenient.\nIn terms of driving faster communication between team members, Instant Messaging (IM) or Chat is the one UC feature that really stands out. This stems from the nature of IMs, they are designed to be quick, informal and most importantly responsive which makes UC chat delivers the perfect tool to promote anywhere, anytime collaboration amongst your employees and teams. As a result, businesses that correctly harness this potential will see teams becoming more collaborative, more creative and most importantly more often.\nBut why use a UC phone system for these messaging services? Well the answer is three fold. First, voicemail is inbuilt into the phone system and is therefore the perfect and logical place to start. Second, when it comes to productivity, having an integrated solution means employees do not need to switch between solutions, platforms and even devices just to send a chat. The second reason is that many stand alone on the top (OTT) apps are designed for consumers not businesses. That means they are installed and managed by the users themselves as opposed to IT managers. This leads to potential security risks as the information is leaving the controlled company network and entering the public domain, meaning businesses lose control over their data and data security.\nGroup Chat Just as with instant messaging, group chat is an excellent tool for promoting team collaboration. Instant messaging is more one-to-one, whereas group chat includes impromptu team chats and permanent team chat rooms that are great for bouncing ideas around and brainstorming. In addition, group chats facilitate the dissemination of information to whole teams or even organizations all in one go.\nPresence and Status Information Not knowing if your colleague is contactable or how best to communicate with them has traditionally always been a major speed bump in boosting employee collaboration and productivity. This has led to numerous workarounds being conceived and put into action such regular team meetings and perhaps most famously, open plan offices. Both of these options have plenty of drawbacks. Open plan offices can be loud and distracting while team meetings cannot help you in the here and now.\nIf used correctly, UC presence and status information overcomes the issue of knowing who is online. In fact, rich presence goes way beyond that by delivering presence information for users, their phone, current desk / workspace (location) and even team membership. This information can then be used by teammates to decide how best to contact a colleague and by the phone system to build intelligent call queues and deliver incoming calls only to agents who are active and available and in the right department.\nIt’s no wonder that when asked, UC presence is an often cited tool when it comes to improving workplace productivity.\nMobile UC As the name suggests, mobile UC delivers UCC features to mobile platforms and is now a must have component of any modern UC phone system. Just a few years ago, mobile UC was a nice to have but times have changed. Millennials are making up more of the workforce and the Gen Z generation is starting to enter the fray. Both of these generations grew up in a mobile dominated world and have therefore dramatically shifted the demands on communications platforms.\nAs such mobility and mobile UC is one of the biggest trends affecting the global workforce and it’s not only about including the younger generation. Mobile UC has many more significant benefits including making remote working much simpler through the use of feature rich mobile apps that incorporate all the functionality of desktop UC combined with a specialized mobile VoIP softphone app.\nFurther to this, mobile UC opens up employment opportunities geographically and helps businesses save literally thousands on mobile devices through implementing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategies. For employees, BYOD strategies also have the benefit of increased employee satisfaction, as they are not required to carry a second, work dedicated mobile device. Moreover, such strategies are essential in supporting businesses adapting to trends such as flexi working and the Gig Economy.\nFinal Word To sum up, Unified Communications boosts productivity by promoting better, easier and higher quality communication and collaboration within the workplace. Moreover, by choosing the right UC phone system vendor coupled with the right VoIP providers, businesses can slash their phone bills and communication costs and significantly reduce platform management, particularly if they opt for a cloud phone system that also supports a “Bring Your Own Carrier” option.\nGive the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 201 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free cloud business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"June 10, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/unified-communications-boosts-workplace-productivity/","title":"Unified Communications Boosts Workplace Productivity"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems"],"contents":"Important Questions to Ask When Comparing Virtual and Cloud Phone System Providers Which is right for my business: a cloud phone system or an on-premise IP PBX? At pascom, this is one of the most common questions we get asked by new customers. For a few businesses, an on-premise business phone system may well be the way to go. A number of factors, such as internal policies, could mean that an on-premise virtual PBX is the only way to go. However, most organizations, are likely better served by a cloud phone system.\nWhy is this the case? Well, it is fairly simple. When you compare cloud phone systems with the expense and additional headaches associated with an on-premise phone system platform, you will quickly find that cloud phone systems deliver all the advanced functionality required by even the most demanding of businesses while reducing the burden on your organization’s IT team and significantly reducing CapEx costs. Instead, your cloud phone system provider will take care of all the hosting, server maintenance, and updates - all at a predictable and affordable cost.\nSo given that the advantages of adopting a cloud phone system and Unified Communications (UC) solution are plain to see, it is hardly surprising that so many businesses are moving to cloud-based communications. Moreover, given that the global cloud telecoms market is now a multi-billion dollar industry, it should not come as a surprise that new vendors are constantly entering the market, meaning there are plenty of considerations to sift through before deciding on a provider and adopting their platform.\nThe Perfect Phone System for your Business Telephony 100% cloud technology: no more on-site hardware required Maximum flexibility: anywhere, anytime availability – including mobiles Quickstart: manageable via web admin UI Unbeatable savings: save more with SIP trunking \u0026amp; lower maintenance compared to your legacy ISDN phone system. Unparalleled freedom: easily scale up with business growth pascom Cloud phone system\rQuestions to Ask When Comparing Cloud Phone System Providers Virtual, Hosted and Cloud Phone Systems – What’s the Difference? This is another often asked question from our new customers and it’s hardly surprising given the volume of industry jargon they have likely been exposed to during their search for a new business phone system. Then there is the fact that some vendors confuse the situation by marketing a virtual phone system as a cloud or hosted solution. So what is the difference between all the phone system types? Simply put, it is where the phone system is deployed. At pascom, both physical (hardware based) and virtual phone systems are referred to as on-premise solutions because they are typically deployed locally at the customer premises hence the name on-premise phone system.\nA hosted phone system is somewhat more confusing. In essence, it is a virtual phone system but is hosted off-site in a Data Centre. Some business communication platform providers would then describe such a solution as a cloud phone system. However, a true cloud phone system includes 100% cloud technology such as multi-tenancy and Session Border Controllers and are hosted directly in the phone system vendor’s cloud platform.\nAnother difference between a hosted and cloud phone system is that with a hosted phone system, the option of managed services does not really apply. That means you are responsible for managing the hosting environment, applications, and any updates. On the other hand, with a cloud phone system, managed services are included either as an option or as standard, ensuring that as a customer you can get on with managing your business rest assured that your cloud phone system vendor will take of managing your business communications.\nIn recent times, the latest trends in industry buzzwords have also added yet more confusion to the situation by throwing the term “self-hosted” into the mix. So what is a self-hosted phone system? Well once again it refers to where the solution is deployed, but in this instance, the word \u0026ldquo;deployed\u0026rdquo; has become synonymous with \u0026ldquo;hosted\u0026rdquo;. Therefore, a self-hosted PBX refers to a hosted phone system where the hosting is done by the customer either on-site in the form of a hardware appliance or virtual phone system OR as a virtual phone system hosted in the customer’s preferred data center or cloud platform.\nConfused? Don\u0026rsquo;t worry, there are loads of different buzzwords and terms out there that essentially all mean the same thing. Just remember, if in doubt think about where the solution should be deployed and who will manage it and then you will have a good idea. Failing that, give our team a call and we will gladly advise you on the most suitable phone system deployment type to meet your business needs.\nBusiness Requirements First and foremost, the most important question to ask when comparing cloud phone system providers is whether a particular phone system vendor can meet your business requirements. Questions you should ask of your potential cloud phone system vendor include the following:\nDo they have the infrastructure and ecosystem in place to meet your here and now business communications needs in terms of feature set and support How robust are their hosting capabilities in terms of: Quality of Service (QoS) Availability statistics Certifications How adept is their cloud phone system at scaling to support future growth? How effective and relevant is their phone system development strategy? Answer all these questions and you will have narrowed down your list of potential cloud phone system providers to a handful, perhaps even just two or three. Before moving forward though, just remember that all of the above is great, but doesn’t mean a thing if you do not also perform an internal audit of your existing infrastructure and equipment. Quality of Service is essential, but if your internal business networks are not robust enough to take on the new demand levels that switching to a cloud phone system will generate, then it does not matter how good your phone system provider is, you are going to struggle.\nIt may seem obvious, but choosing an established tried and tested vendor who has a robust and innovative offering will pay dividends in the end as opposed to going for a newbie that offers everything for less as they may well fall by the wayside in a few years.\nEquipment Another often asked question relates to telephony equipment. Unless your business is a start-up, it is likely that you already have some telephones et al lying around. Now, most businesses want to maximize ROI (and why shouldn\u0026rsquo;t they) and SMBs and, in particular, start-ups operate on relatively tight budgets. So check with the phone system vendor as to what telephony equipment is required and how much of your existing communications infrastructure can be re-purposed and deployed within your new cloud phone system. If some can, great, if not then investigate the cost of purchasing new compared with leasing suitable endpoints.\nIf you are able to retain and re-purpose at least some of your existing equipment, then that’s obviously great and your finance team will be thrilled. But – and it is a big one – your next question needs to be about how secure your old equipment will be. Doublecheck with both the cloud communications platform and original endpoint vendors as to whether your equipment is still supported. Also, look for close cooperation between the vendor and your chosen virtual or cloud phone system provider. As technology advances, out-dated tech becomes more and more vulnerable, so you will need to weigh the risk versus reward of saving on the cost of investing in new equipment.\nIf in doubt, go new whether it is leased or purchased. It may cost more, but at least you can be sure that the new telephones will work as advertised. On this note, together with our friends over at Snom Technology, we are currently running an excellent trade-up promotion to replace old End of Life Snom devices with brand new, top of the range Snom VoIP phones.\nSupport Cloud phone systems are offered as Software as a Service (i.e. SaaS / UCaaS) and often include the option of managed services. Therefore, it is a good idea to ask about the varying levels of support that are available. Information you want to know includes SLAs and reaction times, support access options (telephone, e-mail, ticket system…), support costs – per case, per hour, per ticket, flat-rate, included in subscription fee and so on.\nJust remember that when it comes to cloud phone system support, the most important question to ask is what is covered exactly. So make sure you get this clear before making your decision. For example at pascom, we offer both our on-premise and cloud phone system customers the choice between Premium and Basic support. Premium support includes our flat rate vendor support, the initial setup (remote), and access to our numerous support channels. On the other hand, our Basic support only includes free access to the pascom support forum. Our basic option is actually designed to ensure our pascom phone system resellers are able to continue to add value to their customer phone system solutions in the form of on-site services which pascom does not offer as standard.\nBusiness Continuity When comparing your selection of virtual PBX or cloud phone system providers, always do so with business continuity in mind. As a general rule, cloud-based phone system solutions are ideal for business continuity. In part, this is mainly due to the fact that they are accessible from anywhere. That said, the additional flexibility benefits are heavily reliant on the quality of your cloud communications provider’s service delivery. Therefore, ask those hard questions about hosting certifications and uptime/availability percentages (see the list above). Remember, you need to be 100% certain that you can rely on your chosen cloud phone system vendor’s service as part of your business continuity plan.\nCosts It seems so obvious, but finally make sure you are aware of all the costs including any promotional pricing, setup/upfront costs, support or phone system hosting fees as well as the contract duration. Another important question to get answered relates to any special introductory offers. Make sure that you clarify that the fee in the offer is valid for the entire term of the contract and not just some promotion that is only valid for the first month.\nFinal Word The crucial aspect of choosing a new cloud phone system vendor is not who is the cheapest, but who gives you the most confidence that not only will you get off to a flying start, but also that the vendor will be a reliable and supportive business partner in the future.\nGive the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 201 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free cloud business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"May 28, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/comparing-cloud-phone-system-vs-virtual-ip-pbx-providers/","title":"Comparing Cloud Phone System vs Virtual IP PBX Providers"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Upgrade Business Telephony with pascom and the Snom Exchange Within the IT world, it is common knowledge that the older the infrastructure, the higher the potential risk whether it be hardware failure, lack of support or worse still, potential security issues. Plus there are other benefits to upgrading your infrastructure and when it comes to business VoIP phones, we are talking about enhanced audio quality, new functions, simpler management and cutting edge design. So if you are an existing pascom / Snom customer or even a Snom customer interested in upgrading your business communications with pascom, read on as we’ve got a great upgrade offer for you.\nWe think it is fair to say that you probably have a number of Snom 320’s or 760’s scattered around your office. As Snom are the pioneering Desktop VoIP phone vendor, it shouldn\u0026rsquo;t really come as a surprise. The problem is that these devices are now end of life, meaning less or no support, lower functionality, out of date design and most importantly inherently less secure. Moreover, as a pascom customer, it is also important to know that from pascom 19 onwards, the Snom 3xx and Snom 7xx series of VoIP devices will no longer be supported.\nThe good news is here’s your chance to swap out all those telephones and benefit from an exceptional trade-in bonus to sweeten the deal – which will make winning over the finance controller that much easier as well.\nWhich Telephones Are Included? If you are the proud owner of any of the below Snom VoIP phones, then you are eligible to benefit from the Snom Exchange programme:\nModels Snom 300 Snom 320 Snom 360 Snom 370 Snom 710 Snom 720 Snom 760 Snom 820 Snom 821 Snom 870 By trading in your old Snom phones from the above list for any of the below brand new, ultra modern Snom VoIP phones:\nSnom Models Snom VoIP phone D315\rSnom VoIP phone D335\rSnom VoIP phone D385\rSnom VoIP phone D717\rSnom VoIP phone D735\rSnom VoIP phone D785\rHow Does Snom Exchange Work? The Snom Exchange programme is actually pretty straightforward. All you need to do is follow these simple steps:\nSelect and purchase your new Snom phones from the list above directly from pascom Send us the MAC addresses of the devices to be traded in The ordered phones will be sent to you and you will benefit from the Snom Exchange bonus discount. What’s On Offer? To celebrate the launch of the Snom Exchange programme, together with our partners at Snom, we are offering a limited time double trade-in bonus. Meaning that, depending on the new device(s) you choose to upgrade to, a tiered exchange bonus as follows is on offer:\nDevice Exchange Bonus Snom D315 / D717 € 14 Snom D335 / D735 € 18 Snom D385 / D785 € 24 In addition to the Snom Exchange programme, an Exchange Plus programme is also available which includes any audio conferencing or headset devices that may also need to be upgraded as a result:\nDevice Exchange Plus Bonus A150 € 14 A170 € 18 C52 (incl. DECT Dongle) € 24 pascom Snom Exchange: Who Can Benefit? The pascom Snom Exchange programme is available in conjunction with a pascom phone system subscription. Meaning the programme is open to all existing pascom / Snom customers as well as new customers looking to upgrade their business communications with pascom.\nExisting pascom Customers Existing pascom customers can benefit from either of two options. Firstly, they can simply upgrade the Snom endpoints they already have deployed without requiring any changes to their pascom subscription. Alternatively, existing pascom customers can enjoy yet more value for money with 1 Year Free by either changing their onsite installation to the new subscription model or migrating their business communications platform to the pascom.cloud including pascom hosting.\nNew to pascom? Are you new to pascom, interested in upgrading your business communications AND have a number of Snom phones that could be upgraded? If the answer is yes, then you too can benefit. When choosing your pascom subscription, let us know how many Snoms desktop VoIP phones you want to trade up and we will gladly pass on the price saving benefits of the Snom Exchange programme.\nFurthermore, if you are upgrading from pascom from either 3cx or Nfon, then our 1 Year Free trade-in offer also applies, saving you your first year subscription and permanently free hosting if you choose the pascom.cloud.\nFinal Word For more information about pascom, our pascom phone systems and the Snom Exchange trade in offer, give our team a call on +49 991 29691 0 and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"May 10, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/snom-exchange-new-for-old/","title":"Snom Exchange: New For Old"},{"categories":["Contact Center"],"contents":"Benefits of Contact Centre Analytics No matter the size of your business, it is likely that you will operate some form of contact centre; whether it is 200 seats or 5 employees, inbound customer service or outbound telesales or a blended mixture of both. Either way, contact centres of all guises can benefit from the business intelligence provided by detailed, understandable call analytics and reporting.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES The way in which customers choose to interact with businesses has changed significantly and nowhere is this more visible than in the contact centre world. Customers demand quicker, more immediate responses. They expect the highest standards of customer service and they want to enjoy the experience. To keep up, businesses must switch from a reactive to a proactive approach to customer service, meaning access to real-time performance analytics is now key to ensuring the best possible customer experience and customer service.\nIdentify Optimisation Opportunities In the past, identifying areas of improvement was somewhat hit and miss, in that problems only really became visible once escalated. Nowadays, modern phone systems, such as pascom’s, already track all the data; it’s just a question of analysing and displaying that data in a meaningful and understandable format and that is where call analytics come in to play.\nThe result is simple; by analysing historical call analytics data, business owners and managers can identify inefficient processes, such as redundant tasks or bottlenecks in your call distribution affecting the effectiveness of your Call Deflection strategies (routing of calls to correct department / team etc) and optimise them accordingly. In turn, call handle times and average hold times can all be reduced whilst increasing your business’ first call resolution rate, thus improving overall employee performance and efficiency, reducing the amount of time customers are on the phone and therefore increasing their satisfaction levels – all of which will have a positive impact on your bottom line.\nPredictive Analytics and Trend Forecasting Analysing historical call data is not only an excellent way to highlight optimisation opportunities but also can be used as basis for predicting future trends. Predictive analytics essentially is the name given to the process of analysing past trends to map future resources. By analysing historical call volumes, call penetration rates and call success rates by team, campaign, department or product and comparing these against times and dates, it is possible to highlight trends that will support your future resource mapping decisions, whether they be in terms of human resources, seasonal impacts on your business or simply planning when to start a particular telephony or marketing campaign.\nReal-Time Performance Monitoring \u0026amp; Wallboards Call analytics, such as those delivered by pascom analytics, enable business to switch from being reactive to proactive problem solvers. No matter how streamlined your business processes are, it is inevitable that sooner or later problems will occur and there’s not a lot you can do about it. However, how you deal with it will make or break your customer service. With real-time performance analytics, spikes in call volumes to particular departments or teams could signal that a problem is evolving. Armed with this knowledge, your team can immediately start proactively supporting customers.\nThanks to real-time performance monitoring and live statistical Wallboards, your team will be able to spot the trend emerging, immediately start investigating and quickly find and implement a resolution hopefully before your customers even realise that there is a problem. If the issue is on-going or needs longer to resolve then, while not ideal, by using your analytics data there are many things you can do to ensure your customers don’t get disillusioned.\nFirst and foremost, remember your customers are people too and they don’t like being fobbed off or being kept in the dark. So add custom prompts to your queues that can be switched on to inform customers that you are aware of the issue and your team are already on the case. Inform your team of the issue; provide them as much information as possible so they are equipped to answer customer questions. Supervisors can bring more team members on board to keep handle times at acceptable levels and so on. By using call analytics and taking these steps, you can go a long way to ensuring that your customers stay happy with your service offering even if things are not currently going exactly according to plan.\nOffer Self-Service Options While having the ability to speak to a real person is a must have for any business, providing the customer with the option of self-service can greatly lighten your team’s workload and free them up to tackle more productive tasks. In fact, many customers are actually finding that utilising self-service options is often quicker, more efficient and less error prone. So why not use analytics to highlight and understand the resource utilisation of events that could be automated or completed via self-service and then incentive your customers towards using those self-service options instead.\nWhy should a customer call your business and speak to a staff member in order to change their address for example? Essentially such an action is a repetitive task that requires a time commitment from both your customer and the employee they speak to and, thanks to the human element, the process is prone to errors.\nLet’s take a more detailed look at a simple task such as changing an address; firstly the customer has to take the time to call your business, go through certain options, determine which option best defines their requirements and then wait in a queue for the call to be answered. Next comes data protection, then finally talking to a real person who takes note of the new address, but chances are they’ve missed heard the house number or misspelt the street name. In the end, the customer has spent a considerable amount of time for what is essentially a simple task, the team member’s time while not wasted was not overly productive either and neither the customer nor the employee is particularly happy.\nOn the other hand, if you used analytics to measure which options require frequent repetitive short calls, you will have likely uncovered processes that could be automated or completed via self service options, thus alleviating workloads and increasing employee and customer satisfaction by sparing your prolonged periods of time on the phone.\nEmpower Employees and Enhance The Customer Experience One of the modern buzzwords of modern business and the contact centres of today is Customer Experience or simply CX. Most companies use call analytics with the overall objective of boosting customer service and generating a positive experience in the process. This is all well and good, but a certain essential element has been overlooked - the need to offer a more personal, caller orientated yet efficient service.\nAs Sir Richard Branson said “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients”. In other words, to really offer a top-notch service and experience, you need to motivate, engage and empower your employees – let’s face it, we all want to do the best we can, it’s in our nature. However, if you leave your employees out of the chain, it’s like making them work with one hand tied behind their back. So empower your team with the knowledge garnered from your call analytics and other sources of business intelligence and your employees will reward you.\nWord to the wise here though, empowering employees with information is one thing, doing it in a way that makes it easy to understand and easily accessible is another. By selecting a platform, such as pascom’s, it is possible to extract additional intelligence from each call, display it on contact centre wallboards, route it to an appropriate employee or team member and then present this information to the employee via our desktop app before they even get on the phone. Thus enabling your team to firstly greet callers in a more personal manner. Secondly, by providing your employees with extensive customer knowledge, what their needs are plus an overview of previous customer interactions with your company, you are empowering them to deliver excellent service.\nFinal Word The above benefits are by no means the only benefits of call and contact centre analytics, but to sum up, by utilising an analytics tool, such as the pascom analytics, you will gain an insight into not only how effectively your business processes are performing, but you will also gain valuable information regarding how your customer interactions with your business are evolving.\nFor more information about pascom, our pascom phone systems and our pascom analytics tools, give our team a call on +49 991 29691 201 or get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"April 3, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/contact-centre-analytics/","title":"Top 5 Benefits of Contact Centre Analytics"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Add Yealink T5 Series Interoperability March 15th 2019 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of Unified Communication phone systems for business, and Yealink, the worlds leading SIP phone vendor, today announce the successful conclusion of interoperability and compatibility testing between pascom\u0026rsquo;s on-premise and cloud phone systems and Yealink\u0026rsquo;s T5 VoIP phone series.\nAs the world’s leading UC IP Endpoint vendor, Yealink are renowned worldwide for their quality, reliability and innovative design. The successful completion of testing ensures that pascom customers will benefit from the highest standards of quality and innovation whilst enjoying hassle free administration. Moreover, customers looking to upgrade business communications with a pascom solution can be assured pascom’s full range of IP telephony and Unified Communications functionality with Yealink’s T5 series of IP desktop phones.\nFurthermore, the added interoperability ensures that mutual pascom / Yealink resellers can continue to set their offerings apart by delivering yet further added value to their customer solutions. As a result of the new interoperability, which was released with pascom phone system version 18.05, both existing and new pascom customers are in a position to benefit from the newest standards of VoIP security, design and innovation combined with a simple, efficient deployment process for both on-site and cloud deployments.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO: Since the release of the Yealink T4 series, Yealink have gone from strength to strength. By adding the Yealink T5 series to our portfolio of supported desktop VoIP phones coupled with the recent addition of interoperability with their single-cell DECT solutions, we are now in a position to offer our customers the more choice across almost the complete range of Yealink products, ensuring we support them in leveraging maximum value, functionality and quality with a minimum of administrative hassle.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer a complete communication and collaboration feature set, excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our business communications solutions deliver the perfect platform to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions and becoming a pascom partner, visit www.pascom.net and start upgrading business communications today with our free VoIP phone system edition now.\n","date":"March 15, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-yealink-t5-series/","title":"pascom Yealink T5 Series"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Live Analytics Wallboard, Simpler Management And Hosting For All – pascom 18.05 Has Arrived! True to our word and right on schedule, with pascom 18.05 we have brought back and updated our much loved “Flexpanel” analytics wallboard feature. What’s more, we’ve taken the feedback from our customers and partners and we’re releasing some nifty enhancements and upgrades to make pascom 18.05 not only better, but also to make managing and using our platform simpler and more efficient.\nEmpowering Contact Centre Performance with pascom Analytics In the world of the digital transformation, data is king, particularly as today’s customers demand excellent customer service 24/7. This is the challenge for modern businesses: to be successful, they must continuously monitor and identify potential risks whilst having the ability to proactively optimise their customer contact processes.\nWithout data, making informed decisions is nigh on impossible, but having too much raw data is just as troublesome. Having access to too much data leads to confusion and results in over complication. The key to delivering excellence is quick, uncomplicated first contact resolution, meaning businesses need to empower their employees and team leaders with access to all the tools in their digital armoury to ensure the highest standards of performance.\npascom analytics\rWith pascom 18.05, we have integrated our new pascom Live Analytics web based wallboard tools. Being web-based, the new wallboards can be quickly and simply customised to the individual needs of your business in order to provide you and your team with an instant real-time performance overview of your entire contact centre telephony.\nLocal Device DHCP Provisioning via the Cloud Cloud communications are the future in that they offer a significant array of advantages from added redundancy, simpler more efficient remote worker and mobile device management plus considerable cost savings. However, on-boarding endpoints to your cloud solution from your local network poses certain difficulties for the IT department. Other vendors have gone down the route of foregoing endpoint security; others have sacrificed functionality for speed.\nNot so with pascom. From 18.05 onwards the automatic DHCP provisioning of local network endpoints via the cloud will be supported without any loss of functionality and with no degradation of endpoint security thanks to deployment of an OpenVPN client specifically for the purpose of device provisioning.\nNew \u0026amp; Improved Voicemail Management Tools Gone are the days of calling your voicemail inbox and sifting through message after endless message. Thanks to the updates to pascom 18.05’s voicemail management system, it is now possible to manage, check, listen and even download to all your voicemails in one place, i.e. directly within your desktop client.\npascom 18.05 Voicemail\rSimply login to your desktop client and view all your voicemails directly from within your call history. Been away from your desk for an hour or two, then all voicemails will be flagged next to the corresponding calls. Been out of the office for a longer period of time or been on holiday for a few weeks, then simply use the in-built filter from the drop down menu in the call logs and get an instant overview of all your voicemails.\nTo listen to a message, simply click on the play button and once you’re done with a particular message, simply mark it as read and that’s it. Alternatively, should you wish to download a message for safekeeping or for internal use purposes, then just click on the “download” icon.\nHosting For All As we introduced pascom 18 last year, one of the core USPs of the platform was undoubtedly that pascom 18 offers a 100 % cloud ready solution, even including free pascom.cloud hosting. Further to this, all our resellers already have the ability to host their customer solutions directly within our cloud infrastructure and now with pascom 18.05 we are going one step further.\nJust like us, a significant portion of our resellers have recognised the business development potential of cloud service offerings and are themselves Managed Service Providers or offering their customers hosting services. Now with the release of pascom 18.5, we are making our multi-tenant cloudstack technology available to all our resellers, thus ensuring that our resellers can offer their hosted customer solutions directly from their cloud.\nNow while in-house hosting is not suited for every reseller, through offering hosted voice and UCaaS solutions via our pascom 18.5 cloudstack platform, our CSP partners are well positioned to enjoy numerous benefits. Firstly, the setup and ongoing management of their customer’s hosted business communications solutions will be greatly simplified and secondly the CSP is in a position to retain 100% control of the customer relationship.\nThis milestone is a significant step to ensuring that no matter the scenario, our pascom customers will always be able to benefit from secure, hosted solutions, either directly in the pascom.cloud as a pascom or pascom partner managed service or via one of our highly certified Cloud Service Provider partners.\nFor more about pascom 18.05 and an overview of what’s new, visit our website or better yet, try our free edtion now either on-premise or with free hosting in the pascom.cloud.\n","date":"March 6, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-18.05-phone-system-release/","title":"pascom 18.05 Phone System Release"},{"categories":null,"contents":"pascom Resellers Kick Off 2019 at Annual Partner Summit Let me start by saying a massive thank you to all our pascom phone system resellers and partner summit sponsors who joined us in Regensburg last week. Despite the wintery conditions that have held a vice like grip over parts of Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland during the previous weeks, we enjoyed a 95% attendance – which I have to say is top draw stuff!\nNews from the Summit Please accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES First and foremost, the pascom partner summit continues to grow which is obviously exciting in of itself. In 2019, the audience grew by a significant 118%, which just goes to show that we love engaging with our partners and we will strive to continue in this fashion in everything we do.\nFurthermore, the stats and the feedback paint a colourful picture. As reported by Mathias Pasquay during his review and roadmap segment, compared to the same period in 2017, the statistics confirm that since the release of pascom 18 and the restructuring of our business model, we have enjoyed positive growth in all aspects of our business. Beyond this, the partner feedback sessions reaffirmed that the changes to our licensing, partner programme and telephony platform, which we introduced with pascom 18, have all combined to bolster partner sales successes, which is obviously fantastic to hear!\npascom partner summit 2019\rCoinciding with the summit, we also release pascom phone system version 18.04, which incidentally also includes the option of automatically setting up a free peoplefone SIP trunk account including 10 € of Airtime. Coupled with the ease and speed with which it is now possible to setup up a new free instance, this new functionality and collaboration with peoplefone serves to provide all new potential customers with an out of the box telephony solution that can be put into operation almost immediately.\nCloud is Now Mainstream A notable growth area that we have witnessed since the release of pascom 18 is in the adoption of cloud telephony solutions which has grown a whopping 1000 + percent! Okay, this figure is somewhat exaggerated by the fact that previous cloud sales were not monumental, but it just goes to show that customer acceptance of cloud telephony across the D-A-CH region is on the rise and is now well and truly mainstream. Therefore, it goes without saying that the response to pascom.cloud hosting being included in the licence fee and not as an additional add-on for customers was also overwhelmingly positive.\npascom partner summit 2019\rWorkshops and Networking pascom 18 is still relatively new, meaning that existing partners likely have a number of customers still on the older pascom 17 platform. So it is just as well then that the team where on hand to deliver a pascom 18 migration workshop, performing a step by step migration to clearly demonstrate how existing customers can switch to the new platform and therefore enjoy even greater added value from their communications solution.\nThroughout the event, we also played host to leading telecommunication industry names including VoIP phone and DECT solution specialists Snom, Mitel, Grandstream and Yealink as well as SIP carrier partners Easybell, peoplefone and HFO Telecom. As usual, the Sponsor Podium was well used by our audience, who benefited from the insider insight of our technology partners as well as grasped the opportunity to inform themselves on the latest goings on and trends within the industry.\nIn addition, ample time was planned into the agenda to allow our resellers and technology partners to get in some networking and delve into one to one discussions concerning particular products or projects. In the exhibition area, Snom was a particularly well-visited sponsor stand this year. Perhaps unsurprisingly so, as not only do the new Snom devices have plenty to shout about, but the team in Berlin also graciously offered to give away a top of the range Snom D385 VoIP phone to each and every attendee – an action that was particularly well received as you can imagine.\nThe Future of Business Communications A hot topic throughout the show was of course the future of business communications and the pascom product development roadmap. With the ISDN shutdown and the transition to All IP and Cloud platforms still impacting todays’ market, the obvious question on everyone’s mind was “what’s next”? Well for the time being it seems that our resellers and technology partners agree, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t appear that the way we communicate will undergo any radical transformation in the very near future. The desktop phone is not going to die overnight, SIP trunking adoption will continue and the trend towards a more mobile, more collaboration, more service orientated infrastructure will continue gaining momentum.\nFor full details of the pascom roadmap, well they are classified and don’t belong in the public domain, so you will just have to gain clearance and attend one of our partner events to find out more.\n","date":"February 8, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-partner-summit-2019-review/","title":"pascom Partner Summit 2019 Review"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Set the Course For Success at Annual Reseller Partner Summit January 29th 2019 | Regensburg, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of Unified Communication phone systems for business, kick started 2019 at their annual partner summit for pascom phone system channel resellers, hosting partners, system integrators and interoperability partners.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES The 5th installment of the annual reseller event was held at the Regensburg TechBase business park and proved to be a resounding success and provided further evidence that the company is setting the right course for continued growth. With pascom phone system resellers from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the event enjoyed a 118-percentage increase in terms of attendees compared to 2018. However, as pascom CEO, Mathias Pasquay reported during his opening statement and review of 2018, this is only half the story. Since the release of pascom 18 in September 2018, the company has enjoyed significant growth in terms of sales, partner acquisition and lead generation, most notably a thousand plus percentage increase in cloud phone system adoption – all positive indicators that recent upgrades to the company’go-to-market strategy and product development have set the course for continued and faster growth.\npascom partner summit 2019\rBuilding on the success of 2018, Mathias Pasquay went on to outline the company\u0026rsquo;s vision for the future of the pascom platform and how the company views the future of the business communications industry. Starting with update announcements, Mr Pasquay introduced pascom\u0026rsquo;s latest [phone system (version 18.04)] (https://www.pascom.net/doc/en/release-notes/pascom18/#release-18-04-16-01-2019)) software version release which coincided with the summit and includes the option of automatically adding free peoplefone SIP trunking accounts (including 10 Euros of airtime). Moving forward, the audience was treated to a brief glimpse of the newly developed Web Panels which are to be included in pascom version 18.05 due to be released in the coming months.\nLooking further forward, Mr Pasquay outlined his vision of the future of the business telephony market and the shift towards intelligent business communication and collaboration. He highlighted the growing evidence that customers in the region are now ready for the cloud and that future success will require more mobility, collaboration and perhaps most importantly, the ability to simply and quickly include external parties.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO, mentioned of the 2019 pascom partner summit:\nWhat strikes me about the 2019 pascom partner summit, is not only the level of participation, but also the level of partner engagement, which for a channel business is obviously vital and further reinforces that first and foremost we are a company that people want to work with and secondly the changes to our business model in terms of our focus on the cloud, licensing and partner programmes have been highly successful.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Sales Director, stated during the 2019 pascom partner summit:\nWe are delighted that so many of our partners have joined us here in Regensburg. For us as a company, regular contact and interaction with our resellers is essential. As we continue to grow and improve our offering, the input from our partners is vital for future success as it is they who have the most direct customer contact which is why I would like to thank all who attended and am extremely excited about our prospects as we continue to move forward.\nBeyond the presentations and technical workshops, the 2019 pascom partner summit provided those in attendance with the perfect opportunity to network with leading telecommunications industry names, including VoIP and IP DECT phone specialists Snom, Yealink, Mitel and Grandstream as well as a selection of DACH carriers in peoplefone, HFO Telecom and Easybell, before being treated to an evening of entertainment and traditional Bavarian cuisine in the heart of iconic Regensburg Old Town.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer a complete communication and collaboration feature set, excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our business communications solutions deliver the perfect platform to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions and becoming a pascom partner, visit www.pascom.net and start upgrading business communications today with our free VoIP phone system edition now.\n","date":"January 29, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-partner-summit-2019/","title":"pascom Partner Summit 2019"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems","Unified Communications","Mobile VoIP"],"contents":"Mobile VoIP: Anywhere, Anytime Business Communications Mobile VoIP and mobile availability, on laptops, smartphones and tablets, allows companies and their employees more freedom and flexibility when conceptualizing working conditions. Just as with the classic landline (fixed line) connection, mobile services are initially networked and deliver via Carrier Infrastructures. Thanks to VoIP, or more specifically IP technology, it is now also possible to completely integrated into your business phone system. As such, you and your team will be able to benefit from full and on-the-go access to all functions, business communications tools, making calls from anywhere at the same conditions, just as if you were in the office and always being available under your office number.\nOne Number Concept Otherwise known as Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC), it no longer matters with which device you make and receive calls. Use your dedicated desktop telephone, your PC or Laptop and even your Android / iOS smartphone or tablet and thanks to FMC and the pascom business VoIP phone system\u0026rsquo;s one number concept, you and your team will always be reachable on your office phone number from anywhere with no identifiable difference for either you or your contacts. Regardless of where you are working, you will have access to and use of the same Communications infrastructure as you would in the office and calls will be handled using the same features such as Call Forwarding, Music on Hold, Voicemail and more.\nMore information about the available functionality can be found in our VoIP E-book. After switching to VoIP, the days of mobile availability meaning out mobile numbers will be over. Your customers and business partners will now be able to reach you and your team on your office extensions, independent of where you are currently working. Top notch solutions also deliver the ability to route outbound mobile GSM calls over VoIP, generating further cost saving benefits and projecting an enhanced professional corporate image.\nAnywhere, Anytime Availability with Mobile VoIP Depending on your workplace environment, the telephony inter-connection of your employees delivers a range of varying advantages. The combination of VoIP and mobile devices is particularly pertinent when promoting involvement and collaboration of employees whose workplace is in different locations. As such, the geographical separation and therefore remote nature of an employee working away from the office should no longer be relevant, regardless of whether it is the norm for certain employees, i.e. as with field sales teams or working from another permanent workplace such as a HomeOffice, or extenuating circumstances for example employees travelling for business.\nMobile VoIP for Remote Employees A significant benefit for VoIP phone systems in relation to field sales and remote employees is the ability to fully integrate such employees into the company’ telephony and communication infrastructure. For example, thanks to mobile softphones, field sales employees are no longer only reachable via GSM but also via their internal extension, just like their office based colleagues. Furthermore, deploying mobile VoIP and Collaboration apps, such as pascom’s mobile UC app for Android and iOS, will provide remote workers with finger tip access to all the essential communication and collaboration tools that were previously only available as standard in the office – from address books to instant messaging. In doing so, mobile workers can be fully incorporated into the business and are always kept in the loop, no matter where they are.\nIn order to guarantee a consistent and unified end-user experience, pascom’s Business phone system includes both desktop and mobile applications as standard. Both application variations are developed on the same framework to provide a consistent “look and feel” whilst ensuring the availability of the complete range of business communication tools on all platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS) with the exception that the mobile applications are specifically modified for mobile usage. The result, not only are all desktop Unified Communications and Collaboration tools available on mobile devices, mobile users also benefit from a consistent and intuitive user experience coupled with the freedom and flexibility afforded by mobile VoIP.\nMobile VoIP in the Workplace Even office-based employees are able to benefit from mobile VoIP. Employees who choose to utilize mobile VoIP and collaboration are no longer so stringently tied to their desks. By using desktop UC softphones and mobile apps, such employees can continue to work away from their desk either via their laptop or their mobile device. Such an approach can encourage both a greater degree of mobility within the business premises plus supporting flexible working conditions such as telecommuting and HomeOffice working. An employee’s mobile device essentially becomes their office phone and in most cases, callers will be unable to tell the difference as to whether the employee is the office or not.\nWorkplace Flexibility: Mobile Availability without Mobile Phone Numbers For employers, workplace flexibility is no longer an employee perk to be earned but instead is fast becoming a must have option demanded by employees. Indeed, in some countries such as the U.K., legislation has even been introduced to make it simpler and easier for employees to apply for flexible working conditions.\nIt is therefore, a good thing that VoIP-based phone systems also offer a number of benefits relating to working from home – all that’s needed is a stable Internet connection. Thanks to desktop and mobile Unified Communications applications, HomeOffice workers are able to access the same benefits as remote sales workers, often at no additional cost to the employer. Mobile VoIP apps offer the same functionality as their desktop counter parts and top of the range apps can be installed on employee personal devices and are able make and receive calls using the employees work phone number over WiFi (WLAN), LTE and GSM networks. The resulting complete virtualisation of the office means that any employee can collaborate with colleagues and communicate with customers from anywhere, in the office, at home or on the go, on their office PC, laptop or their mobile device when on the road.\nMaking Calls from PCs or Mobile Using the Business VoIP Tariff VoIP technology is a component of the trend of realising all and any communication technology using IP otherwise known as the digital transformation. This even affects mobile devices that have traditionally communicated over their own dedicated networks, but increasingly are now using IP technology. Compared to legacy technology, IP is cheaper, faster and more flexible. For example, all VoIP phone system internal calls are normally free, external calls cost a fraction of the price and when deploying mobile VoIP apps, internal employee collaboration is not only more productive but also more cost-effective.\nIn affect, the switch to VoIP could make the mobile phone number superfluous, particularly in the business world. A pascom VoIP phone system delivers all the necessary components of digital transformation as standard, coming complete with all the required software applications required on desktop and mobile endpoints (devices) combined with the appropriate security measures. pascom’s communications platform offers support for not only classic desktop PCs, laptops and smartphones and tablets but dedicated devices such as IP phones are of course supported as an integral component of business communications. Even older analogue hardware endpoints can be deployed using a so-called ATA adapter.\nIn the world of IP technologies, almost everything is within reach. Combined with the fact that the ISDN has long entered its end of life, joining the digital transformation and switching to a VoIP phone system is no longer a choice, but a must. Only one question remains, when are you making the switch?\nContact the pascom team and discover how your business can benefit from switching today plus arrange a live demo and consultation and see for yourself how our VoIP phone system and mobile applications can upgrade your business communications.\n","date":"January 10, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/anywhere-anytime-availability-with-mobile-voip/","title":"Anywhere Anytime Availability with Mobile VoIP"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems"],"contents":"All IP and Almost Limitless Communication Possibilities Gone are the days of pure fixed-line telephony. Times have changed, life is more mobile, demands are more immediate and businesses need solutions to help them succeed both today and tomorrow. So where should businesses start? The obvious place to start is with their phone system, mainly due to the fact that old legacy systems are fast becoming antiquated thanks to the ISDN switch-off and secondly simply because modern business phone systems are able to offer so much more for far less. In fact, considering the features, functions and options available - from ContactCentre, Unified Communications to Mobile and Business Telephony all in one platform - it is probably fair to say that a modern business phone system is better described as a business communications platform.\nEffective \u0026amp; Efficient Communication with a Business VoIP Phone System A software-based business VoIP UC phone system is an essential instrument for all aspects of business communication including internal employee collaboration and external customer engagement. Taking a closer look at such solutions and their features will reveal why they have become so important to business success. Business Voice over IP (VoIP) software solutions are based on All IP technology and offer considerably more functionality and flexibility than just telephony and therefore form a crucial part of a business’ digital transformation strategy.\nJust think of how difficult it was to incorporate multiple offices, home offices and remote workers even just a decade ago. Nowadays, particularly with the advent of cloud technologies, deploying a business phone system can be done and dusted in hours or days as opposed to weeks. Thanks to VoIP and SIP trunking services, employees can work from anywhere and your business telephony will cost you a fraction of what it used to. Then there\u0026rsquo;s the ongoing management and maintenance. Legacy systems required on-site expert (and therefore expensive) telecoms engineers, endless amounts of cabling and so on. IP business communications solutions still require some expert knowledge, but as they are software-based they are far less complex to manage - and if you opt for a cloud phone system, your chosen vendor will likely do much of the work for you.\nThe Different Types of Business VoIP Phone Systems VoIP solutions are based on the transmission of information using Internet Protocol (IP) and therefore require a stable Internet Connection to function to their full potential, essentially making choosing the right technical basis for each VoIP system critical to success.\nIn principle, there are three variations of VoIP solution installations: classic server hardware solutions, virtual VoIP phone systems and cloud phone systems. Leading business phone system software providers such as pascom will offer all three variations and will support businesses in delivering the best-suited solution type. In this regard, the main considerations to take into account include the availability of in-house knowledge and resources plus your future objectives as a business, as this will help determine whether to consider on-premise or cloud solutions as well as identify must-have features. Finally, of course, cost is an important factor to consider when comparing vendors and solutions.\nOn-premise VoIP Server Appliances The beauty of software-based business VoIP solutions is the added flexibility they afford. With server appliance solutions, the VoIP phone system software is simply installed in either a pre-approved hardware appliance or on the customer’s on-site server (if appropriate). Should you choose to deploy your business phone system on your own on-site hardware, i.e. not provided by the vendor, always clarify any support and warranty questions. By electing for an appliance direct from the provider, your business phone system will be delivered with the VoIP software pre-installed and pre-configured (if applicable) and is therefore ready for immediate deployment.\nIf you decide on on-site server hardware, there are a few additional aspects to consider. Namely, any server hardware and required infrastructure will require maintenance and this should be taken into account in the cost calculations. Furthermore, future planning is essential. Software is relatively simple to scale with business growth as you will like only need to add a few extra licences. With hardware, the opposite is true; so do not fall into the trap of buying a new solution and then have to replace the server in 12 months down the line as you did not factor in your company growth.\nOn-premise Virtual Phone Systems Perhaps the firm favourite of the more software affine IT admin, the virtual business phone system deliver the scalability benefits of software solutions whilst retaining the control one has over on-premise solutions. Unlike their hardware-based counterparts, virtualised phone systems, or virtual IP PBX solutions, can be easily scaled according to requirements such as to incorporate new users, office locations and increase call volumes. However, virtualised solutions are not as plug and play as hardware or cloud solutions. When configuring a virtual IP PBX, a certain amount of knowledge is required to smoothly integrate the phone system into your existing network. As such, a virtualised business phone system is most suitable for companies with dedicated IT support either in-house or via a managed service provider.\nIn this respect, to ensure configuring your virtual business phone systems is as straightforward possible, look for a vendor that offers a downloadable ISO installation image file (includes all necessary software), supports a good range of virtualisation applications (sometimes known as Hypervisors and has a detailed step-by-step documentation.\nCloud Phone Systems Cloud phone systems are also sometimes known as Hosted PBX solutions, although the term is a bit general as hosted could also mean self-hosted for example. A cloud phone system, such as pascom 18’s cloud solution is hosted either directly by the provider, i.e. pascom, or by a hosting partner using fit for purpose cloud hosting platforms. As such the VoIP services are delivered from the Cloud via the Internet.\nThe main benefit of cloud technology is anywhere, anytime accessibility – meaning no matter where you are, providing you have an Internet connection, you will be able to access your phone system tools. While it is true that since releasing pascom 18, this is also the case with pascom’s on-premise solutions, but this is only because pascom 18 delivers 100 % cloud-ready software out of the box, whereas other vendors may require a VPN infrastructure to be available.\nAn additional benefit of cloud phone systems is the option of managed services. For many companies, the option of managed services is extremely attractive as the solution provider takes on all the responsibility of managing the solution in terms of updates, maintenance and upgrades. In turn, managed services reduce the strain on IT departments, freeing up resources for other priorities. Furthermore, startup companies and smaller SMBs with no in-house IT resources also find the option of a managed services cloud phone system particularly attractive as they are able to enjoy the benefits and features of a professional business communications platform without incurring expensive upfront costs for hardware and are able to spread the costs thanks to operational costing.\nModern Business VoIP Software Solutions Offer More Options With VoIP, the choice is yours in terms of how you wish to communicate. Use whichever device you prefer from traditional desktop phones to intuitive to use desktop and mobile apps with fully integrated softphones. By using softphones, particularly on mobile devices, the world is your oyster so to speak. Your customers and business partners will always be able to reach you no matter where you are and thanks to Unified Communications, you and your team will always be kept in the loop no matter how great the degree of geographical separation. Each and every employee has different preferences and requirements, so choose a vendor that supports a wider range of endpoints and platforms from Windows, Mac and Linux for desktops and Android and iOS for mobile applications.\nMoreover, as IP telephony uses the internet as opposed to traditional fixed lines, not only is the connection often quicker, you will be able to significantly reduce telecoms costs. This is especially true when considering that all “internal” calls are free, regardless of where your employees are based and when making and receiving calls from abroad, SIP softphones can significantly reduce international call charges.\nAnother significant advantage of business VoIP solutions is that all communications are handled centrally and not just fixed-line calls. Alongside normal telephony, thanks to IP technology a whole host of crucial functions are available and centrally accessible. For example, all fax communication, mobile calls, instant messages (chat) and file transfers are centrally processed, logged and stored, meaning that archives and call histories are automatically synced across all platforms and devices, making them accessible from anywhere. Further examples include tools such as group chat and audio conferencing that empower users to collaborate with colleagues from anywhere, at anytime and in the near future, pascom solutions will also support a full video conferencing and desktop sharing suite to enable face to face collaboration from anywhere.\nIn addition to communication and collaboration, another essential element of business success is access to information, sometimes referred to as business intelligence. In the world of Digital Transformation, IP technologies offer significant improvements on this front as well. Modern CRM and ERP systems are IP based and therefore can quickly and efficiently be connected to your business communications solution, providing team members, contact centre agents and remote workers centralised yet instant access to critical information directly from within their desktop and mobile applications.\nIn modern communications, time also plays a crucial role. Today’s customers expect faster reaction times, immediate service and support. All IP communications solutions are designed to support businesses in delivering excellent service in real-time, streamlining business processes and providing fingertip access to all the necessary tools and data to provide instantaneous, first-class service through using functions such as:\nCentral desktop and mobile telephony and collaboration apps Centralised import and management of address books with intelligent search functions Advanced Unified Communications including presence, chat, softphones etc. Voicemail for all, including voicemail2e-mail Secure file transfers 3-way conferencing and audio conferencing tools Advanced team and call management As such, businesses that deploy and take full advantage of the possibilities offered by modern business VoIP solutions will benefit from improvements to Customer Service and Satisfaction and employee productivity, meaning their communications infrastructure will offer real tangible added value that will be reflected in their business success.\nFurther Considerations First and perhaps foremost, quality and security are central to modern VoIP solutions. When choosing your solution, it is also important to consider how adaptable a solution is to your business and IT structure whilst also investigating whether or not the vendor offers managed services either directly or via a service partner. It is also essential to clarify the availability of updates and upgrades and examine the complete scope of functionality. Depending on your provider, further functions will vary and may be available as add-ons, or like a pascom solution, they could already by included.\nIn essence, choosing the right platform for your business will involve evaluating a provider\u0026rsquo;s complete ecosystem and matching the results to your business needs.\nGive the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 201 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"January 3, 2019","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/effective-communication-with-a-business-voip-phone-system/","title":"Effective Communication with a Business VoIP Phone System"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems"],"contents":"How Secure is Voice over IP? Since the announcement of the ISDN shutdown across many countries, everybody is talking about VoIP and All IP technologies. For businesses and private households alike, Voice over IP offers a number of advantages. But the question is how secure is Internet Telephony (VoIP) in contrast to the older, tried and tested ISDN business phone systems. With voice over IP, calls are no longer routed via ISDN but rather over your Internet connection. As the Internet is often portrayed as inherently insecure, for many it begs the question just how secure – if at all – a voice over IP connection actually is.\nIs VoIP encryption possible? In a word, Yes. Thanks to technologies such as SIPS, sRTP, TLS or End-to-End Encryption, it is possible to encrypt VoIP. And by the way, such encryption possibilities did not exist for conventional ISDN fixed lines. ISDN technology runs over so-called backbone cables, which were coincidentally often tapped and eavesdropped on by hackers. Basically, modern IP and VoIP technologies are far more complex compared to analogue and ISDN technology. VoIP communication, however, normally runs over fibre optics networks, which for hackers relates to more difficulties and time needed due to the complexity of the structure. Realistically, it is often the case that security issues arise from potential security gaps that stem from the structure of a business’ IT infrastructure being exposed. Unfortunately, too many companies (although this is changing) do not build their networks conscientiously enough and thus unwittingly leave the doors open to hackers. In essence, when installing a business VoIP phone system, choose a vendor who is able to clearly answer your security questions and have a specialist do the installation whilst also taking every step possible to ensure the security of your company data.\nWhich VoIP encryption technologies are available? The most common IP telephony encryption methods include:\nSIPS: (Session Initiation Protocol Security) is a network protocolling technology for establishing, controlling and deconstructing a communication session between two or more participants and is a commonly used protocol in VoIP phone systems. Another significant advantage is that by separating sessions and media, both data streams can be encrypted independent of one another, adding further complexity for unwanted attackers to sift through.\nTLS: (Transport Layer Security) another common encryption tool is used to encrypt signalling using SIP over TLS. TLS is a cryptographic protocol that has replaced SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and is designed as an IT network communications security protocol. It may be the case that your Voice Provider offers TLS encryption, but when choosing a phone system, it is important to choose a vendor, such as pascom that supports TLS encrypted communication.\nSRTP: (Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol) is the encrypted version of RTP or Real-Time Transport Protocol. In contrast to RTP, SRTP includes advanced identity control tools.\nEnd-to-End-Encryption: In plain English, End-to-End encryption is the VoIP encryption of all transmitted data across all transmission stations. Only the communicating partners (i.e. their respective endpoints) can receive and decrypt the message.\nProvider certifications Before you decide on a particular VoIP phone system for your business, you should confirm you\u0026rsquo;re your chosen provider holds a range of certifications.\nImportant certificates which your Cloud Phone System and VoIP Provider should hold include: ISO/IEC 27001 The International Standardization Organization. AICPA SAS 70 The American Institute of Certified Public Accountant. ECSA EuroCloud SaaS Star Audit Europe Germany’s TÜV Trust IT Certification. pascom’s business communications platform ensures a secure SIP, TLS (SSL) VoIP encryption, and are exclusively “hosted in Germany” in approved data centres (naturally with TÜV Certification) coupled with 100% “Made in Germany” solutions that guarantee maximum availability at unbelievably attractive prices.\npascom’s latest 100% Cloud-ready solutions and in particular pascom’s hosted Cloud phone systems offer the optimal balance of high-performance, flexibility and security. All business intelligence, i.e. customer data, is stored in a closed, protected environment. In pascom’s hosted cloud variation, the specifically developed multi-tenant / multi-instance hosting platform ensures that each pascom phone system instance is containerized and belongs exclusively to only one tenant (i.e. customer). Thus each instance is insulated from the others, meaning that unlike other cloud providers, a falsely configured phone system cannot “infect” another phone system as well as preventing direct access to data belonging to other customers and vice versa.\nIs it possible to exchange VoIP encryption? Full security is delivered via TLS encrypted SIP. As such, you can easily communicate with partners via VoIP over IP. For each call, the key must be exchanged during the call construction process. Similar to HTTPS, the keys also use SIPS certificates. The identification is regulated via the SIP protocol, meaning not every client requires their own certificate. As a result, encrypting communication is no longer an obstacle thanks to SIPS certificates.\nWhen it comes to security, Voice over IP in under not circumstances inferior to ISDN. On the contrary, compared to ISDN, by VoIP solutions it is possible to significantly increase the degree of privacy with the aid of encryption technologies and mobile VoIP smartphone apps, such pascom’s mobile app for Android and iOS. By using pascom’s mobile app, users can also benefit from VoIP communication while on the move without fear of hacker attacks. The apps are configured using secure, encrypted QR codes and all calls will be routed using encrypted SIP over either mobile data (e.g. Voice over LTE) or a Wi-Fi network with which the smartphone is connected.\nIncrease your business productivity and enjoy the benefits of VoIP With pascom’s VoIP business communications and collaboration solutions, substantial increases in productivity within your company can be realised. By integrating mobile devices, you will be able to enjoy worldwide availability in your office number, regardless of where the phone system is hosted.\nMoreover, with advancements in audio technology such as HD audio and OPUS codecs, you will also enjoy a significantly improved audio quality. HD standards and in particular OPUS codecs are great for enhancing audio and in the case of OPUS, the codec is scalable to your available bandwidth meaning it adapts according to your current Internet connectivity conditions and even at its most comprised, still offers comparable quality to the ISDN. However, both call parties HD enabled IP phones in order to be able to enjoy these benefits, but lucky almost all modern phones and mobiles offer HD support, so it is not really a major concern.\nA further VoIP benefit includes having the ability to upgrade your call management. Professional call management is essential for excellent customer service and projecting an image of professionalism. Legacy phone systems often had limited and/or costly call management modules, whereas IP based systems deliver much more functionality per default. With a pascom solution, IVRs, AutoAttendants and automatic call distribution and forwarding are all included as standard features. For example, should you currently be in a meeting or working on an important project not wanting to be disturbed, it is possible to, either automatically or with the click of a button, transfer incoming calls to another free colleague all without the caller having to wait for any prolonged period of time.\nGive the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition!\n","date":"December 19, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/is-voice-over-ip-telephony-bugproof/","title":"Is Voice over IP Telephony Bugproof"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"pascom Support the Oberpfalz Aids Counselling Service December 20th 2018 | Deggendorf, Germany - In what is now a pascom tradition at this time of year, the company chooses to financially support a local cause whose activities are perhaps sometimes overlooked or not given the recognition they deserve. In choosing the Aids Beratungsstelle Oberpfalz (German only - Oberpfalz Aids counselling centre), the company has chosen a cause that is often overlooked through taboo and social stigma but is no less worthy in making a difference to everyday lives.\npascom CEO Quirin Pasquay presenting the company\u0026rsquo; donation to Hans-Peter Dorsch, Managing Psychologist at the Oberpfalz Aids Beratungsstelle\rWhile activities vary, the organisation\u0026rsquo;s main activities are three-fold. Firstly, the counselling service provides both a telephone and personal advice service for anyone with questions regarding Aids, HIV, HIV tests as well as sexual health. For many, these counselling services offered by the Oberpfalz team provides an invaluable platform from which they can inform themselves, get their questions answered in a clear and understandable manner as well as clarifying any next steps that need to be taken. Secondly, the team also provide professional support services for HIV positive patients and their families. As with any diagnosis, after testing positive for HIV it is only human nature that for both the patient and their families will likely have more questions than answers concerning the impact on their lives and of course any available treatment options.\nThankfully, HIV treatment is nowadays largely successful and most patients live a long, fulfilling life despite the virus. Even armed with this knowledge, patients will invariably have the nagging question \u0026ldquo;How or what will my life be like now\u0026rdquo;. In order to best support patients and their loved ones during this uncertain period, the Oberpfalz Aids counselling team ensure that not only can patients access personalised consultation sessions, but also ensure that they have access to an extensive network of professionals and facilities depending on the patient`s needs when supporting them in answering the many questions they likely have.\nFinally, the organisation takes on a preventative role in combating the spread HIV/Aids infections through organising educational campaigns, awareness training and group events aimed at specific demographic groups as well as organising working place and professional training. Beyond this, the service also participates in a syringe exchange programme for drug users coupled with their counselling services.\nQuirin Pasquay, pascom CEO: When making our annual donation, we always look support a local charitable organisation or service who offer invaluable but often unseen services either because the cause is felt to be taboo or carries a negative social stigma. We are well aware that offering any essential charitable service involves a high level of cost, particularly in a medical environment and in choosing the Oberpfalz Aids Beratungsstelle, we not only wanted to thank the team for their exceptional dedication and commitment to supporting their patients and families, but we also wanted to show our gratitude for their work in the form of a financial donation that will help the organisation in continuing to offer their excellent service to the Oberpfalz region.\nAbout Aids Beratungsstelle Oberpfalz The Aids Beratungsstelle in Oberpfalz is a member of the Niederbayern / Oberpfalz district of the Bayerisches Rotes Kreuz (Bavarian Red Cross) and has been offering Aids support services since 1988. The centre is based in Regensburg and offers a range of HIV/Aids support and prevention services to the Oberpfalz and Niederbayern region of Bavaria, including testing, personalised counselling and telephone support as well as educational campaigns and awareness training.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements, meaning our IP PBX solutions are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom.\n","date":"December 17, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-supporting-aids-beratungsstelle-counselling-service/","title":"pascom Donation in Support of Aids Beratungsstelle Counselling Service"},{"categories":null,"contents":"10 Benefits of Voice over IP With the ISDN switch off already underway, it is inevitable that at some point in the short to mid term future; every business will have to address the topic of Voice over IP. Many have already made the leap to VoIP and are reaping the rewards of being at the forefront of business communications. Others are just now making the switch, some being forced by their provider – Deutsch Telekom are pushing the switch to All-IP by the end of 2018, as are Swisscom and BT in the U.K. are planning the ISDN switch off for 2025.\nEither way, switching to a VoIP phone system and All IP technologies provides business with a number of advantages compared to legacy ISDN / analog connections and in the following article we have outlined just 10 of them:\n1. Worldwide Availability with Voice over IP Download and install the VoIP application on your laptop and / or smartphone and log in using your personal user account or in the case of smartphones pair your mobile VoIP app and that’s it, you are not reachable from anywhere via your VoIP phone system. The objective is to make telephone communication as location independent and convenient as checking your e-mails. This has obvious benefits for team members who often work from HomeOffice or from multiple offices.\npascom business UC phone system\rThanks to Voice over IP solutions, it is possible to take your individual office number with you without needing to configure a new phone everytime. Simply use the“Hotdesking” feature and log on to an available desktop IP phone using your personal details or into your desktop application and either select the appropriate “desk” from a list of available work locations or use the in-built softphone.\n2. Improved Audio Quality Advancements in audio codecs such as High Definition (HD) audio and the OPUS codec ensure that not only do VoIP phone systems deliver a consistently higher standard of in-call audio quality but also throughout the complete call from beginning to end. As such, callers will benefit from a considerably more enjoyable in-call experience, particularly when the audio enhancements are supported by intelligent call flow management tools such as customized prompts, music on hold, flexible teams and intuitive call distribution.\n3. Scalable to Any Business Size Voice over IP solutions (VoIP for short) routes calls over an IP network such as the Internet as opposed to over traditional fixed landlines. In doing so the, the call is sent over the Internet in the form of encrypted packets. Business VoIP solutions can be based on a number of different frameworks. pascom business phone systems, for example, are based on Asterisk, the world’s leading OpenSource VoIP software. Using Asterisk as the core of our software-based phone systems enables us to offer highly scalable and customizable business communications solutions built on OpenStandards and therefore deployable in most common IT Landscapes.\nPhone system hardware server: our pascom phone systems are available as a server hardware solution, i.e. a hardware appliance which is delivered pre-installed and pre-configured to your business needs. As such, you need only to unpack and connect your new phone system server and you’re ready to go.\npascom business VoIP IP PBX\rVirtual phone systems: should you have a virtual infrastructure available to you, a virtualized phone system could be the ideal PBX deployment option for your business. With a pascom virtual IP PBX, you can be up and running in a matter of minutes. Simply download the ISO file, install within your existing infrastructure and setup up your system and that’s it, your basic telephony needs will be covered.\nCloud phone systems: an excellent choice for startups, SMBs as well as any company looking to centralized their business communications, pascom’s cloud phone system offers the ultimate in scalability, flexibility and ease of setup. Additional significant benefits also include pascom’s free of charge hosting and the option of managed services, meaning that after setting up your login credentials, you can immediately get started and should you require support, the pascom team are always on call to lend a hand.\n4. Productivity Increases Voice over IP business phone systems don’t just offer superior, yet cheaper calls and call management, but also enable IP based data transmissions. As a result, modern business phone systems include a range of productivity enhancing collaboration tools such as softphones, instant messaging, file sharing, presence management, audio conferencing, contact and call center functions and much more.\nIn the case of instant messaging, automated delivered and read “reports” provide users with real-time feedback as to whether the recipient has read the message or not. Location tags and presence management supports users in making contact decisions quicker and more intelligently. In essence, thanks to Unified Communications and Collaboration, virtual collaboration now knows no boundaries no matter the geographical separation between an employee and their colleagues, customers and business partners.\n5. Centralised, Streamlined Solution Management with VoIP Regardless of which Voice over IP business phone system deployment option you choose, software based VoIP systems support businesses simplify solution management. For example, hardware deployments, adding users and importing contact information can all be managed centrally and often automatically, greatly reducing IT administrative hassle and resource utilisation.\nIn the case of hardware phones, they are no longer must haves thanks to the advent of softphones and mobile VoIP. Should you choose to deploy hardware IP phones, most modern devices support PoE (Power over Ethernet), meaning no additional power cabling is required and whilst also reducing energy consumption. Furthermore, top of the range solutions will also include a virtual faxing solution, enabling businesses to optimize and reduce the number of analog deployed fax devices.\n6. Cost Savings with pascom VoIP Solutions First up, with VoIP solutions, you can generally eliminate all internal telecom costs as all internal calls are routed internally and are therefore not billed by your provider. Moreover, mobile softphones and UC apps ensure that even mobile communication costs are significantly reduced, even when calling from abroad as mobile data or wireless networks are used, thus greatly reducing international call costs.\nOpenStandards phone system solutions such as pascom’s also offer customers more freedom when it comes to selecting the voice carrier (or carriers) that best suit your business requirements. A great example of this could be by integrating international carriers to one; provide your customers with a local number to call and two, reduce your international calling costs. Compared to ISDN connections, it is possible for internationally active companies to realize over 50% cost savings for international calls.\n7. Maintenance and Security While it is true that the security of VoIP telephony solutions is often called into question, correctly implemented modern solutions are in fact often more secure. Leading vendors such as pascom, recognize the importance of VoIP software security and this is therefore reflected in the fact that security is a core element of their solution. As a result, when using a pascom solution, you can rest assured that not only are your calls encrypted and secure, so are your pascom UC client instant messages and file transfers.\nA further benefit of VoIP software solutions over legacy ISDN solutions is the regularity and availability of updates. Not only are updates more regular, they are normally included at little or no extra cost. What’s more, as we are talking about a software update, updates are more often than not quickly, simply and easily implemented without requiring additional hardware components or modules or much administrative hassle.\nQuick and uncomplicated remote maintenance via the Internet is not only secure, thanks to pascom’s incorporated Session Border Controller, but also ensures that companies are more mobile and flexible in terms of Business Continuity. If necessary, phone system admins can access the solution from anywhere and at anytime for maintenance and service issues. Through using the phone system’s in built system health check notifications, admins are able to proactively react to issues as they arise, meaning lower downtime and more continuous service. Of course, it you wish to add additional security, access can also be restricted to the company network via VPN.\n8. One Number Concept A further benefit of VoIP solutions is the One Number Concept, the benefits of which can be applied to users as well as the company as a whole. National companies, for example, now only need one number and calls can be routed across all company locations nationwide, no matter where the solution is hosted. Obviously, this is option is more suited to the smaller startup or SOHO organisation. However, the concept itsef delivers benefits for all business sizes. For example, should you have a number of Direct Inward Dials (DIDs) mapped to internal employee and team extensions, the one number concept and Find Me Follow Me tools ensure that no matter where you and your team work from, they will be directly reachable on their specific office number.\nIn terms of international business relationships, the one number concept also delivers significant advantages as your team will enjoy worldwide availability on their office number, no matter where their location. Therefore, even if your business employs a number of carriers to deliver local numbers, customers, business partners and employees will need only one local number on which to contact any member of your team globally.\n9. More Efficient Customer Service with VoIP Call and Contact Centres Compared to legacy ISDN phone systems (and even a number of IP phone system vendors), pascom’s business phone system includes a range of call and contact centre functionality as standard with which businesses are able to realize significant customer service efficiency and satisfaction gains. With AutoAttendants, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) option menus, Music on Hold and Prompts, Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) and even Skills based routing included as standard, your business will have all the contact centre tools needed to professionally and efficiently manage all your calls.\nFor example, with our VoIP solution, team management has never been simpler. Even extension management is greatly simplified, e.g. when adding a new Team (a.k.a Queue), the phone system will automatically suggest the next available extension or alternatively, you can manually assign an extension to the team and be assured that you will not suffer any call flow loops thanks to the solutions automatic extension assignment checking tool.\nAssign teams according to roles, i.e. sales, and the once setup, calls to the team will then be routed to all assigned team members according to your preferred call routing strategy. Alternatively, thanks to skills based routing it is possible to assign individual members with specific skills such as product knowledge or languages and ensure your calls are answered not only quicker, but also by the most appropriately skilled employee at the first time of asking.\nFurther boost customer service with Contact Centre tools such as call recording, call analytics and 3rd party application integration. Call recording can be used for quality assurance and training purposes while call analytics can be used to graphically display live call volumes. Historical call analytics can be used to identify trends in call volumes even down to the level of specific skills, which can then be applied to ensure appropriate staffing levels. Finally, integrating 3rd party applications such as CRM and ERP systems can be used to provide team members with access to other sources of business intelligence if the form of call labels displayed within the pascom UC client before answering, during and after calls.\nIn essence, the combination of easy to manage call routing and management tools will support you in ensuring your callers benefit from not only shorter wait times, but also more enjoyable in call experiences.\n10. VoIP Solution Setup Follow these 7 steps in order to switch to and setup your business VoIP phone:\nChoose from either a pascom Cloud or On-premise solution.\nImport your users from your Active Directory / LDAP. Alternatively, download, complete and upload our Advanced User Excel Import file. You can also add phone assignments at this stage to automate elements of step 3.\nIn the case of on-premise solutions, your pascom phone system can automatically detect, add and configure supported IP endpoints and can now be assigned to individual users. For cloud solutions, end points will either be delivered pre-configured or will be on-boarded during the initial system setup support session.\nDownload and install the appropriate pascom desktop UC clients (Windows, Mac and Linux) and the pascom mobile apps for Android and iOS.\nPlan and map your extensions / call flow concept. For testing purposes, add a switchboard extension, which can be setup to play a prompt or forward the call to a voicemail box. To test external calls you will need to add a SIP provider account.\nTest the solution all functions such as softphones, instant messaging, ACD and so on.\nOnce satisfied, you can now register the solution with your VoIP carrier of choice and / or port old phone numbers to your new provider. In this step, you can also implement your call flow concept to correctly route calls to teams and users according to your plan from step 5.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nGive the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"December 10, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/10-benefits-of-voice-over-ip-vs-the-isdn/","title":"10 Benefits of Voice over IP vs the ISDN"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Upgrade Your Business Communications Are you looking to upgrade your business communications? Is your existing solution on its last legs or simply not delivering the performance and functionality your business needs? Then try pascom\u0026rsquo;s free business phone system edition today and discover how we can support you in giving your communications a breath of fresh air.\nAvailable for both on-premise and in the cloud, pascom\u0026rsquo;s free phone system edition is different from other vendors. Firstly, our free edition phone systems offer exactly the same functionality as our commercial phone system solutions. Featuring everything you need to upgrade your business communications from from a complete unified communications feature set to mobile VoIP, ContactCentre and open standards interoperability. As a result, you can deploy your pascom solution anywhere, use your choice of SIP providers and VoIP phones plus benefit from the full scope of pascom features.\npascom Business VoIP Communication Solutions\rSecondly, we do not impose any time limitations on our pascom free phone system editions. Take all the time you need to configure and test the solution and when you are ready, upgrading is quick and easy. Even our hosted pascom.cloud free editions solutions are available with no time limitations. That means that you can enjoy free phone system hosting in our redundant cloud infrastructure for the lifetime of the system - no just for a limited time as with other vendors. Finally, getting started couldn\u0026rsquo;t be simpler and thanks to our new setup guides and assistants, you can get your pascom phone system will be up and running in just a matter of minutes, regardless of your choice of installation - in the cloud or on-premise.\nOffering a full Unified Communications suite including presence, instant messaging, desktop and mobile softphones and voicemail 2 e-mail, pascom solutions also include advanced Call and Contact Centre tools as standard, such as intuitive Hotdesking, simple queue and team management, call recording, Skills-based routing and call labels. Open Standards ensure that you benefit from having no vendor lock-in, freeing you up to choose the SIP provider and hardware vendors (if appropriate) that best suit your business needs and cut telecommunication costs. Furthermore, pascom solutions are designed to be both admin and user-friendly and therefore are as easy to install and manage as they are to use.\nThanks to pascom\u0026rsquo;s industry-leading Concurrent User (CU) licensing model, you will benefit from all of the above whilst also benefiting from 2 concurrent user licences, 5 channels, 5 endpoints and 5 web guests per CU. Compared with other licensing models such as the channel or simultaneous call models, with Concurrent User licensing, there are no licence limitations on inbound calls, meaning your customers will always be able to contact you which is obviously an essential element of delivering excellent customer service.\nGet Your Free VoIP Phone System Today In essence, pascom business phone systems deliver all the necessary communication and collaboration tools required to drive productivity and collaboration which coupled with open standards and hassle-free setup and management, will enable you to drastically reduce costs, enhance customer service and upgrade your business communications.\nGet started today with our free edition, either on-premise or hosted free in the pascom.cloud and experience first hand how we upgrade business communications.\n","date":"December 5, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-voip-phone-system-free-edition/","title":"pascom VoIP Phone System Free Edition"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"New, More Powerful and Admin Friendly pascom Appliance Now Available November 28th 2018 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of Unified Communication phone systems for business has announced the release of a new, more powerful pascom VoIP phone system server appliance. Coinciding with the recent release of pascom 18 - the company\u0026rsquo; most technologically advanced and competitively positioned business communications platform to date - the new pascom IP-PBX appliance provides Small Medium Businesses with a cost-effective yet more powerful and administrator friendly on-premise All IP Business Communications server platform.\npascom business VoIP IP PBX\rAimed at the Small Office Home Office (SOHO) and SMB market segment, the new pascom IP-PBX Appliance is an All-IP business communications platform and is the direct replacement for pascom\u0026rsquo;s highly successful SOHO server. Compared to the previous pascom SOHO server, the new pascom IP-PBX Appliance is placed in the same price bracket yet delivers considerably more performance coupled with the ability to directly connect peripheral devices (monitors and keyboards). The resulting upgrades ensure that pascom, pascom resellers and more importantly pascom customers all benefit from a quicker, more effective system administration whilst boasting the ability to support double the number of system users.\nThe new pascom IP-PBX Appliance supports double the number of employees compared to the older SOHO IP-PBX appliance and therefore ensures that the solution is ideal for a wider range of businesses requiring an on-site business communications platform. Available now and compatible with pascom\u0026rsquo;s latest phone system version (pascom 18), the new pascom Appliance is designed to provide SOHO and smaller SMB sized businesses looking to replace their legacy phone systems with not only the latest, most cutting-edge communication technology but also one of the most cost-effective solutions available on the market today.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO, on the unveiling the new pascom IP-PBX Appliance:\nThe release of our new telephony server appliance is not just about upgrading performance for the same price. With the older SOHO IP-PBX appliance, we identified potential areas for improvement where we could offer our resellers and customers more added value and we believe that the new IP-PBX appliance does just that. That said, with the advent of cloud technologies, many question the need for an IP-PBX appliance, but we recognise that every customer is unique with equally unique requirements which is why releasing the new pascom IP-PBX appliance coupled with pascom 18 cloud technology is so important. We are now in a position to provide all our customers, regardless of direct or via our channel partners, with the latest technology across all deployment options, meaning we are uniquely positioned in the market to cater for all our customer\u0026rsquo;s requirements across a greater number of market segments.\nComparable in size to its predecessor, the pascom IP-PBX Appliance is equally unobtrusive, making the platform the ideal deployment option for customers who are perhaps sceptical of cloud solutions, do not have any in-house IT support and want to conserve space when it comes to IT infrastructure. Furthermore, the industry trend towards All IP solutions leading to an increased business need for IP based telecommunication and communications solutions, the new pascom IP-PBX Appliance offers an excellent option for smaller companies to make the switch with the minimum of fuss and hassle and when coupled with equally cost-effective and space conserving ATA adapters, the ability to continue to utilise their on-site analog hardware at no extra cost.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions, visit www.pascom.net or get started for with our free VoIP phone system edition now.\n","date":"November 28, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/new-pascom-appliance-hardware-unveiled/","title":"New pascom Appliance Hardware Unveiled"},{"categories":["Home Office"],"contents":"My Experiences as a HomeOffice Worker A few years ago, I was in the U.K. on a business trip down in Brighton on the south coast. Anyway, rather than joining the weekly sales meeting from the confines of my hotel, I decided to find somewhere with a bit more appeal. The sun was shining and I ended up dialling into the sales meeting whilst sitting on a beach chair, sipping my coffee outside a surf shop. A few years and a couple of kids later, I am a regular HomeOffice and mobile worker and I am most definitely not alone. As such, I just wanted to share my experiences as evidence as to why the remote working trend will likely shape the future of the workplace for businesses globally.\nThe reasons why remote working has become a necessity are varied. For me, with two young kids, it helps me strike a better, more positive work-life balance. I can get them to kindergarten, pick them up and help with the night-time routine, which otherwise would be a big challenge. So for me, HomeOffice means I can keep working, spend time with the kids and of course help more around the house. The alternative would have been to give up working, which I am definitely not in a position to do.\nFor others, it could be due to geographical distance from the office or simply personal preference. In days gone by, geographical separation would have either meant relocating or would have excluded one from a job. These days, the digital transformation and advancements in Business Communication solutions have eliminated this issue as a barrier - and this delivers benefits to both employees and employers. Employees are able to benefit from flexible working conditions while employers are able to tap, attract and retain a larger pool of highly motivated and skilled staff.\nBefore getting into my typical week, I must point out that HomeOffice working isn\u0026rsquo;t for everyone and is obviously not suited to every job. Moreover, there are plenty of traps one can fall into which you will need to identify and do your best to avoid. A good example is knowing when to sign-off. I often work later, once the kids are in bed as this enables me to finish of my days work without interruptions, but rarely do I work beyond 9pm - 9.30pm. Everyone needs to switch off and go offline in order to remain sharp, focused and productive.\nAnyway, this is how my week looks.\nMonday The nice thing about working from home on Monday is that it gently eases you back into the working week, rather than plunging you straight into the daily grind. I could get up, get the kids ready, have breakfast and do the kindergarten run all knowing that inside of a few minutes I could be at your desk and thanks to Cloud Telephony and Unified Communications, I was ready to work and available on my laptop and / or mobile.\nUntil September this year, Monday was a HomeOffice day and suffice to say, I miss the days when I worked from home on Mondays. My wife is a teacher and since the start of the new school year, her timetable includes having Monday mornings off and can therefore do the kindergarten runs. The result is that I am back in the daily grind on my commute to the office - although as I drive through the scenic Bavarian hills, I can\u0026rsquo;t complain too much.\nThe flip side of being in the office on Mondays is that I am there in person for the weekly sales and marketing briefings - it is my experience that whenever possible face-to-face communication (either in person or using video collaboration is the way forward for such briefings. Audio conferencing is great once everyone is on the same page, but lacks that visual element to get everyone onto said page.\nTuesday On Tuesdays, I am at home. I get up between 5.45am and 6:15am, depending on the kids. The wife is out the door at 7am on the dot and by 8am the kids are fed, watered and dropped off at Kindergarten and as my workday officially starts at 9am, I am able to get in some invaluable extra minutes whilst everyone else is still stuck in the hustle and bustle of the morning rush hour.\nOne of the main obstacles many businesses see with Home Office or Remote working is how to deliver the necessary communication tools and this is where our Cloud Telephony and Unified Communications platform comes into play. All I need to do is start my laptop and open the pascom desktop client or open the pascom mobile VoIP app on my Android smartphone and hey presto, I am online which is a good thing too as Tuesday tends to be the day when I make most of my calls.\nThanks to the in-built pascom softphone, I am immediately available on my office extension, can see not only which of my colleagues are online but also where they are, I can chat with them via instant messaging and can even share documents with file sharing. Essentially all I need is a reliable internet connection and I am good to go, although having a decent headset is recommended particularly if your workspace can get a bit loud.\nObviously, communication and collaboration are key to business success, but so too is having secure data access. Cloud storage platforms are invaluable in enabling home office or remote working. No matter where I am - at home, in the office or at a trade show thanks to our cloud storage, I can access all my files from anywhere and combined with cloud communications, I am always in the loop.\nWednesday Back in the office and all I need to do is open my pascom desktop application and select my office desk from the list of available locations. In doing so, I am automatically logged into my trusty Snom VoIP phone and immediately available. Hotdesking tools such as these used to belong to the realm of call and contact centre where agents often share their workspace with other shift workers. However, since the advent of open-plan offices and flexible working, Hotdesking has become much more commonplace in the business world, and pascom\u0026rsquo;s tool is extremely easy-to-use and set up. If, for example, I visit another office all I need do is choose a free desk, select the location from the list and my user will automatically take over the desktop phone assigned to the desk. It\u0026rsquo;s pretty much single click, meaning I need not worry about setting up a new phone for my user account or setup any call forwarding, etcetera.\nEvery second Wednesday we hold our full team sync up meeting. The meeting is started by the lead using hotdesking to login into our conference room location and therefore conference phone. Our remote teammates call in using our audio conferencing platform and gain the visual element thanks to desktop sharing while we will often use instant messaging and / or group chats to inform our remote workers that the conference is ready to go.\nThursday Thursday follows the pattern of Tuesday. Partly because my HomeOffice is quieter than my office and partly because I use my office days to speak face to face with my colleagues with whom I work directly, getting their feedback and input on projects and so on, I tend to schedule my calls for my HomeOffice days.\nOne thing about Thursdays is that I use my mobile more than my laptop for making and receiving calls. The reason is simple, I have the kids for a few hours in the afternoon before my wife comes home and therefore need that added mobility to follow the little rascals around the house and make sure they are not causing too much mayhem.\nFriday I love Fridays and not only because it\u0026rsquo;s nearly the weekend, although being able to leave early as a result of being able to start earlier during the week is definitely a plus. Friday is wrap-up day and I am normally back in the office. Today is the day where we review the week just gone and plan for the coming week. Thanks to some clever call routing and team management, we can dynamically log other colleagues into our team\u0026rsquo;s call queue and they can then field all calls during the time of the meeting. By using our mobile apps, we can be in the conference room and still be available on our office extension, so if a call needs to be dealt with there and then, it can be.\nWhen working for a business communications solutions vendor, you have a unique insight into just how important customer service actually is. If we missed a call, then chances are that the caller may try again only to be disappointed again, so answering first time even if it is just to say we\u0026rsquo;ll call them back after the meeting is finished is huge. Our customers are after all just like us, they have meetings to attend, projects to work on and so on. By recognising their importance by answering the call and not leaving them hanging in a call queue, the customer immediately feels as if they are being looked after and once we follow up as promised, this level of customer service goes a long way.\nTo Wrap Up Having the ability to work from home is one of the biggest perks of my job. Without this ability, I would be stuck. That said, I am not the kind of person who can work from home every day. Finding the right balance is essential and therefore I really enjoy the days I am in the office, mixing it up with the team and more importantly staying well and truly in the loop. Finding the balance will change from person to person, role to role and company to company, but that is not a reason to ignore the option. The tools are available and the benefits in terms of productivity and employee satisfaction are plentiful which in turn rewards employers who are also able to attract, retain, reward and motivate their team.\nTo find out how you and your business could also benefit from equipping your team with the tools to work remotely or would like more information regarding pascom, then give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and why not get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"November 21, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/typical-homeoffice-working-week/","title":"Typical HomeOffice Working Week"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems"],"contents":"Guide to Migrating from the ISDN to a Business VoIP Phone System As with all technologies, eventually the old will become antiquated as the new generation takes hold. Such a dynamic is currently sweeping across the telecommunications industry as Carriers begin the shutdown cycle of their ISDN networks in favour of SIP and All-IP connectivity. For many companies, the move away from the ISDN has proved to be a challenge, particularly those with larger telephone system installations. Setting up a VoIP solution from scratch is completely new territory. The purpose of this guide is to provide a step by step introduction to the ISDN All-IP migration process.\n1. VoIP Readiness Test When migrating from a legacy ISDN PBX to a new VoIP phone system, it is not always necessary to deploy completely new hardware. Some devices can be retained and used via an adapter (ATA). It is also possible that you already have a range of VoIP enabled hardware at your disposal, as many newer endpoints support both ISDN and VoIP technologies.\nAs you are also moving from a specific environment (ISDN) to an IP or Internet-based service (VoIP), it is in fact likely that a significant proportion of your hardware landscape can be repurposed for IP telephony, such as your Internet Router / Firewall, your desktop computers and laptops plus any headsets. Everything else that could be required is included in the phone system software. That is to say that after installing a pascom phone system, all the required software applications are included per default. Even a SIP softphone for desktop and mobile clients is included, which can be used for CTI and mobile collaboration purposes. Although it is, of course, an option to deploy VoIP enabled hardware should you wish, the only real requirement is a decent headset for your PC and thanks to the softphone, you and your team will be able to start making and receiving calls almost immediately.\nSituational Analysis: Migrating From an ISDN to a VoIP Phone System Due to the previously mentioned conditions, it is advisable to conduct a situation analysis of your current setup before migrating away from your ISDN phone system. You should consider, among others, the following:\nNumber of existing telephony connections / available telephony endpoints. Type and volume of non-telephony endpoints (fax, door/lift intercom systems, alarm systems, card terminals, franking machines etc., which are connected to the ISDN phone system). If necessary, consider the requirements of remote workers, both field sales and home office employees, as they can be directly integrated into your VoIP phone system. Any immediately available and usable VoIP enabled hardware. ISDN Hardware, which can be incorporated via an ATA adapter. Check fax machines for T.38 protocol support (support for real-time communication). Existing router capabilities in terms of incorporated firewall support. For which employees, for which the new VoIP software applications should be made available. Suitable VoIP providers, who also enable calls to external landlines i.e. the PSTN. 2. Create a VoIP Migration Concept Before switching from an ISDN PBX to a business VoIP phone system, you should first create a proof of concept in order to ensure the smoothest possible transition. Simply follow these essential steps:\nIdentify which phone system deployment option best suits your needs: On-premise appliance or virtualised or in the cloud. Determine which hardware components can be repurposed for future use and which, if any, must be newly acquired i.e. server hardware (pascom Appliance) and Gateways. Conceptualise your employee endpoint assignments Source any missing hardware (Server, IP phones or headsets etc) The initial setup can and should be done before the go-live of the VoIP phone system Use our full featured free starter pack: cloud phone system or download the pascom phone system ISO file. Thorough function tests of the configured system. Phone number porting. Step by Step VoIP Phone System Installation Depending on the type of phone system you have decided upon, the initial steps will differ. Should you have decided on a self-hosted solution, i.e. install on your hardware or as a virtualized IP PBX (VoIP phone system), you will first need to download the phone system software, normally in the form of an ISO file. If you are going the hardware route, you can save yourself the hassle by choosing a vendor who also offers a range of appliance solutions, which can be delivered pre-configured according to your requirements. When deploying such a phone system, be sure to follow the setup guidelines provided by the vendor. Alternatively, choose a cloud phone system, and get started within minutes, saving yourself yet more time and hassle by eliminating hardware configuration.\nBusiness Phone System Initial Setup: Add Users Once the VoIP solution is up and running, the next step is to start adding the users who should use the new platform. This step is particularly straightforward and can be completed in minutes if you able to import your user accounts via Active Directory, LDAP or similar. Should such an option not be available, the import from excel file option is an excellent alternative to manually adding users, which due to the administrative hassle for larger deployments, is not recommended.\nRegister VoIP Enabled Hardware After on-boarding your users, it is now necessary to register any IP endpoints (VoIP hardware). Depending on the endpoint vendor and where the devices are located, it is often possible to automatically detect and configure endpoints using a process known as Auto provisioning. All you need to do is connect the device to your LAN network and power supply (if Power over Ethernet (PoE) is not supported) and the VoIP phone system will do the rest. Should the phone system vendor not support Auto-provisioning for your VoIP enabled endpoints, it is often possible to add the devices manually – simply follow the phone system provider setup guide.\nAssign VoIP Endpoints to Employees Once all the endpoints have been registered correctly, they can be assigned to the phone system users, which you added in step 1 of this configuration guide. This is where your pre-planning will come into play, as you will now be able to assign devices according to your plan from phase 2 (VoIP migration concept).\nVoIP Phone System Desktop and Mobile Client Installation Best in breed professional business VoIP phone systems such as a pascom solution come complete with all necessary software applications as standard. In order to start using the full scope of employee communication and collaboration tools, it is first necessary to download and install the corresponding VoIP phone system desktop and mobile applications. To do this simply follow the vendor instructions and in the case of a pascom solution, download the appropriate desktop application (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android or iOS) from our website. Thanks to the pascom e-mail server incorporated with pascom 18 solutions or newer, it is now even possible to simply invite users via e-mail and let them use our setup wizards to guide them through the client setup process.\nSwitchboard Setup It is now time to set up your switchboard – or front desk, reception etc. No matter what you call it, this is an important step as the switchboard is often the first point of contact in your phone system. Within the switchboard team itself, it is advisable to deploy desktop IP phones in combination with the desktop application as this covers every possible scenario. Just as with your ISDN phone system, it is possible to create a more professional impression by using Music on Hold, custom greetings/prompts, Auto Attendants, Options Menus (IVR) and many additional features on your desire switchboard extension. Should you have already had experience with ISDN systems, VoIP phone systems or telecommunications in general, the available switchboard options will likely already be known to you.\nTest the VoIP Phone System Setup In order to avoid unwanted workflow breakdowns and unnecessary downtime, it is highly recommended to perform thorough tests of your initial setup before you take your old ISDN phone system offline. As your VoIP endpoints communicate over different lines to your ISDN phone system, conducting such independent tests should only have little impact of the day to day workflow, but can support you identify any issues before they become a problem.\nPhone Number Porting As soon as you have ported your phone number, your old ISDN phone system can be consigned to the scrap heap, but please consider the environment and recycle responsibly. Now you will need to map your Direct Inward Dial (DID) numbers from your number block (if applicable) to your employees and/or teams and setup your call routing in order to ensure calls are automatically and professionally routed to appropriate contact or queue, plus configure how calls should be handled should an employee not be reachable at the time of the call.\nOnce complete, such measures, as well as measures like adding new users, removing older entries or modifying the device and user assignments, are practically the only on-going administrative tasks relating to the configuration of your VoIP phone system.\n3. Employee Information and Training An essential but often overlooked element of migrating phone systems is to keep your employees informed and up-to-date. So either after or, better yet, during the VoIP phone system installation and commissioning process, make time to introduce the new VoIP solution to your employees and always consider their requirements, particularly any special information requirements of any employee who will be responsible for any element of the on-going management and / or maintenance of the solution.\nGive the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition!\n","date":"November 9, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/the-isdn-voip-migration/","title":"The ISDN VoIP Migration"},{"categories":null,"contents":"For which Business Size is a VoIP Software Solution Suitable? From the SMB through to large enterprise and Call Centers, the efficiency of business communications depends heavily on the stability, availability and protocoling of customer interactions. Our VoIP solutions support businesses achieve just this whilst facilitating the migration away from ISDN telephony to the modern world of IP telephony. Choosing the most suitable solution type will depend on a number of factors including business size, number of voice lines to be switched and your businesses quality requirements surrounding voice, recordings and mobility. Learn how by deploying a solution such as pascom’s on-site or cloud IP telephony platform, your business could benefit from upgraded business communications and how VoIP solutions supported vastly improved workflows from office users to Contact Centre employees.\nJust remember, when migrating to VoIP and SIP solutions, it is important to look at the new solution not as a like-for-like replacement to your legacy solution, but rather look at the bigger picture and consider what further opportunities, benefits and enhancements the new solution has to offer.\nHow is VoIP Telephony Different? In the past, if you wanted to deploy a SMB phone system or Contact Centre solution with multiple connections distributed across numerous numbers, you would have needed to install an ISDN PBX. To connect to the dialup network, it was necessary to ensure each telephony workstation was equipped with suitable hardware. The telephony connection ran over the cost intensive ISDN connection. Nowadays, with the migration from ISDN to SIP, things are a bit different. Instead of deploying, relocating and maintaining a complicated hardware system, why not communicate with a State of the Art pascom appliance, pascom virtual or pascom cloud solution and utilise your Internet connectivity. With intuitive and easy-to-use end-user applications and mobile VoIP clients for Android and iOS, making and receiving calls and mobile collaboration could not be simpler.\nSmall medium businesses in particular are able to profit from the cost savings and additional flexibility offered by VoIP as employees are able to use the solution from anywhere and at anytime or any device. In addition, cutting edge VoIP solutions increase call audio quality. The beauty of IP or Internet Telephony is that is can be used by all IP enabled devices in excellent audio quality. Even in-built microphones make a difference to the simple, clear digital voice transmission. With VoIP telephony, issues such as echo, interference and connectivity issues stemming from too many lines have now been consigned to things of the past.\nMigrating from the ISDN to VoIP with pascom pascom offers a range of solutions that can be perfectly tailored to different business models, ensuring that customers receive the exact service that they really need. With our pascom appliance, virtual and cloud options, our customers are able to experience their business communications being taken to a new level. Our goal is to make your switch from the ISDN as quick and effortless as possible. Even larger SMB Contact Centres and Call Centres can enjoy an efficient, smooth migrations process thanks to the active support provided by our service team.\nNecessary Steps:\nEnsure that the required hardware is available or already deployed. You will require a high performance router, IP phones or mobile devices, Analog adaptors to connect analog fax devices etc., headsets and PCs or notebooks. Together with us, next you will need to select the appropriate solution type for your business. Regardless of whether you choose a pascom hardware server, virtual PBX or cloud phone system. Select a system administrator to manage system maintenance and upgrades, or schedule a training for all employees to be qualified. You will receive from us all the necessary software applications covering everything from system administration to telephony and collaboration (chat, file sharing), CTI, fax tools and much more. Within just a few steps, you will be in a position to export the old data and integrate it in the new pascom solution and configure your network accordingly. Call Centers with hundreds or even thousands of Call Centre Agents should plan and allocate a realistic timeframe for this process plus ensuring an IT department is tasked with overseeing the change over. Once setup, system administration is minimal and any issues can be resolved in a manner that keep human resource requirements down to a minimum.\nFor small business, the process is a relatively straightforward. Choose the pascom Cloud PBX as the quickest, most flexible and cost effective system to setup and operate. Cloud solutions offer greater flexibility in terms of system scalability, everywhere access thanks to simple multi-location networking and of course operational costing reducing or even eliminating high up front costs. A pascom cloud solution is usually setup in a matter of minutes and within fully configured within a working day – give our consultants a call and find out more!\npascom as a Call and Contact Centre Solution When setting up our pascom phone system within a call and contact centre environment, our recommendation would be to opt for either our pascom virtual or cloud solution. Our reasoning here is simple and twofold – hardware servers are inherently difficult to scale and both the virtual and cloud (Contact Centre as a Service or CCaaS) options offer greater redundancy and scalability. The pascom virtual solution can be installed on-site where the ISDN was previously connected. The existing hardware can be repurposed and connected via ATA adapters, which convert everything to VoIP. Furthermore, with a pascom solution you will benefit from platform independent installation of both the server - Microsoft Hyper-V, vmware, Xen, Proxmox, VirtualBox or KVM - and desktop applications (Windows, Mac and Linux).\nNeed to register several hundred or thousand connections? With pascom solutions this isabsolutely no problem. Via the desktop client, agents have access to a complete overview of all contacts and phone calls, plus the ability to switch between campaign teams and even outbound call CLIs (Trunks) plus much more.\nThese features make a pascom IP PBX the ideal virtual Call and Contact Centre solution:\nDestop application with built-in team management and advanced call centre tools such as call labels and recording. AutoAttendants, IVRs, Automatic Call Distribution and Skills Based Routing all included as standard ensure calls are answered quickly, efficiently and by the most suitably agent available. Dynamic agent login / logout ensures you can ideally manage and balance agent workloads. If a team is particularly overburdened, other agents can log themselves in to alleviate workloads. Enable the pause function to ensure inbound calls do not needlessly ring an agent’s extension. An easy to understand interface that ensures the intuitive ease of use even for new team members. Different Requirements, One Solution – pascom Our VoIP solutions are design to cater for the needs of any business, from the self-employed one-man band to the SOHOs, SMBs and Large Enterprises. To ensure we provide the most suitable solution we offer a number of options:\npascom On-premise Server pascom server hardware solution offer a comprehensive solution for smaller businesses. With a number of pascom server options available, finding the right on-premise option for your business needs is simple. No matter your business size, our server options cover every business from a one-man band through to larger SMEs. pascom’s onsite servers combine the benefits of modern IP telephony with the stability and control of an onsite hardware solution. Deploying a pascom onsite server hardware solution can be particularly advantageous for smaller Contact Centre and Service Centre operations and satellite or branch offices requiring onsite hardware due to a lack of virtual solutions.\npascom On-premise Virtual Scalable from 0 to several hundred or even thousand users, a virtual pascom phone system is the ideal platform for any business looking to save on capital overhead and utilize any existing virtualization infrastructure. Adding teams, departments, separated expert areas and even inter-connected locations is quick and simple to do and with a virtualised pascom phone system will likely not involve additional hardware or modules be purchased.\npascom Cloud Add business agility and flexibility with a pascom Cloud phone system. Regardless of whether you are a self-employed or run a small to medium sized business enterprise, profit from a simple setup, zero hassle multi-location connectivity whilst using your Internet connected device(s) of choice. pascom Cloud PBX solutions are hosted in the pascom.cloud, removing any self-hosting and VPN requirements, whilst ensuring anytime access from anywhere. Furthermore, with pascom Cloud telephony solutions, hosting is free of charge.\nGive the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"November 5, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/voip-the-scalable-business-phone-system-solution/","title":"VoIP The Scalable Business Phone System Solution"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Unveil New, More Rewarding Reseller Partner programme 18th October 2018 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of Unified Communication phone systems for business has last week unveiled a number of upgrades to their new pascom VoIP phone system Value-Added Reseller programme. The restructuring of the partner programme includes the addition of new partner levels and the introduction of free registration and training and guarantees that the programme is more encompassing and rewarding for pascom resellers.\nNot only will the new pascom partner programme be free, but will also be more profitable for resellers and is designed to further incentivise, reward and support pascom channel partners with:\nPerformance rewarding margins Access to Partner Support Comprehensive Sales \u0026amp; Marketing Support pascom Website listing Sales, marketing \u0026amp; customer management resources Access to leads NFR (Not for Resale) Licence The new, upgraded partner programmme also removes all barriers to entry thanks to the introduction of free registration. Furthermore, pascom partners are able to benefit from the now free pascom certification scheme plus regular free workshops and online training, all designed to grow a pascom partners’ profits by equipping resellers with all the tools and knowledge required to successfully sell, deploy and manage pascom phone system solutions.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Sales Director: the upgrades to the pascom Partner programme illustrate our commitment to rewarding and growing the success of our channel partners. Compared to other vendors, pascom are renowned for the support and service provided to their resellers and by opening up our partner programme, we are inviting channels partners globally to join us, enjoy the benefits of being a pascom partner and be rewarded and recognised for their success.\nThe pascom partner programme restructuring also sees the inclusion of new pascom partner levels, which is a reflection of the growth and success of the existing partner network. The new four-tiered partner programme is designed to be more inclusive and open to new partners and ensuring they have all the tools and incentives required to progress through the partner levels as well as simultaneously further recognising and rewarding the success of existing pascom partners.\nLearn more about the new pascom partner programme and apply to become a pascom partner here.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost effectively.\nFor more information concerning pascom and pascom partnerships, please visit www.pascom.net.\n","date":"October 18, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/new-more-beneficial-pascom-channel-partner-programme/","title":"New, More Beneficial pascom Channel Partner Programme"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom 18 - the Future of Business Communications September 27th 2018 | Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of Unified Communication phone systems for business has announced the release of version 18 of their pascom VoIP phone system. pascom 18 is the company\u0026rsquo; most technologically advanced and competitively positioned business communications platform to date and focuses on delivering enhanced cloud technology, end-user mobility and secure collaboration from anywhere at anytime, thus providing pascom customers with greater agility through leveraging greater mobility, productivity and cost saving benefits.\npascom 18 includes a specifically developed Session Border Controller (SBC) which provides customers with an additional out of the box security layer. As such the addition of the SBC ensures that pascom business phone system administrators no longer need to manage complex VPN infrastructures. In additional, incorporating an SBC in to the pascom platform guarantees that the company\u0026rsquo;s full range of functionality is available everywhere, regardless of the customer\u0026rsquo;s choice of installation on-premise or in the cloud.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO: pascom 18 is more than the realisation of a significant technological innovations leap. The opportunities afforded by pascom 18 have enabled us to restructure, modernise and significantly improve every aspect of our offering. Our Concurrent User pricing is unique in our market, delivers all the benefits of both named user and channel models whilst eliminating all the disadvantages. In turn, pascom 18 can only benefit our customers and add yet more value to their solutions. The updates to our partner programme are designed to support us increase our channel growth and in addition to our technological enhancements and new pricing, will serve to ensure our solutions become not only more competitive but also more widely available.\nBuilt to be 100 % cloud ready, the new technological advancements included in pascom 18 not only pave the way to delivering an enhanced customer experience but also created opportunities to modernise the company\u0026rsquo; go-to-market strategy and increase their competitiveness within the telecoms market. Coinciding with the release, pascom launched a new, flexible and competitive OPEX pricing model and unveiled a complete overhaul of the company\u0026rsquo;s channel partner programme. Highlights of the new strategy include the introduction of Concurrent User pricing to rival both named user and channel models, introducing free hosting for pascom cloud solutions, removing all partner programme barriers to entry combined with the introduction of free training.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom and pascom 18.\n","date":"September 27, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-phone-system-18-released/","title":"pascom Phone System 18 Released"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Concurrent Users, Session Border Controller, Secure Mobility for All - pascom 18 is here! The eagerly awaited pascom 18 is the most technologically advanced pascom business phone system and communications platform to date. With the pascom 18 release being one of the most significant pascom VoIP phone systems innovations leap in recent years, pascom 18 is 100 % cloud ready and is the building block for the future of pascom solutions. The improvements, however, are not purely technological. Coinciding with the release of pascom 18, pascom have also introduced a whole host of upgrades to the company\u0026rsquo;s go to market strategy and commercial offering that rival their technological counterparts when it comes to innovation.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s New with pascom 18 Please accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES On the surface, pascom 18 looks and feels exactly the same as pascom 16 and 17 - which is what you want as an end-user. Scratch beneath the surface and it becomes evidently clear that pascom 18 offers a whole lot more than previous versions, particularly when it comes to three core aspects of a modern day business telecommunication solution: administration, security and end-user mobility.\nUnder the Hood - the SBC Since the release of pascom 7.12 in 2016, pascom’s VoIP telephony offering has included a cloud PBX solution. Such solutions are hosted within the pascom cloudstack, a specifically developed a multi-instance / tenant hosting platform. To ensure cloud phone system security as well as the correct handling of traffic to and from each instance, the pascom cloudstack included an again specifically developed Session Border Controller. It is this, the Session Border Controller that makes pascom 18 technologically significantly more innovative.\nNo More VPNs for VoIP and UC Having packed the Session Border Controller (SBC) into each individual phone system, pascom 18 offers phone system administrators considerable resource and time saving advantages. Firstly, adding the SBC ensures that all phone system users are seamlessly networked without requiring any additional VPN infrastructures - for an admin this means no more complicated virtual private network configuration and 3rd party software application deployments on end-user workstations. Secondly, while end user will likely not see the technological implications of the SBC, but they will most definitely feel them. Having the ability to securely work from anywhere, at anytime and on any device, pascom users will benefit from an enhanced mobile communication and collaboration experience plus instant access to essential customer data.\nMore Secure Telecommunications, More Flexible Collaboration Secondly, the SBC adds an additional security layer to the phone system. As a result, not only does communicating with a pascom phone system become yet more secure, but also pascom 18 solutions are much more flexible when it comes to hosting, meaning customers and partners will now have more choice. Previously, phone system self-hosting amounted to either deploying an on-site hardware or virtualised solution. With pascom 18, self-hosting now includes utilising providers such as Amazon Web Services enabling customer to host their own cloud solution. It goes without saying, that should a customer want to avoid the hassle and cost of hosting the solution, pascom\u0026rsquo;s cloud solutions is the perfect platform.\nGreater Mobility – On-premise or in the Cloud Finally, the perhaps most visible impact of incorporating the SBC into each individual phone system, namely even greater mobility. In this day and age, the mobile is becoming king when it comes to communication tools. Everybody has one and the rise of flexi or remote working is ensuring that mobile VoIP and mobile UC is fast becoming an essential component to any business communications solution. With pascom 18, our customers everywhere can now enjoy the full functionality of our pascom mobile VoIP apps for Android and iOS no matter whether the solution is hosted in the cloud or on-premise.\nConcurrent Users – the Best Licensing in the Industry We believe that our new Concurrent User licence model is fairly unique in the telecoms market. Beyond that, the new licensing offers numerous advantages over “Named User” or “Channel” models, taking the best from both models and eliminating the negatives to add yet further value to our customer solutions.\nUnlimited Users, Endpoints, Extensions and Channels The new concurrent user model delivers the ability to add any number of users (employees) to the phone system who can then flexibly occupy and use the currently available licences as and when needed. Compared to our current \u0026ldquo;Named User\u0026rdquo; model, the extra flexibility afforded by the Concurrent User model means pascom customers no longer need to license the solution per user. As a result, our customers will be able to realise and benefit from even greater cost savings.\nAs a business VoIP phone system vendor, we believe in excellent customer service. An element of delivering excellent customer service is ensuring that your customers can contact you. Which is why our new Concurrent User licensing works to ensure just that. Compared to channel models which monitors and licences channel usage as simultaneous calls and can result in inbound calls being rejected, pascom\u0026rsquo;s new licensing does not place any limitations on the number of channels, thus ensuring that all inbound calls are always accepted, regardless of and without affecting the current licence assignment.\nA further benefit of Concurrent User licensing is that businesses will now the additional benefit of adding any number of endpoints and extensions, including analog fax devices and conference room phones at no extra cost. Licences will only be occupied as and when the endpoints are in use and as soon as they are no longer being used, they will be immediately be released and made available again. While other vendors charge extra for the simultaneous use of Desktop and Mobile applications, doing so with pascom will only require one licence per employee. Coupled with this additional flexibility, pascom 18 also sees the introduction of subscription based pricing, reducing expensive up-front costs and thus making pascom solutions even more cost-effective. Beyond this, moving to an OPEX model serves to deliver customers yet more scalability and combined with the Concurrent User licensing ensures that high up-front capital expenditure related to the software deployment can be avoided, therefore freeing capital for other business priorities.\nThe result is simple; pascom customers are now able to profit from a fair and transparent licensing model where the number of licences required is less than the total number of employees, ensuring our customers benefit from top of the range communications at a fraction of the cost.\nSwitch to pascom 18 Existing pascom customers need not worry - everything is staying the same! You will not be forced to switch to the new licensing model and of course you will also be able to enjoy all the benefits pascom 18 has to offer. However, should you see the clear cost saving benefits of our new Concurrent User licensing model or are thinking of switching to the cloud, then now is the time and our excellent upgrade offer is for you. Make the switch to pascom 18 and the new licensing and enjoy your first year in the new model for free and if you decide to migrate to the pascom.cloud option the same applies as with all pascom.cloud solutions, the hosting will be permanently free.\nEven potential customers who are looking to switch to pascom 18 from certain vendors can also enjoy their first year with pascom Free of Charge and can immediately start enjoying the added value benefits of a professional, fully integrated UCC VoIP platform.\nFor further information about these limited time offers, please contact our sales team.\nNew \u0026amp; Improved Partner Program With new licensing conditions comes the need to update how are channel partners are rewarded for their commitment to pascom and with pascom 18\u0026rsquo;s Concurrent User model, the additional benefits are plentiful.\nOur Concurrent User licensing ensures that selling pascom solutions is now even simpler than ever before. Partners are better positioned to grow their sales volumes and benefit from annually recurring revenues thanks to subscription licences. The addition of the Session Border Controller makes for simple solution implementation, even when deploying complex solutions incorporating employee mobility and spanning multiple locations.\nBeyond this, the new pascom partner program sees the introduction of new, increasingly beneficial partner levels designed to reward pascom partner successes. Thanks to the removal of registration and online training fees, resellers can now join as a registered partner free of charge, thus making the new pascom partner program more accessible and encompassing than ever before. Benefit from our Free Online Training and certify yourself as a pascom reseller and offer your customers added value and additional support services whilst growing your business.\nThe benefits of being a pascom partner speak for themselves: high customer satisfaction, an unrivalled fair, transparent and adaptable licence model with no hidden costs, unparalleled technology for both on-premise and \u0026ldquo;as a Service\u0026rdquo; cloud solutions, compatible with all leading OS platforms and last but by no means least, the outstanding performance and functionality up to professional and including Call Centre standards. In essence: pascom ensures that you deliver first-class customer solutions that upgrade business communications and add further value, at a fair competitive price.\n","date":"September 21, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-18-upgrading-business-communications/","title":"pascom 18 Upgrading Business Communications"},{"categories":null,"contents":"pascom 18 - VoIP in a New Dimension On September 20th 2018, we will be releasing pascom 18, one of the most significant pascom VoIP phone system innovations leap in recent years.\nJoin us live for the Release Keynote on the 20. September and experience first hand what the brand new pascom 18 has to offer. Discover more about our significant usability enhancements, new features and our brand new Concurrent User licensing, designed to cut costs and increase flexibility.\nSECURE MOBILITY: UNRESTRICTED MOBILE CONNECTIVITY pascom Mobile VoIP for Android and iOS\rWith pascom 18, we\u0026rsquo;ve taken the Session Border Controller from our multi-instance cloudstack and packed it into each and every pascom phone system. That means that we are now able to offer the full functionality of our mobile VoIP clients to all our customers, no matter whether their phone system is in the cloud or on-premise.\nCONCURRENT USER: THE BEST LICENCE MODEL ON THE MARKET pascom Unified Communications\rProfit from a fair and transparent licensing model. With the \u0026ldquo;Concurrent User\u0026rdquo; licence model (simultaneous users) you only pay for what is actually used, adding further value to pascom VoIP solutions.\n100% CLOUD READY: PASCOM 18 RUNS EVERYWHERE pascom 100% Cloud Ready\rThe choice is yours: pascom 18 can be installed and run in a variety of ways: in the cloud as a pascom hosted solution or as a self hosted solution in the form of a classic hardware appliance, a virtual machine utilising existing VM infrastructures or with as a 3rd party hosted solution (e.g. in AWS).\nNEW: PASCOM APPLIANCE New pascom appliance\rFor those requiring an on-premise hardware appliance based solution, the new pascom appliance delivers notable specification and reliability enhancements combined with an excellent price performance ratio\nRelease Highlights VoIP in a new dimension Date Thursday 20. September 2018 Time DE: 11:00 EN: 14:00 CEST Sign up www.pascom.net ","date":"August 30, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-18-voip-in-a-new-dimension/","title":"pascom 18 VoIP in a New Dimension"},{"categories":["Contact Center"],"contents":"VoIP Contact Centre Features Voice over IP (VoIP), sometimes known as Internet Telephony offers a wide range of advantages over traditional telephony – particularly true for Contact Centre phone systems. Such communication systems are increasingly replacing conventional ISDN telephony solutions, particularly as they offer a more convenient and flexible alternative. VoIP solutions are rising in popularity and therefore increasingly in demand. A VoIP Call / Contact Centre software is pascom. In the following, we will cover the concept of Contact and Contact Centre VoIP solutions and pascom’s USPs in greater detail.\nDefinition: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Voice over IP is a system with which calls can be routed over an IP network i.e. the Internet. As such, conventional telephone lines are no longer necessary, thus making ISDN connections surplus to requirements. Nevertheless, IP telephony functions just like conventional telephony. The process starts by establishing a connection, continues with the call transmission and then ends with a disconnection. One of the biggest differences to conventional telephony is that your VoIP software solution converts voice traffic into digital packets. These packets are then transmitted between the callers over the Internet within fractions of a second. Such systems are useful for private individuals and companies alike, with obvious cost saving and ease of use advantages for businesses. Companies can leverage further benefits by adopting a phone system which incorporates Contact / Contact Centre specific functionality.\nVoIP Requirements To start enjoying the numerous benefits VoIP has to offer, companies only need the following to successfully switch to All-IP telephony; router \u0026amp; reliable Internet connection, a VoIP provider (SIP provider) and suitable hardware. Under hardware, we are referring to all the endpoints and peripherals such as desktop phones, headsets and possibly an adapter (ATA for fax etc). Beyond pascom’s VoIP software solution, no other additional software is required. For companies looking to adopt a VoIP telephony solution, it is often worthwhile having an IT administrator on hand, whether in-house, via a reseller or directly with the vendor i.e. pascom, who is appropriately trained in order to set up the system. In principle, no administrator is required for the ongoing system maintenance of the system because thanks to job automation, the system is able to manage itself. That said, it is advisable to have someone within the company with a sufficient understanding of VoIP.\nVoIP Call \u0026amp; Contact Centre Benefits Near the top of the list of benefits, VoIP Contact Centre is an extremely cost effective solution. Since a traditional telephone line is not required, you will no longer incur additional ISDN costs. Instead, you will simply use an Internet connection, which is in the majority of cases already present. All national and international calls will be billed as far as possible according to the cheapest, most cost effective tariff available. Using the so called least cost routing function, this process is done automatically. Utilise your Contact Centre phone system and internal networks and of course all internal calls will be free of charge. In addition, VoIP allows for excellent audio quality particularly when deployed using a professional software solution such as pascom’s.\nAdvantage of pascom’s VoIP phone system software pascom’s VoIP Contact Centre phone system solution, not only enables IP telephony, but also offers a number of additional benefits. Call audio quality can be significantly increased using HD-voice standards. Furthermore, combine pascom’s Contact Centre solution and mobile apps and it becomes possible to take your individual extension number with you wherever you go. As such your business will benefit from anywhere, anytime communication making and receiving calls no matter where you are. All that is required is a suitably equipped endpoint i.e. Smartphone, Laptop \u0026amp; headset or VoIP phone, and an Internet connection. To gain maximum benefit from pascom’s Contact Centre solution, the endpoints of choice should support SIP (Session Initiated Protocol) for VoIP telephony. A further feature of pascom solutions is the multitude of functions on offer. Benefit from enhanced in-call caller experience with custom prompts, music on hold as well as advanced call routing such as Skills Based Routing. Moreover, with pascom your agents will have a host of tools available to them that further benefit Contact Centre operations such as \u0026ldquo;call labels\u0026rdquo;, easy-to-use call transfer tools and the ability to automatically open CRM / ERP business intelligence systems with a single click.\nContact Centre VoIP Disadvantages If you wish to replace your Contact Centre PBX with a VoIP solution, you should also be aware of the possible downsides. Firstly, such systems are entirely dependent on an uninterrupted power and Internet supply. This means that a power cut or Internet outage will disrupt your telephony services and already connected calls will be abruptly disconnected. However, such outages are thankfully particularly rare in developed countries and therefore do not pose a significant risk to revenues. Moreover, redundancy, such as switching to a Cloud based Contact Centre solution (CCaaS), can be incorporated in order to ensure a minimum impact of such an outage. Secondly, as with any other form of online communication, transmitting data over the Internet carries the risk of becoming a victim of hacking.\nProtection Against Hacking and Data Theft Unfortunately, the risk that your VoIP phone system will become a victim of a hacking attack is real. However, in order to protect your Contact Centre solution from such attacks there is a lot that you can do. First and Foremost, you should place all integrated devices (Smartphones, Laptops, Tablets, etc.) behind a high quality firewall. Set up such firewalls according to strict criteria. Furthermore, password strength also has a decisive influence on your individual risk. Simple and therefore weak passwords these days are easily cracked and therefore increase risk. Therefore, you should only accept strong passwords which are also regularly changed. pascom systems support you here by implementing temporary user login blocks upon too frequent incorrect login attempts. Furthermore, pascom solutions also support user authentication against LDAP / AD directory services, allowing you to implement company wide password management protocols. In general, it is good practice to keep your complete hardware and software infrastructure well maintained and up to date to protect against on-site unauthorized access and to comply with general IT security recommendations. These include for example not opening suspicious e-mail attachments and disabling downloads from insecure sources.\npascom \u0026amp; Encryption The optimum scenario would be that the VoIP system encrypts calls in order to ensure that conversations cannot be intercepted. With pascom solutions, encryption is done per default. Alongside the audio data packets relating to voice transmission, pascom solutions also encrypt connection data such as subscriber identities. As such, you are able to enjoy additional protection from unwanted listeners.\nVoIP Perfect for all Company Sizes A VoIP Contact Centre phone system addresses not only Call Centres but also small to medium sized businesses and larger enterprises alike. The greater the number of employees using the system, the more higher quality Internet bandwidth is required in order to avoid a negative impact on the quality of transmission. As such, High Bandwidth DSL Connections are recommended. Regardless of your company size, pascom can offer a VoIP solution to perfectly match your requirements. For example, Cloud phone systems offer excellent flexibility, significant possible cost\nFurther Information Whoever deploys a VoIP solution will need to speak with their provider to upgrade their voice service to the new, modern SIP standard. Not sure whether pascom is the right phone system vendor for your business, then try out our demo version and contact us for a free consultation.\n","date":"July 10, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/businessbenefits-of-calland-contact-centrevoipsoftware-features/","title":"Business Benefits of Call and Contact Centre VoIP Software Features"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems"],"contents":"For approximately 20 years, ISDN Connections have been the standard technology across many European telecommunication networks. Thanks to the “power” of the World Wide Web, telecommunications and the internet have steadily grown together. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom have already announced that in 2018 all ISDN connections will be switched off, affecting over 20 million connections and have been advising both Business and private customers to consider alternative VoIP solution options. Swisscom in Switzerland are also aiming for 2018 and the shutdown is underway in many cantons while in the UK, British Telecom are planning for a 2025 ISDN switch off.\nThe ISDN Switch Off – Take the Opportunity and Switch to an ALL IP VoIP Solution Companies that have not yet dealt with this issue, should do so quickly. Particularly as there are a number of VoIP solutions available on the market and choosing the right VoIP business communications solution is essential in order to ensure the optimal availability and professional image for your company. Among the other aspects listed below, an important deciding factor is your company size as this may determine whether you outsource your choosen VoIP solution to a cloud solutions provider or have the in-house resources to manage an on-premise VoIP solution yourself.\nDigitalisation, the Digital Transformation, Unified Communications, mobile VoIP / UC and ALL IP have become the buzzwords for the new era of communication solutions. Which ALL IP VoIP software solution is right for your business will depend on a number of factors including but not exclusive to:\nHow many employees should use the VoIP solution on a daily basis? Which functions do you require? What costs are associated with the solution deployment and set up? Is mobile device integration included or as with some solutions even possible? The beauty of software based VoIP solutions (sometimes referred to as an IP PBX) lies in that software is inherently scalable, meaning that no matter the size of your business or vertical you operate in, it is possible to find the perfect solution to match your needs. Beyond this, VoIP software solutions your business will be perfectly prepared for future growth whether nationally or internationally. Free calls to colleagues wordline with first class quality are no longer an illusion, but thanks to VoIP solutions such as pascom’s, they have become a reality.\nHow Secure is VoIP Software? The great scepticism held against VoIP technology concerns data protection and data security – in essence how secure is you VoIP solution.\nIn principle, the scepticism is not unwarranted as Internet and Network security is essential. However, there are numerous methods to protect yourself and your infrastructure from cyber attacks. Firstly, you will require a classic network security tool – namely a firewall. Further to this, strong passwords are a must. During a so called Brute Force Attack, hackers attempt to guess the access credentials of a user. As such, the more secure your username and password protocols are, the more difficult it is to access this information. When choosing a pascom solution, you can rest assured in the knowledge that login credentials are automatically generated and authentication can be performed against a third party application such as Univention’s UCS Identity Management tool. Further to this, with a pascom solution it is not possible for users to attempt to log in often and in quick succession as the account will be temporarily blocked, which has the added bonus of hindering any Brute Force Attacks. pascom VoIP solutions include additional security layers. For example, during an Voice ove IP phone call, two different aspects of the call technology are encrypted. Firstly, the signalling and secondly the voice packets themselves. In terms of the signalling, all data is encrypted, that could potentially provide information concerning who is calling who and where. The voice packets which are sent between the participating endpoints during a phone call are also transmitted in an encrypted format. As a result, the entire phone call is completely intransparent and not visible externally.\nWhich VoIP Solution is Best Suited to my Business? The majority if not all new phone systems are equipped with an ALL IP connection. Such a connection is the basic prerequisite for the upcoming changes to the telecommunications industry and thankfully it also makes things a touch easier for businesses. Below, we outline which solutions pascom offers to business customers.\nCloud VoIP Solution A cloud solution offers a significant advantage in that you are not required to host the solution yourself. You will be provided access and are immediately ready to go. Cloud solutions also have the additional benefit that they are perfect for smaller businesses and startups who perhaps do not have the technical resources or infrastructure to host the solution themselves. There is also an argument for migrating to the cloud for larger businesses, but more of that in a moment. A good rule of thumb is that a Cloud Solution is perfectly at home in SOHO and smaller SMBs upto ca. 25 employees.\nVoice over IP Solution for Medium Sized Businesses When speaking of a typical middle sector business at pascom, we mean a company ranging betweeb 10 to 500 employees in size, regardless of the vertical. In our experience, middle market businesses will have established departments or teams which perform the core day to day business activities such as Sales or Markteting. If you also have in-house employees operating in a customer service role, then you will require a VoIP phone system with call and contact centre functionality. Furthermore, as a growing company choosing a virtualised VoIP software solution or cloud solution will ensure that you will remain flexible and ready for future growth. This enables the centralised administration of the solution, so when you grow your business and expand into new company sites, the telephone system can be grown with you with the minimum of fuss. The same can also be achieved with a hardware appliance, however hardware is limited in terms of resources and therefore not as flexible.\nVoIP Software Solutions for Large Enteprise If your business has reached a certain size, the technology itself almost plays a secondary role. What comes to the fore here with our customers is the need to centralise and standardise the communications platform. It is often the case with large enterprise that the company has a central HQ which is however fully independent of the smaller business locations. As a result, the branch locations will generally have an in-house IT team who manage an on-premise phone system – whether virtual or hardware based.\nWith large enterprise it is therefore often paramount to integrate a centralised VoIP communications solution. Traditionally, the telephone system would be integrated into the head office and extended to integrate all other locations. This has the advantage that moving forward, the solution can be managed by a single IT department, plus all internal communication can be done seamlessly and free of charge whilst enjoying the same user experience across the board.\nGiven the scale of such an infrastructure, a virtualised solution is often (but not always) preferred over a server hardware solution. That said, cloud solutions also offer an excellent platform from which larger enterprises can consolidate their telecommunication solutions into one centralised business communications hub as opposed to having to support the wide range of solutions required to deploy across multiple sites, namely VPN infrastructures or Session Border Controllers.\nGive the new norm of telecommunications technology a chance and take advantage of the considerable benefits of VoIP telephony. Deutsche Telekom considers a 95% nationwide coverage from 2018 to be realistic and given that other countries have longer to prepare and more use cases to go on, there’s no reason why the ISDN switch off will be delayed. What’s more the ISDN switch off should not have any additional costs associated to it and switching to an ALL IP VoIP solution should offer you a real added value when it comes to functionality and usability.\n","date":"June 26, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/the-isdn-switch-off-all-ip-voip-solutions-are-the-future/","title":"The ISDN Switch Off – ALL IP VoIP Solutions are the Future"},{"categories":["Home Office"],"contents":"The Perfect Home Office Setup Home office Setup: workplace flexibility from the comfort of your own home.\nWhether self-employed, freelancers or employees, or telecommuting, working from home office has become an integral part of the modern workplace for most industries. There are numerous reasons bolstering the trend: the self-employed and freelancers often point to the cost effectiveness of home office working, while more and more businesses are turning to home office opportunities to promote a more flexible working environment for their employees.\nAnd yet, home office working is still not a standard for all companies. There are differing explanations as to why. Once aspect of the problem is undoubtedly the employers trust towards employees as to whether they remain productive or not. Some managers are of the opinion that when an employee is working within the confines of the office, it is easier to keep an eye on them. On the other hand, if there exists an employer employee relationship that is not based on mutual trust, and the employer is of the assumption that his or her employees only work effectively when in the office, the relationship is fundamentally flawed anyway and this perspective should be addressed.\nThen there is another aspect of home working, the home office setup. Without the right setup, working from home becomes almost impossible anyway.\nEssential Hardware Components Setting up a professional home office only really requires a few hardware components with which it is possible to replicate almost two thirds of the equipment found in a conventional office. Although a laptop and smartphone is often sufficient for every day tasks, in an optimally equipped home office a few additional components should also be to hand: alongside a router / switch and desktop telephone, it is also recommended to incorporate a good office chair and an external monitor, particularly for laptop users. Depending on home office worker’s field and daily activities, additional hardware may be required such as headsets, external microphones, a power bank, scanner, printer, tablet or even an E-reader can complete the home office setup.\nFast Information Sharing is Paramount The fact is: without a stable Internet connection, working in home office these days is almost impossible. Why is the case? Simply put, quick and dynamic information sharing is probably the most important success factor for almost every business regardless of which industry. If service quality is a top priority for a company, this will apply to both internal and external corporate communications and as such is undoubtedly a core process.\nSimilar to the requirements regarding information sharing, the demands of modern business communication solutions have also increased. In a modern business, e-mails are synchronized on mobile devices, phone calls are made using personal computers and videoconferences are held on smart devices. An innovative, productivity enhancing communications solution almost certainly will be based on VoIP technology at its core. Voice over IP relates to the usage of an IP network for the sharing of data and for telephony purposes – in other words modern collaboration.\nIP Telephony is on the Rise Self-employed, freelancers or companies who are looking to setup a home office today, should do so using VoIP from the start. By the end of this year (2018), neither new analogue nor ISDN connections will be available in many European markets, as the providers including Deutsche Telekom and Swisscom convert the public telecoms network to ALL IP connections i.e. VoIP. In the UK, the switch over will be done by 1st January 2025. As a result, it is therefore necessary to convert existing systems to the modern technology, which obviously should be a consideration when setting up any new home offices. To save expenditure, energy and time, it makes sense to for a new home office setup to be done using the new standards of IP telephony.\nIP Network as a Stable Starting Point An IP network is a form of communication technology that can handle complex requirements. If telephone calls are to be made over an IP network, then the telephone should not be connected via the TAE socket, an ISDN box or via a splitter. Rather, the telephone should be connected via a DSL router or a VoIP enabled cable modem. These will then convert the acoustic signals received from the telephone. In other words, the router or the modem will digitalize the analogue sound waves from the telephone into electronic pulse formats, compresses them if necessary and then transmits them packaged as data packets to the corresponding telephony server and further to the VoIP provider. The data exchange will take place at the providers end. If the other party in the call does not yet have IP technology in use or is using a different provider, then the data is fed to the conventional telephone network using a gateway i.e. a transfer point.\nVoIP Delivers More Innovative Options Alongside classic PBX functionality, faxing over IP and video telephony, VoIP software solution offer an almost endless amount of innovative digital communication tools. Those whose opt to deploy a VoIP solution such as pascom’s will be in a position to take their office number with them when on the road, be reachable on multiple devices for the same extension or elevate a call from their desktop phone to their smartphone with the minimum of fuss. There are already a large number of voice providers offering VoIP services in the market today. Those carriers who have not already begun offering VoIP or SIP services will no doubt shortly begin to do so. However, the VoIP features on offer can vary from provider to provider. Therefore, it is recommended to arm yourself with some market knowledge and inform yourself about the options available.\nAs previously mentioned, when setting up a professional home office environment, it is advisable to do so utilising VoIP technologies from the get go. Doing so will ensure that neither an analogue nor an ISDN connection will be required. When using VoIP connectivity options it is even possible to integrate legacy telephones via a router or ATA adapter – although depending on the VoIP software vendor this may require an additional license, so find out which option is more cost effective (new phone vs. additional license).\nA further positive is that top of the range UC phone systems offer integrated softphones which deliver all the required telephony functions and is controlled via a user’s laptop or desktop PC. A prerequisite here is a good headset from a supported vendor. Coincidently, the quickest and simplest option for setting up a home office is also the option that offers the most flexibility, namely when connecting the home office setup to a cloud phone system. Using this option, the home office does not require a VPN connection back to the head office and will not require any physical PBX server hardware on-site. The user in this case undoubtedly benefits from unparalleled mobility and flexibility whilst saving IT admins time, money and hassle.\nPlethora of VoIP Phone Systems Benefits As already mentioned, thanks to VoIP it is possible to make calls via the Internet whilst enjoying a consistently high level of service quality. In the past, proprietary phone system vendors would install a hardware server on-site to achieve this. These days however, things have moved on. The hardware is still available, but the phone system itself will likely be software based. Meaning the VoIP phone system can be run on-site either as a dedicated hardware solution or as a virtual IP PBX or alternatively as a cloud solution.\nDepending on the vendor’s business model, such VoIP phone systems are available directly from the PBX vendor, such as pascom, as well as via a channel partner. Once provided, the VoIP solution server can then be accessed via an Internet browser. Thanks to such virtual PBX systems, making calls over an IP network such as the Internet has become a very cost effective business tool, regardless of whether these calls are internal, external, national or international and even to fixed line or mobile networks.\nOnce a company has decided on a phone system vendor and voice provider, it is then possible to set up extensions in addition to the main number. These extensions can then be assigned to employees and if required mapped to a number from a number block as made available by the voice provider. Mapping number block extensions to internal extensions ensures that an employee can be reached directly via their extension when calling from outside the organisation. Doing so also has the benefit of ensuring that no matter where an employee is, in home office or on a business trip, or which device they are using, they will always be reachable from anywhere, at anytime, thus ensuring maximum flexibility. In addition to this, managing a virtual or cloud PBX is relatively straightforward and configuring switchboard and employee extensions can be done with relative ease without requiring an IT technician.\nA particular advantage of a VoIP phone system is the ability route internal calls over the internal network, ensuring internal communication is free of charge, which is particularly beneficial for large organisations with a high volume of internal employee communication. Moreover, as external communication is routed via the Internet, the cost of making calls to external phone numbers of all varieties is significantly reduced and therefore making a VoIP phone system considerably more cost effective compared to traditional legacy phone systems.\nVoIP Delivers Greater Collaboration Even in Home Office That both internal and external business communication will be based on IP in the future is no longer just foreseeable, but a certainty. Companies that until now have not yet made the switch are either in the deployment or planning phase. An increasingly important VoIP phone system component is Unified Communications and Collaboration that IP technologies enable. Tools such as video communication and instant messaging are no longer nice to have but rather must haves. Using such collaboration tools saves both time and also costs, promotes productivity and for home office or remote employees provides valuable contact to the team.\nHowever, as far as [video telephony] (https://www.pascom.net/en/business-phone-system/) is concerned, a number of challenges exist. Firstly, video telephony is different from other communication applications in that it is a form of real-time communication and therefore requires greater network / Internet resources to ensure consistent high quality, as video telephony generates significantly more data compared to a telephone call.\nAs such “Quality of Service” (QoS) is de facto one of the most essential setup aspects to consider. In general, all data packets within an IP network are handled equally. Although, utilising streaming services or Internet surfing has a barely noticeable, negligible impact in terms of slower speeds or individual packet loss, the same cannot be said of video telephony. For this reason, before utilising a video telephony service such as that provided by pascom, it is essential to modify the Quality of Service classes as well as the corresponding bandwidth allocation.\nOnce the IP network has been configured as described, the usage of video telephony and video conferencing services along with all other VoIP services should be possible without issues and of a consistently high quality.\n","date":"June 26, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/the-perfect-home-office-setup/","title":"The Perfect Home Office Setup"},{"categories":null,"contents":"pascom Partner Summit 2018 Strikes the Right Chord with Channel Partners Opening with a quick introduction followed up by a brief look back at the previous twelve months, pascom CEO Mathias Pasquay then took things to the next level at the pascom 2018 Partner Summit by presenting the company\u0026rsquo;s future vision for product innovation and competitive disruption.\npascom Partner Summit 2018\rHosted at pascom\u0026rsquo;s Regensburg TechBase offices, the event was exclusive for channel partners only and highlighted the company\u0026rsquo;s commitment to providing resellers with not only the opportunity to discover what\u0026rsquo;s in the pipeline, but also actively contribute their input into the company\u0026rsquo;s new go-to-market and sales strategies. Taking place over two action packed days, the 2018 installment boasted a number of interactive discussion panels with leading Industry names plus the new for 2018 \u0026ldquo;Fit for pascom 18\u0026rdquo; channel partner training workshop, hugely entertaining scenario role plays and the popular \u0026ldquo;Wünsch Dir Was?\u0026rdquo; (Your Questions Answered), which afforded channel partners the opportunity to get their questions answered and provide invaluable feedback on product development.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s New? A lot is the simple answer. The next phase of the pascom phone system platform development (to be released in Q3 2018) was introduced during Mathias Pasquay\u0026rsquo;s introductory product roadmap and then examined in further detail during day two\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;Fit for pascom 18\u0026rdquo; partner training workshop - which focused the underlying technological modifications of pascom 18, how to migrate customers to the latest technological stand point as well as the much requested cloud connect functionality for interconnecting local on-site services with cloud phone systems.\nNot to be out done, Quirin Pasquay (pascom CEO) then got in on the action and unveiled the new pascom Telephony Appliance. Intended to replace the current SOHO and SMB offerings, the new appliance will be priced within the same bracket as its predecessors and delivers significant performance and stability upgrades. Asked regarding the release date, Quirin went on to inform those in attendance on the ongoing compatibility and performance testing and announced that the new appliance\u0026rsquo;s availability will coincide with the release of pascom 18 later this year.\nAs if that was not enough, pascom Sales Director Thomas Schmidt then unleashed a whirlwind of upcoming news announcements during his Sales Track - starting with the complete remodeling of the company\u0026rsquo;s go-to-market strategy including revamping the pascom reseller partnership scheme. In announcing the changes, Thomas Schmidt illustrated that factors ranging from the growth in SaaS / UCaaS model adoption right through to an in-depth analysis of competition within the market had highlighted the need to revamp the current offerings and introduce an all new license model in order to remain competitive and increase the company’s disruptive presence within the market.\npascom Partner Summit 2018 sales track\rIn order to simplify the matter and ensure the full understanding of the benefits for both end customers and channel partners, Thomas Schmidt was then joined on centre stage by Mathias Pasquay as the two combined in a series of light-hearted, yet realistic and highly entertaining scenario role plays and competitive selling examples, that left the audience both in stitches as well as in no doubt as to the benefits the new concurrent user subscription strategy will have to offer.\npascom Partner Summit 2018 roleplays\rDay one came to the perfect end with an evening of delicious traditional Bavarian cuisine at one of Regensburg\u0026rsquo;s best known establishments but not before pascom Premium Partner GFI Informationsdesign GmbH added hosted cloud telephony solutions to their product portolio by joining the pascom CSP partnership scheme. In doing so, GFI are now in a position to benefit from pascom\u0026rsquo;s multi-tenant cloudstack platform and offer their customers hosted UCaaS solutions direct from the GFI datacenter.\npascom Partner Summit 2018 GFI CSP\rThe 2018 pascom partner summit also saw the introduction of the \u0026ldquo;Wünsch Dir Was\u0026rdquo; segment which was launched as a way of bringing the voices of the company\u0026rsquo;s channel partners to the fore and ensure that their wishes are heard as the company continues to strive to offer exactly what resellers need to deliver value added customer solutions.\npascom Partner Summit 2018 panel discussions\rLed by CEOs Mathias and Quirin Pasquay plus company lead developer Thomas Weber, the trio were keen to emphasise the importance of hearing feedback from our resellers as it is the channel partner who has the direct contact with the end customer and therefore has the greater understanding of what the customers need. Throughout the session, numerous key product development topics including Video and Conferencing deployment options, web panels and further desktop / mobile UC client enhancements were discussed at length, with notable constructive feedback coming from the audience.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s on-premise and cloud based UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements making our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more cost effectively.\n","date":"May 4, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-partner-summit-2018-review/","title":"pascom Partner Summit 2018 Review"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Awarded \u0026ldquo;Best of 2018 Innovation Award IT 2018\u0026rdquo; for Telecommunication (Deggendorf, Germany | 10. April 2018) pascom GmbH, developer of the next generation UC business phone systems are honoured to named \u0026ldquo;Best of 2018 for Product Innovation\u0026rdquo; in the category of Telecommunication as judged by the INNOVATIONPREIS-IT jury of industry experts.\nINNOVATIONSPREIS-IT 2018\rpascom phone systems were highlighted by the panel of experts for their excellence in fulfilling the demands of medium sized organisations in terms of innovation, functionality and user-experience as well as the ease with which pascom solutions support businesses in their \u0026ldquo;Digital Transformation\u0026rdquo; efforts.\nIn assessing solutions, the INNOVATIONSPREIS-IT jury places great emphasis on solutions that deliver significantly more value and benefits to small to medium sized enterprises. The Best of 2018 for Product Innovation signifies that pascom’s ongoing focus on enhancing User Experience with enhanced Unified Communication applications for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS are now being regarded as among the most innovative within the industry.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO:\nBeing nominated as Best of 2018 for Telecommunications Product Innovation is a great honour and achievement which recognises pascom as leaders of innovation within the Telecommunication and Collaboration industry. Being named as Best of 2018 for Product Innovation also reflects our ongoing commitment to continually innovate our telecom solutions and enhancing both the end user experience with intuitive UC apps and tools as well as the in-call customer experience with intelligent call distribution and promoting a caller friendly environment.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s on-premise and cloud based UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements making our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more cost effectively.\nAbout INNOVATIONSPREIS-IT The Innovationspreis-IT Awards 2018 are organised by the Initiative Mittelstand who provide online product and services information portal aimed at informing SMEs regarding the newest, most innovative solutions available on the market across a number of ICT fields.\n","date":"April 10, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/telecommunications-innovation-award-2018/","title":"Telecommunications Innovation Award 2018"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"AMPAREX Successfully Complete pascom Phone System Interoperability Testing AMPAREX GmbH based in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany is a leading provider of Industry Software for Optician, Audiologist and Therapist practices. Across Europe, AMPAREX is used daily by ca. 10,000 users and over 2,000 health care practices. Already interoperable with pascom on-premise solutions, AMPAREX have recently successfully completed interoperability testing with pascom\u0026rsquo;s cloud solutions.\nStephan Förderung, CEO, AMPAREX: We have been successfully working with pascom phone systems for over four years now. Internally, we have deployed Snom Desktop phones along with pascom Desktop UC clients. The pascom phone system offers a sleek and user-friendly user interface and thanks to the integrated API interface, we are able to connect third party systems with the minimum of fuss. For example, using the XMPP interface, we have developed our own \u0026ldquo;Call-Monitor\u0026rdquo; in which our support team call volumes are graphically represented on monitors ensuring that we always have an instant real-time overview of team performance!\nShould technical questions arise, the pascom support team can be easily contacted either using their ticket system or on the phone. As a result of our excellent experience with pascom, we recommend pascom phone systems to our customers and have developed a pascom interface which is included as standard with all our products.\nThe pascom integration interface is included per default within AMPAREX\u0026rsquo;s standard scope of features and encompasses the following functions:\nCTI integration enabling the direct dialing from within the AMPAREX application via clicking on the telephone symbol next to all phone number fields within the software. AMPAREX CTI\rAutomatic opening of customer records within the application for inbound calls.\nTelephone book export option of customer data in the pascom format to facilitate importing contacts to the pascom server. In doing so, the customer name will be displayed on the desktop telephone screen.\nSimple setup. One need only their login credentials and to select the endpoint assigned to their workspace. Since early March 2018, the AMPAREX integration is also supported within the pascom cloud environment. You simply need only add the domain name to the user name:\nSimple, hassle free pascom AMPAREX integration\rInternally, AMPAREX GmbH also utilise a pascom phone system and thanks to the XMPP interface were able to integrate their own in-house support programme. As such, the company is now able to benefit from the following performance enhancing support tool functionality:\nAMPAREX Support Queue\rGraphical display of their support queue capacity / utilisation Dynamic support queue agent log in/out Simplified dialling from within the company phonebook, a support ticket or freely enter a number Telephone presence status for support employees Automatic ticket creation and customer assignment utilising the inbound caller\u0026rsquo;s telephone number And of course a complete call history: AMPAREX call logs\rIn addition, AMPAREX have also benefited from the integration by being able to extract performance relevant information (answered vs lost calls) which is then holistically reproduced in graphical Wallboards displayed on wall monitors mounted in specific locations across the company premises:\nAMPAREX Support Wallboards\rAbout AMPAREX AMPAREX GmbH was founded 1995. AMPAREX has 33 (2017) employees and a turnover of 3,000,000 € per year (2017). AMPAREX established fast as one of the leading companies in innovative technology. Basic area of our activity in the last years were business relevant internet and intranet applications for medium-sized and large companies.\nFor more information about AMPAREX, please visit their website.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s on-premise and cloud based UC phone systems at the heart of your Business Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements which is why pascom IP PBX solutions are the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter and more cost effectively.\nFor more information about pascom, please www.pascom.net\n","date":"April 4, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-amparex-interoperability/","title":"pascom AMPAREX Interoperability"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Securing VoIP systems – you need to pay attention to your IP PBX It is no wonder that VoIP systems are increasingly being deployed and used by companies. IP based systems can be easily integrated into a business’ existing infrastructure and offer numerous additional business advantages. To protect company data, the topic of VoIP security is becoming ever more important, particularly in today’s climate. To this end, pascom phone systems offer a number of good solution approaches to fulfill your IP PBX (IP Private Branch Exchange i.e. IP based telephone system) security and business communication needs.\nSecurely maximise your phone system benefits In the globally networked business world, effective communication plays an increasingly more crucial role in business success. In reducing telecom costs when communicating with customers and business partners at home or abroad, companies are increasingly reliant on an IP telephone system. At the same time, cloud phone systems deliver clear cost savings for business travelers and telecommuters.\nWhile international mobile phone charges can quickly spiral out of control, cloud phone systems offer quick, simple and free anywhere, anytime access to business partners customers and employees. Provided you have a stable Internet connection, you can remain accessible on your business number, making and receiving calls and chatting with colleagues from anywhere around the world and not only on your smartphone, but also on your laptop or tablet.\nA modern virtual IP telephony solution not only enables telephone calls but also delivers a centralized communications hub for Instant Messaging and Video Conferencing. Virtual teleconference rooms can be used by any number of conference participants and allow global communication from anywhere, anytime. Thus making a number of cost intensive business trips superfluous. Furthermore, real-time communication tools such as Instant Messaging and Group Chats further help you in dramatically cutting travel costs.\nMultifunctional cloud telephone system deployments also support you in reducing office and infrastructure costs. In doing so, you will not only benefit from a more energy efficient, environmentally friendly office environment but can also promote anywhere, anytime connectivity. A classic example is receiving faxes via e-mail. On one hand, this means faxes no longer need to be printed out and on the other faxes can now be centrally stored with other inbound communication media and therefore be managed more efficiently.\nPhone System Threats \u0026amp; VoIP Security Considerations Since data transmissions conducted over the Internet is exposed to a number of threats, companies need to be aware of and implement a VoIP security countermeasures when deploying any cloud or on-premise IP phone system. Well thought out, sophisticated and integral protective solutions are essential for any VoIP phone system, but in particular when deploying an IP phone system inside an existing network i.e. on-premise solution.\nHowever, before we take a look at how you can securely integrate your IP PBX solution in your existing infrastructure, let us first highlight possible security threats to on-premise and cloud VoIP solutions.\nWhat are the threats to On-premise \u0026amp; Cloud VoIP Solutions? As with all communication systems, VoIP security is not just about protecting against unauthorized disclosure of information i.e. Confidentiality, but also about ensuring Integrity and Availability. These three points, (sometimes referred to as CIA) are therefore considered as the primary security objectives when conceptualizing and implementing any security strategy. Integrity refers to protection against the unauthorized alteration of information, i.e. ensuring trustworthiness and accuracy, while Availability concerns the protection against the unauthorized withholding of information, i.e. ensuring reliable access to the information for only authorized persons.\nFor VoIP systems, security experts also define secondary security objectives such as authenticity, meaning the “integrity of message and origin” as well as Accountability meaning “availability and integrity of identities and the actions they performed”.\nFor example, problems or even damage to the company can arise in certain cases, such as if a caller with a false identity surreptitiously gains the trust of an employee or utilizes services at the expense of third parties.\nUnwanted caller reactions can also arise as a result of errors in the status of endpoint terminals or within the call itself. For example, a faked “busy tone” or an increased number of callers placed on hold within a call queue within an on-premise or cloud phone system can lead to false conclusions being drawn (increased number of hang-ups, low call penetration etc.) and possibly important phone calls being disrupted i.e. failing to be routed through to an employee.\nPossible Consequences of Insufficient VoIP Security: Listening to voice data Hindering communication or participant unavailability Identity fraud Toll fraud Manipulation of transmitted data Negative performance i.e. slow down connection process and / or distortion of voice Endpoint failure How to Increase VoIP Security Since VoIP systems transport voice data via standardized, open data networks, a number of threats arise, particularly when calling with a cloud telephone system. Conservations in an unprotected system can be easily intercepted and thus sensitive data can fall in the wrong hands.\nHowever, VoIP security is also difficult to implement because VoIP systems consist of many individual components and can therefore expose a number of vulnerabilities. As such, the optimal protection requires extensive and interlocking security counter measures. Bear in mind that the more links in the chain, the greater number of potential weaknesses. Therefore it is advisable to have one single security solution for the entire in-house network to efficiently ward of threats to the phone system - to have more would create a potential weak points that could be exposed.\nTo guarantee the effectiveness of complex security measures and the optimal integration of the VoIP solution into the company infrastructure, a comprehensive planning and seamless implementation of security concepts is crucial. As not every company has the same requirements when securing its data, determining the required protection level is a prerequisite to implanting sensible and effective security measures. To this end, pascom provides VoIP solutions for every shape and size of business and can refer to and draw upon a number of customer solutions in delivering the optimal solution.\nGet in touch with our team and arrange an individualized demonstration and consultancy session to find the most ideal solution for your secure IP telephony needs.\nWe Securely Integrate On-premise and Cloud Phone Systems into Existing Networks As an experienced provider of VoIP solutions, pascom’s software based phone system offers a scalable solution which can be adapted to meet the requirements of both small and larger enterprises. The installation process is highly automated and can be performed either on conventional server hardware, within a virtual machine or in the cloud and only takes 5 minutes – regardless of your infrastructure. At the same time, the pascom software enables you to centrally manage your VoIP hardware. The phone system can detect and configure your IP endpoints such as IP phones, VoIP Gateways and more as well as providing your endpoints with secure, pascom tested firmware. Numerous configuration templates also support the configuration by for example facilitating the registration with IP providers, connecting Directory Services as well as simplifying the import of phonebook data.\nOptimise workflows using Wallboards (pascom FlexPanel) to provide various views for differing purposes. As such, it is possible to create and customise different boards for your switchboard or team leaders to provide them with information specific to their requirements.\nFurther simplify teamwork and collaboration thanks to the useful team function found within the UC clients. Contained within, team members are able to gain an instant, clear understanding regarding current call volumes, availability of colleagues and much more. By assigning extensions and priorities, calls can be more effectively managed and additional information can be provided to team members or individual employees before they even answer the call.\nA secure internal and external communications environment i.e. your on-premise or cloud phone system is thus practically guaranteed and extremely simple to implement.\nAdditional Functions for Additional VoIP Security Promoting VoIP security is one of the central focuses of our software. That’s why with pascom solutions you can not only make and receive secure calls and create team priorities, but also send data securely and directly using the pascom desktop client. Thanks to data encryption, these file transfers are protected from external access whilst at the same time the pascom client provides real-time information as to whether the recipient has received the file.\npascom VoIP solutions include a real-time monitoring and health check (Nagios) tool per default. Administrators can be automatically notified of system status and critical events, ensuring that effective, efficient steps are taken before issues develop into operational downtime. Further to this, add additional VoIP security and disaster recovery protection for your phone system and PBX database by using to our software’s ability to automatically create database backups as well as generating a complete phone system backup. A further critical element is user / identity management and with pascom phone systems it is possible to authenticate users against 3rd party applications such as Univention’s Corporate Server, LDAP or Active Directory sources. As such, it is possible to deploy company wide password policies which are managed in one centralised infrastructure.\nFinal Word With help from these functions it is possible to not only secure your entire phone system but also select individual IP PBX and network components that can be restored at a later point in time.\nLet one of our experience team create an individualised proof of concept for your cost-effective, multi-functional and secure VoIP phone system. Our team will be happy to help and answer your questions as comprehensively as possible – after all VoIP security is just as equally important to us as our customer satisfaction.\nGive the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 201 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free cloud business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"March 26, 2018","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/ip-pbx-voip-security-measures/","title":"IP PBX VoIP Security Measures"},{"categories":["Mobile VoIP"],"contents":"The Importance of Mobile UC Telecommuting, Flexi-working, HomeOffice working - whatever you want to call it, today\u0026rsquo;s workforce is mobile. Demands have changed both in terms of what employees require from their employers (and vice versa) but also in terms of what customers demand of businesses. Unified Communications (UC) goes along way to addressing both the internal and external challenges businesses face, but if they really want to thrive and stay ahead of the competition, then keeping their workforce and customers connected anywhere, anytime, with a fully featured mobile UC solution is key to successful business communications.\nWhat is Mobile UC? Before answering what mobile UC actually is, it is first important to note that modern on-premise and cloud phone systems deliver a full range of UC \u0026amp; mobile UC tools at prices very attractive to the Small Office Home Office / Small Medium Business (SOHO / SMB) market segments. As such, Unified Communication and mobile UC solutions are no longer exclusive to the large enterprise marketplace.\nSecondly, as the name suggests, mobile UC is exactly that: Unified Communications for mobile workers and their devices. Obviously, there is a bit more to it than that, particularly as mobile UC encompasses a range of technologies and features that are not necessarily used in office environments.\nFor starters mobile UC and mobile VoIP apps encompas both Fixed (-Line) Mobile Convergence (FMC) and Unified Communications. FMC incorporates and seamlessly integrates GSM technology into a company\u0026rsquo; phone system, enabling tools like the One Number Concept, which ensures employees are reachable on one number anywhere and at anytime. Mobile UC further builds on these foundations and greatly enhances the mobile communication experience by making the complete range of UC features available to mobile workers, on their preferred mobile device and at any given time.\nBenefits of Mobile UC As with Unified Communications, the purpose of mobile UC is further promote collaboration and enhance business communications. By extending a business\u0026rsquo; UC infrastructure (presence, chat, softphones, address book integration etc.) to incorporate mobile workers and endpoints, mobile UC solutions help create more efficient, responsive and productive business communication. As such, the core benefits of mobile UC include:\nGreater Business Agility One of the core benefits of mobile Unified Communications is the ability to provide mobile and remote workers with the all the collaboration tools to successfully communicate with their colleagues, team and customers at anytime and from anywhere. Incorporating FMC, mobile UC users are reachable on their office extension number and with top of the range solutions, such as pascom\u0026rsquo;s, will benefit from SIP softphone cost savings and GSM fallback options to boost audio quality in areas with poor data connectivity.\nPromotes Business Continuity Adverse weather, connectivity issues, power cuts and so on can all have a negative impact on business communication and therefore revenues and image. Robust infrastructures are an essential component in ensuring Business Continuity and mobile Unified Communications offers an excellent resource on this front. In the face of bad weather, mobile UC ensures employees remain productive even if they can\u0026rsquo;t get to the office. If the office is experiencing connectivity issues or power failures - once again mobile UC and mobile VoIP apps provide fallback options should HQ go dark.\nMore Productive Collaboration As a result of adopting mobile UC, businesses have become more agile and robust which in turn ensures that these business enjoy greater productivity. Given the right mobile UC tools, users will be able to communicate more efficiently with one another and therefore benefit from enhanced collaboration. Share files instantly, access company address books from anywhere, use chat tools instead of the phone when you see that your desired contact is busy or on the phone. Even small details like instant messaging \u0026ldquo;read\u0026rdquo; reports support boosting productivity by providing users with more feedback and therefore enabling them to make smarter, better decisions more quickly.\nGreater Security \u0026amp; Control As a business owner, you might think you have all these tools and you might. But the beauty of Unified Communications and mobile UC is that all these tools are available in one application and provide a consistent look and feel across multiple platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS).\nSo what you might say. But then here\u0026rsquo;s the problem with multi-vendor solutions, they\u0026rsquo;re disjointed and offer no centralised management or control. As such, they expose businesses to a larger range of security threats. An almost invisible benefit of UC phone systems is that they provide extra security and greater control over company data. It is possible to implement strong password policies, provide admins with greater control over device (BYOD vs CYOD and 3rd party application integration and in turn ensure that business assets are protected as much as possible.\nHow we can help By choosing a combined Telecoms UC solutions such as a pascom phone system, businesses are able to enjoy all the benefits above plus more at a price that won\u0026rsquo;t break the bank. Choosing a cloud solution will further support SOHO / SMB sized companies in spreading the cost with OpEX pricing as well as largely eliminating upfront hardware expenses.\nFor more information regarding pascom phone systems and how we upgrade business communications, please visit www.pascom.net.\n","date":"December 18, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/enjoy-communications-without-borders-with-mobile-uc/","title":"Enjoy Communications Without Borders with Mobile UC"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Upgrade your business communications with pascom 17 \u0026amp; mobile UC December 15th 2017 | Deggendorf - pascom GmbH, a leading business phone systems vendor, yesterday launched pascom VoIP phone system version 17, including their newest business communication and collaboration mobile UC apps for Android and Apple iOS. pascom 17 further enhances pascom\u0026rsquo;s Unified Communications (UC) capabilities and enables Small Medium Businesses to further enhance business agility by leveraging greater mobility, collaboration and productivity benefits without incurring any additional overheads.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Available for both Android and iOS, pascom’s new mobile UC apps utilise the same framework as the desktop UC applications released in pascom 16. As such, the new mobile VoIP apps offer not only the same modern, sleek user-friendly design but also the same Unified Communication feature set, ensuring that pascom customers can access all their essential business communication telephony and UC tools from anywhere, at anytime. Furthermore, the desktop and mobile UC applications are built on the same technology thus ensuring that pascom customers will enjoy faster and more frequent updates including new feature roll outs across all platforms (Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android and iOS).\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO: Our new mobile UC apps are an important step in our product development. Unlike other vendors, our desktop and mobile UC applications offer the same functionality and ease of use no matter which platform our customers prefer. As we develop one framework, we are able to bring new seamlessly integrated features to market quicker and more often ensuring that our customers benefit from cutting edge telecom solutions that enable them to further enhance their business agility and add value to their overall business communications.\nThanks to pascom 17’s mobile UC app’s innovative QR code pairing process, incorporating mobile devices into a company\u0026rsquo;s telecommunications and Unified Communication infrastructure could not be simpler. Either allow end-users to pair their devices themselves via the desktop application or alternatively system administrators can retain full control and only pair approved devices via the admin Web UI. The QR code pairing process has been designed to support admins deploy mobility solutions quickly, efficiently and securely.\nThe new mobile UC apps are available to download from the Android PlayStore and iOS AppStore and are compatible with both pascom 17 cloud and on-premise solutions. However, in order to enjoy full functionality in terms of mobile VoIP \u0026amp; All-IP telephony, a pascom cloud solution is required. Existing on-premise customers will still be able to utilise the mobile VoIP app’s in-built GSM fallback function and will not have to wait too long until they are also able to use the new mobile UC apps to their full potential as this will be realised with pascom 18, due to be released next year.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost effectively.\n","date":"December 15, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-17-enhancing-business-agility/","title":"pascom 17 Enhancing Business Agility"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Upgrade your business communications with pascom 17 \u0026amp; mobile UC On December 14th 2017, we will be releasing pascom 17, the latest version of our business VoIP phone system software. During the Live Release Keynote, we will be showcasing our newest and most user-experience focused tool set and we are inviting you to be part of the experience.\nJoin us live for the Release Keynote on the 14. December and experience first hand what the brand new pascom 17 has to offer. Discover more about our significant usability enhancements, new features and our completely redesigned mobile UC app.\nNew App New Android iOS apps\rNaturally, the new mobile app is available for both Android and iOS and offers a range of additional benefits, including enhanced workforce mobility.\nDesktop \u0026amp; Mobile Unification Unified Desktop Mobile UX\rWith pascom solutions, your team will benefit from anywhere, anytime telephony and UC connectivity meaning your team will never miss a call again and can stay in the loop even while on the go.\nUI UX Optimisations Improve UX Functionality \u0026amp; Features\rpascom 17 delivers even greater usability improvements, ranging from even more intuitive settings menus through to workflow enhancements plus adding even more functionality.\nRelease Highlights New Mobile UC APP Date Thursday 14. December 2017 Time DE: 11:00 EN: 14:00 CET Sign up www.pascom.net ","date":"November 16, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-17-coming-soon/","title":"pascom 17 coming soon"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems","Unified Communications"],"contents":"Business Phone Systems Play Crucial Role in Ensuring Business Continuity Business phone systems have evolved from the days of a hardware based telephony exchange (Private Branch Exchange or PBX) and now offer a plethora of tools that can support businesses not only grow in terms of becoming more productive, more mobile and therefore more competitive, but also ensure that they remain so even in the face of disaster - from provider downtime through to natural events.\nEffective communication is the cornerstone of success for all businesses, which is why communication is an essential component of ensuring Business Continuity. Whether it be how the company presents itself in terms of branding right through its online presence and customer engagement points. and given that research shows that voice is still the number one choice when it comes to preferred customer contact channels, a top notch phone system is a must.\nMoreover, when you consider the fact that customers expect anywhere anytime service, even a minimum of downtime can damage revenue and reputation, a robust business phone system and communications platform has become an essential tool in preserving business continuity.\nVital Voice As mentioned above, voice is still the preferred customer contact channel and is also still preferred by the majority of employees for internal communications as well. This means that your business phone system is often the first point of contact with your customers. As such, your on-premise or hosted phone system not only provides an excellent platform from which to promote your professional brand image and thereby influence and protect how your callers see your company but is also a vital element in ensuring business continuity.\nChoosing a phone system that allows you add multiple providers enables you to build in additional redundancy. One provider goes down, simply fail over to a back up provider and keep calling as normal often without your customers noticing any difference.\nHosted has a Key Role to Play What happens if for example, the head office loses connectivity? Well, if your PBX is in the head office that\u0026rsquo;s solved by asking your provider to divert all calls to mobile phones - a well constructed BYOD / CYOD strategy will also help at this point. It is worth noting here that in this scenario your business will temporarily lose all your telephony functions such as IVRs, queues and so on.\nAnother option to compensate for the loss of connectivity in the head office is to build in resiliency layers such as LTE and in the future 5G connectivity options. While not always geographically applicable, doing so delivers additional business continuity resiliency to both on-premise and cloud phone system solutions.\nIf your phone system is a hosted phone system, well you\u0026rsquo;re in luck as most modern business phone systems, such as pascom’s, deliver a complete range of Unified Communications (UC) tools including mobile apps and softphones. These tools are used daily any way, but in case of disaster are excellent at keeping your team communicating and as your phone system is hosted, you do not lose any of the functionality which is excellent for business continuity.\nIntegrated System Health Checks Service state monitoring is an essential tool for business continuity as it provides IT admins with an instant overview of the phone system\u0026rsquo;s status as well as sending out notifications upon detecting potential issues. This enables admins to proactively monitor system health, identify problems and get out ahead of them before they develop and start affecting mission critical activities.\nMany 3rd party monitoring solutions are available on the market, but the top-notch phone systems will offer inbuilt phone system monitoring solutions. For example, all pascom phone systems have Nagios Icinga monitoring solutions integrated per default, lifting yet another weight of your IT admin\u0026rsquo;s shoulders.\nAutomatic Backup \u0026amp; Restore Sadly, these things happen and should the worse come to the worse and your phone system fails, it could come with significant costs. However, its not all doom and gloom as the automated backup function will be your saviour. Using the backup function, it is possible to automatically generate full system backups as well as database backups, which can then be used to restore telephony \u0026amp; PBX services within minutes.\nIf your phone system is a hosted solution such as pascom\u0026rsquo;s, then your hosting provider will take of this for you so you don\u0026rsquo;t have to, so should your hosted PBX run amok for whatever reason - simply give your provider a call and get them to restore a backup.\nOf course, if your solution is on-premise it\u0026rsquo;s a slight different story, as you will be responsible for the backup automation. Once configured, the full system backup can be used to reinstall and have your phone system fully operational within minutes. Even if your server hardware is defect, it is possible to install the solution using virtualisation software.\nRedundancy \u0026amp; Resiliency If your business falls into the category of business where even a few minutes of interrupted services can lead to thousands if not millions in losses, for example a call center or financial services, then your business will require a phone system that offers exceptional resiliency and redundancy.\nOne option is to go down the virtualisation route. Virtualisation software such as VMware now offer advanced redundancy, backup and restore tools inbuilt. Using virtualisation, once again the responsibility lies internally to ensure business continuity protocols are put in place. However, virtual environments offer a quick alternative to waiting for replacement hardware to arrive and can get you back up and running in minutes as opposed to days.\nAlternatively, choosing hosted solutions is a great way of ensuring redundancy as your provider takes on the cost and will also offer a certain level of guarantee in terms of providing DataCenter / solution uptime statistics and so on. However, service restoration depends entirely on your provider response time and is entirely out of your hands.\nFinally, when considering a phone system provider it is worth having a look at their ecosystem and examining the following\nHow long have they been operating Do they have a complete documentation available How well maintained is the solution, i.e. upgrades and updates Certifications, i.e. TüV approved DataCenter etc Customer references For more information on pascom phone systems and how we upgrade business communications, please visit www.pascom.net\n","date":"October 30, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/ensure-business-continuity-with-the-right-phone-system/","title":"Ensure Business Continuity with the Right Phone System"},{"categories":null,"contents":"VoIP Phone Systems: Proprietary and Open Source Solution Comparison A modern day VoIP phone system (IP PBX) is essentially nothing more that a software that performs similar duties as a traditional telephone system, regardless of whether the IP PBX is hardware based, virtualized or hosted in the cloud. As with almost all types of software, VoIP phone system solutions fall into two main categories: Proprietary Systems and Open Source. The following explains what lies behind these two terms as well as examines the pros and cons the individual solution types have for businesses.\nProprietary and Open Source Briefly Explained Proprietary VoIP Phone System Solutions Proprietary software includes programmes whose specifications and source code are not openly and freely accessible. Only the manufacturer knows and determines the full scope of functions and interfaces available on the proprietary VoIP phone system. Other terms for such solutions and licensing models include non-free software or closed software. Only the manufacturer themselves and possibly licensed partners are able to access the inner workings of the solution and therefore implement changes or modifications to the functionality of the phone system. Consequently, you will not be able to modify your proprietary software telephony solution. Even if the solution is hosted by you on-premise as a hardware appliance or a virtual phone system server, it is likely that you will not even be able to implement the smallest changes required to better adapt the solution to your business needs. To do so, you will probably need to employ a certified technician who will then charge you to make the required adjustments to the relevant aspects of the software.\nIn addition, a proprietary manufacturer’s business model often requires that the phone system is only compatible with selected endpoints. In such cases, the manufacturer has developed the telephony solution server software using closed standards, which may only be used by permitted developers. Therefore, the software will only function in conjunction with specific hardware as developed by the manufacturer or their licenced partners. As a result, should you choose to deploy a proprietary VoIP phone system solution, your choice of endpoints you will be limited to the range and pricing policies of the manufacturer.\nOpen Source VoIP Phone System Open Source refers to software whose source code, i.e. the code from which the software is programmed, is openly accessible. Unlike closed systems, the principle behind Open Source is that everyone can read, understand and modify the code. The ultimate goal is to enable developers from all over the worldto simultaneously work on a project. This approach often attracts specialist developers, who in turn bring increased motivation and innovation to the project. The end result should be that the quality of the software solution should increase.\nOpen Source does not mean that the source code of the telephony server is in the public domain. Nevertheless, it is a fundamental principle of Open Source solutions that software may be customised and subsequently distributed. In addition, the usage is typically not restricted and as such an Open Source VoIP phone system can be used by any number of participants, without requiring special licences. How this is permitted is explained in the licensing agreement. It is conceivable, for example, to deploy Open Source software such as Asterisk telephone system and for your in house programmers to modify the solution to include desired functions and use the platform exactly as required by your business. Licence fees, royalties are uncommon and undesired in the world of Open Source as they undermine the underlying principle of the format. Instead, you will be required to invest in labour, whether that be in-house developers or outsourced to third-party consultants who specialise in the installation and customisation of Asterisk telephone systems. Further to this, it is entirely possible that a fee based support option is offered, particularly by larger and / or better-known projects. Otherwise, the VoIP phone system is in itself free of charge.\nProprietary and Open Source: Telephone System Pros and Cons When it comes to VoIP phone systems, a direct comparison of the two licensing models reveals that both variations have their advantages and disadvantages:\nAdvantages Proprietary Solutions Regular updates: it is important to the phone system manufacturer to ensure that the technology works smoothly and is kept up to date. User-friendly installation: proprietary phone systems are expertly developed to ensure as easy an installation as possible. Reliable support: access and rely on the professional help from certified support teams should you have any questions regarding your telephony server. Modular system: software based phone systems are conceptualised to allow you to adapt your phone system, with manufacturer support, to exactly match your requirements. Open Source Solutions No licence fees: the Open Source model ensures that open software remains free. Meaning, an Open Source telephony software solution (e.g. Asterisk telephone systems) in itself and therefore costs you nothing. Cross-system usability: Open source invariably ensures Open Standards which can be used by telephony server developers. Thus, it is entirely possible that both hardware and software from multiple manufacturers are then interoperable with the phone system, giving you more choice. Collaboration: software such as Asterisk telephone systems are developed by a variety of developers, bringing not only innovation but also the desire to developer not only the highest quality but also generally useful solution. Quick reaction times: As so many people globally are involved in the development, errors are often quickly uncovered and corrected. Independence: The server and telephony hardware for an Asterisk telephone system and other open systems can be sourced from a number of manufacturers, who also utilise open standards. As such, Open Standard phone system users have more freedom when choosing their telephones, server and gateways. Disadvantages Proprietary Solutions Cost: Normally, you can expect relatively high licence fees when deploying a proprietary developed phone system. Capital expenditure for server hardware can be reduced by deploying a virtual phone system or almost entirely eliminated when opting for an OpEx model i.e. a cloud phone system solution. Closed system: further development of the telephony server on the part of the customer is restricted due to closed. Dependency: You will only receive phone system software updates as long as the manufacturer releases them or as long as the product / manufacturer remain on the market. Limited choice of hardware: often you will be required to deploy the hardware for your [VoIP phone system](https://www.pascom.net/en/virtual-phone-system/ \u0026ldquo;pascom Virtual IP PBX\u0026rdquo;\u0026quot;) as dictated and supplied by the manufacturer. Such vendor lock-in can lead to comparatively higher costs, especially as proprietary phone system hardware often incorporates a go-to-market strategy focused around an important supplemental revenue stream for the manufacturer. Open Source Solutions Support options: Not every VoIP phone system offers you the benefit of professional support. It could be the case that you might have to solve problems on your own or rely of voluntary help. Uncertain development: Open Source project developers are not as coherently organised as their counter parts in the proprietary world. Depending on the system, reliable new feature innovation implementation within the phone system can take longer. Irregular Updates: A freely or ad hoc developed VoIP phone system may not benefit from as frequent updates as you may like. Proprietary and Open Source phone systems – which suits best? As described, both models have their pros and cons associated with them. Which type of VoIP phone system is ideally suited for your business will largely depend on your requirements and resources. For starters, do you have an in-house development department with the skill set and time to deploy and maintain for example an Asterisk telephone system and the required 3rd party applications? If so, then an Open Source solution could well be a great choice. If you require a turnkey solution with professional support and are not concerned by the hardware restrictions, the proprietary is an option for you.\nHowever, if like most SMBs you are looking for the middle ground that combines the benefits of both worlds, then there is a third option – the open standards IP PBX. An open standards phone system that offers the flexibility of Open Source combined with the professionalism of proprietary solutions and at a fraction of the cost.\n","date":"October 28, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/voip-phone-system-guide-proprietary-vs-open-source-solutions/","title":"VoIP Phone System Guide Proprietary vs Open Source Solutions"},{"categories":["Unified Communications"],"contents":"What is Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) A few weeks ago, we took a look at What is Unified Communications and explored the various business features that when combined together in a unified, centralised communications hub can perform an essential role in driving business productivity and promote employee collaboration. As briefly touched upon, Unified Communications (UC) solutions come in many different guises, one of which incorporates the increasingly popular \u0026ldquo;as a Service\u0026rdquo; model, hence UCaaS.\nUnified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) Benefits On the surface, it is believed that the primary benefit of UCaaS (and as a Service models in general) is they support businesses in lowering capital expenditure by spreading costs over a period of time (monthly, quarterly or annually) usually by subscribing to a cloud UC solution. While this is definitely a valid argument, UCaaS solutions provide businesses with considerably more noteworthy benefits beyond spreading costs.\nCloud Collaboration Unified Communications are great for promoting employee collaboration whether in the form of instant messaging, file transfers or video and audio conferencing. Cloud based UC solutions provide anywhere anytime access and therefore greatly simplify remote and HomeOffice employee access. In turn, UCaaS and UC phone systems provide finger tip desktop access to essential company data such as phone books and call histories thus ensuring that your team is kept up to date at all times.\nThe advent of the smartphone has contributed massively to the modern workplace transformation. As such, any UC phone system vendor worth their salt will also provide mobile UC apps. Mobile VoIP and UC apps deliver the same UC functionality as their desktop counterparts and therefore further promote collaboration, boost employee productivity and as an added benefit are a great business continuity resource.\nCloud Connectivity Of course, such tools are all available as an on-premise solution and it is also true that anywhere anytime access to on-premise solutions can be delivered via the company\u0026rsquo;s Virtual Private Network (VPN) for example. Whereas with top notch UCaaS solutions, anywhere anytime connectivity is accomplished with ease as long as an internet connection.\nA case in point could be that the head office ISP is experiencing service disruptions, remote worker phone system access is unlikely to be affected (unless they have the same provider) and even if they are, all the tools needed to connect and continue working can be found on employee smartphones or tablets.\nIn addition, moving a company\u0026rsquo;s infrastructure to the cloud with solutions such as hosted UC phone system on site or internal connectivity issues can be eliminated as an obstacle in that as long as phone system users have an internet connection they will be able to connect from anywhere.\nIn addition to this, not only will business no longer need to manage and maintain the VPN infrastructure, they can also greatly minimise on-site hardware requirements as well as significantly reducing admin workloads and ongoing hardware maintenance costs.\nCloud Redundancy One of the major concerns that businesses have surrounding cloud solutions is that of Redundancy and Resiliency. Definitely a legitimate concern, particularly when it comes to voice and UC. Therefore, making enquiries to provider redundancy / resiliency safeguards as well as uptime statistics is highly recommended when choosing your solutions vendor.\nOn the other hand, let\u0026rsquo;s consider for a moment which scenario has the greater risk of downtime; a business office building or a DataCenter? An office building built where it is practical and cost effective to do so or a DataCenter that is strategically located away from high risk areas, built to withstand extreme weather conditions and that employs the most stringent of \u0026ldquo;clean room\u0026rdquo; and security standards? It is far more likely that a business\u0026rsquo; internal infrastructure will experience downtime compared to a DataCenters infrastructure.\nEven if the head office goes down, your team will be able to remain productive, your customers will still be able to contact you and most importantly they will likely not even notice that your business is experiencing any form of downtime. As we all know there is nothing worse for business than when a customer cannot reach you.\nSadly, hosted telephony and UCaaS solutions are not applicable in every scenario. Take a production facility relying on the man down feature of a DECT handset - with all the production machinery and the risks involved when working in such an environment, a certain level of on-premise redundancy infrastructure must exist in order to ensure that the internal systems can communicate with one another.\nCloud Profitability As alluded to, UCaaS solutions are a great resource for reducing operating costs such as minimising administrative and infrastructure maintenance costs to elminating upfront capital expenditure in many cases. Then there is the fact that UCaaS and cloud solutions are inherently easier and more cost effective to scale compared to on-premise solutions, i.e. no additional server resources or hardware are required, the ongoing cost savings can be considerable.\nCombined with the productivity and business continuity gains that hosted telephony and Cloud Unified Communications have to offer, making the switch to a UCaaS solution can also be a driver for spurring both bottom line and top line growth and increasing a company\u0026rsquo;s profitability.\nSummary There are many upshots to cloud and cloud Unified Communications which do not stem from cost. Looking at UCaaS solutions as a tool to streamline organisational processes to increase revenue from increased productivity and improved performance as well as reducing CapEx is the way forward. As always there is a but and in the case of Cloud Telephony and UC, it\u0026rsquo;s a big one - due care and attention needs to be paid to whether or not UCaaS and hosted phone systems are suitable for your business.\nIf you are unsure or have any questions, please contact one our consultants who will be more than happy to talk through your project with you and advise you on how our cloud or on-premise telephony solutions can support you in upgrading your business communications.\n","date":"October 24, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/benefits-of-unified-communications-as-a-service/","title":"Benefits of Unified Communications as a Service"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Deggendorf | London | Manchester, October 17. 2017 - pascom GmbH, a leading European business UC phone systems vendor, today announce the successful completion of interoperability and compatibility testing with Nexbridge Communications ltd, a carrier grade UK Telecoms Provider.\nAs one of the UK\u0026rsquo;s foremost voice providers, Nexbridge Communications has an established network of partners and business customers across the United Kingdom who will now be in a position to access pascom\u0026rsquo;s innovative on-premise and cloud based telephony and enterprise collaboration solutions.\nIn addition, Nexbridge\u0026rsquo;s focus on call termination and customer service quality which is delivered via Nexbridge\u0026rsquo;s network of geographically diverse UK data centres ensures that resellers are able to provide their customers with an unparalleled level of in-built resiliency and redundancy at cost effective rates and even in the highest call volume environments.\nIn combination with Nexbridge\u0026rsquo;s SIP trunking solutions, pascom\u0026rsquo;s IP telephony and enterprise Unified Communications \u0026amp; Collaboration solution ensures pascom resellers can quickly and effortlessly deliver on-premise and cloud telephony solutions that add even more value to their customer offerings while their customers will benefit from a high calibre UCC communications platform which is easily scalable, affordable and provides all the functionality required to upgrade business communications.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO: The successful interoperability testing between pascom and Nexbridge will ensure that our partners and customers are now able to benefit from Nexbridge\u0026rsquo;s robust, yet cost effective voice services and our feature rich UCC solutions. Moreover, resellers and customers alike will benefit from a quicker, simpler and approved setup ensuring that our customer solutions offer even greater value in terms of boosting productivity and collaboration as well as driving business continuity.\nChris Walker, Nexbridge Business Development Management: Nexbridge is delighted to have successfully completed integration with pascom and looks forward to cementing a mutually beneficial relationship for clients who wish to enhance their hosted telephony solutions with quality voice termination, high network availability and resilience.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation Telephony Solutions and we have been upgrading business communications for 20 years.\nWith pascom’s innovative on-premise and cloud based UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements making our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more cost effectively.\nAbout Nexbridge Nexbridge’s Board of Directors has amassed more than 60 years of experience in the ICT industry. Having successfully established, grown and sold Zimo Communications to j2 Global, Inc. (NASDAQGS:JCOM) in February 2012, the Nexbridge team is focused upon providing the highest quality outbound calling solutions to contact centres and enterprise businesses.\nIn addition to our detailed technical knowledge of the telecommunications industry and in particular call termination, Nexbridge can also offer to assist you in, or indeed fully support, applications to Ofcom for number ranges; provide guidance on regulatory obligations of becoming a CP; arrange interconnects on your behalf; offer network planning and dimensioning services; provide bespoke development and support your telecommunications requirements utilising our high capacity and fully resilient core architecture and interconnects.\n","date":"October 17, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/nexbridge-uk-sip-provider-pascom-interoperability/","title":"Nexbridge UK SIP Provider pascom Interoperability"},{"categories":["Unified Communications"],"contents":"What is Unified Communications? Telephone, Internet, Video Chats, Instant Messaging \u0026hellip; modern Business Communication is now a multi-channel experience - involving various endpoints from numerous vendors all with different platforms. Today’s workplace is global, with work being done from anywhere with internet access and businesses need to be able to adapt. That means, coping with our increasingly mobile world where work is no longer confined to the office, but done from home, off-site or while travelling. To be successful businesses must look beyond just voice communication and more to the point find a way to combine all their communications channels into a single platform, i.e. Unified Communications (UC).\nModern UC solutions provide businesses with a communications hub that combines a plethora of communications tools; voice, fax, video, presence technology, messaging (chat / instant messaging), file transfers, external data sources and audio conferencing / virtual meeting rooms. Furthermore, UC solutions not only deliver the tools, but also support businesses regain control over there IT infrastructure. Managing and configuring multiple endpoint vendors and incorporating BYOD / CYOD mobile device strategies can be a massive headache for IT administrators, making endpoint management an essential component of any Unified Communications solutions.\nProprietary Solutions Just For Large Enterprise? For many small businesses, the concept UC solutions belongs to the world of Larger Enterprise or may seem over the top or simply too expensive. They may sit there thinking, we are too small, we do not need to streamline our business communication and so on. While this may once have been the case, it no longer is. Businesses need to adapt to the demands of their customers in order to thrive, otherwise they risk falling by the wayside.\nBut its not all doom and gloom - the emergence of the software based phone system (IP PBX) has opened up the world of Unified Communications beyond the realm of large enterprise. As a result, telephony software solutions are becoming increasingly more attractive. For many businesses, particularly SMEs, such solutions have become a valuable cost saving resource and provide excellent scalability along with numerous other business benefits.\nFurther to this, the trend towards Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions such as a hosted PBX solution has further reduced the barriers for small businesses. In the case of Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), small businesses no longer need to burden themselves with unnecessary capital expenditure, but can rather benefit from spreading the costs on a monthly / quarterly or annual basis.\nUnified Communication Features The Unified Communications landscape consists of a number of technologies and endpoints all integrated into a centralised communications hub to enable more effective communication and collaboration. Through deploying and utilising UC tools, it is worth noting that traditional communication lines will become blurred, with communication now taking place over the user\u0026rsquo;s preferred medium.\nDelving under the hood, you\u0026rsquo;ll find that top of the range UC solutions provide companies with a diverse selection of features encompassing (but not limited to):\nVoice Video Chat / Instant Messaging Presence technology Team collaboration tools File Transfers IP Endpoints, i.e. desktop VoIP phones, CTI apps, mobile apps and softphones Audio Conferencing / Virtual Meeting Rooms Directory Services, i.e. CRM, ERP systems and address book integration etc The list could go on and not every vendor is equal. Some phone system vendors offer UC tools or mobile UC tools via 3rd party applications. Others charge extra for UC add-ons and some UC solutions are just that - UC apps that deliver collaboration tools such as chat but do not incorporate essential business phone system functions such as Queues.\nSummary Unified Communications describes streamlining and optimising business communication processes to promote internal collaborate and support businesses in creating excellent customer experiences.\nBy choosing a UC phone system vendor such as pascom, business owners and IT admins can rest assured that not only is every single featured included in the price, so to is the ongoing maintenance and vendor support, ensuring that the UC services remain up-to-date and that technical assistance is readily available should any be required.\n","date":"September 29, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/what-is-unified-communications/","title":"What is Unified Communications"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Next Generation UCC and Enhanced User Experience with pascom 16 Deggendorf, 26. September 2017 - pascom GmbH, a leading business phone systems vendor, recently launched version 16 of their innovative IP telephony solution for businesses. pascom 16 focuses primarily on increasing end-user usability, ensuring that pascom customers benefit from an enhanced Unified Communications and Collaboration user-experience (UCC UX).\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Since venturing into the VoIP market in 2006, pascom have recognised the need for desktop CTI applications that enhance UCC UX and provide a centralised end user communications platform. As such, pascom phone systems have always provided customers with Desktop CTI applications and the release of pascom 16 sees the company successfully rolling out phase one of their “end-user UX” approach to upgrading business communications.\nMathias Pasquay (CEO): We already had all the Unified Communications and Collaboration tools in place and now with pascom 16 using them has become much more intuitive. pascom 16 is more than that, it’s phase one in our ongoing commitment to our customers and partners. With pascom 16, our aim is to continue to enhance usability for an increasingly mobile workforce, meaning pascom 16 is a significant step forward in our focus on creating even better end user experiences, no matter whether the customer UCC solution is in the cloud or on-premise.\nEnhancements delivered in pascom 16 include the delivery of a modern, intuitive Unified Communications user application that is designed to boast end user usability. A complete overhaul of the underlying desktop application technology was also undertaken, resulting in numerous advancements including native, fully responsive desktop UCC applications for Windows, Mac and Linux. pascom 16 additionally includes Jabra and Plantronics business headset interoperability, improving usability by allowing users to manage calls directly from their headset.\nAs a result, the new Unified Communications clients, which are available to download, deliver the same functionality with the added advantage that they are now not only simpler and more enjoyable to use, but also faster and more responsive plus being more resource friendly being only a fraction of the size compared to previous versions.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UCC Telephony Solutions and we have been upgrading business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative on-premise and cloud based UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost effectively.\n","date":"September 26, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-16-next-generation-ucc-ux/","title":"pascom 16 Next Generation UCC UX"},{"categories":null,"contents":"What is VoIP? Conventional landline telephony is retiring. Even back in 2015, across Germany more telephony connections utilized the Internet as a transport medium compared to ISDN or analog lines and since then the trend has been growing, expedited by impending ISDN shutdowns across many European countries.\nSo what is VoIP? Simply put Internet Telephony or Telephony over an IP network such as the Internet.\nTelephony as an Internet Service Making conventional calls directly over the Internet is not possible in that the network does not support analogue data transmissions, but rather data packed into IP packets, in other words digital data. Analysing the abbreviation VoIP reveals which trick VoIP uses in order to enable telephony over the Internet.\nWhat Does VoIP Mean Exactly? VoIP is a technology-centric abbreviation typical of Internet jargon. The small “o” in the middle stands for “over”. Next to it on the left, an abbreviation for the type of data stream to be transmitted (V for Voice) and on the right a foreign transport medium over which the transmission should take place. In the case of VoIP, this relates to analogue voice data which is then digitalised, fragmented and then sent packaged in packets whose form is defined by the Internet Protocol (IP), hence Voice over IP and VoIP. As such, it is now possible to transport an analogue data stream over a medium that can only transmit digital data packets. As such, VoIP ensures telephony has become one of the many services now available via the Internet such as HTTP for webpages, SMTP for e-mails or FTP for file transfers. The advantages are clear to see in that only one, single data connection to a provider is now required.\nHow VoIP and Internet Telephony Works Voice over IP transmits Voice in digital form and signalling for the construction and deconstruction plus any modifications of the connections. To do so, the service uses two different channels similar in to the ISDN with the B and D channel. VoIP does not require any special solution for the data connection as existing protocols such as RTP / RTCP can be used. For signalling purposes, several solutions have been developed with the Session Initiation Protocol or SIP having prevailed as the preferred method, the current status of which is specified under the Internet RFC 3261.\nWhat is SIP? The **Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is used exclusively for signalling purposes, i.e. the transmission of control information which are required when establishing new connections (sessions), modifying and deconstructing said connections. SIP is not a dedicated VoIP protocol, but rather is designed to manage multi-user, multimedia applications sessions such as audio conferences. Without session management, Internet telephony would not be possible which is why the abbreviation SIP appears frequently in connection with IP telephony, for example SIP trunking, SIP softphone (software telephone), SIP client or SIP gateways, all of which will be examined in more detail in the Voice over IP phone system section.\nHow Does VoIP Affect my Telephone Number? SIP data telegrams contain information pertaining to the participants of a connection (session). These may be encoded in a form that is specific to IP telephony, which is similar to an e-mail address. To ensure compatibility with the conventional telephony network (PSTN or Public Switched Telephone Network), a supplement tot the Internet Domain Name Service (DNS) has been developed ensuring conventional telephone numbers according the ITU-T recommended E.164 format can be assigned domain names. Such assignments do not happen automatically, but must be entered by a registrar in to the DNS. However, this is only interesting if a connection should be established directly between a conventional telephone and VoIP endpoint or if the same telephone number should be assigned to different Internet services. When a VoIP endpoint or IP phone system is connected via a SIP provider, then the provider generally handles the implementation between the PSTN and VoIP technologies.\nWhat do I Need to Know About Faxing and VoIP? While Internet services such as HTTP (websites) or SMTP for e-mails are based on the TCP connections protocol which guarantees an orderly and complete data packet transmission, those protocols used by VoIP can also be use the connectionless UDP. This has the benefit of delivering a lower latency, but can suffer from data loss. When transmitting Voice or a video conference for example, such small data losses are hardly noticeable, whereas a low latency is a distinct advantage However, should you wish to send a Fax via IP (FoIP), the data loss often leads to disconnections. Internet compatible fax devices allow fax transmission via a real-time connection according to ITU T.38. However, this standard must be supported by both devices, sender and receiver.\nVoIP and Conventional Telephony (PSTN): Further Differences An already described benefit of VoIP is the ability to use an Internet connection instead of a dedicated telephone line. However, this does not only have benefits. Internet telephony is easier to intercept (tap) compared to a separate fixed line. Furthermore, analogue and ISDN devices can be supplied with limited power by the telephony network, meaning it is possible to make calls even in a emergency without electricity. A software telephony solution and phone system server are effectively paralyzed by power failures if no backup emergency power supply has been installed.\nWhat happens to the Phone System when Switching to Voice over IP? Should you wish to replace your business’ existing ISDN connection with a VoIP connection, you have three options for adapting your existing internal telephony network to the Internet age. When conducting a complete overhaul, the options look similar, but the weighting of various aspects will differ. The three keywords to know are:\nPhone system server Virtual phone system Cloud phone system Option 1: Use your ISDN PBX with VoIP The first option entails the least amount of disruption when it comes to retrofitting, in that you continue to use your existing ISDN phone system. As long as your PBX is VoIP enabled, it is possible to connect it directly to your provider via the Internet. If not, you will require a media Gateway between your Internet connection and your PBX, which converts incoming VoIP traffic into ISDN and vice versa. As you are not replacing the phone system, you can also continuing using your existing endpoints. If IP endpoints are supported by the phone system as well, it will be possible to perform a gradual or soft migration to the newer technology, replacing older endpoints over time with IP endpoints and soft clients on desktop PCs etc.\nAt first glance, this may appear very attractive as this option can save significant costs. However, long-term this option is somewhat counter-productive. Legacy and ISDN PBX systems are going the way of the dinosaurs, making maintaining, replacing components and upgrading them increasingly difficult. Then there’s the fact that they are hardware, which is inherently difficult to scale. Eventually, the limit will be reached where the system cannot cope anymore and you will have to change anyway – all at once. Stay competitive and go digital as soon as possible, particularly as soft migrations are notoriously complicated and long-winded.\nOption 1b: Deploy On-premise VoIP Phone System A favourite of the small to medium sized segment IT admin who is more inclined to hardware solutions. In certain scenarios, deploying an on-premise IP PBX solution (VoIP phone system) is the ideal option. The benefit here is that you have full control over your server hardware. Moreover, this option has a number of drawbacks, namely the relatively high investment and operational costs for the server hardware.\nA point worth noting here is that a VoIP phone system, just like a VoIP telephone, can also be deployed as a software i.e. virtual solution and that the same level of control can be achieved with a virtual phone system server. Therefore, it is possible to significantly reduce the cost of your new phone system if you already operate a virtual infrastructure.\nOption 2: Virtual Phone System The virtual option enables you to save the hassle relating to the installation, maintenance and operation of dedicated telephone system server hardware. With a virtual phone system, the telephony server is running in your virtual infrastructure often hosted in a Data Centre. The result is that you only need to take care of the software and configuration of the phone system. To this end, pascom offer a number of pre-packed phone system images that can be installed in a VM.\nVirtual phone system solutions offer significant benefits such greater redundancy and scalability, particularly as a virtual phone system does not suffer from the limitations of hardware and can therefore be grown in-line with business growth. On the downside, you require virtualisation knowledge and specific hardware interfaces are lost. For example, ATA adapters are required for connecting analogue endpoints.\nOption 3: Migrate your Phone System to the Cloud Cloud Voice over IP phone systems elevate administration workloads by taking away the need to dedicate human resources to the updating and installing security and feature updates on your cloud phone system server. You can start making calls over the Internet almost immediately, i.e. as soon your SIP provider access is granted and the registration is successful. This option is particularly attractive for small medium businesses and startups as well as larger enterprises looking to consolidate solutions into one centralised communications platform.\nCloud phone systems are also characterised by maximum flexibility and scalability, especially when the deployment is combined with software-based endpoints such as Softphones. Simply connect a headset to your PC or laptop and utilise a desktop application such as pascom’s UC client for Window, Mac and Linux and you will save yourself significant hardware telephone outlay in terms of expenditure and administration. Simultaneously, in doing so your set up will be greatly simplified and you are good to go in a matter of minutes plus your IP telephony will be seamlessly and fully integrated into your everyday workflow.\nContact us for more information and discover how your business can benefit from a pascom VoIP telephony solution.\n","date":"September 26, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/voip-how-internet-telephony-works/","title":"VoIP How Internet Telephony Works"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Telekom SIP Trunk Compatibility Confirmed in Telekom Test Lab Telekom\u0026rsquo;s switch from ISDN to IP voice (All-IP) is in full swing and on the tip of everyone\u0026rsquo;s tongue. In order to ensure compatibility and make the transition as smooth as possible, Deutsche Telekom has setup up an independent 3rd party testing laboratory in which phone system vendors can test and confirm solution interoperability with Telekom\u0026rsquo;s SIP Trunking solutions. Of course it goes without saying that a pascom developer made the trip and visited the lab in Essen in order to test pascom phone systems against the Telekom requirements and ensure that our solution is suitably tailored in order to ensure the fullest level of interoperability.\nAs a result of the successful interoperability testing, Telekom SIP trunk provider templates for all Telekom connectivity packages are now delivered as standard with all pascom phone systems. As such, voice termination over Telekom trunks has been greatly simplified, no matter if your pascom solution is in the Cloud or On-premise.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Sales Director: With the transition to ALL-IP, ensuring compatibility with Telekom as the German market leading voice connectivity provider was an essential development for pascom, our partners and most importantly our customers. As businesses migrate to All-IP, the need for business continuity assurances when it comes to voice has become critical and by confirming interoperability with Deutsche Telekom, pascom offer exactly that for all our customers.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative on-premise and cloud based UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements making our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more cost effectively.\nFor more information, please visit www.pascom.net\n","date":"September 18, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-telekom-sip-trunk-interoperability/","title":"pascom Telekom SIP Trunk Interoperability"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Reduce High Investment Costs with pascom \u0026amp; Snom as a Service OpEX Models (Deggendorf, Germany | 01. August 2017) pascom GmbH today announce the addition of the Snom as a Service pricing model to the company\u0026rsquo;s service offering. Available in conjunction with pascom\u0026rsquo;s Cloud UC telephony (UCaaS) solution, Snom Hardware as a Service pricing ensures that pascom customers are able to gain maximum benefit from a 100% Operational Expenditure (OpEX) pricing model.\nSnom as a Service\rThe Snom as a Service model will ensure pascom and pascom channel partners are able to deliver end customer solutions that offer even greater added value. Software and Hardware as a Service models are designed to minimise upfront investment (Capital Expenditure or CapEX) while promoting greater flexibility and facilitating simultaneous business investment.\nAs a valued Snom Technology partner, pascom are one the select few phone system vendors eligible to provide Snom as a Service (SaaS) endpoint solutions, making pascom’s Cloud UCaaS solution the perfect choice for any business looking to benefit from the complete OpEX Telecommunications as a Service solution.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO: \u0026ldquo;The market trend towards cloud and as a Service offerings is clear to see, which is why we are delighted to be one of the select few Snom Technology partners chosen to offer Snom as a Service hardware. As a software PBX vendor offering Cloud services, offering Snom’s Hardware as a Service (HaaS) model provides an excellent opportunity to offer our customers even greater added value and flexibility whilst reducing upfront expenditure and therefore making our solutions more affordable and attractive to a broader market.\u0026rdquo;\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost effectively.\n","date":"August 1, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-announce-snom-as-a-service/","title":"pascom Announce Snom as a Service"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Meet the Team at IP EXPO Europe 2017 IP EXPO Europe is one of the leading Enterprise IT events for those looking to discover how the latest in IT innovation can support them in driving their business forward.\npascom and Snom will be jointly hosting a stand at IP Expo Europe 2017, Europe’s number one enterprise IT event . Our combined IP PBX \u0026amp; IP endpoint solutions are packed full of features to make sure your business gains maximum benefit from your IP Telephony.\nVisit us on Stand H19 for your personal Live Demonstration on how our innovative cloud and on-premise VoIP telephony solutions combined with a Snom IP endpoint solutions not only seamlessly integrate into existing IP infrastructures but also bolster IP security, drive team performance and upgrade your business communications.\nThroughout the event, our team will be presenting how our solutions help reduce administrative workloads, increase employee collaboration and productivity whilst promoting security, customer care and cost savings. Join us on Stand H19 and experience how our Unified Communications, Identity Management and Contact Centre tools can help you upgrade your business communications.\nNot convinced? Find our why 1,600 seat Call Centre, KiKxxL, chose pascom and Snom.\npascom IP Expo Date: 04. - 05. October 2017 Time: 9.30 am - 5.30 pm Stand: Stand H19 Venue: London ExCeL Appointments To make an appointment with our UC Expo stand team, please register on www.pascom.net or give us a call on: +49 991 29691 0.\nSave the date in your diary today and come and see pascom and Snom in action at IP EXPO Europe from the 4 - 5 October 2017, Stand H19 at the ExCeL London. Register Free Today and save £35 on the door on\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation Telephony Solutions and we have been upgrading business communications for 20 years.\nWith pascom\u0026rsquo;s innovative on-premise and cloud based UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications - no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements making our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more cost effectively.\nFor more information about pascom, please visit www.pascom.net\n","date":"June 10, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/ip-expo-europe-london/","title":"Meet pascom at IP Expo Europe London"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"[London, United Kingdom | Deggendorf, Germany - 5th May 2017] pascom GmbH, a leading European cloud and on-premise Unified Communications (UC) business phone system vendor, today announces the launch of a new UK hosted business phone system service offering.\nToday\u0026rsquo;s announcement coincides with the company\u0026rsquo;s UC Expo 2017 announcement and outlines their strategy to strengthen pascom\u0026rsquo;s position within the UK UCC market place. The newly launched cloud phone system forms a crucial element of this strategy and will be unveiled at UC Expo 2017. Hosted in the UK, the new service offering reaffirms pascom\u0026rsquo;s commitment to deliver innovative telephony and collaboration solutions and serves to ensure that customers receive the highest service quality levels. As such, pascom\u0026rsquo;s cloud PBX will provide UK based customers with a full featured, cost-effective cloud telephony platform from which to upgrade their business communications.\npascom\u0026rsquo;s UK hosted PBX differs from competitor cloud telephony offerings in that pascom cloud phone systems combine a full Desktop Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC), Mobile UCC and an extensive range of Contact Center tools to boost productivity and drive customer service standards. Furthermore, unlike other cloud phone system vendors, pascom\u0026rsquo;s cloud business communications platform provides customers with the freedom of choice when selecting the voice provider(s) that best fulfil their business needs. Moreover, when compared to competitor cloud solutions, pascom cloud solutions offer the customer the choice to either self-manage the solution in-house or alternatively benefit, at no extra cost, from 100% managed services provided directly by pascom. This freedom of choice is almost unique in the market and offers both customers and resellers considerable added value in terms of flexibility and ease of management.\nJames Barton, pascom Channel Sales \u0026amp; Marketing on the new cloud offering:\nLaunching a cloud PBX offering hosted in the UK is a crucial element of our UK expansion. By hosting the solution within the UK, we are demonstrating our commitment to delivering greater benefits combined with exceptional quality and functionality at excellent value. Further to this, our UK cloud telephony offer is included in our channel partnership programme. This will allow pascom resellers to deliver top of the range UCaaS services in combination with on-premise solutions, thus enabling our partners to offer value added services across all verticals and market segments.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions, visit www.pascom.net or get started free now.\n","date":"May 5, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-launches-uk-ucaas-cloud-phone-system-service/","title":"pascom Launches UK UCaaS Cloud Phone System Service"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Continues Focus on UK UCC Channel Sales Deggendorf, Germany | London, United Kingdom - 2nd May 2017 pascom GmbH, a leading developer of enterprise VoIP UCC phone systems, launches UK UCC (Unified Communications and Collaboration) channel strategy. Formed in 1997, the Germany based company which entered the UK market in November 2015, is an established UC solutions vendor across the D-A-CH market and has 20 years experience in upgrading business communications.\nTo date, the company\u0026rsquo;s focus has been on direct sales across core markets including the United Kingdom, but has increasingly shifted focus towards the channel. Stemming from the success of increasing channel sales across the D-A-CH region, the strategy is to be applied to grow UK UCC channel sales. pascom\u0026rsquo;s channel partnership programme focuses on providing System Integrators and Value Added Resellers all the tools and rewards required to successfully sell pascom UC phone systems, either in the cloud or on-premise. Implementing the UK channel strategy will be supported by a comprehensive campaign of marketing actions geared towards increasing the company\u0026rsquo;s visibility in the UK market place including exhibiting at both UC Expo 2017 and IP Expo 2017.\npascom CEO and Co-founder Mathias Pasquay mentioned on launching company\u0026rsquo;s UK UCC channel sales strategy;\n\u0026ldquo;After opening our London office facilities in 2015, the next logical step was to work towards expanding our presence in the UK market. Doing so has entailed a complex mix of digital and conventional marketing combined with revamping our channel partner programme as well as essential UK UCC market orientated product development all of which have paved the way for the next element of entering the UK market which will entail numerous in country events including UC Expo and later IP Expo. As we continue moving forward in the UK, we are looking forward to overcoming the challenges that we will certainly face but are also extremely excited about the potential opportunities that our efforts generate.\u0026rdquo;\nAs Europe’s largest Unified Communications and Collaboration event, UC Expo provides the perfect platform from which to launch the next element of the company\u0026rsquo;s market entry strategy. With the event\u0026rsquo;s healthy mix of channel vs business customers, pascom\u0026rsquo;s UC Expo exhibition is the ideal opportunity for the company to introduce their Cloud UCC offerings to the UK channel whilst enabling the company to support channel partners through generating end customer demand from the ground up.\nFor more information regarding pascom UCC solutions and channel partnerships, register free online and visit UC Expo stand B124.\nTo book a product demonstration, please register on www.pascom.net or call the UK sales team on +49 991 29691 0.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions, visit www.pascom.net or get started free now.\n","date":"May 2, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-focuses-on-uk-ucc-channel/","title":"pascom enters the UK UCC Channel Market"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Release mobydick 7.14 pascom\u0026rsquo;s mobydick 7.14 release is the last ever mobydick phone system release. All of our future phone system software releases will be branded as pascom phone systems. But that\u0026rsquo;s not to say mobydick 7.14 is unimportant. In fact, 7.14 features a host of UX optimisations new UC Desktop client features plus interoperability with Grandstream IP Endpoints.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES UC Client Update As part of our \u0026ldquo;client first\u0026rdquo; development approach, the 7.14 release boasts significant user-friendly improvements to our UC desktop client. Encompassing new features such the intuitive Dial Pad window, end user orientated workflows, enhanced in-client call details and a more simplified menu structure plus many more usability enhancing improvements including expanding on our Live Call label information. 7.14 desktop applications will deliver additional highly detailed caller information with just a single mouse click both in-call as well as after the fact, providing your team with fingertip access to enhanced caller information.\npascom Desktop Unified Communications\rUser Controlled FollowMe Give your users complete control over their complete pool of endpoints - whether mobile, softphones or desktop phones. Our new FollowMe system, allows desktop and mobile client users to define the exact sequence in which their devices ring whilst differentiating between external, internal and inbound team calls.\npascom FollowMe System\rGrandstream IP Phones Grandstream IP phones are renowned globally for their reliable, innovative yet highly cost effective IP endpoints. Boasting an elegant design combined with an excellent range of functionality, Grandstream endpoints make an excellent choice for both small medium businesses as well as larger endpoint deployments.\npascom Grandstream Interoperability\rAbout pascom - we upgrade business communications With pascom’s innovative on-premise and cloud based UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nFor more information about pascom, please visit www.pascom.net\n","date":"April 27, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-mobydick-phone-system-7.14/","title":"pascom mobydick phone system 7.14"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Successful pascom IP PBX interop with Grandstream IP phones delivers high performing, cost effective turn key business phone systems. Deggendorf, Germany and Boston, USA | 26. April 2017 - pascom GmbH, developer of the next generation UC business phone systems, today announce the successful completion of interoperability and compatibility testing with Grandstream Networks, Inc.\u0026rsquo;s GXP and GXV series of IP desktop phones.\npascom Grandstream IP endpoint interop\rAs a leading UC IP Endpoint vendor, Grandstream are renowned worldwide for their quality, reliability and innovation. The successful completion of testing ensures that mutual pascom and Grandstream customers benefit from the highest standards of quality and innovation whilst enjoying hassle free administration. Moreover, customers looking to upgrade business communications can be assured pascom\u0026rsquo;s full range of IP telephony and Unified Communications functionality with Grandstream\u0026rsquo;s GXP and GXV series of IP desktop phones.\nThe new interoperability partnership also serves to open the door to pascom and Grandstream resellers who are looking to offer added value customers solutions with innovative cloud and on-premise UC IP PBX solutions combined with excellent, high performing yet affordable IP endpoints.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO: Grandstream offer a complete range of modern, sleek IP phones that not only deliver high performance, but also offer excellent affordability and reliability. As such, interoperability with our phone system will ensure that resellers are able to provide customers with high quality Unified Communications solutions at a fraction of the cost.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation Telephony Solutions and we have been upgrading business communications for 20 years.\nWith pascom’s on-premise and cloud based UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements making our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more cost effectively.\nAbout Grandstream Networks Grandstream Networks, Inc. has been connecting the world since 2002 with SIP Unified Communications products and solutions that allow businesses to be more productive than ever before. Our award-winning solutions serve the small and medium business and enterprises markets and have been recognized throughout the world for their quality, reliability and innovation. Grandstream solutions lower communication costs, increase security protection and enhance productivity. Their open standard SIP-based products offer broad interoperability throughout the industry, along with unrivaled features and flexibility.\n","date":"April 26, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-grandstream-desktop-ip-phones-interoperability/","title":"pascom Grandstream Desktop IP Phones Interoperability"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Meet the Team at CeBIT 2017 Are you ready for the premier global event for digital business and technology? Yes it is that time of year again when the who\u0026rsquo;s who of the IT world converges on Hannover for CeBIT 2017 and of course we are also going to be there. This year\u0026rsquo;s show see us reuniting with our old friends from Snom Technology as we join them on their stand (Hall 12, D41) as a co-exhibitor and we look forward to welcoming you all to the stand.\nA visit to our CeBIT 2017 stand will definitely be worth your while as we showcase what\u0026rsquo;s new with our VoIP phone system software and how our Unified Communications and ContactCenter tools support businesses communicate smarter at a fraction of the cost - no matter whether on-premise or in the cloud.\nWe have a limited number of visitor tickets available, so register your appointment today and secure your complimentary ticket! We look forward to welcoming you to our stand.\nDate: 20. - 24. March 2017\nTime: 9 am - 6 pm\nStand: Hall 12 Stand D41 (Snom)\nShould you have any questions regarding our CeBIT exhibit or would like to make an appointment, please register on www.pascom.net or give us a call on: +49 991 29691 0\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom.\n","date":"February 16, 2017","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-at-cebit-2017/","title":"pascom at CeBIT 2017"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"pascom Support Aktion Kinderbaum Regensburg with Annual Donation Deggendorf - 08. December 2016 - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of business VoIP telecommunication solutions, are proud to support \u0026ldquo;Aktion Kinderbaum-Regensburg hilft\u0026rdquo;, a Stadt Regensburg initiative to share the joy Christmas with children throughout the region.\npascom CEO donating to the Aktion Kinderbaum Regensburg project\rFor many, Christmas is a time of joy and happiness shared with those closest to us, giving presents, enjoying the laughter of children and the company of our loved ones. Unfortunately, for many children, Christmas can be an incredibly hard and emotionally difficult time of year, either due to a family\u0026rsquo;s financial situation or even more sadly they have lost their parents. It is exactly these children whom Stadt Regensburg are hoping to reach with \u0026ldquo;Aktion Kinderbaum-Regensburg hilft\u0026rdquo;.\nQuirin Pasquay - pascom CEO on supporting the Kinderbaum project:\n\u0026ldquo;We are a family orientated company, which is why every year we look to support the invaluable work that organisations do in support of families and children who for whatever reason need that helping hand. Christmas can be a time of great happiness, but also for many considerable financial and emotional stress. Through supporting the Kinderbaum-Regensburg project, it is our hope that we are able to share the festive spirit and make Christmas that much easier and more enjoyable for families and children across Regensburg.\u0026rdquo;\nJoachim Wolbergs - Stadt Regensburg Oberbürgermeister on pascom\u0026rsquo;s donation:\n\u0026ldquo;It is with heartfelt gratitude that I am able to accept pascom\u0026rsquo;s support for the work we do at Aktion Kinderbaum. It is my guarantee that one hundred percent of the proceeds will be used to bring some joy and happiness to the children and teenagers within the Regensburg area.\u0026rdquo;\nAbout Aktion Kinderbaum-Regensburg Founded by Stadt Regensburg \u0026ldquo;Aktion Kinderbaum-Regensburg hilft\u0026rdquo; (Kids Tree Regensburg Helps Project) was born in 2012 and since then has become an annual institution across the city of Regensburg.\nKinderbaum-Regensburg aim to ensure that every child in Regensburg receives a Christmas present. For many this is taken for granted, but for many others in Regensburg it is anything but. Unfortunately, there are children whose parents are financially unable to buy presents and then sadly there are children who have lost their parents and will never again experience Christmas with those they loved most. The Kinderbaum-Regensburg project was founded especially to give these children something to look forward to and let them share in the joy of Christmas.\nFor more information, please visit www.regensburg.de (German only).\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s on-premise and cloud based UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements making our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more cost effectively.\nwww.pascom.net\n","date":"December 8, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-supporting-aktion-kinderbaum-regensburg/","title":"pascom Supporting Aktion Kinderbaum Regensburg"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems"],"contents":"The Top 5 Cloud Telephony Business Benefits Cloud seems to be all the rage these days and understandably so. There is no doubt that cloud based solution deliver numerous benefits to businesses of all sizes.\nThe move to the cloud has been well documented over recent years and much has been made of these business benefits. However, what about the benefits of cloud telephony?\nSimplicity Unlike an on-premise VoIP phone system solution, cloud telephony does not require any additional onsite hardware or virtualization infrastructure. By eliminating these infrastructure requirements, telephony systems are simplified, freeing up IT administrators to focus one other tasks or projects.\nFurthermore, not needing any hardware also greatly simplifies your phone system\u0026rsquo;s initial setup and deployment, which means you can get connected almost straight away.\nIn fact, by choosing a top of the range cloud based telephony solution such as pascom\u0026rsquo;s which offers businesses a fully integrated softphone, companies can even do away with their desktop phones and get their team communicating immediately.\nMobility By hosting their telephony services in the cloud, business can also greatly simplify how system users connect. Non hosted solutions require additional Virtual Private Network (VPN) applications. Cloud based telephony solutions remove this need and in doing so promote employee mobility and productivity.\nProvided users have an internet connection, they will simply be able to log on from anywhere at anytime meaning that your team stays contactable and productive as well as enabling more efficient telecommuting strategies which in turn can help boost employee motivation and job satisfaction.\nObviously, hauling a desktop phone around with you everywhere you go is not ideal, which is why full featured cloud based solution like pascom\u0026rsquo;s provide additional mobility options including integrated softphones as well as smartphone clients for Android and iOS, making keeping your team moving and connected to your business easy.\nGreater Scalability Businesses are particularly attracted to cloud solutions thanks to the scalability that they offer. Cloud telephony solutions are no different, providing companies with the ability to grow their system in-line with business growth. Adding new users and new extensions could not be simpler and new devices can be provisioned with a matter of minutes. What\u0026rsquo;s more, all your system users do not need to be in the same office as cloud based solutions help break down geographical barriers, which offers additional business success benefits, i.e. increasing geographical reach and presence.\nOne common argument for an on premise telephony solution as opposed to a cloud based offering is that often cloud telephony providers do not allow businesses to fully manage their telephony services. Such limitations include restricting VoIP provider options to just those of the hosted platform provider, not having access to user management tools and so. However, some solutions such as pascom\u0026rsquo;s, do not suffer from the same limitations, meaning businesses can manage, modify and customise their telephony platform to match their business needs exactly.\nRedundancy An often overlooked business benefit of cloud telephony is that such solutions provide businesses with an additional layer of redundancy. Should you be operating an on-premise solution and your office be unfortunately affected by an unforeseen event such as power cuts and strikes or, worse still, a natural disaster such as a storm or fire, it is often the case that your business communication lines are also affected and not only for those team members who are based in the office.\nHowever, by switching to a cloud solution, all your telephony services will still be accessible to remote employees, branch offices and even your office based team will be able to continue working from home or using their mobile applications while your central office is out of commission.\nCost Efficiencies As cloud based solutions are subscription based, companies only pay a nice, easy to manage monthly fee for the number of users that they need, supporting them with spreading costs. What\u0026rsquo;s more, cloud telephony solutions also require significantly less up front capital expenditure on server hardware and (Virtual Private Network) VPN infrastructures, greatly reducing a purchase decisions impact on the business cash flow.\nFurther to this, as cloud telephony supports businesses in greatly reducing the complexity of their IT environments, additional on going cost savings can be realised by minimising your IT department\u0026rsquo;s time spent managing your phone system and freeing up your IT resources to focus on other business priorities.\nSummary When considering switching to a cloud based telephony solution, the above business benefits may sway you into making a quicker decision than you normally would. However, it is important to realise that not every cloud solution is created equally.\nSome hosted solution providers restrict a business\u0026rsquo; ability to fully manage their system while others generate vendor lock-in by forcing businesses to converge their hosted telephony platform with their telecommunications voice provider (VoIP provider), which obviously can affect not only a business\u0026rsquo; ability to remain competitive but also the overall solution cost effectiveness.\nFor more information about pascom phone systems and cloud telephony solutions and how they can support you in growing your business, give us a call +49 (0) 991 29691 201 or check out our website.\n","date":"October 6, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/cloud-telephony-business-benefits/","title":"5 Cloud Telephony Business Benefits"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Comparing On-Premise vs Cloud Phone Systems Choosing which VoIP phone system is challenging enough with so many things to consider; matching feature sets with organisational needs, operating system compatibility and so forth. Throw having to compare On-Premise vs Cloud Telephony solutions in to the mix and the decision suddenly becomes so challenging to give most people a migraine, particularly if they are not extremely well acquainted with the VoIP technology and terminology.\nNowadays, all the rage is about Cloud Telephony, but does that mean that the days of the On-Premise solution are dead? Should you switch your company to a cloud based solution? The answer is a simple no, but how then should you decided?\nAs you may recall, last week we covered the Top 5 benefits of Cloud Telephony and now it is time to take a closer look at On-Premise vs Cloud Telephony solutions in order to help you make an informed decision, by helping you understand the differences, of which there can be a few.\nFeature Set Perhaps the most important aspect of either solution to consider is the feature set as this is where the most benefits in terms of boosting productivity, improving customer service and mobilising your workforce can be found.\nMany Cloud Phone System solution providers differentiate between their cloud and on-premise offerings, meaning that the feature set on offer is not the same for both. Moreover, features that are standard with on-premise solutions like IVRs, Queues and Team Management may not be included in the Cloud solution and could cost extra. If that is the case, such a solution may not be a viable option compared to a cloud solution like our pascom Cloud UC phone system which includes all the same features regardless of whether it is Cloud based or on-premise (either hardware based or virtualised).\nCapital Expenditure Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) is one area where cloud solutions definitely have a distinct advantage. On-premise solutions entail shelling out for expensive server hardware or virtualisation software, whereas with a cloud solution you will only need to budget for desktop phones. In exchange, instead of one large upfront cost, businesses who choose cloud based solutions are normally charged a lower monthly user based fee.\nCloud Telephony solutions, therefore tend to be very appealing to the smaller end of the SMB spectrum. However, as with all these things, there comes a point when purchasing is actually more cost effective than paying a monthly fee, and it is normally around the 20 - 25 user mark, making cloud solutions ideal for SOHO and SMBs with 5 to 25 employees.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s not to say that Cloud Solutions are not suited to larger enterprises, it\u0026rsquo;s more that the motivation behind a larger enterprise adopting a Cloud Telephony platform relates to a different set of benefits.\nTotal Cost of Ownership (TCO) This is another area where Cloud based Telephony solutions appear to have the upper hand over On-Premise solutions. Cloud solutions can often have a very low TCO namely due to cost savings in terms of IT staff and also because often the solution provider is responsible for server configuration and maintenance.\nMoreover, Cloud solutions also often have the so called \u0026ldquo;software maintenance\u0026rdquo; costs included within the monthly fee and depending what the On-Premise software maintenance costs are, this can greatly reduce operational expenditure (OPEX).\nHowever, while it is true that cloud solutions have the upper hand here, you need to always bear in mind that the size of your business and the way it is structured plays a role here too, meaning that an On-premise solution may in fact be more appropriate.\nInfrastructure Last time around, we mentioned that one of the top benefits of a Cloud Telephony solution is its simplicity. This is true most of the time and can lead to significant cost savings in maintaining and upgrading your infrastructure, particularly if you still operate a legacy system to connect to the PSTN. Upgrading to an on-premise VoIP phone system can sometimes result in having to upgrade or replace large portions (if not all) of your existing infrastructure which is obviously a costly option which would not be necessary when implementing a Cloud based solution.\nOn the other hand, there could be a perfectly justified business reason as to why your company would like to retain its existing infrastructure in house and in which case, an On-Premise solution is the way to go. A case in point would be a company for which internal telephony is simply a must have and relying on external infrastructure is simply to much of a risk, such as in industrial areas. But just be aware that you might have to shell out some cash to update / modify your infrastructure.\nScalability At the top of this post, we mentioned that the feature set is perhaps the most important aspect to consider. Well here\u0026rsquo;s another one that challenges for that top spot - Scalability. Whether you call it future proofing, flexibility or scalability, this intangible word should play a critical role in your decision making process.\nBut what exactly constitutes scalability? When comes to Cloud solutions, aspects such as is it a converged solution need to be consider as if it is, you need to ensure that your voice services also meet your business objectives of not only today, but also the next few years. If choosing an On-premise solution, you will need to consider your hardware capabilities with one eye considering future company growth and capital expense budgets.\nIn essence, when making your decision you will need to ask yourself some tough questions and be realistic in how you answer. For example, is the company expanding into to new markets / territories, as this will effect the viability of your voice services. Is it likely that the business will experience rapid growth in terms of user base or new locations as this will affect the required hardware. These will all impact your decision making and ultimately the return on investment of whichever type of solution you choose.\nSummary It may seem like more questions that answers, but by answering these questions and carefully matching your answers to your business objectives, the decision as to whether to choose a Cloud or On-premise based solution is best will become less challenging and will hopefully avoid you getting that migraine I mentioned.\nSign up for a free pascom phone system consultation and one of our team will happily help you assess the best solution for your business, plus provide you with some useful insights, tips and advice along the way.\n","date":"October 6, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/on-premise-pbx-vs-cloud-phone-systems/","title":"On-Premise PBX vs Cloud Phone Systems"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Deggendorf, Germany | 04. October 2016 - pascom Netzwerktechnik GmbH, developer of the next generation Business VoIP phone systems, recently launched the company\u0026rsquo;s new hosted telephony offering. The new service offers an extremely scalable hosted phone system platform that is ideal for both small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) as well as larger enterprise and call centre customers.\npascom\u0026rsquo;s hosted phone system offering offers all the features of an on-premise telephony system, from Unified Communications through to Contact Center solutions and everything in between. As such, hosted pascom solutions ensure employees stay connected, both in or out of the office.\nHosted pascom solutions offer businesses more flexibility and greater cost saving opportunities by allowing customers to choose their preferred VoIP provider. The extra flexibility afforded by pascom Cloud Telephony solutions does not stop there. Included in the service offering, pascom provide hosted phone system customers with a complete initial setup plus access to an all inclusive support package. pascom cloud telephony solutions also provide administrators with complete control over their system, allowing them to customise their solution entirely to the business model without requiring additional pascom technical support.\npascom Cloud customers are also assured of highly secure telecommunications thanks to each customer having access to their own exclusive hosted PBX instance and the automatic encryption of every aspect of communication from device provisioning through to encrypted voice and data. Further to this, pascom\u0026rsquo;s cloud telephony solution offers additional security thanks to being hosted in a certified Data Center and in full compliance with German Data Protection laws.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO \u0026amp; Co-founder, on launching pascom\u0026rsquo;s hosted offering:\nWith the migration to IP based telephony and SaaS solutions fast gaining momentum, it was crucial to position pascom as a viable solution for all market segments. With our hosted offering, we believe we are now able to reach a previously untapped market segment and provide them with a first class cloud PBX solution that delivers more than just telephony.\nAbout pascom – communication without borders Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of the next-generation pascom phone system software. Through facilitating enhanced collaboration and increasing mobility, pascom customers are able to realise significant productivity gains and cost savings whilst enjoying inline scalability.\npascom provides businesses with a robust Unified Communications solution to face up to today’s business communication challenges.\nFor more information about pascom\u0026rsquo;s hosted solution, please visit www.pascom.net\n","date":"October 6, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-launch-hosted-telephony-solution/","title":"pascom Launch Hosted Telephony Solution"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"mobydick 7.13 Innovating Communication mobydick 7.13 sees the release of pascom\u0026rsquo;s latest Cloud Telephony solution, mobydick 7.13, as well as boasting more interoperability and enhanced endpoint management. mobydick 7.13 provides the perfect telephony solution for businesses looking to leverage the additional flexibility of cloud telephony solutions whether they hosted by us [pascom] directly or by one of our Cloud Service Provider partners\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES mobydick Cloud Telephony mobydick 7.13 sees the release of our Cloud Telephony solution. Meaning our customers are now able to benefit from accessing all their mobydick phone system features from anywhere combined with the freedom to choose providers, endpoints etc and the extra flexibility that a cloud telephony solution offers.\nAs an existing mobydick on-premise customer we have also put together a special introductory offer for you should you wish to switch to the cloud solution. Simply contact our sales team for further information.\nEndpoint Management has Never Been Simpler mobydick 7.13 also delivers not only more interoperability thanks to the addition of Unify\u0026rsquo;s (formerly Siemens, Enterprise Communications, SEN) OpenStage/Optipoint devices to our range of supported endpoints, but also vastly enhanced endpoint management thanks to an editable default configuration templates.\nThe new templates ensure that it is now possible to simply duplicate and then modify the default base configuration for Snom, Yealink, Mitel and Auerswald Telephones to match your needs. As a result, the device on-boarding and configuration process is now significantly quicker and more guarantees a more efficient device deployment, provisioning and ongoing fleet management.\nAbout pascom - communication without borders Founded in 1997, pascom is a Linux IT systems integrator with over 15 years worth of experience delivering tailor-made IP telecommunications and network infrastructures solutions and thanks to their Asterisk based pascom phone system software, pascom have grown in to a market leader in the IP telecommunications across the DACH region and beyond.\npascom is a software based, open standards platform which delivers powerful, innovative business communications solutions. Based on Asterisk, the pascom phone system provides businesses with a scalable and flexible alternative to proprietary IP PBX solutions whilst simultaneously allowing companies to reduce telecommunication costs, increase mobility and boost productivity.\nDelivering a whole host of unified communications tools, pascom’s platform-independent, user-friendly admin interface, provides users and IT admins alike with an enhanced user-friendly experience and significantly decreases IT administration further boosting productivity, optimising workflows and increasing efficiencies.\nFor more information about pascom, please visit www.pascom.net.\n","date":"September 16, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-mobydick-phone-system-7.13/","title":"pascom mobydick phone system 7.13"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Softphone usage is on the rise, but what is the ideal phone combination for your business VoIP phone system? Once again our friends over at telecoms review website software advice have produced some great research, this time concerning the ideal telephone combination for your VoIP phone system.\nOf course, it goes without saying that as technology has advanced and moved away from the traditional phone systems of yesteryear, the availability and flexibility of varying device options and combinations has greatly increased. These days, terms such as softphones, BYOD and mobile VoIP apps have become increasingly commonplace within the telecommunications industry and the business world as a whole.\nTop of the range UC solutions are required to offer greater flexibility, increase availability and support businesses deliver modern communication and collaboration tools, which all enable employees to work smarter and more efficiently from anywhere. Which means such solutions require a whole host of features such as softphones and mobility apps.\nNow to the research compiled by software advice. While perhaps not surprising the results make for interesting reading and highlight the fact that the trend towards remote working/telecommuting continues to gain traction.\nAccording to the survey, softphones are currently being used by nearly 50% of the respondents, which indicates that while the technology is slowing catching up with desktop phones, the preferred choice for employees who are office based (or remote workers when in the office) is the desktop phone.\nTypes of phones being used\rIn fact, desk phone adoption is sitting steady at around 70%, meaning that they are still clearly the leading choice for office-based employees. This figure is somewhat lower than what is currently prevalent within the DACH market. Analysis of research we conducted in 2014 indicated that the figure was closer to 85%, as the majority of users preferred using desk phones in combination with mobiles or a second desk phone at home.\nSo why has softphone adoption not experienced dramatic growth or more accurately, why have desk phones managed to cling on to the top place in the telecommunication device pecking order? The answer is what we would expect - reliability and quality.\nDesktop Phone Advantages\rWhile desktop phones have managed to maintain first place, the question is for how much longer, as more and more companies employ BYOD strategies and promote teleworking, the adoption of technology such as softphones and mobile apps will continue to grow, as they promote greater flexibility whilst increasing availability of employees with integrated UC features. In fact, 72% of respondents said using softphones aided them by easing remote working.\nSoftphone Advantages\rThe question of quality is a good one, while it is true softphones are known for not having the same levels of quality compared to desk phones, this is often due to external influences such as slower internet speeds, insufficient bandwidth or even the quality of the headset being used. All of which office-based workers may not experience.\nSummary Whichever solution you choose, one thing is clear. All IP devices have their role to play within a modern business and the growth of softphone and mobile apps adoption will continue to rise as more and more businesses implement modern flexible working policies.\nIf you are considering switching or upgrading your telephony services to an ALL IP SIP VoIP solution or would like more information regarding pascom, then give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"June 29, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/the-ideal-ip-phone-combination/","title":"The Ideal IP Phone Combination"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Taking Asterisk Queues to the Next Level with Lua Scripts Last week saw our very own Mathias Pasquay (pascom CEO, VoIP Guy and Asterisk enthusiast) and Thomas Weber (pascom CTO and now honorary VoIP Guy) delivering a techtalk on Asterisk Queues and the challenges faced when implementing Advanced Call Routing, Skills Based Routing \u0026amp; Fair Queueing at Kamailio World 2016 in Berlin.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES The Problem with Asterisk Queues You know the day when a prospect customer comes to you and says \u0026ldquo;I need a highly customised solution for my callcenter involving advanced call routing etc etc\u0026rdquo;? Some companies might sit there and think that\u0026rsquo;s too bespoke, we can\u0026rsquo;t do it natively and so on. Well we didn\u0026rsquo;t, but it did leave us with a bit of a problem, namely how to deliver Skills Based Routing and Fair Queueing using Asterisk\u0026rsquo;s app_queue.\nAsterisk\u0026rsquo;s app_queue is actually pretty good. It works well, includes a good selection of call strategies and so on - but and there always is one. In the case of app_queue, it unfortunately does not always fit everyone\u0026rsquo;s business logic and it is not easily adaptable to new business cases.\nThe Solution As with most things, if you are looking for an answer it is best to speak to those in the know and listen to what they have to say. Options that we considered before settling on our solution included implementing queueing solutions using the Asterisk AMI, ARI or Dialplan.\nHowever, this can often be overly complex as well as cost ineffective. Thankfully, we came up with a simpler, more effective option to achieve your business goals\u0026hellip;..using Lua scripts.\nLua Scripts The Lua scripting language is known as a fast interpreter with a small footprint, which is one of the reasons why it is provided as an embedded option in many RTC server applications, including Kamailio and Asterisk.\nFor more on Next Generation Asterisk Call Queueing, watch the guys in action during Kamailio World in the video above.\nMore Info pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom.\n","date":"May 27, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/next-level-asterisk-queues-at-kamailio-world-2016/","title":"Next Level Asterisk Queues at Kamailio World 2016"},{"categories":null,"contents":"pascom Announces Luxembourg VoIP Provider voipGATE Interoperability 10. May 2016 | Deggendorf, Germany \u0026amp; Leudelange, Luxembourg - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of Unified Communication phone systems for business,today announced the successful completion of interoperability testing voipGATE, a global VoIP provider based in Luxembourg.\nThanks to the successful completion of interoperability testing, pascom customers can be assured that all pascom phone system features are fully operable with voipGATE\u0026rsquo;s SIP trunking services whilst ensuring they continue to benefit from cost-effective, high and reliable call quality. Moreover, the completion of interoperability and compatibility testing has resulted in a newly developed pascom SIP provider database template, providing pascom phone system administrators access to voipGATE\u0026rsquo;s extensive range of services in over 60 countries.\nIn addition to ensuring full functionality, the new template enables pascom phone system administrators to quickly and easily connect to their pascom phone system with just a few mouse clicks by selecting the voipGATE SIP Trunking template from within the Gateway options menu of the pascom phone system administration web UI. Doing so will automatically connect and configure voipGATE inbound and outbound telephony services, ensuring customers are up and calling inside a matter of minutes.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom Founder \u0026amp; Chief Executive Officer, stated of the new interoperability; \u0026ldquo;By welcoming voipGATE to our ever growing family of interop partners, mutual customers will benefit greatly in terms of ease of setup as well as being able to rest assured that pascom\u0026rsquo;s advanced feature set is fully compatible. Furthermore, voipGATE\u0026rsquo;s extensive presence in over 60 countries will benefit any pascom phone system customer operating across national borders by providing access to a single high quality provider.\u0026rdquo;\nAbout voipGATE Founded in 2004, voipGATE operates locally and worldwide as a leading operator in Voice over IP, by offering telecommunication services and local phone numbers in more than 60 countries, allowing customers to establish a virtual presence in their key markets. voipGATE has strong partnerships with key PBX and mobile device vendors to ensure and offer its customers both flexibility and ease of use.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions, visit www.pascom.net or get started for free now.\n","date":"May 10, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-announces-interoperability-with-luxembourg-voip-provider-voipgate/","title":"pascom Announces Interoperability with Luxembourg VoIP Provider voipGATE"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Announce Kamailio World 2016 Sponsorship 03. May, 2016, Deggendorf, Germany - pascom GmbH, developer of the next-generation business phone systems, today announce their participation at Kamailio World 2016 (18-20th May) in Berlin as a Silver Sponsor.\npascom\u0026rsquo;s involvement with Kamailio World stems from more than just being an event sponsor. During Kamailio World 2015, Mathias Pasquay, pascom CEO and Co-founder, spoke on the topic of deploying Kamailio when moving an Existing Asterisk based IP PBX to the Cloud without any functionality loss - which has been a core aspect of the company\u0026rsquo;s product development over the past 12 months.\nFast forward to 2016 and Mr Pasquay will once again take to the stage to discuss another major product development focus - leveraging the power of Lua Scripting to not only enhance Asterisk phone system call queueing but also its practical applications across the Kamailio and Asterisk Open Source communities.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO and co-founder, on Kamailio World: “As Kamailio World 2015 was such a success and as pascom integrates a whole manner of Open Source solutions in the development of mobydick, being at Kamailio World provides an opportunity to give back to the community as well as gaining an insight to the latest innovations stemming from the community. Moreover, as the 2016 event celebrates 15 years of innovation - I simply couldn\u0026rsquo;t miss it.”\nThe 2016 event focuses on realtime communication technologies and how their constant innovation not only challenges the imagination but also paves the way for the future of realtime communication.\nFor more information and ticket registration, please visit www.kamailioworld.com\nAbout Kamailio Kamailio (successor of former OpenSER and SER) is an Open Source SIP Server released under GPL, able to handle thousands of call setups per second. Kamailio can be used to build large platforms for VoIP and realtime communications – presence, WebRTC, Instant messaging and other applications. It can also easily be applied to scaling up SIP-to-PSTN gateways, PBX systems or media servers like Asterisk™, FreeSWITCH™ or SEMS.\nAmong the powerful features: asynchronous TCP, UDP and SCTP, secure communication via TLS for VoIP (voice, video, text); WebSocket support for WebRTC; IPv4 and IPv6; SIMPLE instant messaging and presence with embedded XCAP server and MSRP relay; asynchronous operations; IMS extensions; ENUM; DID and least cost routing; load balancing; routing fail-over; accounting, authentication and authorization; support for many backend systems such as MySQL, Postgres, Oracle, Radius, LDAP, Redis, Cassandra, MongoDB, Memcached; Json and XMLRPC control interface, SNMP monitoring.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom.\n","date":"May 3, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-at-kamailio-world-2016/","title":"pascom at Kamailio World 2016"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"CeBIT 2016 - Our Most Successful Yet 18.04.2016 | Deggendorf - CeBIT 2016 may be a few weeks behind us now but the interest generated and the success of our 2016 exhibition is very much ongoing. Figures released by Deutsche Messe AG indicate that attendees engaging in business talks is continuing to rise. Furthermore, international attendance remains on par with a quarter of visitors heralding from shores further afield, confirming CeBIT is still the premiere IT exhibition despite growing competition from other international shows.\nIntroducing the pascom Phone System Please accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES The 2016 show saw pascom exhibiting alongside IP phone developer Auerswald GmbH as their 2016 CeBIT Cooperations Partner. The change in stand location proved timely in opening new avenues for reaching a previously unexplored domestic market segment whilst maintaining our presence at the centre of the Unified Communications world that is Hall 13.\nPreviously reticent System Integrators who had been hesitant to consider software-based VoIP solutions are now reconsidering. The change in thinking has been brought about in part due to the upcoming 2018 ISDN cut off in Germany combined with experiencing increasing customer pressure stemming from businesses becoming more aware of the more advanced feature sets, increased flexibility and scalability benefits that software-based VoIP solutions, such as pascom\u0026rsquo;s, are known to deliver.\npascom\u0026rsquo;s Most Successful CeBIT To Date Throughout the 2016 show, it was apparent that not only stand visitor numbers were up, so too was the quality and level of interest in pascom\u0026rsquo;s phone system solutions.\nThomas Schmidt, pascom Director of Sales speaking on the final day; As a first impression, considering the volume and quality of visitors throughout the week being of such a high calibre, it is with an assured confidence that I predict CeBIT 2016 to quite possibly be our most successful CeBIT to date.\u0026quot;\nOnce again, our participation at CeBIT 2016 provided the perfect platform from which to showcase our Unified Communications solution to a wide variety of domestic and international potential customers and channel partners.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO \u0026amp; Co-Founder speaking during the event; \u0026ldquo;Over the previous four years, our presence at CeBIT has played a crucial role in expanding our geographical reach both nationally and internationally and this trend looks set to continue during this year\u0026rsquo;s [2016] show.\u0026rdquo;\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom.\n","date":"April 18, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-cebit-2016-review/","title":"pascom CeBIT 2016 Review"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Cloud Telephony mobydick 7.12 delivers a significant number of “under the hood” additions, modifications and improvements. This also includes mobydick 7.12 being the first mobydick phone solution that is cloud compatible and provides the foundations on which future mobydick phone system versions will be further enhanced. To this end, the development of mobydick 7.12 ran in parallel to achieving the first milestone of the mobydick Cloud Stack which will be fully functional with mobydick 7.13 next quarter.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Auerswald Interoperability mobydick 7.12 sees the addition of Autoprovisioning and Interoperability support for Auerswald GmbH’s superb range of Android based IP Phones, meaning end users are now able to benefit from the ease of use and familiarity of their Android Smartphones, directly on their desktop without losing any of the functionality that mobydick interoperability delivers.\nFor mobydick phone system administrators, the new support also delivers significant time saving and ease of device commissioning benefits. Thanks to the transition from the previous tabular device configuration settings to a XML menu editor, device family management in mobydick 7.12 has been greatly simplified, enabling admins to simply copy and paste the settings and customising them to meet specific device / user requirements. This transition will be available for Snom, Yealink \u0026amp; Aastra (Mitel) phones in mobydick 7.13.\npascom Auerswald IP endpoint interop\rOutbound Trunk Selector within the mobydick client With mobydick 7.12, it is now possible for mobydick end users to select the phone number (meaning trunk) they use when making calls from a drop down list. Enabling this function has numerous benefits including allowing end users to decide on the most appropriate number without needing the corresponding “In-Prefix” associated to each trunk. What’s more, this new functionality also reduces the need for mobydick phone system administrators having to configure multiple least cost routing call rules when multiple trunks are in operation and when used appropriately can produced significant cost savings which will make the finance team happy.\npascom Desktop CTI Number Selector\rCopy/Paste Licences mobydick 7.12 brings about a change in the methodology behind how licences are issued and kept up-to-date thanks to migrating away from the old md-lic packets to a mobydick licence key that can be copied and pasted directly eliminating the need for packet downloads and uploads when managing licences. In addition, should a mobydick licence become invalid due to new user values or software maintenance contract extensions for example, mobydick will revert back to the community version. This will provide mobydick system administrators to access the commander where they will be able to use the newly integrated “Check for licence updates” tool or paste the new licence key directly into the licence overview section of mobydick, meaning they can get the mobydick phone system operational again with the minimum of fuss and in no time at all.\npascom Licence Keys\rDatabase Backups The mobydick Database backup tool has been greatly improved and now automatically includes music on hold and customised prompts as well as providing mobydick phone system administrators with more flexibility in what is included by providing options to include recordings, faxes and voicemails.\nConference Rooms The mobydick Conference Rooms no longer use the MeetMe application, but rather have been migrated to the newer more stable Confbridge. MeetMe has been deprecated and also led to problems and stability issues within the conferencing system, whereas Confbridge delivers greater stability. However, this does mean that for the time being the little used dynamic Conferencing functionality has been removed until the Confbridge integrate has been expanded to support dynamic conferencing.\nNew Debian System \u0026amp; Asterisk Certification The mobydick phone system has been upgraded to Debian 7 (Wheezy). Wheezy is approximately 25 – 30% quicker than Debian 6, which in turn provides additional benefits in terms of the number of users the various mobydick appliances can support. This also applies to virtualised instances thanks to Wheezy providing an optimised platform for vmWare and Hyper-V virtualisation solutions.\nFurthermore, upgrading to Wheezy ensures that the mobydick Linux platform will continue to be supported until May 2018 as well as ensuring continuing security updates for the system can be implemented as does the upgrade to asterisk 11.6-cert 12 which delivers a greater spectrum of security features.\nAbout pascom - communication without borders Founded in 1997, pascom is a Linux IT systems integrator with over 15 years worth of experience delivering tailor-made IP telecommunications and network infrastructures solutions and thanks to their Asterisk based pascom phone system software, pascom have grown in to a market leader in the IP telecommunications across the DACH region and beyond.\npascom is a software based, open standards platform which delivers powerful, innovative business communications solutions. Based on Asterisk, the pascom phone system provides businesses with a scalable and flexible alternative to proprietary IP PBX solutions whilst simultaneously allowing companies to reduce telecommunication costs, increase mobility and boost productivity.\nDelivering a whole host of unified communications tools, pascom’s platform-independent, user-friendly admin interface, provides users and IT admins alike with an enhanced user-friendly experience and significantly decreases IT administration further boosting productivity, optimising workflows and increasing efficiencies.\nFor more information about pascom, please visit www.pascom.net.\n","date":"April 7, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-mobydick-phone-system-7.12/","title":"pascom mobydick phone system 7.12"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Successfully Complete Flowroute Interoperability Testing 14. March 2016 | Deggendorf, Germany \u0026amp; Seattle, USA - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of Unified Communication phone systems for business is proud to announce the successful interoperability certification with Flowroute, the leading US provider of advanced communication services. The certification verifies compatibility and documents configuration recommendations for pascom’s business VoIP phone system used in conjunction with Flowroute’s communications services. Certification sees the US based VoIP provider joining pascom\u0026rsquo;s expanding global network of approved Interoperability Partners.\nThe successful certification ensures the full operation of all pascom phone system’s features with Flowroute\u0026rsquo;s SIP trunking service to deliver cost-effective, reliable calls for pascom customers while allowing them to maintain control of their entire communications solution. Thanks to the technical collaboration between both companies, as well as ongoing testing of the newly developed SIP provider template, customers can be assured of high and reliable call quality.\nIn addition to ensuring reliable and high call quality, the new template enables pascom phone system administrators to quickly and easily connect Flowroute to their pascom phone system within just a few mouse clicks by selecting the Flowroute SIP Trunking template from within the Gateway options menu of the pascom Administrator web UI. Doing so Flowroute services will automatically be configured for both inbound and outbound call rules.\nDan Nordale, Flowroute Chief Marketing Officer, said of the new partnership:\nFlowroute customers expect the highest performance from their communications technologies and we appreciate pascom’s drive to clear this high bar. Our customers push the envelope with communications and we have found pascom to thrive in these situations, so we know this formalization of our partnership is an important step for our joint customers. pascom’s growing global customers base depend on flawless communications and we are eager for them to experience the Flowroute difference.\u0026quot;\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO, stated of the new interoperability:\nOur new interoperability partnership is great news for our pascom customers who will now be able to more easily gain maximum benefit from a combined pascom Flowroute VoIP solution. Further to this, welcoming Flowroute to the pascom family again demonstrates our commitment to supporting our customers worldwide in the delivery of top quality, hassle free communications.\u0026quot;\nAbout Flowroute Flowroute is the leading provider of communication services for cloud-based companies. Flowroute gives developers and enterprises carrier-quality services with unprecedented performance, transparency and control to add voice and messaging capabilities into their apps and services to create unique user experiences.\nFlowroute is privately held and headquartered in Seattle, WA. For more information: flowroute.com.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions, visit www.pascom.net or get started for free now.\n","date":"March 14, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-announce-interoperability-with-north-american-voip-provider-flowroute/","title":"pascom Announces Interoperability with North American VoIP Provider Flowroute"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom and Gradwell Communications Successfully Complete Interoperability Testing [Deggendorf, Germany \u0026amp; Bath, UK | 18. February, 2016] pascom GmbH, developer of the next-generation pascom phone system, today announce the successful completion of interoperability and compatibility testing with Gradwell Communications, an award-winning UK based SIP Solutions Provider.\nThe addition of Gradwell SIP trunking services to the pascom SIP provider database is great news for pascom customers operating within the United Kingdom market place. Moreover, as a result of the comprehensive testing, the complete range of pascom phone system features have been fully tested to ensure functionality and also ensures that mutual customers will benefit from being able to add, configure and utilise Gradwell VoIP services within just a matter of seconds thanks to a specifically developed provider template.\nMoreover, interoperability between these two leading European voice over IP companies ensures that any businesses operating within the UK market place will be able benefit from productivity gains and significant cost savings thanks to a combination of Gradwell\u0026rsquo;s excellent value and highly agile SIP services and pascom\u0026rsquo;s business friendly and highly innovative pascom phone system.\nRyan Cox, SIP Product Manager, Gradwell Communications, mentioned of the successful interoperability testing:\nAs a UK SIP trunk provider, Gradwell are extremely excited to be working with pascom. This will open further avenues for customers who want a low cost flexible UC solution utilising Gradwell SIP trunks in tandem with the pascom IP PBX.\u0026quot;\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO, said of the new interoperability;\nInteroperability between Gradwell and pascom delivers obvious financial and productivity benefits to our customers who operate within the UK market. Furthermore, the new interoperability partnership supports pascom strategically as we continue to expand within the UK by making pascom an even more attractive solution for end customers and channel partners alike.\u0026quot;\nAbout Gradwell Communications Founded in 1998, Gradwell Communications Ltd is a UK-based, 70+ employee, and award-winning provider of communications technology that works for small businesses. Their voice over IP (VoIP) internet-based telephony, superfast broadband and cloud communications solutions are currently used by over 22,000 small businesses and partners across the UK. Gradwell invests heavily in new technologies whilst supporting a business approach that strives to always give their customers a relevant, credible and memorable experience in addition to their robust telecommunications solutions.\nFor more information about Gradwell Communications, please refer to www.gradwell.com\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions, visit www.pascom.net or get started for free now.\n","date":"February 18, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-gradwell-communications-voip-provider-interoperability/","title":"pascom Gradwell Communications VoIP Provider Interoperability"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom and Auerswald Agree Joint Cooperation Partnership (Deggendorf \u0026amp; Cremlingen, Germany - 09. February 2016) pascom GmbH, developer of the innovative mobydick VoIP phone system software, and Auerswald GmbH \u0026amp; Co. KG, a leading manufacturer of small medium business ICT systems and IP telephones, today announce the finalisation of a joint technology and interoperability partnership.\npascom VoIP phone system interoperability\rAuerswald are known for producing dependable hybrid ICT systems which are characterised by the seamless and complete integration of in house components. mobydick meanwhile, is renowned as a cutting edge software solution which incorporates the latest technological advancements to simplify and optimise business telecommunications. Meaning the question remains; how do these two companies fit together and which benefits can customers expect to enjoy as a result of the new cooperation?\nThanks to the objective lead and close-knit cooperation between the development teams of both companies, an integration in which the strengths of both business telephony solutions could be fully incorporated has been realised. The result, a sophisticated and fully automated integration of Auerswald COMfortel IP telephones fully incorporated within the software world of mobydick.\nThe new technology partnership now enables Auerswald to deliver solutions to larger enterprises by, in combination with mobydick software, eliminating their previous maximum limitations (ca. 120 users). Moreover, pascom are now able to offer their customers a range of hardware IP telephones that deliver a previously unheard of depth of VoIP phone system interoperability.\nChristian Auerswald — Managing Director, Auerswald said upon signing the new partnership: “As long as every component of a new telecommunication system is delivered from one hand, everything from the initial deployment to the day-to-day running of the system can be exactly matched to requirements. However, should a soft-PBX be put into operation, the configuration and roll out of telephones can often be extremely complex. The, with pascom, jointly developed provisioning solution provides a better, more simplified way. Even in installations involving a larger user base, e.g. over 120 users, are quick and simple to configure. The cooperation with pascom was therefore so enjoyable as both companies shared the same vision, namely to optimally adapt both solutions to fit perfectly with one another and also because the ‘chemistry’ between us simply matched. We are therefore both very excited and convinced that our joint solution will provide the our customer with the best benefits compared to many of our competitors. ”\nMathias Pasquay, Founder \u0026amp; CEO pascom, stated of the new partnership: “In our eyes, our ongoing cooperation with Auerswald has enormous strategic potential and as such, we do not see this agreement as just the integration and interoperability testing of an additional IP phone manufacturer.\nThrough a combination of the Auerswald team’s vast experience in product design and the close cooperation between our respective development teams, an unprecedented opportunity to merge our combined product ranges has arisen which will be clearly visible during CeBIT 2016, when we will be showcasing the first step of this hugely exciting and promising integration!” During CeBIT 2016, both companies will be showcasing their product portfolios, as well as providing customers and prospects alike with the opportunity to gain a first hand look at the success of this ongoing cooperation.\nAbout Auerswald Headquartered in Cremlingen, Niedersachsen, Auerswald GmbH \u0026amp; Co. KG are leading manufacturers of SMB ITC systems and IP telephones. Since their formation in 1960, the family owned business has focused primarily on the development, production and delivery of compact, modular DSL, VoIP, ISDN and analogue telecommunications systems. In recent years, Auerswald have significantly expanded their offering to include SIP telephones, multi-cell IP DECT systems, ISDN and IP system telephones as well as intercom systems. The company, which is being successfully led by Gerhard Auerswald and his son Christian Auerswald, currently employs a team of 174 members of staff and are renowned for exceptional quality solutions thanks to an exclusively Germany based production process.\nFor more information about Auerswald, please visit www.auerswald.de\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications — no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels. Our solutions offer a complete communication and collaboration feature set, excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our business communications solutions deliver the perfect platform to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions and becoming a pascom partner, visit www.pascom.net and start upgrading business communications today with our free VoIP phone system edition now.\n","date":"February 9, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-and-auerswald-interoperability/","title":"pascom and Auerswald Interoperability"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"Automatic Call Distribution - How To Use Your Phone System For Brand Management First up, welcome back to the fourth and final part of the VoIP Guys on using your VoIP phone system as a brand management tool series - mobility strategies and SMB brand management.\nOver the previous 3 articles, we have been analysing a recent study which has been provided to us by telecoms review website Software Advice, in order to demonstrate how SMBs can create more positive customer experiences through better utilising various phone system features (AutoAttendants, CRMs, ACD). Now it is time to look at how businesses can best utilise mobile devices as an element of brand management.\nMobile Strategies have numerous additional benefits, such as enabling telecommuting, increasing productivity even while travelling as well as easing geographical expansion, but what does this have to do with Brand Management you may ask and that is the point of this article.\nMobility Strategies \u0026amp; Brand Management Mobility strategies, or Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) have been around for a while. However, in the past SMBs have struggled to harness or even recognise the full potential of said mobility strategies. In part, this was due to cost of such solutions which effectively excluded the SMB market place but also partly because SMBs also didn\u0026rsquo;t have the resources in house to implement such solutions.\nNowadays, things are a bit different. Firstly, mobility has become a must because of generational shifts in the workforce. Secondly, achieving an effective mobile strategy has become less problematic thanks to the advent of software based VoIP phone systems. Such systems provide businesses with a platform that is both simultaneously easier and more intuitive to manage as well as delivering greater cost effectiveness combined with a more advanced \u0026amp; complete feature set.\nIn turn, phone system software solutions have opened up the EMM world and made them more accessible to SMBs and this is where another benefit of effective mobility strategies can be found - as a core resource in your brand management tool.\nStaying in The Loop Being mobile is great for business, but it has its drawbacks. For example, whilst conducting their research, software advice discovered that 15% of small business customers reported negatively about specific employees being out of the office.\nSMB inbound caller pain points\rThrough implementing a mobile strategy, those employees who are often out of the office will be able to take their extension with them. If they are anything like me, they will often be on the road at events, exhibitions and often even working from home. However, thanks to EMM and our pascom phone system, I have a number of ways at my disposal to keep me in the loop.\npascom Enterprise Mobility UCC Softphone\rThe pascom desktop client comes complete with an integrated softphone meaning employees can be reached even when working in a satellite office or their in HomeOffice, on the train during the commute and even when staying in hotels during a business trip all without needing a desktop phone. All this means that no matter where your team members may be, they are available to help your customers which can only be good for your brand.\nGoing Mobile What about those scenarios when using your laptop (and softphone) is simply too much hassle? I am of course talking about when you are working at an exhibition, walking through the airport, train station etc. Simply put, that\u0026rsquo;s what your phone system\u0026rsquo;s smartphone mobile VoIP app is for.\npascom mobile UCC Android / iOS\rAny IP phone system vendor worth their salt will have an app for both Android and iOS. By utilising such apps, employees will effectively have the same access to all their call logs, phone system contact info and voice mails whilst on the go and thanks to Fixed Mobile Convergence and the one number concept, they will be able to utilise their office extension instead of their mobile number. Moreover, through integrating such mobile technology into your phone system you can implement more effective BYOD / CYOD strategies which in turn help alleviate the negative impact (14 %) that employees using personal devices can invariably have.\npascom mobile UCC Android / iOS\rThere are plenty of use cases and benefits for both softphones and mobile apps. However, the most important is that both mobility solutions help keep your employees in contact with your customer base and that is paramount in this on demand 24/7 world.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s it for our brand management series, but rest assured we will be back next week with loads more on Business VoIP solutions.\nFor more information on how the pascom phone system and any of its features, mobile or otherwise, can support you in growing your business take our Free Edition for a test drive or give us a call +49 (0) 991 29691 201 or check out our website\n","date":"January 27, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/smb-brand-success-and-enterprise-mobility/","title":"SMB Brand Success and Enterprise Mobility"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"Automatic Call Distribution - How To Use Your Phone System For Brand Management Welcome back to our SMB Phone Systems \u0026amp; Brand Management series. In part two of this series, we took a look at how businesses can create a more positive brand experience by using some basic call routing techniques, namely \u0026ldquo;Call Groups\u0026rdquo;.\nTraditionally, call groups were the only call routing options available to SMBs due to the cost related to expensive proprietary phone systems. However, nowadays things have a changed. The advent of the software based IP PBX and OpenStandards solutions has really thrown the playing field wide open by making automated call routing not only more accessible but also more cost effective.\nIn this post, we are going to go one step further and demonstrate how by using Call Queues, Teams, Automated Call Routing and Skills Based Routing, small businesses can not only project a professional image but also back it up with professional customer service as well.\nCall Queues, Teams \u0026amp; ACD A more advanced and professional option which is now available to any organisation but is perhaps better suited to larger organisations is to configure Call Queues for your departmental teams. In many ways Call Queues can be seen as being pretty similar to Call Groups as you effectively route the call to a group of employees.\nHowever, there is a difference. Call queues incorporate Automated Call Distribution (ACD - more on Asterisk based ACD. By implementing a call queue, your agents will be required to login into the queue. In turn, the ACD solution will then use this information to direct calls only to those agents who are logged in and ready to take calls.\nAdd a Team Queue - pascom PBX\rEach team has its own direct extension meaning any callers wishing to speak to a team, e.g. sales, can call the team queue directly. Meanwhile, those callers who do not know the direct extension will still be able to reach it through your Auto Attendant or IVR. Using this method provides SMBs with the ability to play \u0026ldquo;music on hold\u0026rdquo;, customised announcements and waiting times while the caller is being held in the queue, making the whole experience much more comfortable whilst reducing the chances that an inbound caller receives a busy tone.\nAdd Music on Hold to a Call Queue - pascom PBX\rAnother useful feature of ACD call routing engines, is that some (not all) are able to distribute calls using so called affinity routing which describes the process in which an incoming caller is identified and routed to a single specific agent. Possibilities here include the agent the caller last spoke to or their account manager etc. This has numerous benefits in terms of delivering more personalised service and creating a stronger more positive impression on the customer and will be the topic of a future post - so stay tuned!\nQuite often simply using Call Queues and ACD may well be the most suitable course of action. However, there is a downside here in that if you run any form of small business contact center. Chances are, you will require quite a few teams and a queue for each of them which will quickly become a challenge to manage and that is where skills based routing comes into play.\nSkills Based Routing With skill based routing, any business that has any form of inbound contact center operation can route calls directly to the agents to meet a specific customer need as determined during the Auto Attendant stages before the call enters the queue. In order to work correctly, all your employees who receive calls must have a skill assigned to them and certain skill criteria must be set.\nFor example, you can assign employees with a skill set, quantify their ability for individual skills and then configuring the routing engine to route calls to agents with the highest skill set first, you can ensure that your callers speak to a suitable employee each time.\nDefining call agent skills - pascom PBX\rThe main benefit here is clearly in improving customer service and increasing customer satisfaction. However, there is also an operational benefit as well. As mentioned above, having numerous teams and queues can become a challenge to manage, especially if you use any sort of call reporting solution (and you should - coming in part 4). By utilising a skill based routing solution, businesses can reduce the number of queues down to 2 or 3 and in some cases just one, making the system much more manageable as well as more customer orientated.\nCall Labels As you have now whittled your queues down and set up your skills, you will have agents who have multiple skills assigned to them. This begs the question of how do your agents then know which skills are required? The answer lies in using Call Labels. When a call comes in and goes through your Auto Attendant system, for every option they select a label can be attached to the call. This label can then be displayed on your agents desktop application screen along with additional information from your CRM / ERP systems - see part one for more information.\npascom classic desktop UC telephony app\rIn doing so, your employees can have access to all the information that they need to know about a caller before answering the call. Armed with this knowledge, the employee that answers the call will not only be the most suitable, but will also be able to deliver more specific customer orientated service and therefore contribute towards creating a more positive brand reputation.\nSo why are so many small businesses not taking advantage of these phone system features? The truth is that until recently, these options were only available from proprietary vendors and required their expensive hardware solutions. However, thanks to OpenStandards software based solutions such as pascom, all these routing options (and more) are now extremely cost effective and more scalable for businesses of all sizes.\nNext time we will be back with more on generating a positive brand image using your business phone system by taking a look at how implementing an effective mobility solution can also help in generating a positive brand image.\nFor more information on how the pascom phone system can support you in growing your business give us a call +49 (0) 991 29691 201 or check out our website.\nAlternatively, why not try our Free Edition and find out for yourself. It really is that simple.\n","date":"January 18, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/automatic-call-distribution-as-a-brand-management-tool/","title":"Automatic Call Distribution as a Brand Management Tooll"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Deggendorf, Germany | 12 January 2016 - pascom GmbH, developer of the cutting edge software-based IP phone system for business, today confirms their attendance at CeBIT 2016, the worlds leading IT conference.\nThroughout the event, which is being held between the 14. - 18. of March 2016, pascom will be showcasing their newest and most innovative business phone system developments, including multi-tenant Cloud PBX solutions, Next Generation Contact Center (NGCC) solutions, greater interoperability combined with a whole host of additional innovations.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO and founder, on exhibiting at CeBIT 2016:\nAs the worlds leading IT expo, CeBIT provides us with an excellent opportunity to showcase our latest innovations to our international audience without losing touch with a core base in Germany. As such, exhibiting at CeBIT is a core part of our ongoing commitment to our customers and partners as well as delivering a great platform for generating new and exciting business opportunities and we are looking forward to another highly successful event in 2016 and welcoming all our visitors to our stand.”\nThe 2016 event is the company\u0026rsquo;s fourth consecutive appearance at CeBIT and further reflects on the pascom\u0026rsquo;s commitment towards its customers and partners in maintaining continued domestic and international growth.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom.\n","date":"January 16, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-at-cebit-2016/","title":"pascom at CeBIT 2016"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Announce Open for Business as Dutch \u0026amp; Belgian Value Added Distributor and Cloud Solutions Provider 11th January 2016, Deggendorf, Germany \u0026amp; Maastricht-Airport, Netherlands - pascom GmbH, developer of next generation business VoIP phone systems, announces a new channel partnership with Dutch and Belgian cloud solutions provider Open for Business (now True).\nOpen for Business (O4B), a specialist Cloud and VoIP solutions distributor will support pascom by increasing the presence of the pascom phone system solutions within the Netherlands and Belgium, one of Europe\u0026rsquo;s most exciting telecoms markets. Through adding pascom solutions to their portfolio of telecoms solutions, O4B will gain access to a software-based IP PBX solution that will enable their partners to provide fast, fully featured and highly flexible, yet cost-effective enterprise and Call Center VoIP phone system solutions.\nAs a Value Added Distributor, O4B will support pascom in maintaining and growing the pascom reseller network by providing pascom partners across the Netherlands and Belgium with product and sales training. Thanks to O4B\u0026rsquo;s vast experience with both enterprise Cloud and VoIP solutions, pascom partners and customers can be assured that they will benefit from not only a cutting-edge phone system solution but also the highest levels of service.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO and founder on the new partnership. “Welcoming Open for Business to the pascom channel partner network is great news for pascom as we continue to expand rapidly across the EMEA region. With their vast experience in delivering VoIP solutions to the Dutch and Belgian markets, we are confident that Open For Business will prove to be an excellent partner, delivering high-quality solutions across the Netherlands and Belgium.”\nMichel van den Biggelaar, General Director Open For Business, mentioned of the new partnership. “There are a lot of VoIP products available in our market, but most of them are not fully featured, time-consuming to implement and hard to support in an effective way. In pascom, we have found a strategic partner with a solid, fully featured VoIP solution. With their technical knowledge and our experience on Cloud and VoIP solutions combined with our local presence in the Dutch and Belgian markets, we can support and train our partners to bring a strong VoIP solution to their end-users. We are looking forward to this new partnership”\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom.\nAbout True (formerly Open for Business) True is a well established tech company with 130+ employees and branches in Amsterdam and Maastricht. Since 2000, True has been supporting customers build and manage web environments for websites, web shops and web applications, built on the 16 plus years of experience in the optimization of digital work environments by Open for Support and Multrix is ​​added.\nwww.true.nl.\n","date":"January 11, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-grow-in-benelux-with-open-for-business/","title":"pascom Grow in BeNeLux with Open for Business"},{"categories":["Cloud PBX"],"contents":"Effective Call Routing - How To Use Your Phone System In Brand Management II It\u0026rsquo;s 2016 and we are back! Which means it is now time for part two of our Brand Management series. In part 1 of the series we took a look at a recent research survey from telecoms review website Software Advice and analysed the findings to provide small medium businesses with some tips on how to manage and improve their brand image using phone system features such as Auto Attendants, IVRs and CRM integrations. That means that it is now time to take a look at how effective call routing can add value to a SMBs brand image, but first we need to understand exactly what call routing actually is and what it does.\nWhat is Call Routing? A call routing system (also known as an Automatic Call Distributor or ACD for short) can be defined as a tool that directs calls to individual call agents, hunt groups, teams or queues using a set of criteria which could be time based or by using the information gathered by your Auto Attendant / IVR systems. There are many routing strategies which can be used depending on the needs of your business such as sequentially, all at once (also called parallel), skill based and so on. As such, top of the range phone systems will be able to deliver numerous options which can provide businesses with a highly flexible call routing engine to really give how callers view your business a positive boost.\nWhy Effective Call Routing is Important Call Routing by its strictest definition only affects inbound callers which basically means that your business has already done something right as the customer is caller you. Now don\u0026rsquo;t go and ruin it by undoing the hard work of your sales \u0026amp; marketing teams by allowing your phone system to generate a negative impression as this will only make making your business successful many times more challenging.\nSMB inbound caller pain points\rSo take note - according to the survey, the top pain points in terms of inbound calls are all slightly related to one another in that they deal with the callers ability to reach the right employees. For example, respondents cited not being able to reach \u0026ldquo;an employee in the right role\u0026rdquo; as the joint top sore point along with the \u0026ldquo;phone always being busy\u0026rdquo;.\nArmed with this knowledge, businesses can take steps to ensure that the issues highlighted below are kept to an absolute minimum and therefore in turn ensure that their phone system contributes towards generating a positive brand image.\nHow Effective Call Routing Helps As there are numerous call routing options available, putting an effective call routing strategy in to place will require an element of critical thinking and looking at things from the customer\u0026rsquo;s perspective if it is to be successful in creating a positive brand image. Often the type of strategy that a business implements is determined by incoming call volumes, the number of available employees and their skill set, but to be effective must also consider customer expectations.\nFirst up, not every business will need a highly complex call routing strategy. For some, dropping calls onto a simple \u0026ldquo;call group\u0026rdquo; -a ring group or a hunt group - may suffice while for others a more complex solution may be required (coming in part 3). This is where the critical thinking comes in as businesses will need to decide which strategy will best fulfil their customer needs and therefore generate the most positive experiences.\nBefore moving on to call routing strategies, it is important to understand that call routing can only be effective in combination with effective Auto Attendants and IVR systems. This is because no matter which of the following routing engines you decide upon, if your Auto Attendant or IVR isn\u0026rsquo;t up to scratch then your inbound callers will be lost even before the routing engines have had a chance.\nCall Groups In the past, call routing options available to small businesses were pretty much limited to Call Groups as they had neither the call volume nor the resources to warrant or afford a full blown Call Center solution. Moreover, using call groups and call queues often involved expensive hardware. However, as technology has progressed and particularly with the advent of the software based IP PBX, more options have become available to SMBs. That said, call groups are still worth considering as sometimes they may well be the most appropriate option.\nThere are two main call group types; the Ring Group and the Hunt Group which are also known as parallel and sequential calling strategies as shown below:\nRing and Hunt Groups explained\rRing Groups A ring group is the quickest and simplest form of call routing. In a nutshell, a ring group allows businesses to set up a group of employees and make all the phones belonging to group members ring at the same time. The main benefit of a ring group is that they ensure that calls are answered (or sent to voicemail) as quickly as possible.\npascom Ring Groups\rHowever, ring groups do have a couple of disadvantages including interrupting the work flows of every other member of the group when a call comes in which could affect their productivity. Another drawback of Ring Groups is that it is entirely possible that the least qualified employee may also be the quickest in answering the phones, which could also lead to negativity when it comes to customer interactions.\nHunt Groups A hunt group differs from a ring group in that businesses can control the sequence in which member phones are rung. This has the advantage of ensuring that the member of the group who is the most qualified or experienced is always rung first before moving the call onto the next member of the group after a certain timeout criteria has been reached. A really good option here (and for ring groups) is to set up small groups for your teams such as Sales, Support, Accounts etc and then provide these as options in your Auto Attendant system as mentioned in part one of this series. This will then allow you to pre-define calls first before routing them to your groups.\nConfigure a pascom Hunt Groups\rThis process is often known as a waterfall call flow as the calls cascade through the group according to member appropriateness to answer the call starting with the most ideally suited before moving onto the next best person and finally finishing with the least suitable person as shown below:\nWaterfall Call Routing\rWhile hunt groups can deliver better customer service in terms of having the most ideally suited person being as the first port of call, they do also have a potentially damaging downside. Imagine the first employee does not answer, the caller has to wait for the time out to be reached before the call starts ringing on the next phone. Now imagine how the caller will be feeling by the time the second and third employees have also not answered the call.\nBoth ring groups and hunt groups have their limitations in that they do not solve the problem of engaged lines as well as not really ensuring that the most appropriate person answers the phone. This makes ring and hunt groups more suited for Small Office Home Office (SOHO) organisations and businesses at the smaller end of the SMB spectrum and in the case of hunt groups, they should only have a limited number of group members.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s it for part 2 of our brand management series. Next time we will be back with more on generating a positive brand image using your business phone system by taking a look at how by using Call Queues and Automated Call Distribution provide even more effective brand management tools.\nFor more information on how the pascom phone system can support you with brand management and much more, check out our website or give us a call +49 (0) 991 29691 201\nAlternatively, why not try our Free Edition and find out for yourself. It really is that simple.\n","date":"January 8, 2016","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/call-routing-as-a-brand-management-tool/","title":"Phone System Call Routing as a Brand Management Tool"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing SIP — What is SIP, How Does it Work? Please accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES It is time for a new topic in our Introducing Asterisk tutorial series, which means we are finally starting on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Over the previous 33 tutorials, we have done a lot in terms of configuring our Asterisk system and we have used the SIP protocol a lot, making internal calls etc, but we have never explained it, which is why it is now time for our “Introducing SIP” tutorial.\nWhy Now? Firstly, a large number of our followers have asked us to and secondly, the aim of a functioning telephone system is to make and receive both internal and external calls, meaning that at some point we will need to integrate VoIP Trunks / Gateways into our system. Therefore, the answer really is that after all we have done in configuring our system, it is now time to make it “operation ready” and in order to do that, we will need SIP.\nWhat is SIP? In our Introducing SIP tutorial, we start by taking a look at the fundamentals of SIP. Understanding the protocol, what it is and how it works is essential for later on when we start integrating SIP providers, Gateways etc as understanding the concept of what is happening will be invaluable when it comes to debugging and error analysis should your integration not work out quite as smoothly as you had hoped.\nSo what is SIP? Simply put, Session Initiation Protocol is a communications protocol for starting (signalling) and managing multimedia (voice, video, data) sessions between IP end points and is most commonly used in Voice over IP telephony systems. Going into more detail, the SIP protocol consists of 3 main components:\nFirstly, there is Session Initiation itself which as the name suggests is the starting (initiation) protocol for the communication session. The next aspect of SIP is the Session Description Protocol (SDP) which provides a description of the session, for example which codecs are to be used, which port should be used and so on. The final component of the SIP protocol is the payload which refers to the protocol for delivering content (voice, video, data), i.e. real-time transport protocol (RTP).\nMathias’ Top Tip It is important to understand the session initiation and description take one route between your IP end points to start a communication session, however the payload can be transported via a completely different route as agreed upon in the session description.\nThis is important to understand in order to avoid perhaps the most common mistake when configuring and using SIP as your communication protocol, which is namely that the signalling is working correctly but the payload is not being received by your end points or is only being received by one of the end points (one way audio).\nAcronyms As you may have noticed during the tutorial, a lot of acronyms were being thrown around, so here is a break down of what they mean:\nSIP — Session Initiation Protocol (see above) SDP — Session Description Protocol (see above) RTP / sRTP — (secure)Real-time Transport Protocol (see payload above) UDP / TCP — User Datagram Protocol / Transmission Control Protocol. Both are transmission protocols for communicating data but are used for different types of data howtogeek.com Final Word - We Upgrade Business Communications A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on the level of profressionalism when it comes to call management and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted asterisk business VoIP phone system edition.\nUntil next time — Happy VoIPing!\n","date":"December 18, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-34-introducing-sip/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 34 - Introducing SIP"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"How To Manage Your Brand Image with Your Business Phone System What is brand management and more to the point what does brand management have to do with your phone system?\nA quick google search would return a whole host of results on what exactly entails brand management, but let me save you the trouble. Simply put, brand management is the process of building and managing the reputation of your company, products and services across all customer touch points to reflect positively on your overall brand. In essence, every interaction the company has with the outside world has the ability to influence your brand image in either a positive or negative manner.\nScott Cook, co-founder Intuit Inc,\rStartupquotes\nStrangely, many businesses seem to neglect their phone systems as a tool that can be used to manage and improve their brand image. Perhaps they feel that their phone system is a seemingly intangible and therefore untouchable asset over which businesses themselves can exert little influence. In thinking in this way, it is entirely possible that these businesses are unwittingly allowing a mission critical business resource to negatively impact their brand image.\nThankfully, a recent study by our friends over at telecoms review website Software Advice provides a decent amount of insight into how you can use your phone system to manage your brand That is why after reviewing the key findings, we decided to jot down a few insights of our own to help guide you in making your phone system work for your brand image.\nOur goal over the next couple of posts is to provide businesses with a comprehensive set of guidelines that they can refer to when looking at their phone system as a Brand Management tool, no matter whether the system is already in place or a company is looking for a new phone system to support them in managing their brand.\nReport Key Findings First things first, the report survey consumers who interact with small medium businesses (SMBs). Why SMBs and not large enterprise you may ask. The answer is simple - by analysing the SMB market segment, more brand management do\u0026rsquo;s and don\u0026rsquo;ts come to light. This stems from the average consumer being a fickle so and so (I mean no offence and I include myself here). Consumers are willing to forgive a large enterprise organisation (with plentiful resources) for the same failings that they hold a smaller organisation accountable for. Why, because they hold the assumption that larger is more complicated and smaller less so. In this way, they hold SMBs to a higher standard as they assume that a smaller organisation should be proficient enough to handle a smaller infrastructure, despite possible having less resources.\n28 % of respondents cited caller ID issues / unrecognisable numbers as a negative influence on brand perception when receiving calls 28 % quoted not being able to reach a contact by name as the top issue to negatively affect perception when calling a SMB 20 % mentioned the length of time taken to retrieve customer information as a source of negativity 16% stated that when calling SMBs, calls being routed to the wrong employee and always getting busy tones as the top two pain points 22% with positive influences cite a SMB\u0026rsquo;s Auto Attendant greeting as the top influencer. What Can Be Done? These facts and figures tell a story, but how can companies use these figures to improve what their phone system says about their brand? Thankfully, there are actually quite a few tools at a business\u0026rsquo; disposal which they can use to promote their brand image.\nSome options are relatively cosmetic such as improving the quality of your Auto Attendant greetings / IVR options menus and using call recordings for training and quality and control purposes. While others are more technical like utilising using CTI technology with CRM and help desk systems as well as enhancing your call routing and incorporating a mobility strategy to name but a few.\nEnhance your Auto Attendant / IVR Tools We actually touched on this issue in combination with another piece of Software Advice research in May 2015, but as it is up there amongst the top pain points, it is worth looking into again. It is worth noting that I have lumped both Auto Attendants and IVR menus together here, as they have very similar characteristics even if their roles are different. Some companies may use one or the other or even both but the general improvements that can be made applied to both functions.\nWhether the objective is to transfer the caller to the right person (s) who can help them (Auto Attendant) or to help the caller help themselves (IVR), your system must be setup in a manner which the caller can follow. That means keep it short and sweet - no one likes listening to a never ending greeting and list of options. In fact, the longer the message the harder it is to keep track of the message and the caller ends up getting lost.\nCheck out these pages for more on Auto Attendants and IVR best practices.\nVoice Prompts Tied in with IVRs and Auto Attendants but definitely worth a its own mention. We would all love to have the funding and resources to get the most professional voice prompts. Unfortunately, this is not always realistic, especially with SMBs and Small Office Home Office (SOHO) organisations. That said, professional voice prompts are worth investing in, whether it be time, money or both.\nOutsourcing voice prompt recordings can be very cost effective and there are numerous organisations that provide such services. A quick google search will provide a good starting point, but when researching your provider, make sure they offer certain services. For example, if like us you need prompts in multiple languages, make sure they offer all the languages you need.\nAnother great option Voice Prompt providers often offer is the ability to listen to samples of their prompt professionals and you can choose the person who appeals most. This is also great for choosing accents as for example studies have shown that in UK based call centres, a soft Irish accent is the most appealing to the majority of callers.\nFor companies with more budgetary constraints looking to improve their prompts and move away from any standard prompts their phone system may have, there is Audacity. We recently published a couple of tutorials on how to record your own custom prompts as part of our VoIP Guys Introducing Asterisk series. Part one is available here and part two here. Of course, Audacity will work with other phone systems as well, for example if I want to add a new prompt to our Asterisk based pascom phone system, I can record it, edit it and them upload it via the prompts menu as shown below.\npascom phone system custom prompts\rThere is also an even simpler option, which is to use your phone to record a new prompt. This option is great for recording a message on the fly. For example, when you need a message for a short period of time such as a service outage announcement. However, I can not stress enough how ill advised it would be to use this method to record all your prompts - it really should be avoided except in extenuating circumstances.\nUse CTI, CRM and Help Desk Technologies An increasingly important aspect from a callers point of view is the ability to retrieve customer information quickly and efficiently. Overall figures from Software Advice\u0026rsquo;s survey indicate that 20 % of callers find employees being to slow to retrieve data as a negative influencer.\nHowever, that only tells half the story. Amongst respondents from the Generation X age group, only 11 % cited this as an area of negativity when interacting with SMBs. Compared to the younger Millennial generation who have become accustomed to anywhere, anytime 24/7 on demand service, it is no wonder that 32 % of respondents in this age bracket cited this in-proficiency as having a negative impact on their impressions.\nIt is important to note here that as technology advances, this trend looks set to continue which means companies need to start paying attention if they wish to be successful.\nCTI and CRM / ERP Systems The good news is that thanks to Computer Telephony Integration (CTI), businesses can support their employees in speeding up this process, providing them with the ability to improve their brand image. CTI technologies come in various forms ranging from integrating your CRM, ERP, Help Desk or Online Accounting solutions all the way through to phone system CTI desktop clients (see below).\nThe objective of using CTI is to allow the phone system to look up who is calling, providing employees with a graphical popup notification (see image) which then allows them to jump straight to the callers information (if it is storedin the system), thus providing employees with fingertip access to the necessary info as well as being able to greet their callers more personally. In turn this will help generate a better impression from the caller\u0026rsquo;s perspective.\npascom agent popup notification\rWhat\u0026rsquo;s more, by using CTI technology businesses can provide employees with elements of telephony functionality without needing to use their phones. For example, the graphical pop up shown above provides not only caller specific information but delivers additional telephony functionality including placing the caller on hold, starting a recording and performing a call transfer.\nIntegrating your CRM / ERP or Help Desk systems using CTI also supports your team in boosting customer service and therefore positively influencing the callers image of your brand. One pain point highlighted in the report is that 16% of the respondents cited having to repeat the same issue to many employees. In the report, this is associated with outbound calling but in our opinion the problem applies to both outbound and inbound calls.\nBy incorporating CRM systems (or online accounting system etc) and telephony into an employees\u0026rsquo; workflow, businesses can provide employees with a platform in which they can store customer notes, thus reducing the need for a customer to have to repeat themselves to every employee they talk to which in turn will improve the customers perception of how professional the business is.\nIntegrated customer management tools e.g. click to dial \u0026amp; CTI technology\rUsing CTI to integrate 3rd party applications such as CRM or Help Desk systems also supports businesses project a more professional image when it comes to outbound calling. Doing so provides various functions such as click to dial from within your customer management tool.\nThrough using click to dial, employees who conduct any outbound calls have the ability to review any customer specific information and previous interactions first, thus arming them with all the knowledge they need to know before clicking the phone icon and calling the customer.\nDesktop CTI Clients In terms of brand management, Top of the range UC phone systems can support businesses even further thanks to delivering all of the above plus desktop CTI applications (clients) which provide users with access to a phone suite application. Having such an application provides employees with access to all their call history information, overview of colleague presence info as well as file sharing and instant messaging all of which can be used to enhance not only their productivity and efficiency but also as a brand management tool.\npascom instant messaging and Unified Communications\rHow can using presence information and knowing your colleagues current availability support businesses with brand management you might ask? Imagine for a moment, an employee receives a call about one topic which thanks to your amazing call routing (coming in part 2 of this series) they are able to answer superbly, but then the caller poses a question for which the employee is not qualified, what then?\nWithout presence information, the employee will try to help, give the caller some reel and eventually admit that they don\u0026rsquo;t know the answer and try to transfer the call not knowing who is available. Invariably, this could result in a rather unsatisfactory going round the houses scenario. By using presence information they can avoid all that as they will be immediately able to see if a qualified person is available and transfer the call to the right person at the first time of asking - which is a win win for brand management, customer service and employee productivity.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s it for part one on how to use your phone system as a tool in your brand management armoury. Just remember, however you manage your brand using your phone system, test it first and make sure that it is great not just OK as for every bad experience, us fickle consumers are likely to tell seven of our chums as opposed to only a max of three people when receiving good customer service.\nFor more information on how the pascom phone system can support you with brand management and much more, check out our website or give us a call +44 (0)203 1379 964\nAlternatively, why not try our Free Edition and find out for yourself. It really is that simple.\n","date":"December 17, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/business-phone-systems-as-a-brand-management-tool/","title":"Business Phone Systems as a Brand Management Tool"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"pascom Make Annual Donation to Support the Invaluable Work of the St. Ursula Hospice Deggendorf - 15. December 2015 - Every hospice employee worldwide makes incredible sacrifices and carries a heavy emotional and psychological burden on their shoulders. Theirs is the duty to provide invaluable care and comfort to their guests whilst simultaneously being a pillar of support to loved ones and all the while not knowing what tomorrow may bring.\npascom St Ursula\u0026rsquo;s annual donation\rBeing a beacon of hope for chronically ill patients and offering them and their families the peace of mind that the remainder of their journey may be spent in dignity and in a place of comfort is certainly an unenviable task but also one that deserves the utmost respect. It is in honour of this exceptional work, that pascom has pledged its annual donation to the St Ursula Hospice in Niederalteich, Bavaria.\nMathias Pasquay - pascom CEO and co-founder on making the St Ursula donation:\nSocial commitment in any form is to be commended. At pascom, we are a family which makes it essential for us to give back to and support our community. Upon making our donation, we look to highlight projects that have the courage face up to and come to terms with emotionally painful challenges which often carry unjust social stigma. Through making our donation, we truly hope that we have been able to provide some support to the selfless team at St Ursula\u0026rsquo;s as they continue caring for and providing invaluable comfort to their guests and their families.\u0026quot;\nUpon accepting the donation, St. Ursula Hospice Director Dr. Ulrich Krüninger, talked of the daily challenges facing the hospice as well as of the recent renovation and much needed replacement of hospice facilities.\nDr. Ulrich Krüninger - Hospice Director on accepting the donation:\nWe would like to thank pascom for their support. Due to legal regulations, 5% of hospice financing must be accounted for by donations and due to difficulties surround the subject of what we do, this is not easily accomplished. As the hospice currently has running costs in excess of €50,000 per year, we are grateful for every donation, they really do matter.\u0026quot;\nThrough making their donation, pascom are supporting the Hospice in financing their ongoing running costs. Moreover, as the Hospice recently invested €2.5 million in new equipment as well as expanding and renovating their facilities in order to better serve and care for their patients in need of comfort, they are extremely grateful of any financial support they receive.\nAbout the St. Ursula Hospice Niederalteich Up until their retirement in 2012, the St Ursula Hospice was used by the sisters of the Ursuline convent and for a while afterwards the role the building should play remained unclear.\nIn 2013, talks began between the Deggendorf Hospice Association eV and the Ursuline Convent, represented namely by Sister Theresia who at this time was responsible for the Sisters in Osterhofen. During these discussions, the idea of founding a medical hospice on the former convent premises which turned into reality as did establishing an academy of Palliative Medicine, Palliative Care and Hospice Care within the former convent basement.\nAfter the expansion and renovation project, 10 beds are now available to cater for hospice guests who are cared for by a team of more than 20 staff who dedicate themselves to providing the highest levels of comfort and care to not only their patients but also their loved ones. The hospice also plays host to regular events which are for the benefits of their residents and ensuring that their time at the hospice is as comfortable and enjoyable as possible.\nIn order to be able to continue to offer these and other services, the hospice of St Ursula in Niederalteich is extremely grateful for any support their receive.\nIf your are interested in donating to support their excellent cause, you can find more information on their website (English is available via the UK flag).\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s on-premise and cloud based UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements making our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more cost effectively.\nwww.pascom.net\n","date":"December 15, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-supporting-saint-ursula-hospice-niederalteich/","title":"pascom Supporting Saint Ursula Hospice Niederalteich"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"How to Configure Asterisk PBX IVR Menu Loops Please accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Welcome back to the VoIP Guys Introducing Asterisk video tutorials. It is now time to enhance our IVR menus to account for “timeouts” should a caller not select a menu option, which means today’s episode is a how to guide to configuring Asterisk IVR menu loops.\nIn the last episode — the one where Mathias had trouble with saying “i” and “e” — we talked about the different functions you can use when configuring (i, e and t) your IVR menus and why you should distinguish between them and actually use the invalid (i) and timeout (t) functions. This time around we are going to go a bit further and take a look at how you can use the timeout function to setup a more professional, more customer friendly IVR menu.\nMathias’ Top Tip In order to set the point from where the menu should be repeated within the dialplan it is recommended to use a “label” which can be used to identify the point in the dialplan where the call flow should jump back to.\nMoreover, if you watched the above tutorial you will also release that the devil really is in the details. If like us, you run into an error with your setup not working properly, it is likely to be a small mistake. In our case, when configuring the variable for the GotoIf application, we set the application to loop only if the counter was greater than (\u0026gt;) 2.\nAsterisk IVR menu loop configuration\rTherefore, always double check the finer details in your setup should you encounter an error.\nJoin us next time as we move on to the topic of “SIP in Detail” starting with an introduction to SIP.\nFinal Word - We Upgrade Business Communications A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on the level of profressionalism when it comes to call management and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted asterisk business VoIP phone system edition.\nUntil next time — Happy VoIPing!\n","date":"December 11, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-33-asterisk-ivr-menu-loops/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 33 - Asterisk IVR Menu Loops"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"How to Configure an Advanced Asterisk PBX IVR Menu Please accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES We’re back and we’ve got some news for you plus some grovelling to do. Last week I was at VoIP2Day 2015 in Madrid and the week before we moved offices (back into our newly refurbished offices) both of which sadly meant we were not able to get this tutorial done, dusted and online for you — terribly sorry about that.\nBUT the good news is, we are back and what’s more, the new studio is up and running, meaning making these tutorials will be much easier and quicker than before. Although the studio is not quite finished, we just felt we simply had to get this tutorial done so as not to disappoint you all — and here it is!\nThat means that it is now time to take a look at some more advanced Asterisk IVR menu configurations as well as having a look at how to use the invalid (i), exception (e) and timeout (t) functions when configuring your IVR menus in Asterisk.\nMathias’ Top Tip It is quite a good idea to differentiate between “i” and “e”. Distinguishing between the two options will provide you with more flexibility to manage call flows more effectively. For example, being able to perform a certain action for when a caller makes a mistake by selecting an invalid entry and a different action for when they make no selection at all. If this is not the behaviour you require, then you can simply use the “e” Exception function which will “catch” every scenario and perform the same action no matter whether an invalid entry or timeout error was reached.\nNext time around we will take a look get even more advanced with our Asterisk IVR menus.\nFinal Word - We Upgrade Business Communications A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on the level of profressionalism when it comes to call management and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted asterisk business VoIP phone system edition.\nUntil next time — Happy VoIPing!\n","date":"November 23, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-32-advanced-asterisk-ivr-menus/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 32 - Advanced Asterisk IVR Menus"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Micropyme and pascom attend VOIP2DAY 2015 [Deggendorf, Germany \u0026amp; Madrid, Spain | 16th November 2015] pascom GmbH, developer of the innovative, admin and user friendly pascom phone system software, continued their European expansion and further reinforced the company\u0026rsquo;s commitment to supporting its partners by attending VOIP2DAY in Madrid along with Micropyme S.L., pascom\u0026rsquo;s Value Added Reseller for the Spanish market.\nHeld at the world famous Real Madrid Santiago Bernabéu Stadium between the 11th and 12th November 2015, the event was hosted by Iberian VoIP distributor Avanzada 7. The event included a range of workshops and conferences which attracted leading names and influencers from across the VoIP industry, making VOIP2Day 2015 the ideal event for pascom to make its first appearance in the Iberian market place.\nJames Barton, pascom Channel Marketing, speaking after the event:\nAs the leading Voice over IP exhibition within the Spanish market, our attendance at the 2015 event was essential, not only as pascom\u0026rsquo;s first official outing in Iberia but also to reaffirm our commitment to supporting our Resellers and Distributors no matter where they are as we continue our growth. As an event, our presence at VOIP2DAY 2015 attracted a great deal of interest for both pascom and Micropyme which bodes well for our future in the market.\nJuan Luis Picazo, Managing Director Micropyme, commented on attending VOIP2Day:\nThe two days are VOIP2Day were two really exciting and interesting days, during which, thanks to the presence of our partner pascom, we were able to present and demonstrate the pascom phone system as a cost effective, flexible unified communications solution to all those who visited VOIP2DAY. We are convinced that over the coming months and years PASCOM will begin to play an important role in the VoIP market in Spain, as it has in the major European markets. Thank you very much to pascom, and especially James Barton for joining us and supporting us in this event, which we hope can be repeated in the coming years.\nDuring the event, both companies held a combined workshop during which pascom\u0026rsquo;s next generation software based PBX was officially introduced to the Spanish market, discussing not only mobydick\u0026rsquo;s Unified Communications capabilities but also introducing mobydick as a Next Generation Contact Center (NGCC) solution. The workshop served to generate significant interest in the product and further boosts mobydick\u0026rsquo;s growth prospects in the Iberian market place.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer a complete communication and collaboration feature set, excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our business communications solutions deliver the perfect platform to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions and becoming a pascom partner, visit www.pascom.net and start upgrading business communications today with our free VoIP phone system edition now.\nAbout Micropyme Micropyme is a Spanish IT company with more than 14 years of experience working with Linux solutions. As a system integrator, they have over been providing Asterisk based VoIP solutions for over 10 years and are renowned for delivering excellent levels of customer service, consultation, project implementation and support to the Spanish SMB market.\nMircopyme\u0026rsquo;s status as a market leading solutions integrator in the field of voice over IP is further demonstrated through both their SELECT Digium partnership and now their pascom authorised mobydick partner status.\n","date":"November 16, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/voip2day-pascom-goes-to-spain/","title":"VoIP2Day pascom Goes To Spain"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"How to Configure a Basic Asterisk IVR Menu Please accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Configuring an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menu can be tricky at the best of times, but configuring an Asterisk IVR menu requires a certain amount of prior planning and knowledge of using the Asterisk Command Line Interface (CLI). Moreover, as we demonstrated in last week’s tutorial, your IVR needs to be not just okay, but excellent as IVRs are the first point of contact where an incoming caller starts to form an impression about your company — so it might be a good idea to also refer to our IVR best practices again to make sure you don’t make a rubbish IVR / AutoAttendant.\nMathias’ Top Tip When configuring your IVR menus in Asterisk, it is essential that every level of your IVR menu has its own unique Context within your Dialplan. Otherwise, once an option number is used, you will not be able to use it again and you could well start sending your callers unintentionally to the back end of beyond of your dialplan which obviously would be very bad for customer service. Failing to do so will also have the negative impact of meaning that you will not be able to use the same extension again when configuring a different IVR menu.\nStay tuned for next time when we will build on this configuration, making it more advanced and how to configure timeout and invalid key entry actions.\nFinal Word - We Upgrade Business Communications A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on the level of profressionalism when it comes to call management and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\nUntil next time — Happy VoIPing!\n","date":"November 4, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-31-basic-asterisk-ivr-configuration/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 31 - Basic Asterisk IVR Setup"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom London Office Increases UK Presence Deggendorf, Germany | London, United Kingdom - 03. November 2015 pascom Netzwerktechnik GmbH, developer of innovative Business Voice over IP phone systems software, increases their presence within the UK market by announcing the opening of a new branch office facility in London. The expansion reflects pascom\u0026rsquo;s growing presence in the United Kingdom and has been undertaken in order to meet increasing demand whilst simultaneously continuing growth within the market.\nMathias Pasquay, CEO pascom, on opening the London office: As one of the largest telecoms markets in Europe, the UK is a key market for pascom and the growth of our phone system software sales. As one of the leading business hubs globally , London is the ideal location for our UK offices. Moreover, entering the UK market further illustrates our commitment to better serving our customers through continuous innovation and product development as well as by having a local presence. That is why with it\u0026rsquo;s excellent infrastructure and travel connections, London also provides the perfect location from which to better serve and support our UK customers and partners as well as providing the ideal location to host partner events, including product training and delivering sales and marketing support etc.\nJames Barton pascom Channel Sales \u0026amp; Marketing, said: The opening of our new London office is a significant step forward for pascom and our continued international growth. Having an established presence within our core D-A-CH market, expanding into neighboring European telecoms markets was the next logical step in the company\u0026rsquo;s development and there is no better place to launch this exciting phase than in London. We look forward to growing our presence in the market and working more closely with our customers and resellers in the UK.\npascom UK will deliver sales, marketing and technical support for pascom approved value added resellers / distributors in the UK, which in turn will enable our partners to take full advantage of the growing VoIP and Unified Communications opportunities in the UK market place. Moreover, the new offices will also provide training and event facilities which will allow our partners to maximise their revenues by expanding their pascom knowledge through hands on training.\npascom UK and the London office forms part of an ongoing global growth strategy to deliver pascom as a market leading phone system solution to organisations worldwide. Building on the success in Germany, pascom has already experienced rapid growth across the D-A-CH region as well as increasing demand from not just the UK but also worldwide as is reflected in the company\u0026rsquo;s growing network of approved resellers internationally. This growth trend looks set to continue as awareness and adoption of software based IP phone systems such as pascom\u0026rsquo;s continues to rise.\nAbout pascom - communication without borders Founded in 1997, pascom is a Linux IT systems integrator with over 15 years worth of experience delivering tailor-made IP telecommunications and network infrastructures solutions and thanks to their Asterisk based phone system software, pascom have grown in to a market leader in the IP telecommunications across the D-A-CH region and beyond.\npascom – communications without borders – is a software based, open standards platform which delivers powerful, innovative business communications solutions. Based on Asterisk, pascom solutions provide businesses with a scalable and flexible alternative to proprietary IP PBX solutions whilst simultaneously allowing companies to reduce telecommunication costs, increase mobility and boost productivity.\nDelivering a whole host of unified communications tools, pascom’s platform-independent, user-friendly admin interface, provides users and IT admins alike with an enhanced user-friendly experience and significantly decreases IT administration further boosting productivity, optimising workflows and increasing efficiencies.\nFor more information relating to pascom or their phone system, please contact them on +49 991 29691 0 or visit www.pascom.net\n","date":"November 3, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-boost-uk-presence-with-london-office/","title":"pascom Boost UK Presence with London Office"},{"categories":["Contact Center"],"contents":"What is Skills-Based Routing The majority of modern businesses will operate at least some form of Contact Center as part of their business operations. Moreover, every employee who works within your Contact Center will likely have a varying skill set and could quite possibly work in more than one team.\nThe simplest scenario can be best illustrated by language skills. Imagine a Contact Center in a country, such as Switzerland, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, the USA or any Middle Eastern country where more than one language is widely spoken. This company will need to have the ability to route calls based on the caller\u0026rsquo;s language. Now, of course, this doesn\u0026rsquo;t just apply to call centres that predominately operate nationally. International companies also require the ability to make sure their customers speak to the right person, the first time and every time.\nHowever, the possibilities presented by skills-based routing are not just limited to languages, but also different departments, brands, products etc and this begs the question: \u0026ldquo;how can businesses best utilise their Contact Center resources and skill sets?\u0026rdquo; - and that is where the Next Generation Contact Center (NGCC) comes into its own.\nThe Evolution of the Contact Center We can all remember an occasion, or more likely multiple occasions, where we have called a company or organisation and have been subjected to the merry-go-round of transfers as our initial contact person endeavours to find someone who can actually help us.\nThese types of experiences were indicative of early day Call and Contact Centers which employed a straightforward, no none sense approach to call distribution. In a conventional Contact Center, the traditional setup was one where you would have one queue, log your agents in and the next available agent would answer the call in a process fairly similar to the diagram below.\nTraditional Call and Contact Centre Call Distribution\rPrecursors to Skills-Based Routing However, over time things have changed. Technology has become more advanced and more intelligent, allowing for better, more efficient call distribution. A good example of this is with previously premium rate features. As they became more affordable and cost-effective, the option of implementing previously inaccessible tools such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menus started to pave the way for the early days of skill-based routing.\nThanks to the IVR, it was now possible to qualify the callers language (or whatever the defining skill need be) straight away allowing the call to be routed to agents with those particular skills thanks to Automatic Call Distribution (ACD). An even better option, at least as languages are concerned, was having the ability to identify the international country code. This is because except a few already mention exceptions, the country code is synonymous with the caller\u0026rsquo;s language. Either of these techniques would have resulted in a call distribution pattern that was vaguely skills-based and would look similar to:\nSkills-based Routing\rThrough using IVR menus, it is also possible to further qualify which skills your caller is looking for. For example, the second menu level could include a series of options to define which department or product or brand etc. that the caller is interested in and then route the call to employees with the relevant knowledge/skill set. As the incoming calls are being routed to a team of agents with the relevant skills, this could be considered the precursor to skill-based routing at its most basic.\nHowever, there are a couple of significant problems here. Firstly, using this option, particularly if your company requires multiple skills to be fulfilled, you will likely have numerous teams. This will make maintaining a good overview and conducting statistical analysis of your Contact Centers\u0026rsquo; performance particularly challenging at best and a complete mess at worst. A great example of this would be any Contact Center based in Switzerland which has four main languages. If add two product lines and two departments per product to the mix, then you are already looking at 16 teams/queues which like the image below illustrates, can make it very difficult to maintain a good overview and imagine how difficult it would be with even more skills.\nIVR / Auto Attendant Routing\rThen there is the second problem. Your callers are still not being routed to the Contact Center agent with the corresponding skill set to best suit their needs as there has been no definition of the agent\u0026rsquo;s skill set itself. In the case above, they either have them or they don\u0026rsquo;t and there is nothing in between. For example, if you have an agent who can speak 2 or 3 languages proficiently enough to offer either sales or support to those customers, in the model above if you wish to be able to utilise their skills they would need to be logged into to more than one queue at a time which would make call routing more complicated and performance reviews pretty tricky as there could well be 12 sets of statistical data for this one agent.\nNext Generation Skill-Based Routing In a nutshell what a next-generation skill-based routing solution actually does is similar to the solution above. However, next-generation skill-based routing differs in that it goes a few steps further and takes the information from the IVR and then matches it to the individual skills of your Contact Center agents and routes your incoming calls accordingly. Basically, every Contact Center agent will have a skill matrix which can be compiled and quantified using a combination of existing skills, knowledge as well as training and experience. Moreover, their individual skill matrices can be continuously reviewed and adjusted accordingly.\nAs skill priorities are assigned to not only the agent\u0026rsquo;s skill set but also as minimum requirements to the incoming calls as a \u0026ldquo;label\u0026rdquo; (brand, product, department, etc), skill-based routing also delivers the additional benefit of being able to react to changes in demand cycles much more quickly and more efficiently. This, in turn, will enable you to drive your Contact Center performance to the next level and support you really improve customer satisfaction, which at the end of the day is pretty much what every business should be aiming to achieve.\nImagine for a moment that you have two brands (A and B) and a group of agents who work on both brands as illustrated in the image below. Chances are that one agent will be better qualified, more experienced etc to work on Brand A, while another agent will be better suited to work on Brand B.\nNext Generation Skills-Based Routing\rBy applying and quantifying a skill set, you can take Skill-Based Routing even further. In doing so, you can ensure that your customers only speak to the most qualified agents during periods of normal call volume.\nShould call volumes spike, however, you can use priorities and call labels to adjust the thresholds required to fulfil an incoming callers request and match it to an available agent. For example, should demand for brand B increases dramatically and all the more qualified agents are busy. This will result in a backlog of callers waiting in the queue.\nBy using call labels and assigning priorities, it is then possible to lower the skill priority level assigned to the brand and the calls will be routed to more agents. In turn, this will ensure lower waiting times and will alleviate workloads, thus ensuring high levels of customer service.\nYes, it can be argued that the other agents aren\u0026rsquo;t as qualified, but the chances are as they work on both brands they will be able to answer the majority of questions or resolve the vast majority of problems.\nMore Information If you are considering switching or upgrading your telephony services to include ContactCentre functionality and Skills-Based Routing or would like more information regarding pascom, then give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"October 27, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/what-is-skills-based-routing/","title":"What is Skills Based Routing"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems, IVR Menus and the Most Common IVR Menu Mistakes Here we are once again with yet another Introducing Asterisk tutorial from the VoIP Guys. Today’s tutorial takes a closer look at the concept of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menus and focuses more on the most common IVR menu mistakes. Anyone who watches today’s episode could be forgiven for thinking that we, and especially Mathias, dislike IVRs.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Okay, I admit Mathias is a bit more vocal in his negativity towards IVR menus than I am, but it is only because when they are poorly designed and implemented, they can have a catastrophic impact on customer experience and therefore corporate image.\nWhich is why we recommend referring to our IVR Best Practice Guidelines before beginning with designing and implementing your IVR menus. Should you be more of a visual person, then check out our “how to guide to IVRs” InfoGraphic which also provides a great visual guide to the do’s and don’ts of IVR setup, or simply watch the video below and discover what we have to say on the topic.\nAvoiding Common IVR Menu Mistakes — Quick Tips If you want to avoid the most common IVR menu mistakes, then our top tip here is to think like your customers. Ask yourself the following; what do they want?, what do they expect?, what is their objective when calling? and what do they need to meet these requirements?. Answering these questions will go along way in helping your to design your IVR with fulfilling these requirements as its main objective.\nIn other words you will need to place yourself in your incoming callers shoes and consider what their experience will be and how they will feel afterwards if a certain option was available, not available or the greetings take too long etc. Another aspect to consider is, should your require any form of information from your customers, then ask for it upfront.\nFailure to do this will pretty much ensure that your IVR menu is destined to become more of a negative than a positive, which will directly affect how your customers perceive your business and not in a good way — so you have been warned!\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"October 22, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-30-asterisk-ivr-concept/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 30 - Asterisk IVR Concept"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Gain a Competitive Edge for your ContactCenter with pascom 7.11 [Deggendorf, Germany | 22th October 2015] pascom GmbH, developer of the innovative Asterisk based pascom Voice over IP phone system solution are proud to announce the release of their latest pascom software. pascom 7.11 delivers pioneering Next Generation Contact Center functionality and boasts specifically developed Skill Based Routing.\npascom already offers extensive Call Center functionality as standard such as team management, the pascom FlexPanel and CTI clients. The latest release has substantially built on this functionality and has been expanded in order to deliver innovative, performance enhancing Contact Center solutions through leveraging skill-based-routing.\nMoreover, alongside Skill Based Routing, the latest pascom version also features greater integration with Loway\u0026rsquo;s QueueMetrics Asterisk Call Center Monitoring Solution, delivering more in depth analysis, greater snychronization between the two systems.\nIn this way, pascom 7.11 supports contact centers by providing operators with a cost effective, feature rich and extremely advanced solution to boost their overall Contact Center performance.\nMathias Pasquay, CEO and founder pascom Netzwerktechnik GmbH, on announcing the new release: Adding advanced call routing and skill based routing to our the already numerous list of contact and call center tools that pascom already delivers is great news for all our customers. Skill based routing has been an often requested development by our Call Center customers and we are pleased to be able to say we have listened and delivered and in doing so have grown our pascom software into a very cost effective IP phone system solution for Call Centers that is also equally at home within office environments.\nAbout pascom - communication without borders Founded in 1997, pascom is a Linux IT systems integrator with over 15 years worth of experience delivering tailor-made IP telecommunications and network infrastructures solutions and thanks to their Asterisk based pascom phone system software, pascom have grown in to a market leader in the IP telecommunications across the DACH region and beyond.\npascom is a software based, open standards platform which delivers powerful, innovative business communications solutions. Based on Asterisk, the pascom phone system provides businesses with a scalable and flexible alternative to proprietary IP PBX solutions whilst simultaneously allowing companies to reduce telecommunication costs, increase mobility and boost productivity.\nDelivering a whole host of unified communications tools, pascom’s platform-independent, user-friendly admin interface, provides users and IT admins alike with an enhanced user-friendly experience and significantly decreases IT administration further boosting productivity, optimising workflows and increasing efficiencies.\nFor more information about pascom, please visit www.pascom.net.\n","date":"October 16, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-release-business-phone-system-version-7.11/","title":"pascom Release Business Phone System Version 7.11"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – Installing Asterisk IVR Prompts Last time around, we introduced the topic of Interactive Voice Response menus and took a look at how you can record your own customised prompts, quickly, easily and affordably, which means it is now time to have a look at how we can actually export and install our custom IVR prompts within our Asterisk phone system.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Getting Your Recordings Ready For Export In order to install your new prompts in Asterisk, you will need to first export them from your sound editing software. However, before exporting your IVR prompt recordings, there are some best practice guidelines to follow first.\nBefore starting with this process, there are a couple of things to be aware of. Firstly, the steps outlined below are for making your prompt files ideal for ISDN quality. That means that when you get your studio to make your recordings, get them to make them in the highest quality available. Secondly, one you have the high quality original files, keep a back up. This is because once you have completed the steps below you will not be able to reverse them, meaning should you wish to have higher quality prompts for for example HD codecs in the future you will need to use the original backup files to generate these prompt files.\nMono vs Stereo The first step is to convert your recording from Stereo to Mono. The reason here is that one a telephone, it is highly unlikely that you will ever have access to stereo sound quality as telephones are mono aural. Another reason for doing this is that by using the microphone, the recording was made in mono anyway. You could record your whole project in mono, but should you wish to mix in music with your prompts then it is best to leave the project in stereo and then convert the project to mono once you are happy with the recording.\nShould you be, like us, using Audacity then splitting the track to mono is very straightforward. All you need to do is select “Split Stereo to Mono” via the drop down menu arrow icon on the left hand side of your track as illustrated below:\nAsterisk IVR prompt recordings with Audacity\rOnce the tracks have been split, you can delete your now surplus to requirements second recording track.\nSample Rates Having made your recordings using studio software, the chances are that they were recorded using a sample rate of 44100 Hz or so. As the standard (non HD) audio codecs used for telephony purposes (alaw and ulaw) use a sample rate of 8000 Hz, we will need to down sample our recordings which can be done using the “Project Rate” options in the bottom left hand corner of your Audacity screen.\nQuick word of warning, you need to be aware of the fact that once down sampled, the recording can not be up sampled so it is always a good idea to keep a back up. Once this step has been done, you will be ready to export your prompt and upload it to your Asterisk system. To export your recording, simply click on File and select Export Selected Audio. When exporting, the recommended format to use is .wav.\nCopying Your Prompt to the Asterisk Server Once the file has been exported and saved, it is now ready to be copied onto your asterisk server. One option for doing this is to use the scp bash command, although holistic tools are also available.\nIn our example, we used bash and the command as follows:\nscp asterisk_tutorial.wav pcadmin@192.168.100.55 Where we are copying the file asterisk_tutorial.wav from the studio directory to our Asterisk system designated by the remote location on 192.168.100.55. The next step is to then copy the file from the home directory to the asterisk sounds directory using the cp command in the Asterisk CLI as follows:\n/var/lib/asterisk/sounds# cp /home/pcadmin/asterisk_tutorial.wav Please note that in order to do this you should be logged in as the root user. For a more detailed description of using the cp and scp bash commands, take a look at computerhope.com\nTesting Your Recording In order to test that everything has worked correctly, we recommend creating a new extension in your dialplan from which you can playback the file. In order to do this, simply access your dialplan and in the phones context simply add a new extension as follows:\nexten =\u0026gt; *666,1,NoOp(playback) same =\u0026gt; n,Answer same =\u0026gt; n,Playback(asterisk_tutorial) same =\u0026gt; n,Hangup It is also important to note here that you do not need to include the file format, as Asterisk will identify and use the most suited format according to the codecs being used. Now all you need to do is reload your dialplan, make the test call and listen to the prompt. A top tip from Mathias here is to always listen to prompt of your target system as it may sound great on your stereo device, thats all well and good but you really should grab a phone or softphone, hook it up to your Asterisk and use it for testing as this will provide you with a much better idea of how the prompt will sound once it is being used in a productive system.\nShould you not be happy with your prompt for whatever reason, don’t panic. If it is too loud for example, simply go back to the original unedited project file and start again, reducing the volume until you are satisfied. But remember – always keep a back up of the unedited file so you can make changes as needed!\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options, available applications and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal employee collaboration but also to redefine your business telephony.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based PBX software, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\nUntil next time – Happy VoIPing!\n","date":"October 7, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-29-installing-asterisk-ivr-prompts/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 29 - Installing Asterisk IVR Prompts"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – Asterisk IVRs and Custom IVR Prompts Now that we have our teams (queues) configured, music on hold is setup and our dynamic agents are ready to go, it is time to start a new topic. The next logical step in setting up your Asterisk system is to configure an options menu, otherwise known as an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menu. What does that mean? Simply put, an IVR menu is a list of options that are presented to an inbound caller which prompts them to make a selection, thus qualifying the call and directing it to the most appropriate contact. For more on IVR menus including do’s and don’ts, please check out our IVR best practices.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES As the purpose of an IVR is to help the caller get to the best contact as quickly as possibly by means of asking questions or prompts, such as selecting a language or department, it is essential that when configuring your IVR system that you have the appropriate IVR prompts. Now as every company (and therefore phone system) is different, these prompts will need to be customised to match your needs – and how to do that is the topic of today’s tutorial.\nTips for Recording Custom Prompts In order to record custom prompts, you have a few options available to you. The first is the also the cheapest and fastest and involves using your phone to record your prompt. Being so quick and cost inexpensive, this option could well be well suited to short term, emergency prompts should you need to record a service outage announcement.\nHowever, as this option is quick, cheap and easy it almost goes without saying that quality will be lacking. Therefore, it is not advisable to use this option when recording your permanent prompts. Another tip when using this option is to stop the recording using the hash/pound (#) key as this will prevent the hangup click also being recorded.\nThe second option, while being more costly, is the best option as it will allow you to edit, cut and master your custom IVR prompts as well as ensuring higher quality. This option is to create a recording using a good quality microphone and a audio recording / editing software. A great example option is Audacity which is an OpenSource solution and therefore free. Moreover, Audacity is available for numerous operating systems meaning that businesses can quickly, easily and cost effectively make their own custom IVR prompts.\nHowever, should you not have the staff or in house facilities to create the recordings yourself, then there is also another cost effective solution. Studio time is not as expensive as you might think - a local studio here in Deggendorf only charges €30 per hour. A word to the wise though, despite studio time not costing an arm and a leg, it is still a very good idea to plan the session and have the prompts thought out before hand. This is especially true if you have multilingual prompts as you or the studio (obviously costs more) will need to provide native speakers for all the languages.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options, available applications and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal employee collaboration but also to redefine your business telephony.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based PBX software, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\nUntil next time – Happy VoIPing!\n","date":"September 30, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-28-asterisk-ivr-and-custom-prompts/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 28 - Asterisk IVR \u0026 Prompts"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – The Solution to Dynamic Asterisk Call Agents \u0026amp; Queues Firstly, we are back – nice and refreshed (or at least Mathias says he is) from our Summer Break. What that means is that it is now time to demonstrate how you can make your queues and agents truly dynamic using everything we have demonstrated so far.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Why Are Dynamic Call Agents \u0026amp; Queues Important? In some cases you may not require any special call routing as you only have a single queue and all your team are logged into that queue. This is all well and good until you get to the point when you have multiple queues – say sales, support and customer service – and one of the call queues is experiencing high demand and the other are not. The question then is how to best utilise your resources?\nOne option could be to get your system administrator to manually log team members out of their current queue and into the one where they are needed. This however takes time – so much so that once he or she has finished the high call volumes will have likely subsided. The other negative here is that to restore the status quo they will have to repeat the process in reverse to get their call agents back into correct call queues.\nThe next option could be to keep the users in their current queue, but manually log them into the other queue. While this does not require as much time, it is still a long-winded process that is labour intensive and not overly efficient. This means that the answer lies in being able to log users into a queue as needed and log out again when they are no longer needed, either by themselves or via a team leader, but the important aspect here is that it is achieved with the minimum of hassle and as quickly as possible – so in essence dynamically. This functionality has many benefits for a large number of organisations, but the benefits are mostly clearly demonstrated in any form of contact centre.\nHow To Configure Dynamic Call Agents / Queues in Asterisk? As mentioned in our tutorial, and above, to configure truly dynamic teams requires knowledge from across a range of topics that we have covered over the last few tutorials. Today’s tutorial is based on combining this knowledge in order to finally resolve how to configure dynamic call agents. So by following our previous tutorials on Asterisk Database, regular expressions (REGEX), Asterisk applications and Asterisk functions in combination with the steps outlined for setting up queues, music on hold etc, we now have the final piece of the puzzle – so how to bring everything together in our dialplan to enable dynamic call agents.\nThe easy part – Configuring the log in / out actions in your dialplan In order to dynamically log agents in and out of a specific queue, it is first a good idea to configure your dial plan to be able to perform said action. In our example, we used the support queue with the extension 300 and my user (james) – all of which we configured in previous tutorials. Therefore, we configured our dialplan as follows using the *300 extension as this can be easily related back to the support queue.\nIf Agent exists and needs to be logged out\nexten =\u0026gt; *300-logout,1,NoOP (james exists, logout) same =\u0026gt; n,RemoveQueueMember(support,SIP/james) same =\u0026gt; n,Playback(beep) same =\u0026gt; n,Hangup If Agent does not exist and needs to be logged in\nexten =\u0026gt; *300-login,1,NoOP (james doesn't exist, login) same =\u0026gt; n,AddQueueMember(support,SIP/james) same =\u0026gt; n,Playback(beep) same =\u0026gt; n,Hangup While this step can be performed afterwards, it is perhaps a good idea to do it first as it will then provide you with information that is required in the next step, which is a bit more complicated so having the information to hand will only help you keep things simpler.\nHere comes the tricky part The crux of the problem is how to discover whether or not an agent is currently a member of the queue. In order to answer this question, it is possible to use the Asterisk Database (DB) function in combination with regular expressions. This will allow us to define which queue we wish to search when identifying whether a specific agent is logged in or not:\n${REGEX(“SIP/james“)} – james would be the name of the call agent you are searching for. ${DB(Queue/PersistentMembers/support)} – support would be the name of the queue you wish to search through. Next we will need to combine both of these lines of code into one string which we can use in our dialplan, which in our example looks like this:\n${REGEX(“SIP/james“),${DB(Queue/PersistentMembers/support)})} The final step in the process is to then configure a new extension (e.g.*300) in your dial plan, which the user can use to log themselves in and out of queues. Once this is done, the GoToIf Application can be used in combination with the above query string to determine which actions should be taken – in our case log in or out of a queue as shown below:\nexten =\u0026gt; *300-login,1,NoOP (james login/logout) ; ${DB(Queue/PersistentMembers/support)} ; ${REGEX(“SIP/james“), ${DB(Queue/PersistentMembers/support)}} same =\u0026gt; n,GotoIf(${REGEX(“SIP/james“), ${DB(Queue/PersistentMembers/support)})}?*300-logout,1:*300-login,1) same =\u0026gt; n,Hangup How the Final Dynamic Call Agent Configuration Should Look Once you have completed all the steps above, you should have a final dialplan configuration that will look very similar to the one shown below (minus extension numbers, queue and agent names) and if you have configured all your queues, agents and dialplan entries correctly you should be able to dial the designated extension (*300 in our example) and this will either log an agent in or out of a queue.\nhttps://www.pascom.net/blog/pascom-asterisk-dynamic-login.jpg does not exist\rSummary There you have it - how to make your team members into dynamic queue members should you need them to be able to log in and out of queues. This tutorial provides the basis for what can be done with Asterisk Queues, however, should you wish to make your queues more advanced, feel free to use our template as the basis and build on it and let us know how you got on.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options, available applications and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal employee collaboration but also to redefine your business telephony.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based PBX software, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"September 23, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-27-dynamic-asterisk-queues/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 27 - Dynamic Asterisk Queues"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Presence - A Helping Hand or Massive Distraction? Much has been made of the business benefits of Unified Communications (UC) such as increasing collaboration, optimising workflows and increasing productivity. At the core of any UC solution lies Rich Presence Technology and Real Time Communication which form the basis for almost all modern business phone systems. Features such as presence, instant messaging, location information, and customer status messages etc., have become standard features as SIP \u0026amp; UC adoption continues to gain momentum. As these platforms are focused on real time communications, presence information has become essential to business communications.\nBut is there a downside to having access to all this presence related functionality? And if so, just how much of a downside is it? In other words, just how distracting can the very tools that promote collaboration, productivity etc actually be?\nThankfully, a recent survey conducted over in the United States by telecoms review website software advice covers exactly this topic and they have been kind enough to share their findings with us and to save you reading through all 13 pages of the survey results and analysis, we have done our best to summarise the key points for you here.\nKey Findings In order to put the survey results into context, the survey was conducted randomly and independently of any telecoms equipment or software vendor. Moreover, when investigating the pros and cons of Presence Tech, the benchmark was for employees with a presence status set to \u0026ldquo;available\u0026rdquo; in order to eliminate status as an influencing factor.\nEffect of Presence Technology on Productivity Levels First and foremost, the key findings in the report serve to further illustrate that the presence and chat features that are core to any UC strategy do serve to not only maintain but also increase productivity levels. 47 % of the respondents stated that they have enjoyed either \u0026ldquo;moderate\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;significant\u0026rdquo; increases compared to a total of only twenty one percent experiencing any form of decrease in productivity levels , with a meagre 5 % experiencing either moderate and significant decreases while the remainder of the survey reportedly experienced no change.\nImpact of Presence on Distraction Levels Considering that the technology in question often involves notifications in graphical pop up form and / or alert sounds, it is hardly surprising that a fifty one percent majority reported that they find instant messaging tools \u0026ldquo;minimally distracting\u0026rdquo;. But isn\u0026rsquo;t that sort of the point of real time communications? What good would instant messaging be without such notifications making users aware that they have received a new message? Or as Bern Elliot, research vice president at Gartner puts it:\nCollaboration is interruption: If you didn’t have to work with others, you could get right down to work, but part of work is coordinating with others, and it takes extra effort and time for that coordination to take place. Source: Software Advice.\nMore interesting is that almost one third (30%) of the survey responded that they do not find using presence tools in any way distracting, leaving 19 percent reporting that they find the technology distracting of which only one percentage reported that the tools are very distracting.\nHow can Presence be Distracting? As 19 % of the survey reported that presence can be distracting it is important to understand how and why presence could be distracting. While the report does not specifically quote any direct causes, it does highlight a few potential areas where distractions could possibly stem from.\nIncorrect or infrequent use of Presence Status. Not updating your status frequently enough or turning it off completely will of course impact productivity. Inappropriate use of chat technologies. Without proper guidelines in place, people may misuse the technology Not paying enough consideration to message content Remember with IMs once its sent it is difficult to edit due to the real time nature of the communication channel Receiving messages unrelated to work. This is a risk of using a free Over-The-Top (OTT) instant messaging / communications platform. As with most technologies, when they are being used inside any business environment, it is always good practice to implement and follow certain guidelines in order to enjoy maximum benefit. How you come upon those guidelines will invariably be determine by which aspects of presence information will yield the maximum gain in terms of operational benefits, which will be the subject of a future post.\nBy following these guidelines, most of these distractions can be avoided or at least kept to an absolute minimum. In doing so, businesses will be able to use presence technologies to really deliver productivity boosts - and here\u0026rsquo;s some examples of how.\nHow Presence Technology Increases Productivity Moving on to the real purpose of the report, software advice delve deeper into what Presence Technology can actually deliver in terms of productivity benefits. It is important to remember here that these results are based on only those users with an \u0026ldquo;available\u0026rdquo; presence status so as to exclude any other influencing variables. Top of the list is that fact that using an \u0026ldquo;available\u0026rdquo; presence status resulted in employees receiving fewer e-mails and phone calls allowing them to focus on their work. This is of course great if you are not a member of a team or are a very independent worker as this will drastically improve productivity levels.\nTop productivity benefits for using UC presence\rHowever, in today\u0026rsquo;s modern business environment companies are becoming increasingly reliant on team work and collaboration. Therefore, the fact that by using presence information companies can achieve significant benefits in terms of boosting working in teams, greatly speeding up answer times and facilitating more spur of the moment on the fly collaboration further demonstrates that companies can benefit greatly.\nAnother hot topic currently affecting the modern business environment is telecommuting / remote working. Once again, using presence can help here too. In fact, 57% of the survey respondents mentioned that improving remote communication would be their top productivity increasing benefit of using presence technology.\nSummary By adopting presence technologies and adhering to a set of best practices, businesses can and do leverage the technology to their advantage and gain considerable productivity benefits. What\u0026rsquo;s more is that by implementing and sticking to these best practices, distractions can be kept to an absolute minimum and collaboration given a significant boost which in turn serves to greatly improve a business\u0026rsquo; operational performance.\nIf you would like to know more about how pascom can help your business, then give us a call (+49 991 291691 0) and get off to a flying start with free pascom cloud phone system edition.\n","date":"September 16, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/the-impact-of-presence-technology-on-employee-productivity/","title":"The Impact of Presence Technology on Employee Productivity"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"How can an IP PBX Benefit your Business? An IP PBX or IP phone system provides businesses with a complete telephony solution which differs from legacy systems in that phone calls are routed over the company\u0026rsquo;s IP network, thus eliminating the need for separate infrastructures - 1 dedicated to voice and the other to data. May not sound like much on the surface, but the possibilities in terms of feature benefits and cost savings are significant.\nHowever, before we go any further it is first important to understand how an VoIP phone system actually works and how it fits into your network.\nHow an IP PBX Works IP phone systems are constructed in such a way that they consist of the central IP PBX server and one or more SIP clients (users, softphones \u0026amp; desktop phones), which then register with the IP PBX server which means the server will have access to a directory of all system users, their phones and SIP addresses. In order to communicate with one another, all the components of the system use your existing LAN network, hence the need for only one network infrastructure, which incidentally has the additional benefit getting rid of all that annoying telephone wiring.\nIn order to make a call internally, the SIP client will send a signalling request to the server which will then route the call accordingly. The same is true when making external calls to the outside world except that a VoIP service provider will be required. Another option here would be to connect your existing PSTN lines via a VoIP Gateway, which also has a few additional benefits such as being able to connect to the mobile and analog worlds.\nWhat is VoIP\rEasier to Install, Configure \u0026amp; Manage In comparison to proprietary systems, IP phone systems are much easier to install and configure, often needing someone who is computer savvy to manage the systems opposed to requiring specifically trained technicians. What\u0026rsquo;s more, because IP PBX software phone systems are simpler to install and configure, the time required is often kept to a minimum. This is also further facilitated by such systems utilising web based user interfaces (web UI) which provide system admins with a platform from which they can configure, maintain and update the system without requiring additional costly and time consuming vendor support.\nJust these aspects of software based IP phone systems alone can ensure that businesses are able to save significant amounts of time and therefore money as well as enabling them to better utilise their IT resources.\nNo Vendor Lock In Unlike proprietary systems which require you to use proprietary phones / additional modules if you wish to benefit from more advanced features, an IP PBX is based on OpenStandards. This stems from the fact that modern VoIP phone systems are based on the Session Initiated Protocols (SIP) communication protocol, which in turn provides you with the freedom to choose from almost any available IP phone or VoIP Gateway vendor. Having such flexibility is great for businesses as it means that purchasing new hardware can be done according to the business\u0026rsquo; goals and within the project budget.\nBenefit from System Scalability A significant downside of legacy systems is that they are not so easy to grow as your business thrives and expands. In fact, due to the complexity of such systems, adding new extensions alone often involves new cabling and additional hardware. If you need new functionality, well then it might well be that the only solution is to purchase and deploy a completely new phone system.\nWith an IP PBX solution, this is not the case at all. For example, adding new users is often a simple matter of adding a new licence to your package and speaking with your VoIP provider to get additional lines. Moreover, as IP PBXs are software based, incorporating new company locations is a matter of configuring your network to do so, removing any additional server hardware requirements and ensuring that the additional benefits outlined below can be applied to all locations linked to the central system.\nAdvanced Feature Set as Standard for Less Software is coded not built which means IP PBX vendors have the ability to further develop their offerings to include new feature and improved functionality. As a general rule, IP phone system software solutions already come with a healthy feature set included as standard, such as a range of Unified Communications features like video, inbuilt softphones, mobile apps, call conferencing, chat, presence, unified messaging as well as traditional PBX features like Ring Groups and Call Queueing which can often be very expensive add ons with a proprietary system.\nAccess to Complete System Overview With software based IP phone systems, both your admins and users will benefit from a more complete system overview. Your users will benefit from being able to identify which of their colleagues are currently busy or free and deciding how to best get in contact with them. IP PBXs also help improve team work, in part due to presence information, but also to a large degree, because admins can define whether team leaders / managers have access to real time call volume info and help them increase team performance by enabling them to react to changes in demand.\nMeanwhile, in terms of running the system, your administrators will benefit from having access to graphical system health information as well as automated fault reporting, meaning potential problems can be identified and resolved quickly and efficiently and sometimes even before they arise, thus ensuring maximum uptime.\nIncreased Productivity The fact that IP telephony systems are built around IP technology makes such systems extremely flexible when it comes to integrating other business applications. This makes it possible to connect your CRM system (or whatever customer management tool you use, ERP, ticket system etc) with you phone system and automatically open customer information when they call you. This also works in reverse as it is often possible to make phone calls directly from within your customer management application, therefore allowing users to quickly and efficiently access customer records saving valuable time and significantly improving productivity as your agents will no longer be wasting valuable time searching for the relevant information but rather have it at their finger tips when they actually need it.\nImproved Customer Service Tying into the fact that IP phone systems generally come with an abundance of advanced features per default and can support businesses increase productivity, it almost goes without saying that these features will help improve customer service within an organisation. As alluded to in the point above, users having access to the right info at the right time will also boost customer service and satisfaction. But the features don\u0026rsquo;t stop there. An IP PBX software will also come with functions such as AutoAttendants, IVRs, and affinity call routing, which are all designed to ensure that your incoming callers are directed to the most appropriate contact at the first time of asking. What\u0026rsquo;s more, once on the call, your team members can benefit from call listening and whispering, allowing supervisors to listen in and provide tips on how best to support the customer which can greatly improve customer service and be used for invaluable training. Moreover, call recording functionality provides businesses with the opportunity to maintain and improve customer service through improved training and quality assurance.\nLower Call Costs Through leveraging the benefits of VoIP providers (aka SIP trunking), IP phone systems can deliver significant cost savings in terms of call costs. Top of the list of savings is that cross site internal calls are normally free, providing the two sites are networked together in some way. On top of this, as external calls are routed via the internet, they are also significantly more cost effective compared to charges incurred by traditional carriers. Furthermore, technologies such as least cost routing further support businesses reduce their telephony costs as the server identifies which communication medium an outbound caller is trying to reach, i.e. landline, mobile, international etc and routes the call to the trunk which will have the least cost incurred as a result of making the call.\nLower Total Cost of Ownership While it is true an on-premise IP PBX solution may well involve higher initial upfront costs, long term operational costs are significantly lower compared to hosted solutions as a result of monthly user subscription costs making the total cost of ownership significantly lower. Compared to hosted solutions, this can be a massive bonus of operating a business owned system, especially if your business has a larger user base. On the other side of the coin, hosted or subscription based IP phone system solutions do allow businesses to spread the costs, making these options ideal for startups, SOHO and businesses that fit into the smaller end of the SMB spectrum.\nIn the end, this will likely be determined by cash flow, but if you can afford to purchase your system out right, then your monthly operating costs will be significantly lower compared to hosted / subscription based solutions.\nSummary It is plain to see that investing in a software based IP PBX solution makes a great deal of sense in that businesses who do so will be to able to enjoy significant cost saving and business performance enhancing benefits. This applies not only to companies who are looking move to a VoIP system, but also to companies who already have a PBX system in place but also want to benefit from the savings in terms of administrative hassle, maintenance and call costs that having an IP PBX provides.\nFor more on how your business can benefit from using the pascom IP phone system, take a look at our website or get in touch. Moreover, if you would like more details on how your business can benefit from Unified Communications with pascom, then our free white white paper download is for you.\nFinal Word The crucial aspect of choosing a cloud or on-premise business phone system vendor isn’t who’s the cheapest, but who gives you the most confidence that not only will you get off to a flying start, but also that the vendor will be a reliable and supportive business partner in the future.\nGive the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 201 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free cloud business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"September 9, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/ip-pbx-business-benefits/","title":"IP PBX Business Benefits"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom and UK Based VoIP Provider SIP Trunk Plus Announce Interoperability. [Deggendorf, Germany \u0026amp; St Albans, UK | August 6, 2015] pascom GmbH, developer of the innovative software pascom phone system are pleased to announce the successful completion of interoperability testing with the UK based SIP Solutions Provider Acuity UC / SIP Trunk Plus.\nThanks to the successful completion of interoperability and compatibility testing, pascom phone system users in the UK will be able to start benefitting from SIP Trunk Plus\u0026rsquo; innovative, cost effective SIP trunking solutions within just a few mouse clicks. This is as a result of a newly developed pascom VoIP provider template, which ensures that pascom and SIP Trunk Plus customers can be sure that all the respective pascom and SIP Trunk Plus features will be fully available and compatible, thus delivering significant cost savings as well as efficiency and productivity boosts.\nThe new partnership will benefit not only existing customers, but also businesses that require innovative, flexible, scalable and fraud resistant solutions in order to fulfil their unified communications needs. The ongoing cooperation between pascom and SIP Trunk Plus will also serve to ensure that compatibility will be guaranteed not only in current versions but also for future versions of the pascom phone system software.\nJonathan Rodwell, SIP Trunk Plus CEO, shared his thoughts on the new interoperability:\n\u0026ldquo;We are delighted to announce the successful completion of interoperability testing with pascom’s business phone system. SIP Trunk Plus will offer pascom users an outstanding SIP service both in terms of call quality and the range of value-add services available over the platform to complement their pascom deployment, and offer protection through our leading Fraud Mitigation software.\u0026rdquo;\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO, mentioned upon announcing the successful completion of the compatibility testing;\n\u0026ldquo;The successful completion of interoperability testing with SIP Trunk Plus is great news for our pascom customers as it provides our customers with an excellent solutions provider in the UK that is renowned for their high quality. Moreover, thanks to their forward thinking, innovative approach to SIP telecommunications, pascom customers will also benefit from ease of integration without compromising any of our innovative pascom tools and features as well as providing significant protection against VoIP fraud.“\nAbout SIP Trunk Plus. SIP Trunk Plus are the innovative SIP trunking solutions as developed and delivered by SIP application and delivery specialists 500 Ltd (Acquired by Acuity UC). Their mission is to take “SIP trunks” to the next level by delivering a range of SIP-based services that are not only truly unique, but offer hugely competitive advantages to partners and outstanding complementary services designed with the end users in mind.\nWith their SIP services, SIP Trunk Plus provide their partners with the ability to deliver highly competitive offerings out of a technology that the traditional industry treats merely as a means to deliver VoIP.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions, visit www.pascom.net or get started for free now.\n","date":"August 6, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-sip-trunk-plus-voip-provider-interoperability/","title":"pascom SIP Trunk Plus VoIP Provider Interoperability"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – How to Use The Asterisk Database \u0026amp; Asterisk Functions Over the next few tutorials we will be getting much more professional with our dynamic queues and dynamic members. However, as this is quite complicated, that does mean that we need to introduce a few new concepts starting with demonstrating how to add entries to the Asterisk Database and then using Asterisk functions with your dialplan to query the database.\nWhat you need to know Please accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES First things first, it is important to understand that the Asterisk Database is a “Key Value” database, meaning that the “keys” are listed on the left and their corresponding “values” on the right. Moreover, the Asterisk Database is a persistent database, which means that when you stop your Asterisk service, a record of the database is stored and then recovered when Asterisk is restarted. This is particularly useful as it means you can copy the database to different Asterisk instances and create backups.\nIn order to access the Asterisk Database, simply log into the Asterisk CLI and use the command database followed by the appropriate command such as show. Additional commands can be see in the image below, however starting with the show command is a good idea as it provides you with an overview of existing entries within the Asterisk Database.\nAsterisk phone system database\rAdding Asterisk Database Entries In order to add an entry to the Asterisk database, you will need to use the command database put and by pressing return you will get a read out of the syntax required to add your entry:\nasterisk*CLI\u0026gt; database put Usage: database put \u0026lt;family\u0026gt; \u0026lt;key\u0026gt; \u0026lt;value\u0026gt; Adds or updates an entry in the Asterisk database for a given family, key, and value. Therefore, to finish adding your entry to the database, use the command database put . In our example, this translates to:\ndatabase put pascom james ok. Once you are done, it is worth checking that everything worked correctly by using the database show command.\nThe family part of the string is an essential component of the database entry as it groups entries with similar characteristics together, thus providing an clearer database overview as well as making database management much simpler as highlighted when removing entries.\nRemoving Asterisk Database Entries The role of the components of adding an entry become much clearer, when looking at removing entries. In order to remove an entry, two options are available. Firstly, to remove a single entry use the command database del . Should you wish to remove a whole family group you will need to use the database deltree command.\nIntroducing Asterisk Functions Just like there being an application for everything within Asterisk, there is also a function for everything. In order to view all the available functions in Asterisk, use the command core show functions. For the purposes of this tutorial, we are interested in the function DB_EXISTS as this will allow us to get our dialplan to query if an agent can be found within the Asterisk Database or not, and therefore is already logged into the queue or not when building our dynamic queues.\nIn our test setup, we created a new extension in our dialplan, and then used the DB_EXISTS function as follows (${DB_EXISTS(family/key)}? followed by our new extension number plus actions concerning what the dailplan should do should the query return a true or false answer, as shown below:\nexten =\u0026gt; *300,1,NoOp(database test) same =\u0026gt; n,GotoIf(${DB_EXISTS(pascom/james)}?*300-ok,1) same =\u0026gt; n,Hangup exten =\u0026gt; *300-ok,1,NoOp(james exists) same =\u0026gt; n,Answer() same =\u0026gt; n,Playback(beep) same =\u0026gt; n,Hangup So there you have it, how to use the Asterisk Database, add and remove entries as well as how to use functions to query the database. Next time we will take our dynamic queues even further, so stay tuned! Word to the wise, a very special event is coming up in the life of the VoIP Guys, which could mean we are off air for a short while, but rest assured we will be back very soon!\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options, available applications and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal employee collaboration but also to redefine your business telephony.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based PBX software, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"July 21, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-26-the-asterisk-database/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 26 - The Asterisk Database"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – How to Configure Dynamic Queue Agents in Asterisk After last week’s little side step into the world of Music on Hold, we are back on track with our Introducing Asterisk Series, which means it is time for to demonstrate how to configure Dynamic Queue Agents in your Asterisk phone system.\nToday’s episode introduces the concept of dynamic agents, how it works and which applications are required and how to use them in a form of a proof of concept, before we take our tutorial to the next level and get much more professional over the next few episodes.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Why do we need dynamic members you may ask? Well simply put, having the ability to log in and out of call queues delivers greater flexibility and professionalism. Moreover, having dynamic queues means that calls will only be directed to agents logged into the queue ensuring calls are answered quickly and efficiently.\nAnother reason for having dynamic queue agents is should you experience a spike in call volumes, you can react much more quickly through having dynamic agents. For example, by making employees dynamic members, they need only dial a number (or press a BLF Function key) to log into the queue and can start taking calls. If they were not dynamic, your phone system administrator would have to manually add users to the queue and more than likely the increased volume would probably have subsided by the time he’s finished as callers get fed up with waiting.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options, available applications and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal employee collaboration but also to redefine your business telephony.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based PBX software, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\nDon’t forget to like and share these tutorials with all the other Asterisk Fans out there. Until next time, comment, share, like and most importantly – Happy VoIPing!\n","date":"July 15, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-25-asterisk-dynamic-queue-agents/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 25 - Asterisk Dynamic Queue Agents"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Available Now - pascom\u0026rsquo;s mobydick 7.09.03 Stable Release [Deggendorf, Germany | July 10th 2015] pascom Netzwerktechnik are happy to announce the arrival of the latest stable version of their mobydick VoIP phone system software - mobydick 7.09.03. The latest stable release features a host of modifications, improvements and hot fixes as well as including increased interoperability thanks to pascom\u0026rsquo;s ever expanding interoperability programme.\nAmong the highlights within the mobydick 7.09.03 release, pascom are pleased to be able to offer mobydick phone system users more freedom of choice when selecting their SIP providers. Thanks to the addition of SIP provider templates for both the UK based SIP provider SIP Trunk Plus and the Germany based inexio.\nThe new templates will benefit pascom\u0026rsquo;s mobydick customers both in terms of increased choice as well as greatly simplifying the integration process for both providers, saving time and reducing costs.\nAdditional improvements within the latest software release include improve Aastra / Mitel functionality as well as improved compatibility with Yealink phones in terms of improved blind/unattended transfers.\nMorever, pascom\u0026rsquo;s mobydick 7.09.03 release sees increased interoperability with Loway\u0026rsquo;s Asterisk Call Center software solutions thanks to improved integration with their WombatDialer.\nAbout pascom - communication without borders Founded in 1997, pascom is a Linux IT systems integrator with over 15 years worth of experience delivering tailor-made IP telecommunications and network infrastructures solutions and thanks to their Asterisk based pascom phone system software, pascom have grown in to a market leader in the IP telecommunications across the DACH region and beyond.\npascom is a software based, open standards platform which delivers powerful, innovative business communications solutions. Based on Asterisk, the pascom phone system provides businesses with a scalable and flexible alternative to proprietary IP PBX solutions whilst simultaneously allowing companies to reduce telecommunication costs, increase mobility and boost productivity.\nDelivering a whole host of unified communications tools, pascom’s platform-independent, user-friendly admin interface, provides users and IT admins alike with an enhanced user-friendly experience and significantly decreases IT administration further boosting productivity, optimising workflows and increasing efficiencies.\nFor more information about pascom, please visit www.pascom.net.\nBetter yet, why not try our free edition available as either a hosted or on-premise business phone system.\n","date":"July 10, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-release-business-phone-system-version-7.09.03/","title":"pascom Release Business Phone System Version 7.09.03"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – How to Configure Asterisk Music on Hold So after a short break and our little foray into the world of Identity Management, the VoIP Guys team are back together and have a new Introducing Asterisk phone system tutorial for you. Last time around, we promised to take a closer, more advanced look at dynamic queues and queue members, but we noticed something we missed during our time off-air – we did not have any Music on Hold.\nNow some of you might think, so what, things like music on hold can wait until the really important stuff is done, but having a queue where the phone just rings and rings is one; boring and 2; not very professional as it portrays a lack of technical ability which will negatively affect your corporate image. That makes music on hold very important and therefore, we decided it would be best to change our plan a little to show you how to configure it in your queues.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES So there you have it. We answered a few questions, demonstrated how to configure your Music on Hold and next time we will get back on track by going into more detail concerning dynamic queues and members.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options, available applications and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal employee collaboration but also to redefine your business telephony.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based PBX software, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\nDon’t forget to like and share these tutorials with all the other Asterisk Fans out there. Until next time, comment, share, like and most importantly – Happy VoIPing!\n","date":"July 8, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-24-configuring-asterisk-music-on-hold/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 24 - Asterisk Music on Hold"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Managing Identities with the UCS and pascom Integration Following from last Friday\u0026rsquo;s mobydick 7.10 release in which we announced the successful completion of interoperability testing between the Univention Corporate Server (UCS) and pascom\u0026rsquo;s software based VoIP phone system, and our previous post of What is Identity Management, we figured that we should let you guys know how it works with UCS and pascom phone systems (previously mobydick).\nThat of course means that the VoIP Guys are back with an Identity Management (IdM) special - mobydick meets UCS, featuring Nico Gulden, Univention Product Manager, and of course the ever present Mathias Pasquay, VoIP Guy and pascom CEO.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES What is the Univention Corporate Server? First up, Nico Gulden introduces the concept of Identity Management, what is it, why is it important as well as naming some example use case scenarios before moving on to the introducing Univention\u0026rsquo;s Corporate Server (UCS).\nAs Nico Gulden mentioned, UCS is much more than just an Identity Management system. Although, it is clear the integrated identity and infrastructure management tools form a significant component of the UCS solution. In a nutshell, UCS provides businesses with an innovative platform that delivers organisation full control over their IT systems.\nIn essence, UCS enables IT managers to not only efficiently operate and manage server applications but also their complete IT infrastructures, regardless of the operating system environment (Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X or Linux systems, virtualised, distributed and so on).\nWhy not check out the UCS core edition and try it out yourself now and without any obligations.\nWhat are the Benefits of the pascom and UCS Integration? Alongside our VoIP Guys come mobydick school video tutorial above, we also have a complete documentation on the pascom UCS integration which can be found in our documentation, so I will not go too deep into the integration configurations. Instead, I will concentrate on the benefits that integrating the two solutions deliver businesses.\nFirst and foremost, by integrating pascom and UCS, IT admins are provided with a centralised platform from which they can add, manage, edit and remove all their system users, their associated permissions (roles) and devices. This greatly benefits admins in terms of removing time consuming, repetitive tasks, saving them considerable amounts of time and simplifying complex infrastructures for improved ease of management. But the main benefit of a centralised system is that such systems greatly enhance security by enabling system wide policies, such as password controls, to be implemented.\npascom Identity Management\rTherefore, it is easy to see that with an automated import and sync of user data between UCS and pascom coupled with UCS\u0026rsquo; integrated IdM functions will allow IT admins to greatly improve system security, increase both their and their user productivity, reduce / eliminate duplicated or invalid data entries and save costs.\nSummary While integrating your pascom phone system with UCS can greatly enhance productivity, reduce costs and eliminate duplicated data, which are all good reasons, the top benefits you can expect to receive from implementing these solutions in conjunction with one another is that with UCS and pascom, you will have an enterprise IT Infrastructure and management solution that can be effortlessly integrated into your corporate telecommunications system, with the minimum of fuss and effort.\nShould you want extra information regarding our software based pascom VoIP solution or the integration with Univention\u0026rsquo;s Corporate Server, then get in touch via our website or give us a call on +49 991 29691 0.\n","date":"July 1, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-ucs-identity-management/","title":"pascom UCS Identity Management"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom and Univention Boost Security with Successful Interoperability. [Deggendorf and Bremen, Germany | June 30, 2015] pascom GmbH, developer of the innovative software pascom phone system are pleased to announce the successful completion of interoperability testing with Univention GmbH\u0026rsquo;s Corporate Server (UCS).\npascom Univention interoperability\rThanks to the successfully completed interoperability testing, UCS and pascom solution users will be able to benefit from a centralised enterprise IT Infrastructure management tool that incorporates Identity Management (IdM) and effortlessly integrates with pascom\u0026rsquo;s pascom VoIP business communications solution as well as additional external applications.\nMoreover, the new interoperability partnership will provide customers with the ability to not only benefit from the ease of integration but also all the benefits of IdM and VoIP solutions such as increased productivity, time and cost savings whilst simultaneously increasing security and providing much needed and invaluable control over IT infrastructures.\nMathias Pasquay, CEO pascom, on discussing the successful integration: For us at pascom, integrating UCS and pascom was an easy decision to make. Firstly, we already have numerous customers who already utilise Univention Corporate Server and the new integration will benefit them massively. Secondly, as Identity Management is currently one of the hot topics and the fact that the UCS solution provides such a user-friendly, time saving approach to IdM, we felt that the integration and development of the pascom App with the Univention App Center would be of massive benefit to any IT admin who is looking for a cost effective solution to increase both security and productivity.\nMeanwhile, Nico Gulden, Product Management Univention, is explained further: The pascom App in the Univention App Center enables a comfortable and standardised connection of IT and telephony infrastructures with the Univention Corporate Server central Identity Management functionality. Both solutions can be managed via the respective management systems and for me are characterized by their particularly easy and comfortable handling. I am certain that many users who already operate UCS who are searching for a Voice over IP solution that can be so simply and efficiently integrated into their IT and User Management will be very satisfied by the App.\nAbout pascom – We upgrade business communications Founded in 1997, pascom have more than 15 years of experience delivering tailor-made VoIP telecommunications and network infrastructures solutions.\npascom\u0026rsquo;s phone system is an innovative software based, open standards IP PBX which provides companies with a scalable, flexible communications platform enabling companies to significantly reduce telecommunication costs whilst increasing mobility and boosting productivity with a pascom phone system.\nDelivering a whole host of unified communications tools, pascom’s platform-independent, user-friendly interface, provides users and IT admins alike with an enhanced user-friendly experience and significantly decreases IT administration whilst boosting productivity, optimising workflows and increasing efficiencies.\nFor more information about pascom, please visit www.pascom.net\nAbout Univention – be open Univention is a leading supplier of Open Source products for the operation and management of IT infrastructures.\nThe core product is Univention Corporate Server (UCS), a flexible, cost-efficient and successful alternative to server solutions from Microsoft. UCS includes comprehensive Active Directory functions and an App Center to integrate and operate enterprise applications.\nUCS allows web-based IT management and is well suited for organizations of any size, either as a classic server solution, in the cloud or in hybrid IT environments. UCS is designed to operate as part of existing Microsoft infrastructures and supports the easy replacement of Microsoft Windows domains.\nWith Univention Corporate Client (UCC), which is based on UCS, Univention provides a management solution for Ubuntu and with UCS@school a complete system for the operation and management of IT in schools. Univention has a worldwide partner network and subsidiaries in Europe and North America.\nFor more information about Univention, please visit www.univention.com\n","date":"June 30, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-univention-interoperability/","title":"pascom Univention Interoperability"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Introducing mobydick 7.10 - New Connector, New Phonebook, More InterOp, More Secure\u0026hellip; Friday 26th June 2015 saw the latest release of our mobydick phone system, and what a release it was. Full of new and improved features, enhanced functionality and increase ease of use, plus a whole load of new interoperability improvements all geared towards increasing productivity, optimising workflows, reducing repetitive tasks and saving costs.\nNew mobydick Connector - Simple, Quick and Efficient So far in 2015, we have significantly expanded mobydick’s compatibility with other solutions. Therefore, it is hardly a surprise that with mobydick 7.10 we have developed a brand new mobydick connector to compliment the SIP provider database we released with the 7.09, thus greatly enhancing and facilitating integration with 3rd party solutions.\npascom Connector\rThe mobydick Connector is designed to import and synchronise external data sources, including CSV files, LDAP Sources and other mobydick systems. This means that mobydick is able to import and update a range of data sets from phone books to users, locations and speed dials whilst simultaneously helping you avoid unnecessary duplicated data sets and saving yourself time and money.\nUnivention Corporate Server (UCS) Integration Univention Corporate Server (UCS) is an innovative platform to efficiently operate and manage server applications and complete IT infrastructures. Thanks to its flexible Identity Management component, you can centrally and securely add and manage your users.\nWith the mobydick 7.10 release, mobydick now incorporates the UCS Connector, with which you can quickly and simply import your core user data via LDAP and then authenticate your mobydick users via the external IdM tool in UCS.\nOf course, the option of mass user imports via CSV files and configuring passwords internally within mobydick is still available. With the UCS Connector, we offer another more advanced user synchronisation option.\nNew mobydick Telephone Book We heard you when you said your wanted a new and improved phonebook. That of course means the mobydick telephone book has been completely revamped and now offers you the ability to include not only company contacts but also user personal via the private phone book. What’s more, both phone books are can now be displayed as contact lists using their corresponding menu tab. Moreover, via their menu tabs both phone books can be completely managed directly from within the mobydick client, providing users with the ability to add contacts during a call, from search results or from their call histories.\npascom Telephone Book\rAs the new display provides a complete overview of all your contacts, you can either simply scroll through the list or by using the Quick Alphabet function, narrow your search to more efficiently find your desired contact.\nAs a phone book administrator, you will also now be able to manage, update and / or delete company wide phone books directly from within the client.\nEncryption and Codec Management Under the newly added Telephony tab in the Web UI, you will now be able to add and modify system wide telephony settings. Of particular interest is SRTP management for supported devices, which use standard codecs or allow IAX and AMI connections.\npascom SRTP Encryption\rSnom M700 DECT IP Base Station Integration The snom M700 base station enables the operation of both single and multi cell configurations and is therefore ideally suited for companies that require coverage across multiple floors or in larger office buildings..\nWith mobydick 7.10 you can now automatically provision the M700 DECT System and M65 Handsets, making their integration with mobydick as easy as possible, particularly in multi-cell systems. The DECT sender will now be automatically identified and will receive all the required settings from mobydick.\nAbout pascom - communication without borders Founded in 1997, pascom is a Linux IT systems integrator with over 15 years worth of experience delivering tailor-made IP telecommunications and network infrastructures solutions and thanks to their Asterisk based pascom phone system software, pascom have grown in to a market leader in the IP telecommunications across the DACH region and beyond.\npascom is a software based, open standards platform which delivers powerful, innovative business communications solutions. Based on Asterisk, the pascom phone system provides businesses with a scalable and flexible alternative to proprietary IP PBX solutions whilst simultaneously allowing companies to reduce telecommunication costs, increase mobility and boost productivity.\nDelivering a whole host of unified communications tools, pascom’s platform-independent, user-friendly admin interface, provides users and IT admins alike with an enhanced user-friendly experience and significantly decreases IT administration further boosting productivity, optimising workflows and increasing efficiencies.\nFor more information about pascom, please visit www.pascom.net.\n","date":"June 29, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-mobydick-phone-system-7.10/","title":"pascom mobydick phone system 7.10"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Identity Management in a Nutshell Identity management (IdM) in essence refers to the management or administration of individual identities within a system, such as a company or network.\nWithin the corporate world, ID management refers more specifically to providing IT managers with a centralised administrative system (Identity Management System - IdMS) where company users and permission restrictions to applications such as ERP, CRM, e-mail client etc etc can be grouped together and managed collectively. The principle objective behind IdM is to improve security and protection for sensitive company data and systems, whilst simultaneously improving productivity as well as reducing costs, downtime and repetitive time consuming tasks.\nWhat Constitutes an Identity? In order to better understand not just what IdM is but also its benefits, the concept of what identities (or more precisely identities within the realm of enterprise IT) needs to be clarified.\nWe all (or nearly all) have some sort of digital presence, social media, e-mail, etc etc, which can all be described as our individual digital identities. Within the corporate world, it is the organisational identity which matters and therefore forms the core of the identities of users within the infrastructure.\nAn identity is therefore the collection of unique characteristics that define a person, organisation, resource or a service in conjunction with any optional additional information. In this way, identity management supports IT departments to manage and maintain systems by achieving a single identity per individual to which an unique identification key can be assigned such as a username.\nWhy is Identity Management so Important? IdM can and should be a key component of a business\u0026rsquo;s security and productivity strategies. Using a centralised IdMS such as UCS provides organisations with the ability to protect their networks, sensitive data and system applications whilst enhancing business productivity whilst significantly decreasing the complexity, reducing core process costs and enabling system wide security policy.\nMoreover, modern business has become so mobile and workforces so fluid, that effective ID management is paramount in ensuring that not only company networks are protected but also that all the necessary company stakeholders, from employees to customers or partners are provided with access to all their required resources. Without an identity management tool, this process would be unfathomably complex and time consuming, especially when one considers that the whole process is ongoing.\nThen, of course, there is the small matter that the liability for protecting and controlling access to sensitive information relating to customers, employees, pretty much any stakeholder for that matter, lies with the company holding said data. In this way, governmental and legislative bodies basically infer that companies should pay attention to Identity Management.\nIdentity Management Systems Explained Identity Management Systems (IdMS), such as UCS, provide IT managers with a central platform for managing identities as well as bringing a number of important tools with them, such as password generators and device management systems. A good Identity Management System makes it possible to centrally manage user accounts, user authorisations and user groups using a web-based management system\nAn intelligent IdMS delivers the ability to create roles and then to manage these roles throughout the \u0026ldquo;ID Life Cycle\u0026rdquo;. The benefit of using roles, is that roles can be used to manage any number of properties, such as the permission to access certain e-mail inboxes or to pick up calls to other systems with the company phone system, etc., greatly simplifying the management of every identity within a system.\npascom Identity Management\rHow does Identity Management Benefit Businesses? In the broadest sense, there are numerous ways in which IdM can benefit businesses, which as already mentioned range from increased data/system security to increased productivity. But how exactly does implementing an IdM solution benefit organisations?\nEasy Integration with any LDAP Service LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is a protocol with which information about users, organisations, individuals and other resources such as files, network components can be stored and retrieved quickly and efficiently. Thus enabling admins to deploy lightweight directory services (or multiple independent directories) to consolidate an entire organisations info set into one repository, ensuring that data can be accessed in a central directory from anywhere on the network. Moreover, as LDAP has broad industry support in combination with a well defined API (Application Programming Interface), integration with IdM and other systems is greatly enhanced.\nSingle Point of Administration The most obvious benefit of having a centralised IdM platform is the ability to centrally manage system identities, but how does that actually benefit businesses? The most frequently boasted about saving relating to IdM is password resetting automation. At first glance, this may seem like a somewhat trivial and inconsequential benefit but consider this: some research suggests that around half of the calls made to help desks relate to password resets. Now imagine you had a tool which automates this process, how much time and therefore money could be saved? Having an IdM does exactly that.\nSingle Point of Authentication Following on from the single point of administration which significantly reduces IT managers workloads, the next single point benefit delivers enhanced user experience. A single point of authentication provides users with a unified login process to all systems, applications and resources. Ensuring that they do not need to remember multiple usernames and passwords which will invariable not only vary in terms of format but also in terms of strength.\nIntegration of Company Wide Compliances Through utilising IdM systems, companies and IT managers can gain invaluable control over their networks. For instance, password policies can be controlled centrally thus increasing security. Additional compliances can also be managed, for example which web pages can be visited as well as the ability to automate the onboarding / offboarding (adding, editing and removing identities from the system) process as well as device provisioning process.\nManaging and Protecting Against Mobile Devices Moreover, identity management can be applied to not just the applications that people use but also applying a set of policies to the devices they use to access those applications. With policies such as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) are becoming so strategically important, as company networks are faced with swarm of mobile devices, over which they have little or no control, trying to gain access. IdM provides companies with the ability to apply a set of policies that protect company assets by managing the identities of the users of these devices, which is fast becoming an absolute must have security protocol.\nFurther IdM Benefits at a Glance New employees / users receive system user information more quickly - \u0026ldquo;I cannot access the CRM system\u0026rdquo; problems will now be quickly and simply resolved.\nBy reducing and perhaps even eliminating the number of errors, more relaxed working environments can be promoted.\nMore efficient editing of change requests, i.e. new user/group permissions can be quickly and easily implemented.\nProviding customer accounts takes minutes as opposed to days.\nThanks to the automation of provisioning processes, maintenance and integrations can be performed automatically.\nSignificantly reduced maintenance hassle enables the reduction in operating costs and servicing.\nImproved corporate security with complete view of user access privileges.\nReduced security costs by automating tasks.\nAudit \u0026amp; reporting functions.\nMore stringent security controls.\nEliminate or greatly reduce duplicate user IDs.\nSummary As we have already shown, implementing an IdM solution has numerous benefits, which are designed to improve the overall security and efficiency of company networks as well as reducing costs, improving work flows and therefore increasing productivity. In essence, the benefits of IdM solutions can be characterised into three main categories; 1. increased security, 2. improved system overview and finally 3. Significant cost savings.\n","date":"June 29, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/what-is-identity-management/","title":"What is Identity Management"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – How to Configure Advanced Dynamic Asterisk Queues Welcome back to another VoIP Guys Tutorial. Following on from last time where we demonstrated how to give your Asterisk Queues a boost using call strategies, today’s topic will take this one step further and make your queues even more advanced. Which means it is time to cover Advanced Asterisk Dynamic Queues and Queue members and how to configure your Asterisk phone system to include dynamic queue members.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES As there are 2 main methods of implementing dynamic queue members, lets first demonstrate how IT Admins can configure and test their dynamic queues and queue members using the Asterisk command line interface (CLI), before moving on to the even more advanced application technique, which will be the topic of a future tutorial.\nSadly, that’s it for a short while. Due to upcoming events, we will be taking a short break. However, we will be back in a couple of weeks with the next instalment in our Asterisk Tutorial series, where we will be taking a more advanced look at at configuring dynamic team members. So stay tuned!\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine your company\u0026rsquo; business telephony.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based PBX software, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\nDon’t forget to like and share these tutorials with all the other Asterisk Fans out there. Until next time, comment, share, like and most importantly – Happy VoIPing!\n","date":"June 3, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-23-asterisk-dynamic-queues/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 23 - Asterisk Dynamic Queues"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"How to move an IP PBX to the Cloud - Kamailio World 2015 June 2. 2015, Deggendorf | Berlin, Germany - pascom\u0026rsquo;s attendance at the 2015 Kamailio World Conference in Berlin took on more of an official capacity compared to previous years. As 2015 event sponsors, pascom were honoured to be invited to take centre stage as guest speakers at the renowned VoIP Users Conference (VUC). Mathias Pasquay, pascom CEO, took this opportunity to introduce not only pascom\u0026rsquo;s software based phone system but also discussing the future of the solution in the context of cloud telephony.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Throughout his presentation \u0026ldquo;moving an existing IP PBX to the Cloud without any of the drawbacks\u0026rdquo;, Mr Pasquay introduced the complexities of developing the pascom phone system into a carrier-grade multi-tenant hosted PBX. He [Pasquay] further highlighted the growing need for hosted telephony solutions in today\u0026rsquo;s marketplace by clarifying the motivation behind embarking on such a complex project before explaining how the project is being realised thanks to the invaluable assistance and collaboration with the Kamailio project.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO and founder, on the Kamailio World Conference 2015:\nIt was an honour to take part in this year\u0026rsquo;s event. Kamailio World has a special atmosphere and can only be recommended to any VoIP developer who wishes to stay current on the latest developments from within the voice over IP industry. On a more personal note, working together with Daniel from the Kamailio project has been an example of true collaboration. Through his expertise and invaluable input, we will soon be able to realise our goal of developing the pascom phone system into a true carrier-grade multi-tenant VoIP solution.”\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net for more information about pascom phone systems.\n","date":"June 2, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-at-kamailio-world-2015/","title":"pascom at Kamailio World 2015"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom Welcomes easybell as an Approved VoIP Provider June 1. 2015 | Deggendorf \u0026amp; Berlin Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of Unified Communication phone systems for business is proud to announce the successful completion of interoperability testing with the German VoIP provider, easybell. The Berlin based easybell GmbH, are one of Germany\u0026rsquo;s fastest growing telecommunications companies. Renowned for their high levels of customer service and satisfaction the partnership with easybell will provide pascom customers with a high quality, cost effective and reliable business VoIP communications platform.\nThe successful interoperability testing ensures that pascom phone system IT administrators will be able to integrate easybell\u0026rsquo;s cost effective SIP trunking solutions within a matter of minutes. Thanks to easybell\u0026rsquo;s cooperation, pascom customers will benefit from a newly developed SIP trunk template, meaning choosing easybell as the provider of choice could not be easier.\nIn order to configure easybell SIP trunks within the pascom phone system, customers need only select the easybell template within the Trunks menu in the pascom admin web user interface. In doing so, inbound and outbound call rules will be automatically configured, allowing customer\u0026rsquo;s to immediately start making and receiving calls.\nBusinesses that are already enjoying the quality of service and cost efficiency benefits delivered by pascom\u0026rsquo;s innovative business phone solution can now further enhance their business communications through the interoperability with easybell. pascom is excited to be working together with such a forward thinking and highly successful SIP solutions provider and is pleased to welcome them to the pascom family of partners.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO, on announcing the successful integration:\nAdding easybell, as one of Germany\u0026rsquo;s fastest growing business communications solutions providers, to our range of interoperability partnerships further demonstrates pascom\u0026rsquo;s commitment to providing our customers with cutting edge solutions. With easybell\u0026rsquo;s reputation for high call quality and customer service, we are sure easybell will serve pascom customers as an excellent, cost effective solutions provider.”\nBenjamin Wolf, easybell Product Management \u0026amp; Strategy, Germany, on the partnership.\nBesides the excellent compatibility with our SIP trunking solutions, we were impressed by pascom\u0026rsquo;s excellent integration of Video Telephony, which considerably simplifies internal corporate video communication and collaboration. Our new partnership with pascom will ensure customers receive the highest levels of both innovation and quality.”\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions, visit www.pascom.net or get started for free now.\nAbout easybell - Assuring through Quality and Service With over 500,000 customers nationwide, the easybell group is one of the fastest growing telecommunications companies in Germany. As a company within the publically traded company \u0026ldquo;ecotel communication AG\u0026rdquo;, easybell provides its customers with a wide pallet of services. Due to their extensive experience combined with high levels of quality of service, the group can rightfully claim to be one of the most cost effective providers on the market.\nThe high levels of trust placed on easybell services is reflected by the company being regularly recommended within tariff comparisons. Operating under the ethos that the best customer is a loyal and satisfied customer which is why they have largely dispensed with minimum term contracts in preference to providing customer orientated products without any pitfalls.\nFor more information about easybell, please visit their website:\nwww.easybell.de\n","date":"June 1, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-announces-interoperability-with-german-voip-provider-easybell/","title":"pascom Announces Interoperability with German VoIP Provider easybell"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"Is Your Auto Attendant More of a Burden? I think I am fairly safe in making the assumption that, at some point, we have all had the displeasure of calling a company and listening to the never ending story of list options. It is not a pleasant experience to say the least. But here\u0026rsquo;s the crunch. It is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to compete and therefore survive in our 24 / 7 on demand world without having an Auto Attendant enabled phone system. That is why it is essential for companies to know what constitutes good and bad Auto Attendant design. In doing so, they will ensure that their systems are working for their business rather than against.\nHow to Design an Auto Attendant that Works For Your Business Firstly, what is an Auto Attendant? Well, simply put they are a system that greets callers and directs them to the required contact via an options menu, completely bypassing the need for a receptionist. They are not intended to provide the caller with the ability to serve themselves in anyway shape or form. When designed well, Auto Attendants are a crucial tool in managing incoming calls, improving efficiencies and adding a professional touch to your business communications. However, when designed poorly, the consequences can be disastrous and can destroy customer satisfaction.\nSo to the question at hand. What should companies be doing and not doing when it comes to designing their Auto Attendants? Thanks to a recent survey conducted by our friends over at telecoms review websitesoftware advice, we are able to answer just this question. The report goes into great detail which of course means it is fairly lengthy. Have no fear however, as what follows is a summary of the main points.\n1. Poorly Designed Auto Attendants Frighten Customers Away! Having spent years building a loyal customer base, the last thing any business will want to do is throw that all away. Therefore, it is essential to understand that bad experiences on the phone can scare your customers off. As Auto Attendants are the first port of call when a customer calls you, it is paramount that you make a good impression, otherwise a large proportion of them will start looking elsewhere. In fact, of those surveyed almost half of the respondents, 42 %, said they would take their business elsewhere without trying to get in touch another way.\nConsequences of negative Auto Attendant Experiences\rInterestingly, only 27% of the survey mentioned they would do some online research to get the answers they seek, highlighting that even the most tech savvy of us still prefer the phone as the comms channel of choice. What the survey does not tell us is what the remaining respondents would do if they tried the alternatives but without any luck - but I don\u0026rsquo;t think we need to really think to hard about that do we?\n2. New Customers Prefer to Contact Businesses per Phone As if to highlight the point made above about preferring to use the phone, the survey found that a significant number of people (48%) preferred to use the phone when contacting local businesses for the first time. What\u0026rsquo;s really interesting is that compared to the alternative contact methods, using the phone is the front runner by some margin. Armed with this knowledge, it is clear that if you are an SMB operating in a local market, you need to make sure your voice channels and your Auto Attendant systems are up to scratch if you want to make a good first impression. Otherwise, you may never know the potential business you may well have missed out on.\nCustomer Preferred Contact Methods\r3. Avoid Lengthy Intros \u0026amp; Menus When calling a company, is there anything worse than listening to not only who they are, but also how many awards they have won, or the latest promotions they are running? Listen up all you businesses out there - time is money, and that my friends is just as true for your business as it is for your customers. Remember that they have called you because they need something from you - so make this process as quick and painless as possible. Which of course also means keeping your options short and sweet to avoid the caller thinking, did I need option 3 or 25? To further illustrate this point, Software Advice\u0026rsquo;s survey shows that more than a quarter of the respondents stated that 1. long intros (29%) and 2. too many options (28%) are their top pain points when it comes to using Auto Attendants.\nAuto Attendant Top Sore Points\rA good rule of thumb here is to keep your intros under three seconds and limit the number of menu options to five or less. In essence, fairly similar to the IVR best practices we introduced in October last year. According to the survey results, the 49% of companies surveyed kept their Auto Attendants to between 3 and 5 options.\nAuto Attendant Menu Options\rGoing a step further here, many companies may be tempted to add additional sub menus to their Auto Attendants. In certain scenarios, this may well be appropriate. For example, should you operate in a multi lingual market you may well wish to start with defining the language before moving on to actual menu options. Be warned though, just like with IVRs, complex menus and sub menus run the risk of losing the caller, so you are better off sticking to two or three sub menus.\n4. What Should the Menu Options be? This is an important consideration to make, as you could do everything else perfectly, but if the options do not actually help the caller get what they need, then everything else will be wasted. First things first, take a look at which departments most of your callers actually want to speak to and use these as menu options. In fact, 76% percent of the Auto Attendant systems reviewed by Software Advice do exactly this. Next, make sure you make the options as clear and descriptive as possible so that your callers can follow them.\nAuto Attendant Menu Option Types\rIt is also worth noting that 51% of the Auto Attendant systems also included an operator option, allowing users to \u0026ldquo;zero out\u0026rdquo; to speak to a real human being. This is a sensible move, but not in the top level menu options. If this option is included first up, a significant proportion of callers will us it, completely defeating the point of your Auto Attendant System. This will mean you might as well go back to answering all the calls yourself or having your receptionist do it and you lose all the cost saving, efficiency promoting benefits.\n5. Can Auto Attendants Replace Secretaries? A case can definitely be made for Auto Attendants replacing receptionists. The reasoning is clear, Auto Attendants are never busy, operate 24 / 7 and don\u0026rsquo;t cost anywhere near as much. In fact, some top of the range business phone systems include Auto Attendant functionality as standard without requiring additional modules or licence fees. Moreover, in SMBs it is possible that your receptionist has more than one role, and utilising an Auto Attendant will free them up to focus more on other roles, increasing productivity. Software advice found that amongst certain industries, the argument for replacing secretaries with Auto Attendants is much stronger, for example in banking and property management.\nCan Auto Attendants replace Secretaries?\rSummary As with most of telecommunication technologies, modern phone systems can deliver businesses of all shapes and sizes with a whole host of features and benefits, which when used correctly, can dramatically increase efficiencies, save time and money as well as improve customer satisfaction. But when poorly designed and implemented, they can shatter the customer\u0026rsquo;s image of the company.\nThere you have it, by taking a look at and following the advice in the above five steps, companies will have gone a long way in ensuring that their Auto Attendant system is working for them as opposed to being a burden.\nTo find out more about pascom\u0026rsquo;s VoIP Solution and how we upgrade business communications, please visit our website.\n","date":"May 28, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/5-phone-system-autoattendant-design-tips/","title":"5 Phone System AutoAttendant Design Tips"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – How to get Advanced Call Queuing with Asterisk Call Strategies Ever wondered how to get your Call Queues to ring all your agents in a specific order, all at once or sequentially? Well wonder no more. Following on from last week’s Asterisk Queues tutorial, it is time to take at Asterisk Call Strategies.\nIn today’s tutorial, we take a look at the call strategies available to you, what they are and how they differ. We also cover the different timeout options available, what they do and how to configure them.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Asterisk Call Strategies Explained There are numerous call strategies available in Asterisk that can be used to distribute calls to queue members. A complete definition can be found in the queues.conf file within your Asterisk phone system , but we have listed the most important below:\nCall Strategy Description ringall Default Asterisk Call Strategy which rings all available agents until the incoming call is answered. leastrecent Starts by first calling the interface (agent, user, extension etc) that was least recently hung up within the queue. fewestcalls Starts by first calling the interface with the fewest completed calls. Only suitable for very specific scenarios, so do not use this in normal scenarios. random Starts by calling a random interface first. rrmemory Round robin system which remembers which interface answered the last incoming call and starts with the next interface in the round robin. rrodered Same as rrmemory, except it always follows the same member order as defined in the queues.config file. The next important step to take note of is the timeout option. This is where call strategies and queues can get a bit complicated as there two timeout options which can be configured. Firstly, within the queues.conf file, after defining your call strategy you can define a timeout option. This option will determine how long your strategy will call an interface before moving onto the next one.\nThe second timeout option can be found within your dialplan under your queue’s extension. This option, as illustrated below, is the length of time the incoming caller is kept within the queue application before moving on to the next step in your dialplan should the call not be answered.\nexten =\u0026gt; 300,1,NoOp(Support Team) same =\u0026gt; n,Dial(support,,,,120) same =\u0026gt; n,Hangup Using the syntax shown here:\nAsterisk Queue Timeout Syntax\rStay tuned for next time when we take a more detailed look at how to configure dynamic team members within your call queueing systems.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based PBX software, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\nUntil next time, comment, share, like and most importantly – Happy VoIPing!\n","date":"May 27, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-22-asterisk-call-strategies/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 22 - Asterisk Call Strategies"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – Professional Call Queuing with Asterisk Queues So here we are with our latest tutorial from our Introducing Asterisk series. This time around we take a look at the topic of Asterisk Queues. Building on from our last tutorial on Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) in Asterisk, today’s tutorial focuses on Call Queuing.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES First however, a few questions that should be answered:\nWhat Is Call Queuing \u0026amp; Why Do We Need It? These are both very good questions that should be answered before moving forward with this tutorial. Last week we took a look at the concept of ACD and setup up a basic configuration. This could well be enough as the perfect solution for small office home office (SOHO) environments. But what if your company is an SMB or larger?\nHow do you handle and try to answer all your incoming calls? Well there are two options,; either you have an employee for every caller which is stupidly expensive and a waste of resources. Or you go with option 2 – Call Queuing.\nCall Queuing will enable you to handle multiple calls simultaneously with less staff, plus giving your company an image boost. How bad would it be if your callers kept calling and getting a busy tone? Call Queuing helps you avoid this, making sure your company reputation isn’t damaged as well as adding an air of professionalism to your corporate image. Now that sounds like a much better and more beneficial solutions, doesn\u0026rsquo;t it?\nHow do we use Asterisk Queues? So here we are with the how part. Watch the tutorial video above and find out.\nIn today’s tutorial you will discover what you need to know about the Asterisk file queues.conf where we will also demonstrate how to configure your queues. Moreover, we also introduce the Asterisk queues application as well as how to modify your dialplans to incorporate your new queue.\nStay tuned for next time when we take a more detailed look at call strategies. What they are, what they mean and when to use them.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based PBX software, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\nUntil next time, comment, share and like and most importantly – Happy VoIPing!\n","date":"May 20, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-21-asterisk-queues/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 21 - Asterisk Call Queues"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom and European VoIP Provider peoplefone Finalise Interoperability Partnership May 19. 2015, Deggendorf \u0026amp; Oberreute, Germany - pascom GmbH, a leading European developer of Unified Communication phone systems for business today announces the successful integration and testing of European VoIP Service Provider, peoplefone, enabling pascom customers to use peoplefone as a VoIP provider.\nThe successful integration and interoperability testing ensures the full operation of all pascom phone system\u0026rsquo;s features, allowing customers to utilise peoplefone services to make cost effective calls. The project has been undertaken with technical support from both pascom and peoplefone, and will be available with the latest version of the pascom phone system (7.09.02) which is to be released in the near future.\nAs a result of the interoperability integration, a configuration template has been developed which will be delivered as standard in all future pascom business phone system editions. This will enable IT Administrators to complete the peoplefone setup process within pascom within just a few mouse clicks, saving valuable time and energy. To be able to do so, pascom phone system customers need only select the peoplefone template under the Trunk menu option within the pascom IP PBX admin web user interface, which will then automatically configure their inbound and outbound call rules enabling to make and receive calls straight away.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO, on completing the successful integration:\npeoplefone are renowned for being an experienced VoIP provider, delivering high quality SIP trunking solutions combined with excellent customer service across Europe. The combination of the highly innovative pascom phone system with peoplefone\u0026rsquo;s service reliability will ensure our customers benefit from a top of the range business communications solution, allowing them to benefit from all our pascom\u0026rsquo;s features plus ensuring maximum service reliability.”\nFelix Pflüger, peoplefone Sales Director, Germany, on the partnership:\nWith peoplefone, pascom customers to an established VoIP provider, who offer Europe wide high quality, free of charge SIP Trunks combined with excellent customer service. By combining the innovative pascom phone system with the reliability of service as delivered by peoplefone ensures that pascom customers are able to benefit from an innovative, cost effective, reliable telecommunications solution. We are looking forward to building upon our cooperation with pascom not just in the coming months but in the long term future as well.”\nAbout peoplefone Founded in Zurich in 2005, the peoplefone group is a pioneer of the voice over IP industry. Over the last 10 years they have successfully expanded internationally and developed into a European market leader. Currently more than 50,000 businesses and residential customers rely on peoplefone for their telephony services.\nThe peoplefone group boasts a presence in 6 European markets why by they deliver their services through group subsidiaries in: Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania and Germany. In 2013, peoplefone were honored to be named as the \u0026ldquo;Best Swiss fixed network provider\u0026rdquo; as awarded by BILANZ, a Swiss Business Magazine publication.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions, visit www.pascom.net or get started for free now.\n","date":"May 19, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-announces-interoperability-with-european-voip-provider-peoplefone/","title":"pascom Announces Interoperability with European VoIP Provider peoplefone"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – Asterisk Call Distribution So after last week\u0026rsquo;s little detour into the world of Contact Centre solutions, here we are with yet another Asterisk tutorial. In today’s session we start taking a look at how to configure Asterisk call distribution within our setup.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES As Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) is a complex yet essential topic, we have broken down our tutorials in to a step-by-step guide over a few tutorials. Thus providing a clear overview of the configuration process when setting up your call distribution strategies. Today’s episode concentrates on the basics – how to do it and the drawbacks of using just the basics. We also take a look at some of the more advanced concepts and applications that we will cover later on.\nOften referred to as Line Hunting or a Hunt Group, ACD enables you to distribute incoming calls from one number to multiple peers (users) simultaneously. Obviously, this is a handy tool when you want incoming calls to be directed to a team of agents. However, ACD in Asterisk is much more than that. It allows you to configure call strategies which effect how the distribution will be handled. Or more accurately, the order or sequence in which your peers / agents will be call but we will get into more detail later on.\nStarting with the bare basics, today’s tutorial demonstrates how to configure your dialplans with a new extension on which all your team personnel can be reached. This solution could well be ideal for a Small Office Home Office (SOHO) scenario. If this is what you are looking for or just starting out, then the steps to follow are outlined in the following.\nThe first step will be to add an incoming number to dial which will simulate an incoming call to distributed to your call group. We did this under the context incoming, which we configured in an earlier tutorial, as shown below:\n[incoming] exten =\u0026gt; 99123123,1,GptoIfTime(8:00-17:00,mon-fri,*,*,*?phones,100,1) exten =\u0026gt; 99123123,n,Playback)tt-monkeys) exten =\u0026gt; 99123123,n,Hangup exten =\u0026gt; 99123124,1,GoSub(timecheck,s,1) exten =\u0026gt; 99123124,n,Goto(phones,200,1) exten =\u0026gt; 99123300,1,GoSub(timecheck,s,1) exten =\u0026gt; 99123300,n,Goto(phones,300,1) Next up, within the phones context (or your preferred context) we need add a new extension and use the Dial command but this time include all the agents you wish to be called with the command arguments as illustrated below:\n[phones] exten =\u0026gt; 300,1,NoOp(Support Team) same =\u0026gt; n,Dial(SIP/james\u0026amp;SIP/Mathias,120) same =\u0026gt; n,Hangup Tip to remember here: don’t forget to include the Hangup Command. Once you have completed these steps, save everything, reload the dialplan and you are ready to get testing. Stay tuned for next week when we start solving some of those downsides to the basic configuration set that we talked about at the end of this tutorial.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based PBX software, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"May 13, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-20-asterisk-call-distribution/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 20 - Asterisk Call Distribution"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"Increased Flexibility \u0026amp; Cost Effectiveness: Building the Business Case for SIP Trunking If you are reading this article, it is more than likely that you have already made or will very soon be making the transition to voice over IP (VoIP) services, and it is quite likely that you have decided which phone system fulfils your needs as well as which IP phones to deploy whether they be desktop phones or softphones. But what\u0026rsquo;s next? Well, next you have the choice of how you will actually connect your phone system to the outside world and that is where SIP Trunking will undoubtedly enter your thoughts which is why we have put together a Business Case for SIP Trunking.\nThe cost-saving benefits associated with ditching your legacy Time Division Multiplex (TDM) trunks in favour of Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) trunking are well documented. However, cost savings alone are not the be-all and end-all of why businesses should seriously evaluate whether to ditch their current telephony services in favour of SIP. The reality is that SIP trunking delivers significantly more than just VoIP services. One of the real benefits behind SIP is that the technology is one of the core processes behind the delivery of Unified Communications tools. Which means, that by combining all your corporate voice, video and data traffic, SIP trunking can deliver greater agility, significantly increase employee productivity and enhance user experience.\nIn this way, it is clear to see why so many businesses are already enjoying the benefits delivered by SIP trunking. Recent research conducted by Infonetics forecasts that the SIP trunking market is set to almost double from a meagre $4.4 billion in 2014 to $8 billion by 2018. In essence, this means that if your competitors are not already leveraging the benefits of SIP trunking, then chances are, they soon will be and here\u0026rsquo;s why:\nIncreased Flexibility SIP trunking eliminates the need for traditional on-site infrastructures, meaning it provides you with the ability to scale your services on demand and as and when required. Capacity planning will always be important, SIP trunking provides companies with the ability to adjust their capacity with just a few mouse clicks. This is because the connections are virtual and are not reliant on any on-site wiring installation. As a result, not only is the configuration quicker, but also SIP technology also delivers a significantly more scalable communications solution. For example, should your user based be rapidly expanding, you can simply, quickly and efficiently add new lines to your SIP trunk using your providers\u0026rsquo; online configuration tool and providing you have sufficient bandwidth, your new capacity will soon be available to you.\nAn additional SIP trunking benefit here relates to number porting as well as portability.\nIncreased Collaboration Options SIP trunking can help organisations mobilise and invigorate communications company-wide. SIP trunking is core to a successful unified communications (UC) strategy as it unites voice, video, data and applications across company networks regardless of locations and devices. What\u0026rsquo;s more is that the technology has the capacity to provide employees with real-time information through UC tools such as instant messaging, presence, video and softphone telephony where ever they are. Clearly, with such collaboration tools available at their fingertips, employee productivity will be boosted greatly thus delivering a significant business advantage.\nIncreased Cost Effectiveness By a SIP trunk communications solution, most companies could realise cost savings in the region of 10-40% of your total voice spend, depending on your existing setup. These savings stem from eliminating the need for traditional onsite infrastructures which in turn reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) of you UC solutions. Add the fact that SIP trunking significantly increases call cost savings, whilst providing a greater array of communication tools, companies will be able to enjoy a greater return on investment (ROI). Moreover, as most providers provide flat rate packages, SIP trunking also delivers great cost certainty allowing business to budget more effectively.\nTo wrap things up, remember that good communication is crucial to success, and this is ever more true in the business world. Secure your company\u0026rsquo;s potential future successes by ensuring that you and your team have all the tools to stay ahead by adopting a phone solution that includes SIP trunking options.\nIf you are considering switching or upgrading your telephony services to an ALL IP SIP VoIP solution or would like more information regarding pascom, then give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"May 12, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/the-business-case-for-sip-trunking/","title":"The Business Case for SIP Trunking"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Increased CallCenter Functionality with pascom Loway Interoperability May 5th 2015, Deggendorf Germany \u0026amp; Stabio Switzerland - pascom GmbH, a leading developer of Unified Communication phone systems for business today announces the expansion of their Loway interoperability partnership. Building on the QueueMetrics partnership finalised in 2014, the new cooperation with the Advanced Asterisk Call Center Analysis provider includes integrating the WombatDialer, Loway\u0026rsquo;s predictive dialling application.\nUsing the WombatDialer further enhances Contact Center productivity by increasing call penetration and agent talk time. As a result of the increased interoperability, pascom customers can access a range of new features such as intelligent rescheduling and multiple campaign management. Furthermore, the increased compatibility provides Call Center agents access to both real time and historical contact data thanks to pascom\u0026rsquo;s CRM/ERP system integration options. This has the benefit of increasing agent productivity whilst simultaneously supporting them in delivering excellent and personalised customer service.\nTo further facilitate the increased interoperability, pascom have a add a detailed documentation to support IT administrators with a quick, efficient and hassle free integration process. All future pascom software releases will incorporate all the necessary integration scripts to further simplify the integration process.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO, on announcing the developing Interoperability:\n\u0026ldquo;Through strengthening our interop partnership with Loway, we are able to deliver enhanced call center functionality whilst supporting our customers in their ongoing mission to increase overall contact center productivity. Allowing them to increase campaign effectiveness in terms of coverage and performance. Additionally, combing pascom and the WombatDialer in a contact center environment provides our customers with a cost effective, yet feature rich call center solution to deliver both increased productivity and greater return on investment\u0026rdquo;.\nLorenzo Emilitri, Loway Founder and CEO said:\n\u0026ldquo;We are pleased and excited to work with one of the leading worldwide developers of Asterisk-based PBXs. We recognize that the high level of quality, precision and professionalism of pascom products, coupled with our powerful Call-Center solutions, will offer end-users a high-quality call-center system at a fraction of the cost of a traditional system.\u0026rdquo;\nAbout Loway Since 2004, Loway has been leading the way in the development of specialised Asterisk PBX Advanced Call Center software solutions. With QueueMetrics, Loway have set the bench mark for modern standards regarding call center performance measurement. In addition to QueueMetrics, Loway\u0026rsquo;s product portfolio also includes the WombatDialer, a flexible, easy-to-use outbound dialing platform. Their Mission is to put the Swiss passion for precision and reliability at your service.\nAt Loway: your way is their way. Measure. Improve.\nFor more information, please visit: www.loway.ch\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions, visit www.pascom.net or get started for free now.\n","date":"May 5, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-expands-call-centre-analytics-interoperability-with-loway/","title":"pascom Expands Call Centre Analytics Interoperability with Loway"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Give Your ContactCenter A Boost with Loway\u0026rsquo;s WombatDialer and the pascom Phone System Increase your Asterisk Contact Center productivity with pascom and the WombatDialer. Deploying a predictive dialling contact strategy enables businesses of all shapes and sizes to significantly increase their Contact Center productivity, maximise agent talk time and increase call penetration whilst enjoying greater campaign effectiveness.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES How it Works Deploying Loway\u0026rsquo;s WombatDialer in combination with our pascom phone system can dramatically increase your Telemarketing/Telesales campaign effectiveness, but how does it work? The WombatDialer automates the dialling process by dialling a pre determined list of numbers and then connecting all answered calls to your Call Center staff. Predictive dialling supports you in minimising agent waiting time between calls as well as maximising coverage and campaign effectiveness through increasing agent talk time and call penetration levels. Predictive dialling and intelligent rescheduling also deliver additional benefits in terms of increasing campaign coverage. By eliminating agents \u0026ldquo;cherry picking\u0026rdquo; numbers from the list and using the rescheduling capabilities, list contacts will be called repeatedly until they are reached. Thus ensuing significantly decreased dropped call ratios and increasing campaign coverage.\nMoreover, deploying pascom and the WombatDialer together also provides agents with all their \u0026ldquo;must\u0026rdquo; have information before jumping into the call. The pascom IP PBX allows you to integrate and automatically opening additional platforms such as your ERP, CRM or Support Ticket systems as part of your agent workflows. On top of this, the WombatDialer is able to produce an array of detailed metrics regarding campaign performance, providing team leaders with access to real time performance data. This can then be used in combination with pascom\u0026rsquo;s in call coaching and recording tools to really boost team performance, helping your team deliver excellent customer service.\nAnother significant benefit of deploying pascom and the WombatDialer into your Center operations is the ability to gain control over and dramatically reduce hardware and capital expenditure. pascom\u0026rsquo;s fully integrated softphone simultaneously enables agents to work from anywhere, reducing both capital and hardware expenditure in terms of office space and hardware. Moreover, by eliminating manual dialling and increasing call penetration, the WombatDialer will help you increase current staff productivity and efficiency, thus ensuring greater ROI and promoting long term employment, office space and hardware cost savings.\nHowever, the WombatDialer has so much more to offer than ContactCenter outbound predictive dialling. For example, by utilising the dialers\u0026rsquo; Telecasting capabilities, you can deliver targeted announcements with a pre recorded message to literally thousands of contacts almost simultaneously. Simply load the data into the WombatDialer and the configure your campaign end points suitably within both wombat and pascom, upload your message and start the campaign. The dialer and pascom will do the rest for you and will continue to do so, within the parameters you define, until all contacts are reached and informed.\nFor more information about pascom\u0026rsquo;s Call and Contact Centre functionality and the WombatDialer integration, please contact us on +49 991 26961 200 or visit our website.\nFor further information regarding the integration process, please refer to our detailed documentation.\n","date":"May 4, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-wombatdialer-integration-guide/","title":"pascom WombatDialer Integration Guide"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"Choosing IP Phones - How to Choose the Right IP Phone for your Business? It\u0026rsquo;s just a phone, so the decision shouldn\u0026rsquo;t be so difficult, should it? Think again. With over 200 IP phones available in today\u0026rsquo;s marketplace, choosing the right one that matches all your business needs can be a difficult and exhaustive task. That said, choosing the perfect IP phone to fulfil your needs doesn\u0026rsquo;t have to be a scary experience. In fact, you probably do not need to know as much about IP phone technology as you think - so if you are just starting out, don\u0026rsquo;t panic as basic knowledge will do!\nChoosing the right IP phone is actually more about knowing your business needs and matching the phone to those requirements. More to the point, the decision should be based on the needs of your users as it is your employees that fulfil business objectives. Therefore, we have put a little checklist together of questions you should ask yourself before making any decisions, which having been answered will go a long way to narrowing down the field and helping you make an informed decision.\n1. Current Phone System / VoIP Service Suppliers As with most technologies, there is always the question of compatibility. So having made the decision regarding your phone system and VoIP suppliers, choosing any old IP phone simply won\u0026rsquo;t cut the mustard. Technologies like SIP, BYOD and Open Standards phone systems add to the confusion, as many people wrongly assume that any IP phone will work with any phone system or service provider.\nSadly, this is not the case by any stretch of the imagination. There are a whole host of factors to consider ranging from Auto Provisioning (configuration and deployment) and CTI functionality to supported Audio codecs. Have a conversation with your current suppliers and avoid getting lumbered within an unsupported incompatible IP phone. This discussion also has the added benefit of narrowing the field in terms of available choice quite dramatically.\n2. Defining for Whom the IP Phones are Intended Every user will have different needs which will vary according to job role or position, and you will need to take these into account. Executives, for example, may well desire more elegant design and newest tech on their desks, while employees in high call volume job roles may demand to have enhanced user-friendliness. Another factor to consider here is also whether your staff need Desktop IP phones at all.\nField sales agents or remote workers may prefer and find it more convenient to use Softphones on their laptops and mobile device as opposed to desktop phones and then there are those employees who are never in the same place around the office, what about kitting them with DECT IP Phones as a desktop phone simply won\u0026rsquo;t do. As with choosing your phone system and service providers, checking your user requirements is an essential step.\n3. What Functionality / Features Do You Need? Having identified which users require IP phones, the next essential and logical step is to assess which tools will be essential for these users. Most businesses will look for the core standard VoIP phone features, such as Call Parking, Call Transfer and Waiting plus 3-Way Conferencing as a starting point. We would recommend going a few steps further and looking at devices that have large backlit displays for improved readability, expansion module compatibility, intuitive menus as well as speakerphone functionality. An example could be, if your team members often utilise the speakerphone functionality, purchasing an IP phone with renowned speakerphone audio quality or an audio conferencing system could well be the way to go.\n4. What\u0026rsquo;s your Current Daily Incoming Call Volume? This is a vital question to ask yourself. Many businesses overlook Call Volumes when choosing phones, as they feel that the subject is more appropriate to their choice of phone system and service providers. They are right of course, but it is still an essential aspect of the decision-making process. This is due to the fact that IP phones can support multiple \u0026ldquo;line appearances\u0026rdquo;, meaning that one phone can share a line with another phone. Thus providing users with the ability to pick up calls from intended for a colleague\u0026rsquo;s extension, view phone line status information as well as making calls from their extension which appear to have originated from another extension.\nFor a normal office employee, having three to five line appearances may well be enough, but receptionists, support staff, team leaders and admins may well require more than 10 and so you will need to choose your phones accordingly if you want to gain the maximum benefit.\n5. How Often Will the Phone Be Used? The old saying of \u0026ldquo;you get what you paid for\u0026rdquo; really holds true when it comes to IP Phones. If your users are on the phone all day every day, make sure you supply them with a high-quality device as this will enhance both audio quality and user comfort as well as ensuring a longer life cycle. On that point, even if your users do not have a heavy phone usage requirement, spending a bit more upfront for the higher quality will pay dividends in the long run.\n6. Does your IP Phone Need Routing Capabilities? Somewhat astonishingly, there are still quite a few offices out there where you will find only one Ethernet connection per desk. If this is the case in your offices, you will need to ensure that your new IP phones come equipped with dual Ethernet ports as it will have to share the single Ethernet connection with the desktop computer on the workstation. If your office already has a separate Voice LAN in place, then selecting an IP Phone with only a single Ethernet port will suffice.\nOn this note, it is also worth considering whether you will be looking to utilise Power over Ethernet (PoE) when deploying (either now or in the future), your new IP phones. If so then choosing a device that supports PoE is essential. If not, a quick tip here is to ensure that the IP phone you select comes with an AC power cable included (or sold separately) and that there is a power source in the vicinity of where you plan to install your new IP phone.\n7. What\u0026rsquo;s Your Budget? Price should never be numero uno when it comes to your decision making processes, but it of course definitely comes into play. In fact, setting a budget is a great idea, as it will force you to really analyse which features and functions are the most important to you. Moreover, having a budget will also help you reduce the risk of overspending. What is important to know here is that IP phone pricing varies greatly starting at anywhere around the €60 up to €400, so be warned that overspending can happen easily.\nSummary By answering the above 7 questions you will be well on your way to deciding upon the right IP phone or phones for your business. Of course, other questions and issues may well arise throughout your decision-making process which are not covered here, but by answering them you will further define what suits your needs which is obviously great news. Just remember that including the needs of your users will help you help them to achieve your business objectives more effectively and therefore their input is essential when making the right choice.\nIf you are considering switching or upgrading your telephony services to an ALL IP SIP VoIP solution or would like more information regarding pascom and supported IP phones, then give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"April 30, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/7-considerations-for-choosing-an-ip-phone/","title":"7 Considerations for Choosing an IP Phone"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – Asterisk Mail Server Having setup our Voicemail system and configured our dialplans allowing callers to be greeted by personalised recordings according to availability, the next logical step is to take a look at how users receive their voicemail notifications. Of course, users can just dial their voicemail box and listen to their messages, but there is a better, faster more efficient way – Voicemail to E-mail.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES That means, it is time to take a look at Asterisk Mail Servers. A great little thing about Asterisk, is that it tries to send voicemails to user email addresses automatically, However, we still need to setup a mail server that actually enables Asterisk to do this. The recommended solution for Ubuntu servers is postfix. That means we will show you how to install and configure postfix as well as installing all the mail utilities (Mailutils) that are required.\nIn order to install and configure postfix simply login into your system as the root user and use the command apt-get install postfix. At this point our recommendation would be to use the Internet with Smarthost option, as this simplifies the process as you can define the SMTP relay host (normally your internet provider or your email host) and point it to a local address. The next step is to install the mailutils, which can be done using same apt-get install command as before by replacing postfix with mailutils. Once configured correctly, that’s pretty much it, your system is now ready to go.\nBut what if we want to customise these e-mails to meet certain needs or criteria? For example, emails with different languages, subject headings or changing the actual e-mail body text itself? How can we test this without having to use our productive systems?\nThe answer lies in using a mail catching tool, such as MailCatcher which allows you to play with your voicemail.conf email settings, leave voicemails and then check to see what the emails look like before putting the new settings live in your productive system. That is why using the smathost option in postfix is a very useful when testing your settings.\nPlease note that when making changes to your voicemail.conf configurations, it is always advisable to refer back to the copy we made before beginning to configure our Voicemail settings. This will provide you with a detailed overview of all the contexts and options available, which will save you time and hassle when making any changes.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"April 29, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-19-asterisk-mail-server/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 19 - Asterisk Mail Server"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – Asterisk Voicemail Greetings “Sorry we’re not at our desk right now, leave us a message and we’ll get back to you” - Yep that\u0026rsquo;s right, it’s time to personalise our Asterisk Phone System Voicemail Greetings.\nLast time around we setup our dialplans to send an incoming call to our voicemail boxes that we set up a few episodes ago. That means it is now time to take a look at how to setup new greetings for when you are unavailable or busy etc. Moreover, we explain why you should differentiate between busy and unavailable. So lets take a look at how to actually configure our dialplans to playback our new asterisk voicemail greetings.\nIn order to do this we will show you how to use the Asterisk Variable DIALSTATUS in combination with the Application VoiceMail and its various options within your Dialplans.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES For testing purposes, the question remains how do we simulate a busy call using the WaitExten application. Please not, you will need to ensure that you have turned off Call Waiting within the softphone that your are using. Which in fairness has some real world uses as well.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"April 22, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-18-asterisk-voicemail-greetings/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 18 - Asterisk Voicemail Greetings"},{"categories":["Mobile VoIP"],"contents":"Tips for Successful BYOD \u0026amp; CYOD Implementations Welcome back to our Enterprise Mobility and Mobile VoIP series where we have covered a range of topics including the Benefits of Telecommuting ranging through to which is best for your business BYOD or CYOD. As we mentioned in last week\u0026rsquo;s post, both Bring Your Own Device and Choose Your Own Device have their pros and cons, and the solution you implement will likely be determined by your need for data security.\nHowever, regardless of whichever solution you choose, the question of how to successfully implement such strategies remains and the purpose of this article is to provide some tips generated from our experience of supporting customers with enterprise mobility.\nBYOD \u0026amp; CYOD Tips \u0026amp; Tricks Tip #1: Choose your strategy by focusing on increasing user-friendliness and productivity from an end users point of view. In doing so, you will eliminate the products that do not fulfil your needs, whilst finding those that best fit your requirements. During this phase, it is essential to test your devices comprehensively from the end user perspective, regardless of the device.\nThe benefits of testing devices from the end user point of view are threefold. Firstly, you will quickly discover any shortcuts that users could take in the name of productivity, which could be detrimental to the success of your policies. Secondly, performing comprehensive testing will help you identify those devices that are best for your business as well as whether a BYOD or CYOD strategy is more suitable for your business. Finally, should you decide on deploying mobile VoIP as part of your BYOD / CYOD strategy, it is import to thoroughly test those as well.\nAny vendor worth their salt understands the importance of comprehensive testing and therefore offer a free version of their software to enable you to do just this.\nTip #2: Ensure that every member of the IT team who will be dealing with problems arising from mobile devices has a clear understanding of not only the issues they may well face when problem-solving but also the objectives of the companies telecommuting policy. If this requires additional training, provide it. Otherwise, the solutions they propose could also end up denting the success of your mobile working strategies.\nTip #3: Stress the importance of data backups and device security. Regardless of whether you implement a BYOD or CYOD strategy, it is essential that your employees understand the importance of protecting company data and networks.\nTherefore, an important step to take is to implement a Data Loss Prevention tool, but also deliver staff training on how to use it. Provide employees with best practice guidelines regarding regular backups as well as device security guidelines in order to avoid security threats such as weak passwords.\nTip #4: Passwords: what\u0026rsquo;s good and what\u0026rsquo;s not? Additional steps which can be taken to bolster security and circumvent weak passwords include deploying a VPN (Virtual Private Network) for users you log in from unsecured public locations, generating employee passwords, or providing tools such as SecureSafe Pro or Norton\u0026rsquo;s Identity Safe that will enable employees to generate their own strong passwords.\nAnother typical problem with passwords is remembering them - that\u0026rsquo;s why often users use the same one for everything, which obviously poses a threat as should one account be compromised, the rest are too. Therefore, using tools like Google Authenticator (2 Step Verification tool for Android and iPhone) combined with tools such as TeamPasswordManager can go a long way to supporting your users generate stronger, more secure passwords without having to remember them and eliminating that piece of paper under the keyboard or stuck to the monitor.\nTip #5: Promote Physical Device Protection awareness. Similar to Tip #3, but this time focusing on ensuring mobile devices are safe from wandering hands and prying eyes rather than cyber threats. Leaving mobiles or laptops in plain sight on the passenger car seat, for example, is sadly just asking for trouble, and many a breach of company data has occurred this way.\nStrong passwords and regular data backups go along way to protecting company info, but more can be done to reduce the risk of lost or stolen devices. Another tip would be to ensure laptop users set screen saver passwords (starting after a sensible time delay) as well as issuing Privacy Screens which help reduce the amount of info people looking over your shoulder can read.\nIf you are going down the mobile Unified Communications and Collaboration route, then choose a vendor who supports QR code provisioning and device pairing as both of these add additional security and thanks to device pairing, should a mobile device be lost or stolen, it can be easily unpaired and have it\u0026rsquo;s access to company data revoked.\nTip #6: Putting the right team together. First things first, telephony systems these days have more to do with IT when compared to the traditional phone systems of old. Therefore, when assembling your team, make sure that IT is well represented and take the lead on the project. Next, mobile projects should include members from all your business departments.\nIT, Human Resources, Operations, Security, Legal teams plus your core business personnel will all have a vested interest in the project, particularly when it comes to productivity and security. More importantly, they will all have their own ideas and needs, meaning compromises will have to be made from all involved in order for your policy to be successful - but in our experience, it is better to make concessions as opposed to ignoring needs.\nSummary The tips above can help your mobile projects fulfil your business requirements, but the most important aspect to never lose sight of is that at the end of the day, for your policy to be successful you need to consider how to improve the productivity and mobility of your users. So ask them what they want, need and expect. Working together with all your teams and their members and devising a solution that all parties buy into can go a long way towards ensuring the end strategy is successful.\nIf you would like more information regarding how our pascom VoIP Software PBX can help you implement a mobile working strategy, then get in touch with us either via our website or give us a call on + 49 991 29691 200.\nBetter yet, try our free hosted edition and discover first hand how pascom upgrades business communications.\n","date":"April 16, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/6-tips-to-successfully-implement-a-byod-or-cyod-enterprise-mobility-strategy/","title":"6 Tips to Successfully Implement a BYOD or CYOD Enterprise Mobility Strategy"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – Asterisk Voicemail Dial Plan Setup Welcome to part II of our Asterisk phone system Voicemail tutorials. Coincidently, I published a piece yesterday based on research from our friends at Software Advice over in the USA. In essence, the article is a Small Business VoIP Buyers Guide, but rather interestingly, one of the top applications that SMBs look for in their IP communications systems is Voicemail. Just further proof that having a top notch voicemail system is pretty much up there with the most essential applications of any business phone system.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES With this in mind, it is time to follow on from where we left off. If you remember last time we set about setting up the actual voicemail system and our voicemail boxes. But now the question is: how do we get an incoming call to be directed to our voicemail if we are not about to actually answer the call? Watch on and find out all you need to know about which applications are required as well as how to configure the your dial plans to enable leaving \u0026amp; retrieving messages.\nQuick Tips Before starting, make sure you turn off call waiting on your softphone. Otherwise our test configurations probably won’t work!\nIn order to view all the applications relating to voicemail, use the command:\ncore show applications like mail within the Asterisk CLI. This will generate a screen as shown below:\nAsterisk*CLI\u0026gt; core show applications like mail -= Matching Asterisk Applications =- MailboxExists: Check to see if Voicemail mailbox exists. VoiceMail: Leave a Voicemail message. VoiceMailMain: Check Voicemail messages. VoiceMailPlayMsg: Play a single voice mail msg from a mailbox by msg id. -= 4 Applications Matching =- Asterisk core show applications like\rIt is worth noting that the application MailboxExists is particularly useful for checking if a mailbox actually exists within dynamic environments, as not everybody may have a voicemail box. The next application in the list, Voicemail, allows callers to actually leave you a message while the application VoicemailMain refers to the application that allows you retrieve and listen to your messages.\nLeaving Messages The next step is to look at the applications themselves, particularly the syntax associated with each application. To do this, use the command core show application voicemail, where voicemail is the application name. This will then open the application documentation, provide an example of how to formulate the syntax which is important for the dialplan configurations along with providing explanations regarding the Argument options, but we will cover these options in more detail next time.\nNext we need to configure our dialplan in order to allow us to actually leave a message.\nTo do this, go to your dialplan and within the context phones (as it is in our example) add a “time out” to the dial application settings as shown by the number 5 in our example. Next add a new line below that includes the Voicemail application and corresponding syntax. If you want to keep your dialplan really simple for testing purposes, then use the voicemail box numbers you setup when configuring the actual voicemail system. However, you could save some time by using the ${EXTEN} variable, should you be configuring multiple extensions at the same time, as in our example below:\n[phones] using voicemail box number exten =\u0026gt; 100,1,NoOp(Call for Mathias) same =\u0026gt; n,Dial(SIP/mathias,5) same =\u0026gt; n,Voicemail(100) same =\u0026gt; n,Hangup Or using EXTEN:\n[phones] using EXTEN exten =\u0026gt; 100,1,NoOp(Call for Mathias) same =\u0026gt; n,Dial(SIP/mathias,5) same =\u0026gt; n,Voicemail(${EXTEN}) same =\u0026gt; n,Hangup Calling your Voicemail In order to be able to call your voicemail you will need to integrate the Application_VoiceMailMain within your dialplans. For you to get a good idea of how to do this, we have demonstrated the most basic of integration options, which we will then work on and improve in our next tutorial.\nBut just as we did with leaving a message, take a look at the VoiceMailMain application using the command as described above using the appropriate application name. This will allow you to take a look at the syntax as well as any arguments that the application uses and what they mean.\nNext go back to your dialplan and under the context phones add a new extension using for example *100 as shown below, set the priority and then the application followed by extension number in brackets:\nexten =\u0026gt; *100,1,VoiceMailMain(100) same =\u0026gt; n,Hangup Don’t forget to add the hangup application, but that’s it, your ready to test your voicemail now.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"April 15, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-17-asterisk-voicemail-dial-plan-config/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 17 - Asterisk Voicemail Dialplan Config"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Buyers Guide to Small Business VoIP 2015 It\u0026rsquo;s April 2015 which means for many the 2014 fiscal year is over and the 2015 buying cycles are now in full swing. So what is your business going to invest in this year? Are you finally going to get around to updating that Legacy PBX system that has been slowly marching towards the black oblivion, and bring you communications system into the modern world?\nIt\u0026rsquo;s a question facing many small businesses, as illustrated by telecoms review website Software Advice\u0026rsquo;s latest report. The 2015 buyer\u0026rsquo;s view report into Small Business VoIP Software outlines what SMB IT buyers from across the pond are looking for, what concerns they have and what the deal breakers could be when updating their communications systems.\nFirst things first, as with all the Software Advice reports we\u0026rsquo;ve brought to over the past couple of months, the findings of the report are based on a survey of SMBs in North America, which of course means the responses reflect the state of that market. This does not mean however, that the findings cannot be applied to markets outside of the USA, as generally the USA are early adopters of modern technologies, particularly in the fields of mobile VoIP and EMM (Enterprise Mobility Management) strategies. Therefore, a pinch of salt may be required, but the findings provide a useful insight into market trends for both buyers and small business VoIP software developers alike.\nQuick Report Review The report is a random sample analysis of 212 SMB IT buyers (companies with $50 million turnover or less) within the USA and their interactions with Software Advice over the past year, some of which have already transitioned to VoIP services, others have not. The findings of the report themselves are relatively wide reaching, covering a variety of topics ranging from adoption comparisons of voice services to current phone systems and deployed phone types all the way through to deal breakers in the quest to update systems. As such, the buyers view provides a representational insight into current requirements and desires of the SMB market place when it comes to business communications solutions.\nVoIP Phone Systems Now the Preferred Choice for SMBs The first significant finding is that VoIP voice services have gained more share over other more traditional voice services within the SMB communications market, with 36 % of the survey having already transitioned to VoIP voice services, while 24 % still rely on POTS (plain old telephone system) for their voice services and just 11% utilise the ISDN (PRI) and 8% operate a cellular voice strategy.\nSmall business VoIP phone system voice service type\rInterestingly, these figures reflect the responses of prospective buyers within the survey, which clearly indicates that VoIP is fast becoming the outright front runner in the SMB communications market as companies move away from POTS. It is also interesting to note that PRI (Primary Rate Interface) ISDN voice services only account for 11 % of market share. Perhaps this stems from a lack of a cost effective ISDN gateway that would enable SMBs to benefit from utilising hybrid IP PBX systems, but without further study I am only hazarding a guess at this point.\nAnother finding that provided further evidence to VoIP becoming the leading communications channel within the segment is that current adoption rates for VoIP phone systems is 29% (On-premise and cloud based combined) was nearly double that of a legacy PBX system which sits at 15%. Further to this point, the report highlights that growth within the Cloud based solution segment continues to gain traction, spurred on by the fact that cloud solutions provide SMBs with fewer IT resources the perfect platform from which to benefit from VoIP phone systems.\nSmall business VoIP phone service type\rOn this topic though, I would advise to tread carefully when choosing your phone system type. Of course, cloud systems are attractive with their lower upfront costs and the fact that companies will not require additional staff to complete maintenance or roll out updates, but as with most of these things, there is always a downside. Cloud based solutions tend to be somewhat inflexible when it comes to customisations and modifications. If fact, one buyer within the survey responded stated that\n\u0026ldquo;the fact that we can\u0026rsquo;t really access anything in the system on our own is kind of frustrating. We have to call [the provider] to make any changes\u0026rdquo;.\nIf you need to or even want to heavily customise your solution, then on premise solutions are the way to go as the deliver more management and control elements. Then there is the cost issue. Cloud based solutions are extremely attractive due to their lower cost to entry and the flexibility they provide with cost spreading. As with all cost spreading there comes a point when the total costs begin to outweigh these benefits, so if you have say 20 plus employees, we would still recommend considering an on premise solution due to their lower TCO and potential for greater ROI. For more on this topic, check out Choosing a VoIP System\nAuto Attendant and Call Queuing are Critical When it comes to the functionality that buyers are looking for in their new phone systems, tools which are related to call routing and answering come up tops as the most critical influencers. Sitting proudly on top of the pile of phone system applications are AutoAttendants, which in itself is not really a surprise given the cost savings and process optimisations they can deliver. Next up came call queuing or to give it its technical name Automated Call Distribution (ACD) as these deliver SMBs with the power to implement skill, agent availability or caller waiting time based call routing as well as a number of other factors.\nSmall business VoIP Feature Requirements\rIt is also great to see that IT buyers are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits that integrated softphone solutions can deliver, with 25 % stating that softphones are a must have, which is excellent news for remote workers. This fact is also significant as further evidence to increasing softphone adoption as a whole as companies strive to increase mobility, communication and collaboration for telecommuters through adopting BYOD strategies. A further indication of just how important softphone applications have become is that in the opinion of some IT buyers, applications that do not deliver an enhanced user experience is cause for switching vendors.\nFlexible Call Forwarding is King Delving deeper into what the IT buyers are really looking for when it comes to phone system functionality Call Forwarding came up top which when combined with the inability to do anything without our mobiles these days is quite understandable. Therefore, it is also hardly a surprise that mobile compatibility has slotted in at number 3 on the list, especially when one considers the increased availability of unified communications \u0026amp; collaboration tools for our mobile devices.\nSmall business VoIP Features\rWhat is worth noting here, is firstly that there is a glaring omission from the list which is video conferencing which is interesting considering all the hype surrounding Video Collaboration. Secondly, it is interesting to see that the more elaborate functionality of IVRs or Voicemail to e-mail pale in significance to what could be described as standard features of any top of the range IP PBX solution, as generally these days most solutions deliver a full suite of UC and mobile UC functionality.\nAgeing Inflexible Solutions Cause the Most Pain The 2014 BuyerView report cited system reliability as the major factor when choosing to evaluate a new system, however the 2015 report highlight different pain points driving a buyers to decision to consider a new phone system, namely that their current systems having reached their end of life and suffering from a lack of scalability.\nSmall Business VoIP New System Drivers\rPerhaps somewhat surprising, although it really should not be, is that compared to lack of scalability, applications and ageing systems, the issues relating to call quality, uptime and budget are seemingly nowhere near as prevalent. This suggests that levels of service and audio quality being received by the buyers within the survey are of satisfactory levels, which from a vendor point of view is always pleasing to read.\nSummary All in all the Software Advice VoIP Software BuyerView delivers a unique insight into the state of play across the pond, as well as providing an excellent starting platform should you also be considering updating or upgrading your current phone systems.\nHave you recently updated or are currently looking to update? We\u0026rsquo;d love to hear your thoughts and experiences, so let us know either here or one our social media.\nIf you are considering upgrading your business communications with a VoIP phone system and would like more information regarding pascom and our Business VoIP solutions, contact us and one of our advisers will be more than happy to help. Alternatively, why try our Free Edition including free life time pascom.cloud hosting?\n","date":"April 14, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/guide-to-small-business-phone-systems/","title":"Guide To Small Business Phone Systems"},{"categories":["Home Office"],"contents":"The do\u0026rsquo;s and don\u0026rsquo;ts of Home Office working Traps to avoid and tips on how to stay focused and productive No matter whether your boss has finally seen the benefits of letting you work from home, or whether you have ventured out on your own and already enjoy the benefits of home office working, such as peace and quiet and deciding your own timetable, which all paints a rosy picture, but don\u0026rsquo;t be fooled, home office working is not all about wearing your PJs to work and starting when you feel like it.\nHome office workers face plenty of distractions \u0026amp; traps that normal office workers probably would never come across. To give you an idea, as a new dad, I often work in home office, and have encountered quite a few problems along the way and a colleague of mine is always home office based, and has come across some difficulties of his own. That is why, we have decided to put together a few pointers to help you stay on top of your workloads, remain focused and ensure that your productivity levels do not take a dive.\nOffice Boundaries I often find that starting at the beginning is a great place to start. Therefore, before even starting to work from home, make sure you separate your office from the rest of your home. May sound trivial, but trust me, you need to be able feel at home when you are at home and not like you are still in the office. If you decide to work from your living room for example, once the day is done, your computer will always be there, in corner of your eye, calling out to you. So even though you are watching the most exhilarating action film you\u0026rsquo;ve ever seen, you will not be able to completely push work from you mind - the temptation to check to see if someone has sent that email or whatever may be on your mind, will always be there.\nIf you can, set up an office in the spare room, and if you can\u0026rsquo;t, do what you can to create a division between your home and your office, whether it be with curtains or a screen. If even this isn\u0026rsquo;t possible, set up your office in a place that as soon as you finish for the day, you can walk away, settle on the sofa or sit down to dinner without having your \u0026ldquo;office\u0026rdquo; in your line of sight. Another tip here is to do you best to make sure your new office is well lit and has good ventilation, otherwise you will feel like you are suffocating. If you\u0026rsquo;ve ever encountered these problems, you\u0026rsquo;ll know it can do a real number on your mental well-being.\nGet the Right Equipment If you have the support of your company, that\u0026rsquo;s great as more than likely you will have a full UC solution with mobile integration along with secure access to the company network and all your mission critical data. But if you don\u0026rsquo;t, do your best to get what you need, before you need it. This applies to all your office requirements, right down to the furniture and lighting. There is nothing worse than working with just enough resources to get you by, as one day it will invariably not be enough. Remember that most of these purchases will be tax write offs, so why make life more difficult than it needs to be. This is also true for security applications, storage and collaboration software. For more information regarding all these, plus a few other best practices regarding devices and device security, check out our Telecommuting Best Practices guidelines.\nDress for Work Dressing for work can be an essential part of successful home office working for a number of reasons. The first, could be that you need to dress appropriately for your job. If like me, you regularly give video demonstrations, then dressing accordingly is a must. Secondly, everybody is different. Some people need routine and if that routine is affected in any way, everything else becomes that much harder. This is more psychology than anything else, but if your require the structure that having a daily routine brings in order to get into the right mindset for work, then you will find that dressing appropriately for work as well as following similarly structured patterns will support you in getting ready for work. If you are fortunate enough to not have this affliction or have a job where it doesn\u0026rsquo;t matter what you wear, pay due care and attention to ensuring that you are appropriately dressed when leaving the house or like me you could find yourself wearing your slippers (or worse) in the local supermarket!\nAvoiding Distractions Flexibility \u0026amp; freedom - one of the greatest benefits of working from home, but also one of its greatest pitfalls. Anyone who has ever worked from home, even if was just for one day, will tell you that the number of distractions at home is significantly more than in the office, and these distractions will hit you like an intercity express train. Another problem with home office distractions when compared to those in a normal office, is that they are normally enjoyable activities to participate in, such as taking a break to spend time with the family, having the sport on TV, or working from your bed. You will need to stay strong and train yourself to avoid these distractions as much as you can, otherwise you will lose your focus, your productivity will suffer and standards will fall all resulting in a mad rush to get that project finished or meet your end of day deadline.\nFlexible Timetables So having said avoid distractions as best you can, I am now telling you to set a flexible schedule. How does that work? Often, when talking to people about home office working, they probably will tell you to have a plan and stick with it. I agree with the planning, but having it set in stone will drive you mad and secondly could well lead to conflict and thus affect your performance levels. As mentioned above, one of the main benefits of working from home is the freedom and flexibility that it provides, and if you have a set in stone timetable, you lose this.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll give you an example, it\u0026rsquo;s 11.30am, feeding time for my little one and my wife asks for my help. If I replied \u0026ldquo;sorry I\u0026rsquo;m working\u0026rdquo;, I can tell you now I would be in the dog house for an indefinite period of time and the resulting mood would definitely leave a sour taste in the mouth. Then there is the other side of the coin, the weekend weather was rubbish, but now you are back at work, it has finally stopped raining and the sun is out to play. Get outside, enjoy, rejuvenate and then come back with a refreshed mind. As long as you achieve your goals on time and to your usual excellent standards, your timetable is, within reason, yours to manage - just don\u0026rsquo;t miss a deadline or a prearranged call. More than anything be sensible, don\u0026rsquo;t be away too long otherwise getting back into work mode will be a challenge.\nPrior Planning \u0026amp; Preparation Ever heard of the 7 P\u0026rsquo;s of Planning - if not, you should read them! Planning ahead is an essential part of any business day. Knowing what you have to do and when in advance will enable you to prioritise you workloads effectively. Doing so will simultaneously keep productivity levels high whilst allowing you to enjoy the benefits of working from home. Be realistic in your planning, allotting reasonable time frames for your tasks, allow for a degree of flexibility as you may need to react to elements beyond your control but also you must learn to gauge your tasks for the day, too few and productivity falls, too many and quality will invariably suffer - neither of which are desired consequences.\nIf, for example, you know that you have conference call at 3pm and you have decided to go for that walk to enjoy the sunshine, knowing your plan for that day will enable you to do both. With forward planning you can ensure that you are either back in time for the call (having done the prep before hand) or if your company has deployed a UC strategy, which is more than likely, you can find a quiet cafe with internet, open your laptop - with integrated softphone - and jump on that call whilst enjoying a nice cup of coffee.\nSetting Ground Rules There are times like those mentioned above, when you should be flexible, but there are others where you will need to learn to stand your ground. This may sound harsh, but you will need to set some ground rules so friends and family do not take advantage of the fact that you are home. How stringent these rules are is up to you, but the core principle behind them must be that if you have work to do and have already been distracted enough, then you have the right to stand your ground, saying \u0026ldquo;enough is enough, I\u0026rsquo;ve got to get back to work\u0026rdquo;. It will be hard to do, and quiet often you won\u0026rsquo;t want to do it, but at the end of the day, it\u0026rsquo;s your job and if you give in to the demands of your friends and family, your are opening yourself up to a situation where you will no longer be able to say no and your work will suffer. Remember your job is your livelihood and others need to respect that, but there is no harm in being flexible, just make sure you and everyone else knows where to draw the line.\nCalling it a Day Possibly the single most difficult challenge facing home office workers is knowing when to call it quits for the day. Having all you need to carry on working around you, will invariably mean that you will keep on working. In fact, there is a whole host of research that proves home office workers work longer - productivity gains are among the most attractive main benefits from your employers point of view. However, it is equally important to ensure that you have enough quality time for you and for your significant others, which makes being able to identify when to stop essential. This is less about being \u0026ldquo;clocked in\u0026rdquo; during formal office hours, but rather more about seeing and knowing when you have done enough for the day. This is where all that planning and preparation comes into play, as this will help you in doing this. Once you have completed your tasks for the day, call it quits and don\u0026rsquo;t look back, thus giving you time to relax and refresh your mind. If you don\u0026rsquo;t you run the risk of blurring that invisible line between work hours and that well deserved \u0026ldquo;me time\u0026rdquo;.\nBe Sociable And not on social media! Whilst working from home promotes having solitude and peace and quiet, it can also be socially alienating when you work alone all day every day. This can be tough on some, who feel the effect of social alienation within their workplace, perhaps feeling out of the loop when it comes to happenings and office news. Worse still is when the situation has degraded sufficiently that employees lose those finely tuned social skills because they have regressed into something resembling a social zombie. After a hard day in the office, you will crave face to face conversation, regardless of whether it be about something as mundane as the weather or more interesting topics such as the weekends\u0026rsquo; sport. Whatever it maybe, allow yourself time to get out and about and enjoy some real life interaction with real people. Now I am not advocating going down the pub every day, but getting outside and engaging in some general chit chat could well be just what the doctor ordered to keep your emotional well-being balanced and your mind sharp.\nWhat Works Best for You? Obviously there are a few more Best Practices that could be listed here, such as office lighting \u0026amp; ventilation, planning for the future (especially if you are self employed), ensuring your documentation / expense forms are in order etc. However, working from home can be plain sailing if you follow these steps and don\u0026rsquo;t get caught out by any traps.\nIf you would like more information regarding how our pascom VoIP Software PBX can help you with the successful implementation of Home Office working and Unified Communications strategies, then get in touch with us either via our website or give us a call on + 49 991 29691 200.\n","date":"April 13, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/guide-to-effective-homeoffice-working/","title":"Guide To Effective HomeOffice Working"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – Asterisk Voicemail Basics It’s time to take a look at and get to grips with configuring our demo Asterisk Voicemail system. Which of course means setting up that dreaded beep, where no one really knows what to say afterwards, and often quickly mumble something indiscernible due to some unfathomable discomfort associated with talking to a machine.\nHowever, one should never underestimate the importance of voicemails to every day communication. The proper configuration is an essential element of any business communications platform – so check out our tutorial below covering the basics of Asterisk Voicemail setup.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Tips to Remember Make a copy of the original voicemail.conf file using the command cp voicemail.conf voicemail.conf.orig before you start configuring any voicemail boxes. This will help you during the configuration, as you will be able to remove all the surplus information. This will give you a cleaner and more usable overview of your setup. When saving the new file, remember to give it a memorable name. Doing so will ensure that all the information contained within voicemail.conf can be accessed at a later point in time should you need to do so.\nAlso remember to include an e-mail address, so that your voicemails can be sent as an attachment to your e-mail. You could store your Voicemails on a local storage, which would mean that you would have to call your voicemail in order to retrieve messages, which as we all know is sometimes easier said that done.\nMoreover, when configuring your voicemail accounts, it is worth using the user extension as the voicemail box number. Doing so has practical benefits for both testing purposes and in productive systems. For example, they are obviously memorable information related to users, which will be facilitate and simplify your dialplan voicemail configurations, which we will discuss next time.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"April 8, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-16-asterisk-voicemail-basics/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 16 - Asterisk Voicemail Basics"},{"categories":["Mobile VoIP"],"contents":"BYOD vs CYOD - Which Is Right For Your Business? In our previous article BYOD vs CYOD - What\u0026rsquo;s the Difference, we covered the main differences between Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) as well as highlighting the pros and cons.\nBYOD already has a large following, with many employees already using personal devices to work from home or while they are on the go and has established itself as a potent mobile working policy, with numerous benefits along with significant cost savings to boot. However, for many companies BYOD poses a big question - how do we balance our employee mobility with data security? These questions have given rise CYOD mobile strategies.\nAll that begs the question, which solution is right for your business - devices chosen by employees or those provided by companies?\nWhich is the Best Fit for your Business? As mentioned in the previous article, both models have their pros and cons and the model which is best for you, will most likely be determined by your business needs.\nIf, for example, your regularly store highly sensitive information which your employees regularly access via their mobile devices, then a CYOD solution is a must for you as you can pre-configure security counter measures whilst simultaneously implementing a data protection policy which employees must follow. Data protection policies are notoriously difficult to enforce in BYOD solutions, as companies do not have the right to dedicate how, when and where employees use their personal devices, and CYOD removes this barrier to data security. Example industries where CYOD solutions are a must when implementing a mobile working strategy would include among others; Financial, Legal, Medical and any other sector where private information is stored and accessed regularly.\nHowever, if your employees do not handle or require access to your operations critical sensitive information, then implementing a BYOD solution could well be the way forward. However, a word caution here, this could end up being more hassle than it is worth, as almost every company stores sensitive data of some sort and allowing private devices to connect to company networks still has the disadvantage of increasing the potential risk of mobile malware spreading on company networks.\nAnother scenario where BYOD could well be the best solution for you, is if your company fits into the SOHO category, where you only have a handful of devices to manage. However, if your company fits into any other business size category (SMB, SME and Larger Enterprise), then implementing a BYOD solution can potentially have many pitfalls as IT admins lose control over devices connecting to company networks as well as having to manage a potentially unmanageable number of different platforms, which will invariably mean that software deployments and updates relating to the mobile devices will be limited in frequency and the availability of technical support will be somewhat restricted if it available at all.\nSummary Over the past few years, BYOD has understandably risen in popularity. With the potential to save big on costs whilst simultaneously raising productivity and promoting employee mobility and freedom.\nHowever, as with most new technologies, as adoption has increased, chinks in it\u0026rsquo;s armour have been exposed - namely security, data protection and support issues. Therefore, despite CYOD being the more expensive option short-term, in the long-run choosing your own device could potentially prove much more cost effective.\nRegardless of which strategy you choose to implement, having an enterprise mobility strategy is an essential to the success of any modern business, particularly as mobile VoIP and mobile unified communications become the norm in the workplace. Therefore, choosing the right mobile collaboration solutions vendor is essential. Thankfully, by choosing a vendor such as pascom, overcoming many of the potential risks of mobile strategies is no longer such an issue.\nFor example pascom\u0026rsquo;s mobile apps provide not only a user friendly interface for accessing communication tools, but thanks to user and password management, an additional security layer on the mobile device. Moreover, more recent versions of pascom\u0026rsquo;s mobile app for Android and iOS also incorporate QR code provisioning and can be automatically unpaired by the phone system administrator should a mobile device be lost or stolen.\nCome back next week when we take a look at some tips for implementing a successful BYOD / CYOD solution and how to protect your data.\nIf you would like more information regarding how our pascom VoIP Software PBX can help you implement a telecommuting / remote working strategy, then get in touch with us either via our website or give us a call on + 49 991 29691 200.\n","date":"April 8, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/byod-vs-cyod-which-is-right-for-your-business/","title":"BYOD vs CYOD Which is Right for Your Business"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – Asterisk Dialplan Subroutines Ever wanted to know how to get rid of all those lines of code that repeat themselves over and over again within your Asterisk Dialplan? Then this tutorial is for you!\nToday we get yet even more real world like by reducing our business hours dialplan settings to just 2 lines of subroutine coding.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Just like with most programming languages, the answer with Asterisk is to use a subroutine. In our example, we demonstrate how to use Asterisk Dialplan Subroutines to remove the unnecessary lines of dialplan coding when setting up your business hours – although subroutines are by no means limited to solely this function. As we describe in our tutorial, when setting up your business hours and the related actions for inside and outside time schedules, without using a subroutine you would be required to set up maybe 10 lines of code and then repeat this coding for every user, which can become very time consuming when you have numerous users, especially should the business hours change.\nWatch out for “macro” subroutines as if you can avoid using the “macro” function, you should do so because this option will only provide a depth of seven levels, after which Asterisk will probably crash. As an alternative our suggestion would be to use the “GoSub” application instead.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"April 1, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-15-asterisk-diaplan-subroutines/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 15 - Asterisk Dialplan Subroutines"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom\u0026rsquo;s mobydick VoIP Phone System 7.09 has Arrived Friday 27th of March 2015 saw pascom release the latest version of their mobydick VoIP phone system. The latest release delivers a whole host of new and improved UCC (Unified Communications \u0026amp; Collaboration) functionality, enhanced User Experience (UX) aimed at improving end user work flows as well as increasing mobydick\u0026rsquo;s overall user and admin friendliness.\nmobydick Video Telephony has Landed With the release of mobydick 7.09, mobydick has gained a powerful Unified Communications \u0026amp; Collaboration tool, for those occasions when words are just not enough and you need to see it to believe and understand. mobydick 7.9 comes as standard with jitsi video bridge fully integrated, which delivers the perfect platform for User to User video communication, plus facilitating further future video telephony developments. The beauty of the mobydick video solution lies in the fact that users can start a video call directly from within the mobydick independent the device they are using and location, on the road, in HomeOffice or at a conference abroad.\npascom SIP Provider Database\rSimplifying Trunking As the VoIP world migrates faster and faster towards SIP technology, we have undertaken a complete overhaul of our Trunk creation menu, which has resulted in the creation of mobydick\u0026rsquo;s fully integrated SIP provider database as well as implementing a brand new Trunk Template Wizard. Both enabling mobydick users to quickly, and efficiently to choose the appropriate template for their provider without having to add, configure or edit any settings other that their account specific variable data. The database is being continuously updated, however should your provider not be listed, the option to manually configure your trunk still exists, with the added option of being able to export and import your configurations in order to share them with other users or as a backup for the future.\npascom SIP Provider Database\rPlatform Stability \u0026amp; mypascom Customer Portal With mobydick 7.09, a whole host of changes have been implemented to enable mobydick customers and partners manage and maintain their mobydick systems. Firstly, the introduction of the mypascom marketplace will enable admins to manage, buy and update their mobydick licences by providing a self service platform from which they can completely manage their appliances and licences.\npascom Marketplace\rIn addition to the marketplace, we have also introduced a new upgrade channel to deliver the latest mobydick innovations in the form of a Current release and a Stable release. This has been implemented in order to improve platform stability, as have numerous other modifications such as a newly developed update process. This process has been designed to increase system stability by automatically regenerating a significant proportion of the system configurations as well as restarting system services which will improve overall system consistency.\nAdditional Information \u0026amp; Modifications For more information concerning the release, including complete documentation, admin handbooks, user guides and release notes, please visit our Release Notes\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s on-premise and cloud based UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements making our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more cost effectively.\nwww.pascom.net\n","date":"March 30, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-voip-phone-system-7.09-release/","title":"pascom VoIP Phone System 7.09 Release"},{"categories":null,"contents":"SIP Providers: What to look out for when choosing your provider Macedonia is already All IP, Verizon in the USA, ceased to offer ISDN basic services in May 2013 and Deutsche Telekom are planning to do the same for the German market by 2018 and in the UK 300,000 ISDN channels were lost between 2007 and 2012 and will be shut down in 2025.\nIt paints an ugly picture for the ISDN and has got some businesses asking what\u0026rsquo;s next. Simply put, the answer lies with SIP (Session Initiated Protocol). SIP trunking provides businesses with a more flexible, cost-effective alternative to the ISDN and is rapidly taking up market share.\nThat all begs the question; what should companies look out for when choosing their SIP providers, and how does SIP trunking affect their current phone system? In our first post on SIP Providers we analysed the survey results from part one of VoIP and Telecoms review website Software Advice\u0026rsquo;s investigation into the core considerations for choosing your SIP providers and once again our friends over at Software Advice have compiled yet more research which sheds even more light on what to look for and what to expect.\nIn part two of the report, market research associate Daniel Harris goes into more detail concerning SIP Providers, their compatibility, uptime comparisons as well as SLAs (Service Level Agreements) and security concerns as according to IT decision makers who have already made the switch to SIP. So what did he uncover?\nOn-premise PBXs are more reliable When it comes to SIP trunking, it is perceived by the respondents that on-premise or on-site PBX (Private Branch Exchange) systems deliver greater reliability compared to cloud-based solutions. 35 % of the respondents reported that they either have never or have rarely experienced any form of service outage with their on-premise systems compared to only 21 per cent of those operating cloud solutions. While there are plenty of reasons why this could be, the main culprit is likely to be that with cloud solutions, users often access the system via public and other private networks which may not offer the best bandwith and stability. Whereas on-site solutions provide for a more direct connection to the PBX.\nTherefore, if continuous service is essential to your business model, then an on-premise IP PBX may be a consideration. That said, cloud solutions have come a long way, Internet speeds and reliability have improved greatly and mobile Internet is now often faster than private connections at home. This means cloud solutions will continue to grow in popularity. Therefore, our recommendation for those who constant telephony services is mission-critical, such as a ContactCenter, would be to choose an on-premise or cloud solution based on availability. In the case of on-premise solutions, this can be achieved using the redundancy of virtualisation.\nAlternatively, if the cloud is the platform of choice, check with the solution provider what their availability statistics are. However, with cloud solutions, where such redundancy measures are likely undertaken in the data centre where the solution is hosted, then availability stats and redundancy measures are of no use if your Internet connection is unstable or unreliable as should the connection between the customer and the centre be broken, then the only option at this point is mobile VoIP, which by today\u0026rsquo;s standards is actually not only a viable option but almost a must have.\nSIP Providers, Compatibility \u0026amp; Configuration One of the drawbacks of SIP Trunking stems from configuration complexity and compatibility issues. The survey uncovered that in terms of compatibility, cloud-based PBX solutions suffered from fewer problems and therefore supported a greater array of PBX features compared to on-premise solutions. 36 per cent of the decision makers surveyed who operate cloud solutions reported that all their PBX features were supported compared to only 28% of those operating on-premise based solutions. However, this discrepancy likely stems from the fact that of the respondents, a significant proportion (63 %) had already consolidated their telephony systems to one provider, which obviously should eliminate any potential for unsupported features.\nSIP Providers \u0026amp; Supported PBX features\rIn terms of configuring SIP trunks, it is a sad fact that the provider settings are not standardised across the industry. The figures are almost comparable to one another with 27 % of the survey responding that they found SIP trunk configuration moderately difficult with an on-premise PBX, compared to 25 per cent of those cloud-based solutions. 45 % of both camps reported that that only experience minimal difficulty.\nDaniel Harris uses the figures to highlight that cloud solutions are typically easier to configure compared to on-premise solutions, as one has to ensure that the SIP provider can support proprietary hardware. He has a point, but I see it slightly differently. In the report, he mentions that 63 % of the survey respondents have consolidated their PBX with their SIP providers and yet 25 % are still experiencing moderate difficulties, which either highlights the complexities of SIP trunking or those that haven\u0026rsquo;t consolidated are experiencing severe difficulties. All of which says to me that the compatibility between SIP providers and PBX solutions, regardless of whether cloud-based or on-premise is fairly similar. An alternative would be to search for a PBX vendor, whether cloud-based or on-premise based, who are actively working with SIP providers to build SIP Provider Databases and Template wizards to facilitate not only the configuration but also compatibility, as we have done with our latest pascom UCC solution.\nSIP Providers \u0026amp; SLAs Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are essential for minimising configuration and installation problems. The report suggests that in the main, SIP Providers are doing a pretty good job when it comes to offering SLAs that can be matched to your business requirements and then living up to the terms of their SLAs and goes on to mention that selecting a SIP provider according to their SLAs is an effective way of ensuring consistent uptime and call quality. But what sort of SLAs are on offer? In effect there are three SLAs, that SIP providers generally offer; Installation, Mean time to recovery (MTTR) and audio quality (either Mean Opinion Score, MOS, or R-Factor score).\nInstallation and MTTR refer to the specified time period in which a provider will either complete the installation (number porting etc) or the guaranteed time frame in which services will be restored following a failure. MOS and R-Factor are somewhat more complicated but refer to a scale of audio quality based on user experience but taking technical factors i.e. network performance into account, with R-Factor being the more sophisticated model.\nSIP Provider SLAs\rSIP Trunking Security Once again, the question of security rears its ugly head. Sadly, we live in a world where nothing is completely secure, we can only implement countermeasures to secure systems as much as possible. We will cover the question of security in more detail in the future, but it is worth noting that SIP providers take the subject seriously, implementing various countermeasures as standard. The most common being TLS (transport layer security), VPNs (Virtual Private Networks (either IPsec or MPLS) and Session Border Controllers (SBCs), with TLS being the most popular (58%). All have slightly different roles, such as TLS being primarily deployed to help prevent denial-of-service attacks (DOS) and VPNs being deployed as a security measure for traffic that has to be routed over public networks (internet), due to geographic distance or network design.\nSIP Provider Security\rIt is worth noting here, that there is some cross-over between the results, which means that the having deployed one countermeasure, most companies deploy secondary and tertiary countermeasures as well.\nSummary No matter whether you implement or operate an on-premise or cloud-based solution, SIP trunking is set to be the future of VoIP telephony. Therefore, choosing a SIP provider that matches your business needs in terms of compatibility, ease of configuration and SLAs is paramount. It is also worth considering your SIP provider with the future in mind, don\u0026rsquo;t just look at the here and now, as who knows in a years time, you may have that new international office and your SIP provider needs to be able to offer you a solution, i.e. number and if they can\u0026rsquo;t, then you will have to go through the whole process again.\nIf you are considering switching or upgrading your telephony services to an ALL IP SIP VoIP solution or would like more information regarding pascom, then give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"March 29, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/what-to-look-for-when-choosing-your-sip-provider/","title":"What to look for when choosing your SIP provider"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – Introducing Asterisk Time Conditions It’s time for a Time Check.\nFor 99.9% of business phone systems in operation today, time conditions are essential for controlling dialplan elements such as Business Hours, which is where the Asterisk IP PBX Application GotoIfTime comes into play, as it allows you to match time conditions against the actual time in order to determine how your Asterisk Dialplan handles the call, for example playing an “Out of Office Hours” or “Public Holiday” notification to the caller.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES To find the application within your Asterisk system, simply go to the Asterisk CLI and enter the command core show application GotoIfTime which will open the application and provide some extra information regarding the application. Using Asterisk GotoIftime is fairly straightforward, but you need to aware of some useful pointers on how to actually specify your time conditions.\nObviously, the most common syntax elements within Asterisk Time Conditions include the required time range, days of the week, days of the month and the months themselves. But specifying this information is not enough, as we need a label that indicates what action should be taken – a sort of true or false scenario which matches the actual time with the time conditions you set up within your asterisk dialplan.\nAn example could be as follows:\nexten =\u0026gt; incoming number, 1, GotoIfTime (8:00-17:00,mon-fri,*,*?[labeliftrue][:labeliffalse][ [context,]extension,]priority Important to note here is that day and month names are not case sensitive and if you want to include everyday of the month and every month, you can use the * symbol to include all instead of listing them individually. The ? (question mark) symbol is an essential component as it determines whether the time conditions have been met or not which of course affects how the call will be handled.\nMore information regarding Asterisk Time Conditions can be found on www.voip-info.org.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"March 26, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-14-asterisk-time-conditions/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 14 - Asterisk Time Conditions"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom\u0026rsquo;s mobydick VoIP solution a success at CeBIT 2015 24.03.2015 | Deggendorf | Hannover - CeBIT 2015 in Hannover has come and gone, and early indications are that the event has been a resounding success for pascom\u0026rsquo;s mobydick VoIP solution, both nationally and internationally. Figures released by Deutsche Messe AG on the exhibitions closing day make for pleasant reading as they illustrate that visitor numbers grew by 6% over 2014 to 221,000 trade professionals, which further demonstrates the role CeBIT has to play in the global IT industry. Furthermore, with 92% of the visitors coming from the trade sector, the new format introduced last year, appears to be having a positive impact for both visitors and exhibitors alike.\nReflecting upon the show, Thomas Schmidt, pascom Sales Director, agreed with the research findings when stating \u0026ldquo;compared to 2014, the 2015 show generated a significantly higher number of quality conversations regarding our Unified Communications Solution {pascom\u0026rsquo;s mobydick VoIP PBX software}\u0026rdquo;. His comments coincide with CeBIT\u0026rsquo;s findings that one in three visitors (34%) were senior management members and that 72% of visitors had a degree of influence within their respective companies\u0026rsquo; decision making processes.\nAccording to Thomas Schmidt, the success of the show and interest in the exhibit had benefited greatly from unified communications being one of the main focuses this year. \u0026ldquo;Our new video telephony solution, which is the first step towards offering a complete video collaboration suite, has been a particular highlight this year, receiving extremely positive feedback thus far from all our visitors, especially from those who were attracted to the exhibition due to its focus on UC solutions.\u0026rdquo;\nMathias Pasquay, CEO pascom, mentioned during the event that \u0026ldquo;CeBIT delivers the perfect platform from which to showcase our latest collaboration tools, such as video telephony, fully integrated softphone and the ongoing development of our instant messaging tools to not only the German market but also further afield\u0026rdquo;. When questioned regarding the calibre of international visitors Mr Pasquay commented that \u0026ldquo;the 2015 event once again demonstrated the growing international interest in mobydick as is reflected by the substantial increase in international channel partner stand visitors\u0026rdquo;, which further supports the figures showing that international event visitors accounted for 23% of total attendees, further amplifying CeBIT\u0026rsquo;s importance to the global IT community.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom.\n","date":"March 24, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-cebit-2015-review/","title":"pascom CeBIT 2015 Review"},{"categories":["Mobile VoIP"],"contents":"BYOD vs CYOD - What\u0026rsquo;s the Difference? In previous posts from our Mobile Working series, we\u0026rsquo;ve talked a lot about how mobile devices from Laptops \u0026amp; Softphones to Smartphones, Tablets and Phablets have changed not only the way we communicate in the business world, but also the fundamental way in which we do business. The modern workplace has changed as have the dynamics of the the modern workforce. In order to keep pace with today\u0026rsquo;s mobile world whilst simultaneously incorporating the needs of both organisations and employees, two trends have taken hold within the business communications industry - BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and CYOD (Choose Your Own Device).\nOn the surface, both solutions appear to be fairly similar, but there are some fundamental and crucial differences. Both solutions were born out of the need to mobilise employees through harnessing the flexibility to work from anywhere that mobile devices provide. As both solutions are designed to enable mobile working, what\u0026rsquo;s the difference between the two solutions?\nBYOD Every user has a device preference, whether it be Android vs iOS or Mac vs Windows and therefore will work more efficiently on their preferred platform as opposed to a platform that is alien to them. A true Bring Your Own Device solution recognises this and therefore permits employees to choose their preferred device with which to perform their daily tasks. BYOD also delivers another great benefit by helping companies significantly reduce hardware expenditure as users purchase, maintain and manage their own devices.\nHowever, BYOD poses a few significant obstacles to IT departments. The first major headache is that keeping a BYOD fleet secure is a thankless task. A study conducted by Osterman Research showed that nearly 15 % of employees felt \u0026ldquo;none to minimal\u0026rdquo; responsibility when it came to keeping company data stored on their personal devices secure. This problem has as much to do with user psychology as with best practice policy training.\nSecondly, there are issues relating to experience consistency and integration compatibility across a large range of devices. With such a large range of devices being used, ensuring that corporate applications and systems are compatible with the mobile devices can prove tricky. One such example is with voice communication. With BYOD, it is more than likely that a company will have deployed some form of Mobile VoIP strategy, but what happens when the system is no longer compatible with the mobile device either because it is too new or too old?\nCYOD Choose your own device takes the basic principles of BYOD in that it enables users to use mobile devices for the purposes of work. The main difference being that the company owns and maintains the devices, meaning that employees can then choose the devices they use from a \u0026ldquo;pre-approved\u0026rdquo; list.\nThe major benefit CYOD has over BYOD is that IT departments can regain elements of control over the mobile devices as all the devices can be tested, pre approved and configured. In turn, CYOD reduces administrative hassle in terms of data security, consistent user experience and device compatibility with existing systems and applications. CYOD also has the advantage of reducing policy admin workloads in the future, as employees will only receive new devices once integrated and extensively tested as opposed to when a user get\u0026rsquo;s a new personal device.\nHowever, CYOD comes with its own set of drawbacks. First and foremost, through implementing CYOD solutions, numerous BYOD benefits are effectively negated. Such benefits include removing the users\u0026rsquo; freedom to choose the devices they are most comfortable with whilst simultaneously taking away the companies ability to reduce hardware expenditure. Moreover, despite the fact that CYOD policies allow IT departments greater control over security issues, keeping mobile device data secure is an ongoing task that relies heavily on active employee participation.\nSummary Both BYOD and CYOD strategies have their pro\u0026rsquo;s and con\u0026rsquo;s and one thing is for sure, they both have their place within today\u0026rsquo;s business world. As always, the right solution for you will far more likely depend on your business requirements. However, no matter which strategy proves right for your business, in order to implement a successful mobility policy, the solution implemented must integrate fully into your company networks, systems and applications if it is to be successful.\nIf you would like more information regarding how our pascom VoIP Software PBX can help you implement a telecommuting strategy, then get in touch with us either via our website or give us a call on +44 (0)203 1379 964 9r +49 (0)991 29691 200.\n","date":"March 16, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/what-is-mobile-voip-and-byod-vs-cyod/","title":"What is Mobile VoIP and BYOD vs CYOD"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – Asterisk Variables Today, we show you how to dial any length of number.\nBuilding on from last time when we introduced the topic of Regular Expressions within Asterisk, this time we demonstrate how to use Asterisk Variables to be able to store dialled numbers within your dialplans. Beyond that, we also show you how using variables and expressions combined, you can script your dialplan to be able to call any number, regardless how long it is and manipulate how the number is recorded in the Asterisk CLI.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES You can configure variables within Asterisk by using the following format:\n${variable_name}. For the purposes of today’s tutorial, we have used the EXTEN variable which if you’ve ever wanted to know how to store the number you actually dialled within your dialplan – here is your answer. EXTEN is one of the most common Asterisk Variables, but for more variables, please visit VoIP-info.org\nAnother useful tool when using variables is the ability to manipulate them. In our tutorial, we showed you how to configure your variable so that the offset (point at which you jump into the string) and string length, which can be done using\n${EXTEN:offset:length} This will enable you to record only the most important dialled numbers within your dialplan. For example, eliminating the 0 for selecting the outside line or by using the minus (-) symbol to start your offset from the end of the string.\nOnce you have tested your variables, you can then clean up your outgoing context dialplan by using a regular expression\n_X. to be able to dial any number.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"March 11, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-13-asterisk-variables/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 13 - Asterisk Variables"},{"categories":["Contact Center"],"contents":"What does the Future hold for Asterisk Call Centers? Recently, Loway, a pascom Interoperability partner and the developer of Asterisk Call Center solutions QueueMetrics and the WombatDialer invited us to share our thoughts on the future of the Asterisk contact center as part of their Call Center Guru project.\nNaturally, pascom CEO, Mathias Pasquay, was only to happy to add his thoughts and opinions formed as a result of being the founder of pascom and instrumental in the ongoing development of pascom\u0026rsquo;s business communications platform. While the full transcript from the interview can be found on the Loway project site, I thought it a nice idea to summarise his thoughts and views on what the future holds for the Asterisk Contact Center.\nMathias\u0026rsquo; view on the industry looking forward over the coming years is one of continued growth in response to increased requirements in terms of improved customer service, greater flexibility and scalability. For these reasons, Mathias predicts that the contact centers of tomorrow will choose Asterisk based solutions over proprietary systems, which are often inflexible and do not scale accordingly.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s more, Mathias sees increased growth in the 3rd party application market with interoperability and application integration being key to the successful Asterisk Call Center as they strive to improve efficiencies and drive customer service by making business intelligence easier and more intuitive to access.\nSummary On a final note, the future for developers of Asterisk Call Center solutions, whether they be involved in delivering the phone system or the software layer that sits above the phone solution, is a bright one.\nIf you are considering switching or upgrading your telephony services to include ContactCentre functionality and Skills-Based Routing or would like more information regarding pascom, then give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"March 10, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/the-future-of-the-asterisk-call-and-contact-centre/","title":"The Future of the Asterisk Call and Contact Centre"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – Regular Asterisk Expressions (Regex) Today, we expand our worldview!\nLast time around we limited the world just one Softphone and on number (8888), but today we demonstrate how to make your Asterisk phone system dialplans a bit cleaner and more professional using Asterisk Expressions and dialplan Patterns.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES If you are experienced with regular expressions from other programming languages, you will quickly realise that the expressions used are a specialised set for asterisk, which help you make clearer and easier to understand dialplan patterns.\nTo use Asterisk expressions, you will always need to write the expression starting with underscore:\n_ This tells your dialplan that a placeholder is in place. In our example, we then used the most common expression X, which represents any number from 0 – 9.\nIn order to demonstrate how the X placeholder functions, we used the extension\n_XXXX in our first example, which will dial any four digit number. However, should you as can be reasonably expected, need to dial shorter and longer phone numbers (so any number of any length) then a good starting point would be to use the full stop or dot expression.\n. Using this expression will allow you to repeat the previous expression as many times as required. Next we introduced a zero (0) to our placeholder, as many phone systems require users to dial a zero for the outside line. A common mistake is to use the\n_0. expression, as this will not work as the command is effectively saying you can dial as many zero’s as you like.\nAnother expression to avoid using (unless you really have to) is:\n_. as this will match everything including special asterisk expressions (which we will cover later). Instead, we recommend using:\n_X. or like in our demo:\n_0X. as this will select the outside line and allow users to call numbers of any length.\nJust in case you didn’t spot it – Mathias made a mistake when explaining the expressions used by our friends over in the US. He was half right, just got the two a bit muddled up. Anyway, the asterisk expressions Z and N match numbers from 1 – 9 and 2 – 9 respectively.\nFor more on Asterisk Expressions, please visit www.VoIP-Info.org.\nNext time, we will take our dialplans further using Asterisk Variables, where we demonstrate how to store information within the variables.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"February 25, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-12-regular-asterisk-expressions/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 12 - Asterisk Regular Expressions"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems - Asterisk Outgoing Call Configuration Today Mathias calls the World!\nOr at least a he calls a very simplified version of the world where only one external entity still exists, and that entity is in fact not a person but rather a softphone. It’s all a bit Matrix meets Terminator.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES The reason behind our somewhat simplistic view of the world is fairly straightforward. We wanted to demonstrate a “Real-Life” scenario, without having all the real world complexities that would be required in a true productive phone system. Therefore, to make our Asterisk Outgoing Call Configuration tutorial simpler to follow and less complexing, we reduced our world to just one person.\nWhen configuring your dialplans, we have a best practices quick tip for you. To restrict your users from calling international numbers, premium numbers (or in my case my wife, not girlfriend Mathias – I hope she doesn’t watch this!), then configure your dialplans to have a minimum of three contexts – internal, incoming and outgoing – to ensure maximum control over who can call who. Otherwise you might well be in for a bit of a shock when your phone bill arrives.\nAnother point to note here is to save your dialplan configurations using the VI editor code “:wq”. Once you have saved your settings, open the Asterisk CLI and reload the dialplan using the reload command before testing your configuration:\ndialplan reload Stay tuned next week when we get to grips with some Regular Expressions within an Asterisk phone system setup.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"February 18, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-11-asterisk-outgoing-call-configuration/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 11 - Outgoing Call Configuration"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems - Incoming External Calls We’re back! After a short break, we are back with the latest in our Introducing Asterisk Tutorial series. Today, we have a quick recap on what we’ve done so far \u0026amp; Mathias gets serious by examining some real life telephony scenarios.\nWhat that all means is that we briefly review what we’ve done so far, plus getting to grips with some more in depth dialplan configurations. We simulate receiving incoming external calls using a softphone. At this point, we could have added a SIP provider, but as this can be a complicated process, we decided to continue with testing steps before moving on to the more advanced stages of setting up your Asterisk PBX.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES In order to simulate external callers, we need to setup a a new SIP peer in the sip.cong asterisk directory. The process is very similar to how we added our internal SIP peers, with the exception of the context. It is generally considered a best practice to define a new context [e.g. incoming] for external calls in order to prevent unauthorised access and usage of your telephony services.\nThe next step is to add the new context into your dialplan, and configure the context to jump to another context within the dialplan through using the Goto application and then reloading the dialplan and testing that everything functions as expected. Remember, when setting up your Asterisk PBX, testing every step is the key to ensuring not encountering problems in the future.\nStay tuned next week when we will take a look at some more Asterisk phone system real life scenarios and get going with simulating making an outgoing external call.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"February 11, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-10-asterisk-incoming-external-calls/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 10 - Incoming External Calls"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"Cooperation, Collaboration \u0026amp; Communication 10th February 2015, Deggendorf, Germany - January 2015 saw pascom host their inaugural partner summit with the objective of increasing co-operation and collaboration between pascom - a leading developer of Unified Communication phone systems for business - and their reseller network. Attended by VAR (Value Added Resellers) from across the DACH region, visitors were treated to a unique insight into the inner workings of pascom including a sneak preview of the 2015 Roadmap as well as a variety of talks and presentations aimed at maximising opportunities and increasing customer service levels through collaborative partnerships.\nDay one of the two day event focused on optimising pascom phone system sales and support (incl. pre-sales support) through open discussion, tips and tricks as well as a detailed \u0026ldquo;under the hood\u0026rdquo; glimpse of the inner workings of pascom solutions from a developers point of view. The event kicked-off with a look back at 2014 and a review of all the changes that were implemented before looking forward to 2015 and the future beyond through the introduction of the 2015 pascom Roadmap, which included a preview of what to expect in upcoming releases.\nNext on the agenda, Sales Director Thomas Schmidt took to the stand, introducing Tips and Tricks concerning project implementation and successful sales strategies, whilst tackling objections and introducing the concept of increased cooperation between not only pascom and its partners but also amongst the partners themselves through project cooperation, knowledge sharing, joint events and marketing campaigns.\nThroughout, visitors were provided an opportunity to input their thoughts into product development as well as sharing their thoughts on the industry both within DACH and further afield. Of particular interest were the topics of SIP and All IP and how to best approach the market with the 2018 Deutsche Telekom deadline now firmly on the not so distant horizon. The day was then nicely rounded off by evening entertainment and a chance to \u0026ldquo;network\u0026rdquo; whilst enjoying a leisurely round of tenpin bowling and a few frames of pool.\nDay two focused on building lasting long term customer relationships through project management and consultation in order to promote customer satisfaction. This was achieved in the form of an open discussion workshop focusing on how to tailor pascom phone system\u0026rsquo;s to customer requirements from customer specific customisations, e.g. the pascom FlexPanel configuration and integrating external systems, i.e CRM, ERP etc.\nSpeaking after the event, pascom CEO Mathias Pasquay stated:\n\u0026ldquo;Our 2014 events highlighted the benefits of closer cooperation with both our channel and InterOp partners, and therefore we are very pleased with the level of interest, enthusiasm and participation shown by our partners. We look forward to working closely together with all our partners to ensure that our combined successes continue to grow throughout 2015 and beyond as well as welcoming all our partners at our 2016 event\u0026rdquo;.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s on-premise and cloud based UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements making our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more cost effectively.\nwww.pascom.net\nFor more information regarding the pascom Partner Summit or if your are interested in becoming a pascom reseller or would like more information concerning pascom phone systems, please contact us directly (+49 991 29691 0) or via our partner page.\n","date":"February 10, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-partner-summit-2015/","title":"pascom Partner Summit 2015"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"pascom confirms CeBIT 2015 exhibition 05. February 2015, Deggendorf - pascom has confirmed their attendance at CeBIT 2015 in Hannover. pascom will be attending the show as a co-exhibitor along with InterOperability partner Snom Technology. The 2015 show will be pascom's third consecutive appearance at the world renowned IT Trade Show, reflecting their increasing presence throughout the DACH region and beyond.\nThroughout the 2015 show, pascom will be demonstrating the latest developments regarding their pascom IP PBX software solutions, including the latest new features as well as a special pre-release preview for our stand visitors (C42, Hall 13). Examples include the launch of our SIP provider database as well as improved functionality.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO, was quoted as saying \u0026ldquo;being at CeBIT provides an excellent opportunity for the company to continue increasing our presence within the market both nationally and internationally. We are excited about the opportunity this years\u0026rsquo; event poses and hope we can build on the success of last year. More than anything we look forward to welcoming all CeBIT visitors to our stand and having the opportunity to showcase pascom to a broad reaching audience.\u0026rdquo;\nShould you wish to arrange an appointment with the pascom team on the stand, you can do so via the pascom website where they have also made a limited number of event tickets available.\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost effectively.\nVisit www.pascom.net to learn more about pascom.\n","date":"February 5, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-at-cebit-2015/","title":"pascom at CeBIT 2015"},{"categories":null,"contents":"What is SIP trunking and Why is it on the Rise? In the first of a series of posts focusing on SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunking within the enterprise communications market, we take a look at what SIP Trunking actually is as well as what the primary considerations are when choosing a SIP provider. In a recent survey by VoIP and telecoms review website Software Advice, SIP trunking is defined as an \u0026ldquo;internet-based service that allows Voice over IP users to connect local and long-distance calls to and from endpoints in the traditional phone network\u0026rdquo;. While SIP and VoIP have many similarities, they differ ever so slightly in that VoIP is a generic term describing the telecommunications technology group as a whole, while SIP is just one form of transmission technology within the group.\nHowever, SIP has much more to offer than other IP based transmission technologies and that is why its popularity is on the rise. SIP trunking has the additional benefit that it is designed to carry not only voice but also data and video over the same internet connection making it much more flexible and cost-effective compared to legacy PBX trunks and is therefore often deployed in order to gain the maximum benefits that VoIP systems offer such as Fax over IP (FoIP), Instant Messaging, presence info and file transfers etc.\nWhat to look out for when choosing a SIP provider In short, the report breaks down the core considerations affecting the decision making process of a selection of IT decision makers when choosing SIP providers. Moreover, the report provides a good guideline regarding what to look for when selecting a provider other than the flexibility and financial benefits that SIP trunking delivers.\nQuality of Security and Support The findings threw up a few surprises, although, given all that happened in 2014, the fact that Quality of Security and Support was one of the primary reasons should not really be that much of a shock. So much so that we predicted in our 2015 Business Communications Trends that security (and SIP trunking) would be an ongoing hot topic into 2015.\nWhat is surprising is that it with nearly a 25% of respondents stated that they choose their SIP provider on their security protocols and not for Quality of Service (QoS), which would have been one of our top recommendations, as regardless of whether your communications lines are secure or not, if voice traffic is not prioritised over other network traffic (downloads etc) then data packet losses can be extremely detrimental in terms of dropped calls and degraded call quality.\nSIP Provider considerations\rPricing Models The fact that pricing is a primary concern when selecting a provider is hardly surprising, as costs directly affect budgets and therefore the bottom line. What is interesting here though is the growth in user-based pricing models. Nearly 40% of the IT Admins surveyed, noted that they selected user-based models vs the more traditional port-based model. This highlights a growing trend towards increased flexibility as under the more traditional models, monthly fees are calculated based on the number of simultaneous calls normally required by an organisation vs having a dedicated line for each employee.\nThe fact that companies are moving towards user-based pricing where they pay a flat monthly fee per user for an unlimited number of calls (both outgoing and incoming) also serves to highlight that flexibility over the number of users and calls is becoming increasingly important, whilst offering the additional benefit of regaining elements of control over monthly budgets by knowing exactly what will be charged at the end of each month.\nSIP Provider Pricing\rAudio Quality Another interesting fact that the survey demonstrated is that, after implementing SIP trunking solutions, a significant majority of users were satisfied with call audio quality. This is obviously a massive improvement from the days when VoIP was first emerging and should go some way in allaying fears that by transitioning to SIP trunking will affect audio quality.\nMoreover, of the survey sample, a large proportion of respondents reported that their SIP providers have implemented Quality of Service (QoS) which prioritises voice traffic over other network traffic such as downloads. This has, as previously mentioned, the benefit of reducing packet data loss, thus improving call quality and reducing the dropped call rates.\nVendor Consolidation Another significant benefit that SIP trunking delivers is the ability to consolidate vendors. The report illustrates how vendor consolidation is becoming more popular, with only less than 10% of respondents not having either a fully or partially consolidated solution. Why is consolidation worth considering? Well its clear that SIP trunking will become the mainstream as ISDN is faded out, so why not source your SIP services and internet services from the same vendor, and should a problem occur, you only need to deal with one provider and not two who will invariably place blame and responsibility for the fault on each other.\nAnother aspect to consider here is that over the coming years the ISDN will fall by the wayside, in fact in Germany Deutsche Telekom plan to be \u0026ldquo;All IP\u0026rdquo; by 2018 and it other countries the switch has already been made. So when making your decision regarding SIP Providers, speak to both your planned SIP provider and IP PBX provider to ensure that the integration is a simple as possible.\nSummary I was talking to some of our sales partners from across the DACH region yesterday during our 2015 partner summit regarding the topic of SIP trunking and choosing SIP providers. They unanimously agreed that the topic of SIP trunking and providers will gain more traction throughout 2015 and beyond, especially as we near the previously mentioned 2018 Telekom deadline.\nTherefore, should you be choosing a new telephone system, it is worthwhile considering future proofing your system by selecting a system that is SIP compatible. Moreover, while we must take the data provided by Software Advice\u0026rsquo;s research with a pinch of salt, as we cannot directly apply it to the European marketplace, the findings do provide the basis for some pretty good guidelines of what to look out for when choosing your SIP provider.\nIf you are considering switching or upgrading your telephony services to an ALL IP SIP VoIP solution or would like more information regarding pascom, then give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"January 30, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/why-is-sip-trunking-adoption-on-the-rise/","title":"Why is SIP Trunking Adoption on the Rise?"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Keep your Employees on the Move and your Data Safe with These Telecommuting Best Practices The old saying of \u0026ldquo;time is money\u0026rdquo; probably holds truer today than ever before. Modern technology puts businesses and their employees in a position to work from almost anywhere, at anytime. This ensures time wastage is reduced and therefore increases employee productivity as well as promoting real time communication, which in turn can lead to increased customer satisfaction. On top of this, telecommuting also helps companies in enabling employees to strike a good work-life balance.\nNo matter what you call it, the phenomenon of Telecommuting / mobile working is on the rise and is reshaping how companies and their employees do business. Where telecommuting and modern technologies such as Unified Communications (UC) meet provides companies with almost limitless possibilities in terms of cutting costs, increasing productivity and freeing employees from the confines of the office. Moreover, being \u0026ldquo;Out of the Office\u0026rdquo; these days no longer just means being on holiday, it could just as easily mean travelling, being on site with a customer, at a convention abroad or simply being at home looking after the kids and as such it is of utmost importance to find a balance between corporate goals and those of employees.\nHowever, telecommuting also poses a 2 massive problems. Firstly, how can a company monitor and manage remote employees and secondly, how do companies implement a telecommuting strategy that both mobilises and delivers the UC benefits companies crave whilst simultaneously keeping company data secure. It is an IT departments\u0026rsquo; or Admins\u0026rsquo; worst nightmare, losing control over both how and where corporate information and systems are accessed and how to keep data secure. So here we are at those all important questions of how, why and is it all worth it?\nWhy and is it Worth it? As we alluded to in our post last week, the rise of mobile working is gaining further momentum. Bolstered by new technologies, our obsession with mobile devices as well as shift in generational culture, it appears the days of office-based 9 - 5 working are going the way of the dodo for many industry sectors. So if you want your business to keep up with your competition, increase your reach geographically whilst encouraging staff productivity and morale, then enabling mobile working is a major step forward. All of which, when combined with the benefits outlined answer the why. As to whether it is worth it or not is up to you, but from this writers point of view, the answer is quite simply a massive resounding yes!\nTelecommuting Best Practices Moving on to the how. One of the biggest areas of concern for IT departments is how to ensure that employees handle telecommuting technology correctly. Therefore, it\u0026rsquo;s time to take a look at our Telecommuting Best Practice guidelines. These tips are by no means exhaustive, but provide a starting point for implementing a safe and secure strategy without imposing too many limitations on your employees and reducing the freedom that telecommuting provides.\nEnsure Employees have the Right Equipment With advancements in technology, providing the right equipment should be a relatively simple task, but its not. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) has many financial benefits, as companies reduce technology expenditure including all up front costs as well as ongoing monthly fees and any maintenance costs.\nImplementing BYOD strategies also have the additional benefit of allowing your employees to choose which device types they are most comfortable using. A survey published in by Staples in May 2014 showed that most valued telecommuting device amongst Millennials (Generation Y) is their smartphone compared to Generation X telecommuters who prefer their laptops as the go to device.\nCross Platform Functionality Your employees will not all have the same operating system on their devices. The most obvious is Mac vs Windows on laptops, but one many companies often overlook is the numerous versions of Android that are available and in common use. Therefore, it is important to choose a solution that operates cross-platform, when using applications to facilitate communication such as a mobile VoIP app.\nAnother point here is to ensure that your applications and systems vendor(s) provide support contracts in order to avoid costly support invoices and in house IT training.\nSetup up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) Nowadays, most people have setup security protocols on their home networks, but telecommuting is not just about HomeOffice working. That means that a large proportion of the work could be done while utilising a public Wi-Fi in hotels, airports or coffee shops which by their very nature are not secured to the same degrees and therefore increases the risk of data breaches.\nTherefore, setting up a VPN which will then log employees into your corporate systems via an encrypted channel, thus increasing data and communication security as only authorised users can access company data and applications.\nData Backups \u0026amp; Password Protection Due to the size and portability of mobile devices these days, there is an increased risk that they will be forgotten or simply lost whilst on the road. Therefore, an element of staff training may well be required to emphasise not only the importance of regular data backups but also what constitutes a strong password and how often they should be changed. During these training sessions, companies should also inform employees why such measures are necessary as well as hammering home the importance of protecting corporate networks and information.\nExample scenarios that could be demonstrated, could be consequences of unsecured/not backed up lost/stolen equipment, the differences in security protocols across device operating systems requiring password protection as well as training on password generators and tools like google authenticator as well as what constitutes a good password. It may seem like common sense, but its amazing how often this issue raises its ugly head and companies need to do more to train their employees.\nProvide the Equipment Depending on your industry and how sensitive your data actually is, it may be worth considering providing the technology. CYOD or Choose Your Own Device enables companies to provide a selection of pre approved mobile devices which can be used for telecommuting purposes. This is turn enables IT departments to regain control over devices in terms of security as well as cross platform functionality.\nWhilst eliminating a couple of the core benefits of BYOD such as cost savings and reducing the number of devices employees carry with them, this could well be an option if your company operates in the financial, legal or medical sectors for example.\nProvide Unified Communication (UC) Technologies So while the above has concentrated on keeping data secure, its time to look at how to keep your employees mobile. UC technologies provide employees with a whole host of tools to stay in touch, such as instant messaging with colleagues, teleconferencing, VoIP services to reduce telecommunication costs, Voicemail to e-mail and call forwarding.\nThen of course there are additional aspects such as mobile VoIP apps for smartphones which will keep your generation Y and Z employees in the loop and integrated desktop softphones for your travelling generation X employees. UC provides remote / tele workers with all the tools they need to communicate with not only their colleagues but also their customers no matter where they are.\nInvest in Cloud Storage \u0026amp; Collaboration Software Investing in cloud storage systems will enable your employees to access, edit, save and create information remotely. This has the benefit of allowing employees to working whenever and wherever they are. It can also be useful in helping secure data by providing a password protected platforms from which employees can operate.\nMoreover, deploying a project planning tool such as Atlassian\u0026rsquo;s Jira and Confluence software, will promote greater collaboration and increase employee productivity through improved work flow organisation as well as providing both employees and managers a visual representation regarding progress on projects and tasks.\nPhysical Device Protection How often have we heard of a security breach as a result of a stolen laptop? Educating employees about protecting their devices physically is just as important as cyber security, and could be added to the staff training sessions described above.\nLeaving mobile devices in the front seat of the car our out in plain sight is asking for trouble. But how does one protect devices from those curious would be opportunists who cannot help but look over your shoulder or take a sneak peak as you get a coffee refill? Screen filters and password protected screen savers are a must when working in public places, as are automatic shutdowns after periods of inactivity.\nSummary Its clear to see that implementing a successful, productive and secure telecommuting policy involves more than just getting the right tech and securing it. You need to implement a policy which employees buy into and understand. Therefore, employee education and active participation regarding Telecommuting Best Practices is key.\nIf you would like more information regarding how our pascom VoIP Software PBX can help you implement a telecommuting strategy, then get in touch with us either via our website or give us a call on +49 991 29691 0.\n","date":"January 26, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/telecommuting-best-practices/","title":"Telecommuting Best Practices"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – Asterisk File Playback Welcome to the latest Introducing Asterisk episode from the VoIP Guys.\nIn today’s episode, we take a more in depth view at Asterisk Applications and Mathias introduces some Asterisk Applications, starting with playing back a file. We also demonstrate how to set the File playback command in your dialplan and where to find files to play back.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Asterisk File Playback To find files to playback, simply enter the following command:\n– var/lib/asterisk/sounds/ A useful tip here is to find the test files which are marked with \u0026ldquo;tt-\u0026rdquo; which you can then further define your search with the show all command:\nls -la tt- in the CLI. Moreover, when setting up your dialplan to include a file to playback, you do not need to enter the full path of the file that you wish to playback.\nYou are also not required to enter the file extension format (.wav, .gsm etc). This is because Asterisk will always select the most appropriate file for the current codec being used by the channel. This has the added advantage of saving processing power when transcoding etc.\nStay tuned for next time when we will be back in a couple of weeks with yet more insightful and useful Asterisk tips from the VoIP guys. Should you have any topics you would like covered, then let us know either here or by commenting on the video in our YouTube channel.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"January 21, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-09-asterisk-file-playback/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 09 - Asterisk File Playback"},{"categories":["Mobile VoIP"],"contents":"Is your Company Keeping Pace with the Rise of Mobile Working? The modern business world has been reshaped, regardless of whether you operate as an SMB in a niche market or a global player in corporate enterprise. While the days of 9 to 5 / 5 days a week office-based working are not yet extinct, they may well soon be. Why you ask? The fact of the matter is, that priorities have changed for both employers and employees. Employers are looking to increase their reach outside of their local markets. As for employees, the prospect of greater financial reward is no longer as attractive as it once was, particularly amongst the so called Y \u0026amp; Z Generations who place greater importance on work-life balance and flexibility. Interestingly, while these two stand points initially appear to oppose each other, the advent of a whole host of mobile VoIP and UCC technologies enable both sides to achieve their goals, which has lead to emergence of the \u0026ldquo;anytime, anywhere information\u0026rdquo; workforce.\nThe question, however, is \u0026ldquo;Mobile Working\u0026rdquo; just a passing phase or an effective long term business strategy? According to Forrester, as of 2013, 29% (23% in 2011) of the global workforce are considered to be anytime, anywhere information workers.\nBut what does this actually mean?\nSimply put, an anywhere, anytime worker is someone who works from multiple locations, whilst utilising 3 or more mobile devices in order to carry out their everyday tasks. Ring any bells yet? If so, great, you\u0026rsquo;ve identified a need to assess your organisations Mobile Working readiness. If not - read on to find out why you should.\nWhy Businesses Should Embrace Mobile Working? While it is true that there are plenty of job roles within modern business that require employees to undertake office or on-site based working, a significant majority can be performed remotely. This is compounded when you consider the amount of travelling some employees must do, either in the field, to satellite offices, and/or internationally. If these travelling employees are not immediately contactable by both customers and colleagues, the possibility of missing important calls or business opportunities is greatly increased. That\u0026rsquo;s where Mobile Working comes into play. When operating an IP PBX system that delivers UC features whilst promoting Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) which connects remote workers via their mobile devices, these risks are minimised and therefore increase employee productivity even whilst travelling.\nAdditionally, there are a whole host of other significant factors to consider. In the UK, for example, ITV recently reported the daily commute has now reached 54.6 minutes according to a recent poll conducted by the TUC, which is obviously a significant amount of time taken out of an employees work day. Moreover, the report also states that the average commute times have been on the rise since 2003. However, lost time is not the only pitfall relating to commuting, there are also cost factors to consider. In the UK, the average employee spends an approx. \u0026quot;\u0026gt;£160 per month on travel and then there are the physical and mental well being costs to be considered. The daily commute is known as the daily grind for a reason, it grinds people down. Early starts, late nights, lack of sleep and an unhealthy work life balance all increase the risk of living an \u0026ldquo;all work and no play\u0026rdquo; lifestyle which promotes employee stress and eventually burn out, which is clearly counter productive for both the employee and the company.\nThen there are the external factors which affect employee productivity, which could be reduced or even eliminated by promoting mobile working. In 2014, tube strikes in London caused chaos as people tried to get to work, resulting in delays, cancellations and no shortage of disgruntled commuters. To top that off, massive disruption was again caused when the planned maintenance work at King\u0026rsquo;s Cross overran, causing chaos at Finsbury Park earlier this year. Then, again in 2014, in Germany we had the longest train strike in German history, which could have cost an estimated $126 million per day as things ground to a halt due to disruption to supply chains and this figure doesn\u0026rsquo;t even include the downturn in employee productivity due to delays and absenteeism.\nSo far, we have taken a look at the public transport factors, but what about environmental factors. Heavy snow, flooding and storms all have an impact on an employees ability to get to work. If for example, an employee is unable to do so for one of the above reasons, why risk losing their services for an indefinite period of time, why not provide them with the technology and ability to work from home? Then of course their is the shift in mentality of the modern workforce. A study undertaken by PwC (Pricewaterhouse Coopers) found that the latest generation of employees are motivated less by financial reward but more by workplace flexibility and a sense of appreciation. If your company cannot compete with other employers in fulfilling the needs of your employees, then you may well find yourself losing valuable members of your team to your competition.\nConversely, implementing flexible / mobile working policies facilitated by operating IP PBX and UC systems enable companies to reduce costs of having legacy phone systems, whilst benefiting from all the benefits that these systems deliver plus simultaneously promoting healthier and more cost effective work life balances for their employees. Studies have shown that by allowing employees to work from home, their productivity increases by an average of 13% whilst boosting job satisfaction and general happiness by 73%. An additional benefit associated with the characteristics and traits of the modern workforce can also be found in reducing staff turnover costs.\nSummary The facts are there and the figures are plain to see, the modern workforce has changed. Implementing mobile working policies seem like a win win scenario, so why are so many companies subjecting employees to such unnecessary stress whilst simultaneously exposing themselves to avoidable losses? The answer lies perhaps in a resistance to change, a fear of the unknown or even a \u0026ldquo;if it is broken, don\u0026rsquo;t fix it attitude\u0026rdquo; or just maybe purely a cost factor. Either way, if you and your company are resisting the rise of Mobile Working, it may time to reconsider. It\u0026rsquo;s not as costly as you might think and is definitely not as costly as losing competitiveness and productivity.\n","date":"January 19, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/rise-of-mobile-working/","title":"Rise of Mobile Working"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – Dialplan Shortcuts Welcome to the latest Introducing Asterisk phone systems episode from the VoIP Guys. Today’s episode is a more in depth Asterisk dialplan Tutorial, which demonstrates a few shortcuts on how to simplify the dialplan configuration process. While the term shortcuts can often be linked with not doing something as fully or efficiently as one should, this is not the case here. Today’s episode concentrates on how to help you eliminate and reduce unnecessary coding and editing.\nStarting where we left off, we explain how to setup the CDR (Call Detail Record) .CSV file to eliminate the error we encountered at the end of our previous episode.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Example shortcuts include how to avoid having to renumber or edit multiple lines of code as a result of adding a new line of code within your dialplan or changing a user extension number. These tips are extremely useful in speeding up the configuration process, but also have equal worth in the future when you may be required to make changes to the code, as the video illustrates (ca. 5 mins into the video).\nTrue to form, we finished today’s session with another error that was caused by my Snom telephone trying to load and start the SRTP (Secure Real-time Transport Protocol) security, which we have not yet configured. Security will be the topic of a future tutorial, where we will discuss the options available and demonstrate how to configure them.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"January 14, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-08-asterisk-dialplan-shortcuts/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 08 - Asterisk Dialplan Shortcuts"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"Business Communications Trends to Watch in 2015 Trying to predict future trends is a difficult but necessary task for all aspects of a companies\u0026rsquo; operations no matter their industry sector. This is also true for business communications trends as they provide businesses with the ability to stay ahead of their less attentive competition by gaining technological and cost-saving advantages. Looking back over 2014 and the top trending topics across the VoIP industry media channels, it is clear to see that the hot topics affecting the VoIP industry look set to continue in 2015. Themes such as the continued rise of Telecommuting, increased adoption of Mobile VoIP and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), as well as the continuing trend in increasing collaboration through Unified Communications (UC) which were prevalent throughout 2014, will continue to grow throughout 2015. So here are our Business Communication Trends to look out for in 2015.\nIncreased Adoption of SIP Trunking SIP Trunking technology enables organisations to switch to IP-PBX Telephony without all the hassle of completely restructuring and replacing their current communications infrastructure. Implementing SIP trunk solutions to handle voice and data communication provides companies with the benefit of being able to simultaneously reduce telecommunication costs as well as facilitating multi-location office integration. Moreover, as awareness of SIP grows, the scope of use of SIP is increasing dramatically. No longer being viewed as a protocol for voice and voice related functions, SIP is now more often viewed as an element of both fully UC systems and overall organisational IT architectures. With so many benefits and the increased awareness of them, SIP adoption in 2015 looks set to continue.\nIncreased emphasis on Mobile Integration As we discussed in our benefits of mobility clients post towards the end of 2014, today\u0026rsquo;s workplace has become extremely mobile. With the work from anywhere philosophy becoming ever present, it is clear that the trend towards integrating mobile devices into a companies UC solution will continue to grow in 2015. More and more businesses are deploying solutions integrating mobility clients in an effort to enable their remote employees to communicate more effectively without requiring additional hardware whilst eliminating the need to give out personal numbers. In essence, promoting the use of mobile devices as remote extensions of office phones whilst simultaneously delivering UC functionality on the go. This 2015 Business Communications Trend is clearly illustrated by research from Software Advice which analyses trending VoIP terms from 2014.\nContinued growth in Unified Communications adoption Adoption of Unified Communications saw significant uptake by businesses across all sectors, from SMEs to Large Enterprise in 2014 which looks set to continue in 2015. In fact, 2015 promises to see increased adoption of UC solutions, as companies continue to strive to enhance collaborative communication through utilising UC features such as presence management, instant messaging and so on. In November 2014, research firm Infonetics reported that the PBX market year on year growth in 2Q14 dipped by 7% while UC adoption grew by 21% in Q3 2014 compared to Q3 2013. It is little wonder that UC adoption is likely to continue its current growth throughout 2015 as more and more companies recognise the significant cost saving and increased productivity benefits that UC delivers.\nBusinesses continue to look towards the cloud While here in our core market of Germany Cloud / Hosted PBX adoption has been slow to take off, it is beginning to gain traction. Internationally, adoption of cloud telephony services has seen more positive growth, particularly in countries such as the U.K. and The Netherlands. In a recent Infonetics report, figures showed that the Hosted PBX and UC services market grew by 13% whilst stating that the cloud PBX and unified communications market will be worth an estimated \u0026gt;$12 billion by 2018.\nSecurity will continue to be a Hot Topic 2014 was a year of communication scandals, and while we hope there will be fewer scandals in 2015, this does ensure that VoIP Security will remain a hot topic and a pressure point in 2015. Moreover, when looking at research from Software Advice concerning trending VoIP terminology in 2014, TLS (Transport Layer Security) came 3rd on the list behind BYOD and Mobility Clients, while SRTP (Secure Real-time Transport Protocol) also made an appearance. In the closing stages of 2014, we posed the question \u0026ldquo;Which VoIP Topic will be the most significant in 2015\u0026rdquo; to our customers, partners and pascom Community. The response was that a 59% majority felt that security was of the most concern, which indicates that security will be up there as a top issue in 2015.\nSo there you have it - our 2015 Business Communications Trends predictions.\nIf you are considering switching or upgrading your telephony services and would like more information regarding pascom, then give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"January 12, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/business-communication-trends-in-2015/","title":"Business Communications Trends in 2015"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems – First Dial Happy New Year! To kick start 2015, we’re back with our Introducing Asterisk video tutorials.\nIn this our first post of 2015 and 100th pascom blog post since we started the blog back in March 2014, we take a more detailed look at the concept of Asterisk phone system dial plans, as well as making our asterisk first dial.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES We also take a look at Asterisk Applications, as well as explaining how the different applications actually function and affect the dial plans. Please note that the CDR error (Call Data Records) that we encountered in the Asterisk CLI (Command Line Interface) occurred, as we had not configured the .CSV file to which CDR records are written, which we will do in our next episode, along with numerous other Asterisk Dial Plan Shortcuts.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"January 7, 2015","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-07-asterisk-first-dial/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 07 - Asterisk First Dial"},{"categories":["News","Social Responsibility"],"contents":"pascom Supporting Doctors Without Borders in the Fight Against Ebola 18. December 2014, Deggendorf, Germany - Every year, we at pascom take the time to reflect on the year just past with the objective of choosing a charitable organisation to which we can provide much needed and valuable support.\nThroughout 2014, the Ebola Crisis in West Africa has sadly never been far from the news since the outbreak began in March. News coverage has shown us harrowing scenes of just how catastrophic the Ebola outbreak has been to the region. However, one aspect of the crisis that has occasionally been overlooked is the medical personnel who have selflessly volunteered to travel to crisis hit areas in order to deliver invaluable medical aid and care. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa, is just one of many medical and humanitarian crisis areas where the medical professionals from around the world selflessly and without question volunteer and dedicate their time to uphold the historic virtues of the Hippocratic oath which even to this day many medical professionals across the world swear to upon joining the profession.\nWith this in mind, it is a great privilege and honour to be able to announce that this year, pascom Netzwerktechnik employees have chosen to support the incredible and indispensable work of “Doctors Without Borders”. At pascom, we greatly admire the courage, passion, dedication and commitment with which the organisation and its volunteers provide urgently required medical aid to those in need no matter where it is required whilst consciously knowing that delivering such assistance may well be done so at great personal risk and sacrifice and under enormous pressure.\nSpeaking about making the donation to “Ärtze ohne Grenzen e.V”, the German division of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF – Doctors Without Borders), Mathias Pasquay, pascom CEO, stated that “due to the ongoing medical crisis in West Africa resulting from the Ebola outbreak and its rapid spread across the region, we at pascom have decided to make our annual donation to “Doctors Without Borders” to help this amazing organisation in their fight against the outbreak of this deadly disease as well as to provide support to their efforts to provide not only medical care but also hope to the victims and their families.\u0026quot;\nAbout “Doctors Without Borders” Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is a private, international association. The association is made up mainly of doctors and health sector workers and is also open to all other professions, which might help in achieving its aims. All of its members agree to honour the following principles:\nMSF provides assistance to populations in distress, to victims of natural or man-made disasters, and to victims of armed conflict. They do so irrespective of race, religion, creed, or political convictions.\nMSF began its Ebola intervention in West Africa in March 2014 and is now operating in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Mali. The organisation runs six Ebola case management centres with a total capacity of more than 600 beds. Since March, MSF has admitted more than 6,000 people, of whom approximately 3,800 tested positive for Ebola and 1,600 have recovered. MSF has 270 international staff in the region and employs 3,100 nationally hired personnel, who not only provide medical care to Ebola sufferers, but are also heavily involved in providing care to the families affected as well as monitoring the course and spread of the disease across the region in order to be better placed to both react where required but also to take preventative steps in slowing and ultimately halting the spread of Ebola across the region.\nFor more about MSF / Doctors Without Borders, please visit their website or to make a donation please visit www.msf.org/donate\nAbout pascom Founded in 1997, pascom are the developers of next-generation UC Telephony Solutions and we upgrade business communications.\nWith pascom’s innovative cloud UC phone systems at the heart of your Communications, you will have a centralised, intelligent hub with which you can gain total control over your organisation’s communications – no matter how diverse and dynamic your business communication channels.\nOur solutions offer excellent scalability and are highly customisable to exactly match even the most specific customer requirements. Which is why our IP PBX solutions the perfect choice to support Small Medium Enterprises communicate smarter, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.\nFor more information about pascom Business Communications solutions, visit www.pascom.net or get started for free now.\n","date":"December 18, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pascom-makes-annual-donation-to-doctors-without-borders/","title":"pascom Makes Annual Donation to Doctors without Borders"},{"categories":null,"contents":"PSTN vs VoIP: The Debate In recent times there has been a significant uptake of VoIP services by businesses, which has led some to proclaim that the rise of VoIP has led to the death of the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). But in certain countries, the jury is still out and the debate is still ongoing. But why you may ask, especially when the benefits of VoIP are plain to see and well documented. You need only browse through the other pages on this blog and hundreds of others like it to find heaps of info on the benefits of VoIP. So why are businesses still wary of making the switch? If you or your business falls into this category, then keep reading and you will quickly discover you are not alone, but you will also find out that perhaps making the switch is not such a blind leap of faith as you once thought but rather a very sensible business decision.\nVoIP and telecoms review website Software Advice recently contacted me regarding a research study they had undertaken in the wake of the Federal Communications Commissions\u0026rsquo; (FCC) report into the state of the telecoms industry competition in the USA, which uncovered some interesting findings, none more so than the fact in terms of VoIP adoption by businesses in the USA, only 15.4% were operating VoIP systems as of June 2013. Compiled by Daniel Harris, a telecoms researcher at Software Advice, the report highlights responses from 161 decision makers at companies in the US who still utilise the PSTN and outlines why they do so as well as which VoIP benefits would entice them to make the switch.\nWhat are the sore points holding them back? According to the research, the biggest factor (30% of respondents) that is holding organisations back and preventing them from making the switch to VoIP is that they consider the PSTN easier to use. It\u0026rsquo;s a fair point, but could it not be that they are just more familiar with their PSTN systems and we all know how people dislike change. On the other hand, consider for a moment, that just like most technologies (including VoIP), PSTN systems require specialist technicians to maintain and service them, but given that most providers have already jumped on the VoIP bandwagon, they are increasingly harder to find, as are spare parts. Let\u0026rsquo;s take Deutsche Telekom in Germany for example, they aim to have an \u0026ldquo;All IP\u0026rdquo; fibre optic network by 2018 across their German \u0026amp; European Networks and then there\u0026rsquo;s Macedonia, who are already \u0026ldquo;All IP which all means that PSTN engineers and hardware will become increasingly difficult to come by.\nPSTN vs VoIP\rThen there is the fact that VoIP systems are designed to be user-friendly. Deploying a VoIP system means that you will no longer need service technicians to come in and maintain your systems as it can all be done by your in-house IT staff, or remotely by your service provider. Moreover, when one considers that IP PBXs have been around for over a decade now, a whole industry has developed around the concept - VoIP systems are no longer the complex end-user systems they once were.\nAnother interesting result that arose from the survey is that 25% of respondents cling to their PSTN Connections in order to avoid service interruptions Once again this is a valid argument as it is true that should the power fail, VoIP may lose functionality, but there are ways around this particular VoIP drawback, such as battery backup solutions (USP - uninterruptible power supplies). Other alternatives include deploying T1 lines for ISDN connectivity as another power failure back up solution. Should you be considering the switch but this area is a particular sore point for you, check with the VoIP system providers you have been looking into as to whether they offer such solutions.\nThird on the list, as shown above, is that companies are holding onto their PSTN connections as they believe it provides better voice quality. That may well once have been true, as broadband connections offered insufficient bandwidth and corporate IT networks struggled to keep up with the increased volume of traffic and how to identify priority traffic such as voice data. Now, however, with advances in technology and increased availability of higher speed and quality internet it can be said that VoIP systems provide users with the same voice quality, if not better when one considers advancements in High Definition audio codecs. This does, of course, all mean that when implementing a VoIP system, companies may well be confronted with more upfront costs in terms of sourcing newer hardware, the better internet connections etc, but their ongoing costs will decrease rapidly and they will have a system that offers increased flexibility in terms of the number of lines available, increased feature sets and functionality.\nFinally, on the table above, it is good to see that less and less companies are hesitant to make the switch because they do not know what VoIP is and how it works, which at least means that they are informing themselves regarding IP phone systems even if they are not quite ready to make the transition. Even more pleasing to read is that the availability of reliable internet connections is becoming less and less of a problem, which will also go a long way to overcoming the issue of PSTN vs VoIP quality.\nAnother sore spot for PSTN subscribers is ensuring uninterrupted services. The table below illustrates that 37 % consider uninterrupted service an absolute must have, while 27% consider the issue as very important and is, therefore, holding them back from switching their telephony services.\nPSTN vs VoIP Important of Uninterrupted Service\rHowever, there are, as is usual with VoIP, counter-arguments here too. For example, if you operate a call centre, it is, of course, an absolute must that your agents can continually make and receive calls. Voice over IP High Availability (HA) solutions ensure exactly this as do hybrid IP PBXs that connect to both VoIP services as well as the PSTN. If this is a major concern, which I can imagine it is for many business models based around call volumes, why not implement a HA solution to protect your telephony services against server failure to ensure you gain maximum benefit from utilising your SIP trunk whilst simultaneously ensuring that your HA solution is built around a hybrid PBX meaning should your SIP trunk fail, you can still utilise the PSTN?\nWhat actually attracts PSTN users to VoIP In order to truly understand the survey\u0026rsquo;s findings, it is first important to understand the two types of PSTN users - analogue and digital. Analogue services operate using the oldest telephony services around, often referred to as POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). Then we have digital services which uses technology referred to as ISDN which transmits multimedia data over the PSTN. So of course, while the research lumps these two user types into one PSTN user category, their understanding of VoIP will differ.\nUnsurprisingly, however, cost came up top of the list of reasons for making the switch to VoIP, with 25 % of the decision makers surveyed responding that the cheaper service made VoIP an attractive option. This further highlights want I mentioned earlier, that companies are most definitely informing themselves regarding the benefits of VoIP. It is important to note, that of those responding that they would be willing to consider VoIP solutions because of the cost savings, 35% where ISDN Users and 21% POTS users, which clearly demonstrates that people with more modern technology are also more likely to explore new options.\nPSTN vs VoIP: Attractions of VoIP\rOf more interest, is perhaps that desktop and mobile compatibility comes in at number two on the list, with approximately 23% stating that the out of the box compatibility offered by most VoIP solutions was another top benefit. This perhaps should not be so surprising, when one considers the mobile mad world we live in and is quite understandable when one considers that the PSTN simply cannot cope with mobile integration. To quote Software Advice, who explain the reasoning behind this rather effectively, \u0026ldquo;Whereas the roots of the PSTN pre-date our mobile-centric society by more than a century, mobile devices and IP networks have matured together\u0026rdquo;.\nAnother indicator that companies are increasingly looking towards VoIP solutions, is that 20% of the respondents stated that they find the increased number of available features as an attractor to making the switch. This is hardly surprising when we consider the features like presence information across multiple devices and locations, which are available to VoIP users but are simply not an option to PSTN users. Another aspect of VoIP that draws PSTN users, (19%) towards implementing VoIP solutions is how scalable Voice over IP systems can be, for example not having to add additional trunk lines in order to accommodate new members of staff.\nSo what is the future for the PSTN? Software Advice then took their research further by posing the question of what role those questioned see the PSTN playing in an IP dominated IT ecosystem. It is most certainly an interesting question that threw up some very interesting answers.\nPSTN vs VoIP: PSTN Future\rThe research highlights many areas where the PSTN when combined with VoIP services, may still have a role to play. At the top of the list was utilising the PSTN as a backup in emergency disaster scenarios. Somewhat ironically, this is also one of the \u0026ldquo;hidden\u0026rdquo; benefits of implementing VoIP solutions, as should there be any form or natural disaster, VoIP solutions also enable employees to work from home should they not be able to make the daily commute due to severe weather or other scenarios. But it is also a consideration that should be taken into account when choosing a voice over IP system. Most IP PBX providers offer systems that can integrate the PSTN as part of a solution, so this may well be the route to go down especially if this is one of your major concerns.\nAnother justified concern is the connection to emergency services (or lack thereof). It is common practice throughout the world that callers to emergency numbers (999, 911, 112 or whatever it may be) can be accurately located. This becomes difficult when the call is transmitted over the internet. Ofcom in the UK and the FCC in the US have both made rulings that users must be able to make emergency calls using their VoIP services, but sadly in some countries, this is still not happening. The good news, however, is that many VoIP systems and providers do allow your location data to be transmitted when making emergency calls and systems go a step further by ensuring that any phone connected to the system, no matter whether a user is logged in or not, can be used to make emergency calls. Our advice here is when choosing your VoIP solution; make sure that your solutions providers offer such functionality.\nVoIP a leap of faith or sensible business? As you can clearly see, there are numerous arguments for and against on both sides of the PSTN vs VoIP argument, which need to be carefully considered whilst making the decision to switch your phone systems. As always, the key here is to do your own research and analysis in order to uncover the best solution to match your needs. Bear in mind, however, that VoIP is here to stay and you can understand why with all the cost-saving benefits combined with the increased availability of features and functions as well as the flexibility and scalability voice over IP solutions provide.\nIt is also worth considering that as more and more Telecom carriers move towards offering \u0026ldquo;All IP\u0026rdquo; services, making the switch to VoIP services is perhaps much more of a sensible business decision as opposed to a blind leap of faith.\nIf you are considering switching or upgrading your telephony services to VoIP or would like more information regarding pascom, then give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"December 15, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/pstn-vs-voip-which-is-best-for-your-business/","title":"PSTN vs VoIP Which is best for your business?"},{"categories":["Mobile VoIP"],"contents":"How mobile is your business? It\u0026rsquo;s an important question that needs answering, especially when one considers how fast paced and highly competitive the modern business world has become. Modern businesses, no matter whether they fall into the small, medium or even large enterprise bracket, always need to be on their game to stay ahead of the curve. No where is this more true than when it comes to business communications. Businesses simply cannot afford to miss phone calls or have employees not being contactable for prolonged periods of time if they want to avoid their customers approaching the competition. Combine this with the fact that the rise of telecommuting continues to gain momentum being aided by the introduction of legislation promoting Flexi-working in many countries, it can sometimes feel as if you need your employees to be everywhere at once.\nSo how can VoIP help? Well there are numerous benefits of VoIP phone systems in general which can help alleviate the pressures facing businesses, but the question still remains how can organisations integrate all their workforce in this ever increasing mobile world? This is where choosing the right IP PBX vendor comes in to play, always ensure that the vendor you choose provides mobile VoIP apps for both Android and iPhones. Having a VoIP phone solution with a fully integrated mobile VoIP client, can benefit both companies and users in a multitude of ways.\nConverge your fixed and mobile communications As with most things technology, the terminology can be quite duanting, but the concept of Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) is quite a simple one to understand. Simply put, it describes the joining of both your fixed (landline) and mobile communication channels, which in essence means having 1 number for both channels, regardless of how many devices you use. It may seem trivial, but it does have numerous benefits, such as a customer not needing to make two calls (or more depending on how many devices or work locations you ustilise) before they reach you.\nHow implementing an IP phone system with a mobile VoIP client enables FMC is by permitting either the simultaneous or sequential calling of all your devices when someone calls your office extension, thus ensuring that no matter where you are, you can be reached on the first call and thus saving the caller money on their phone bill and not incurring the risk that they lose their patience.\nAdditional benefits here also include for example reducing your telephony overheads. In the past, and to this day for that matter, many companies issue employees with mobile phones so they can be contactable whilst out of the office. By implementing and operating a VoIP solution with mobile VoIP client functionality, your users can download the client onto their smartphones, thus saving on additional hardware and phone bills.\nNow some employees might say that they do not want to use their private phones for work. It\u0026rsquo;s a fair point, but considering that the growth of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) according to market research and analysis from VoIP and telecom review website Software Advice concerning mobile terminology, it is quickly becoming one of the hottest topics in business communications.\nUnifies Communications providing mobile access to organisational systems Above and beyond the convergence of your main communication channels, deploying and utilising a mobile VoIP client within your VoIP phone system delivers additional benefits, many of which you may never have considered. Firstly, mobile VoIP solutions also provide access to essential company systems, such as the corporate address book, meaning the days of saving and synchronising all your important contact data accross multiple devices are well and truly in the past as well as increasing time savings by reducing time spent finding contact details.\nIn addition to accessing corporate systems, mobile voip solutions can also deliver UC (unified communications) functionality such as presence and availability information, enabling users to imediately identify which of their colleagues are not only online, offine, away, busy, in DND mode, but also if the device they are currently using is available, busy etc. This is essential information for not only you as the mobile user, but also to your colleagues, so the ability to \u0026ldquo;post\u0026rdquo; your own status directly from your phone is equally essential.\nMoreover, most top of the line VoIP systems will also incorporate IM (Instant Messaging) into not only their desktop solutions but also their mobility clients as well. This enables users to chat in real time, even when both parties are away from their desks. Deploying and utilising the functionality provide by mobile UC solutions in conjunction with one another delivers a unified communications experience which can save considerable amounts of time and frustration whilst simultaneously encouraging and increasing employee productivity.\nMobilise your workforce with mobile VoIP clients Mobile VoIP clients may not be able to enable your employees to actually be everywhere at once, they can certainly go a long way in ensuring they are always reachable. Therefore, no matter whether you are a one man band or a company with five, 10, 100 or even 1,000 employees, mobile VoIP clients deliver invaluable flexible, unified and reliable mobile communication solutions which add further value to your VoIP phone system. Therefore, when choosing your new VoIP phone system, do not just make sure it supports mobile VoIP clients, but go into more detail. Dig a little deeper and discover whether your chosen solution supports mobile presence management, mobile user status management and mobile user corporate directory access. Doing so will provide your company with a solution that keeps your workforce moving.\nTo sum up, Unified Communications boosts productivity by promoting better, easier and higher quality communication and collaboration within the workplace. Moreover, by choosing the right UC phone system vendor coupled with the right VoIP providers, businesses can slash their phone bills and communication costs and significantly reduce platform management, particularly if they opt for a cloud phone system that also supports a “Bring Your Own Carrier” option.\nGive the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 201 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free cloud business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"December 11, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/benefits-of-mobile-voip-clients/","title":"Benefits of Mobile VoIP Apps"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"5 Common VoIP mistakes to avoid when upgrading your phone system Many businesses are looking to upgrade their phone systems to leverage the benefits that VoIP and Unified Communications can provide them with - and who can blame them? Therefore, as part of our Switching to VoIP series, we have been outlining the essential information and questions that companies and IT admins need to know and answer during their decision making process.\nThinking of making the switch from your plain old telephone system (POTS) to a fully featured, fully integrated VoIP phone system? Then check out these 5 Common VoIP Mistakes and how to avoid them before making the switch.\nAccountability Many businesses neglect the fact that transitioning to VoIP is more than an IT or Telephony project. In actual fact, such initiatives encompass elements from both worlds. Therefore, it is essential to delegate responsibility to a team member who has both the technical know how and decision making authority. In the worst case scenarios, some organisations fall into the trap of seeing VoIP as a purely telephony project and therefore do not assign accountability at all for the deployment and maintenance.\nAlways ensure that the right person (or team) with the right skill set is assigned to manage the project from the word go. If you do not have this particular skill set in house, choose a vendor who can manage your project from the planning stages through to implementation and ongoing maintenance.\nDeploying without a plan Number 2 on the list of common VoIP mistakes is implementing your VoIP initiative without a carefully considered and thought out deployment plan. Regardless of whether your business is SOHO with 5 users or a larger SMB with 150 users, working with and sticking to a plan helps reduce delays as well as minimising downtime \u0026amp; unexpected additional costs, all of which will reduce the impact of your core business activities ensuring employee productivity during the transition process. It is always worthwhile remembering the military version as opposed to the marketing version of the 7 P\u0026rsquo;s (or the 5, 6, 10 or even 12 P\u0026rsquo;s which eloquenty explain the correlation between planning and performance.\nElements of the transition worthy of consideration include, hardware acquisition, software installation, bandwidth requirements as well as the actual roll out phase of your VoIP project. An example scenario could be where you run both telephony systems in parallel for a few days to provide overlap in which adjustments and staff training can be undertaken.\nAny old router will do Think Again! While it is more than likely that your new VoIP phone system will use many of the same protocols used by your existing LAN infrastructure, another common VoIP mistake is to overlook the fact that it is also equally likely that it is outdated and not optimised for transmitting voice traffic. A top tip here, when implementing a VoIP phone system, it is strongly advisable to invest in good equipment to ensure that it will function correctly immediately as well as avoiding future issues. Tips on choosing the right equipment for your system include paying due attention to the size of the system, number of users/extensions as well as the expected call volumes. Moreover, when choosing your router, purchase a router that is business grade and has QoS (Quality of Service) among its features. QoS will ensure that your VoIP Calls are handled with the appropriate priority levels, thus ensuring that other users will not have a negative impact on call quality and the general smooth running of your VoIP system.\nChoosing the right Broadband Provider Common complaints or uncertainties about VoIP that often deter companies from making the switch include low quality, higher call drop off rates \u0026amp; excessive downtimes. A simple and effective way to solve these problems is to avoid the low cost broadband service providers and choose a reputable provider whilst simultaneously selecting a plan with sufficient bandwidth to fulfil your voice calling requirements.\nAlways bear in mind here, that after you have made the transition to VoIP all your VoIP calls will be transmitted over your network and broadband services, meaning that services that were previously sufficient for your daily internet requirements may no longer be sufficient for a VoIP system with 50 users calling on top. Speak to your VoIP Provider or System Provider and ensure you choose a plan that will be more than sufficient for your needs both now as well as in the mid - long term future.\nDon\u0026rsquo;t forget to review your user requirements This may seem somewhat unimportant in the grand scheme of potential VoIP benefits, but consider for a moment that not all user requirements are the same and by not reviewing them you run the risk of not tailoring your VoIP system to different needs of different users, teams, departments etc. Always investigate and analyse which features and tools will be best suited to which employees, teams or departments. It is also important not to forget that, while the term users reflects your internal staff members, they are not the only people who will be using your new systems. Your customers, for example, will also be using the new systems when they call you - so speak to your employees \u0026amp; customers and make sure you setup your VoIP features and call management systems in accordance with their needs and then design your systems accordingly.\nAn example scenario could be your brand new IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system, which if setup without considering your stakeholder requirements, could well be more hassle than it\u0026rsquo;s worth and certainly can have a massive negative impact on your corporate image.\nCheck out our IVR best practice guidelines for more on this topic.\nSummary Finally, as alluded to earlier, switching to VoIP is not entirely an IT related project. It is a combination of both IT and Telephony projects. If you approach your VoIP initiative in this way and take into consideration and act upon these 5 common VoIP mistakes, all these drawbacks and VoIP mistakes are entirely avoidable from the onset. Thus ensuring that issues can be resolved before they develop into full blown problems and facilitating the seamless handover between your old and new systems.\nIf you are considering transitioning your telephony services to VoIP or would like more information regarding pascom and our pascom VoIP PBX, then get in touch and one of our advisors will be more than happy to help. Alternatively, get off to a flying start with free pascom cloud phone system edition.\n","date":"December 4, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/5-common-voip-mistakes-to-avoid/","title":"5 Common VoIP Mistakes to Avoid"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Snom M700 \u0026amp; M65 DECT Review As unveiled during Snom\u0026rsquo;s partner event in September in Berlin, Snom have a new range of DECT devices, the first of which are now available on the market. Now our official unboxing was done during our Roadshow in October, when we first got our hands on the new range of devices, which we then took home with us for some testing. Now that\u0026rsquo;s done, we thought it was high time for a video review of the new 2014 Snom DECT Series.\nCommon Technical Specs: Snom M700 \u0026amp; M65 Please accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Both the Snom M700 and M65 support Wideband Audio, delivering enhanced sound quality, which is extended to the M65\u0026rsquo;s integrated wideband audio loudspeaker. Our team here were impressed by the audio quality, especially with the loud speaker function, which we tested right at the end of our review.\nTechnical Specifications: Snom M700 Firstly, let me apologise for my slip of the tongue, the new range can support 40 Base Stations per system, not 400 as accidentally mentioned in the video. Nevertheless, 40 base stations per installation makes for an extremely scalable system, especially when one considers that the M700 can be operated as a single cell base station and upgraded as required in the future. Talking of scalability, the M700 can support up to 200 simultaneous calls in a 40 base station system as well as 200 registered handsets within the same network. As a single cell system, the M700 can support up to 30 handsets per base station, as well as supporting the Snom M5 DECT repeater to further enhance coverage without requiring ethernet cabling.\nSnom M700 DECT Base Station\rMoving on to autoprovisioning, as you would expect the Snom M700 supports Snom auto-provisioning which is obviously essential when configuring and implementing larger systems. In terms of Snom autoprovisioning, the process is fairly straightforward it that once the M700 base station is connected, your IP PBX (in our case pascom) will automatically provision it and provide an IP Address where you can login to the base station Web UI and configure your phones. The default login details can be found in the product documentation, but for reference purposes both the username and password are set as admin as standard.\nOn top of this, the M700 also supports Over-the-air synchronisation which is essential for both seamless handovers when wandering between base station or repeater coverage areas, accross multiple floors or larger organisational spaces. Whilst we are on the subject of airways, it is also worth mentioning that the M700 has an indoor coverage radius of 50m (outdoors is upto 300m, although the system is designed for indoor use only). In addition to being suitable for indoor use, it is also worth noting that the M700 supports PoE and can be positioned either using the included foot stand or via wall or ceiling mounting.\nFinally on the Snom M700, not only do you not require a DECT manager, but also Snom are not hiding any additional costs through additional licences. This provides a welcome transparency as well as providing you with cost controlling abilities whilst implementing a powerful DECT system. For the security conscious of you, you will be happy to know that the M700 ensures wireless security via DECT encryption, but Snom have also ensured secured SIP communications by implementing both TLS and SRTP security protocols.\nTechnical Specifications: Snom M65 The Snom M65 is also packed with notable features and highlights. As we mentioned in our video, our technical support team have had the actual system that we demonstrated in operation for testing purposes, and one of the aspects they were most impressed with is the intuitiveness and user friendliness of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) - even if I can\u0026rsquo;t use it backwards, which is more my fault than that of the phone. Regarding the GUI, it boasts a large 2\u0026quot; TFT backlit display as well as a durable backlit key pad for low light conditions. Speaking of durability, the device casing has a sturdy construction with a scratch resistant matt black finish, which provides added protection as well as an elegant and sleek finish.\nSnom M65 DECT Handset\rOther noteworthy M65 specs include standby/talk times of 250 / 17 hours, a local \u0026amp; shared address book as well as the customary headset plug for increased freedom of movement.\nFor further details and datasheets, please refer to Snom M700 and Snom M65 on the Snom website pages.\nSummary The new range of Snom DECT devices that we have reviewed so far provide a good combination of high performance levels, superior sound quality as well as that all important stylish yet durable and functional design. Moreover, due to the support for autoprovisioning, over the air sync and that the Snom M700 can have up to 40 base stations in one system and supports up to 200 handsets, the new range provides businesses with scalable, high performance yet cost effective solution.\nFinally, over the coming months Snom will be releasing additional new DECT devices, such as the Snom M325 (single cell system bundle combing the M300 basestation and M25 handset), so tay tuned for more Snom reviews.\n","date":"December 3, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/snom-m700-dect-solution-review/","title":"Snom M700 DECT Solution Review"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems: Asterisk Dial Plans In this the 6th Instalment of our Introducing Asterisk series, we take a look at Asterisk Dial Plans, what they are and what they do as well as explaining the concept of “Contexts” within Asterisk and how to define and configure them using the Asterisk Command Line Interface (CLI). We also introduce the concept of Asterisk Applications, taking a look at the app NoOp that creates Asterisk CLI output data when you try making calls.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES As Mathias suggested, we would always recommend copying any file you are about to edit, just in case you need the original configurations at a later date. To do this, simply use the command:\ncp extensions.conf extensions.orig (i.e. copy (cp) + original file name + new file name). Another quick tip from today’s episode is how to reload the Dial plan, without having to restart your entire Asterisk service. This also has the added benefit, that during the reload process, any errors found in the dial plan will be displayed now. Also, please note that in order to see the output generated by the NoOp application, you will need to adjust your verbosity levels using:\n-rvvv. Stay tuned for next time when we will take a more detailed look at Asterisk Dial Plans and actually succeed in making some calls. If you like this series, why not subscribe to our blog using the subscribe box on the right of this page and stay up to date with not only our Introducing Asterisk Series, but also all the latest from the VoIP Guys and pascom.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine your business telephony.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"November 30, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-06-asterisk-dial-plans/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 06 - Asterisk Dial Plans"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems: Asterisk SIP Peers So now that we are back on track after our little deviation into Asterisk Network Configuration, part 5 of our Introducing Asterisk Series is now online! Today’s topic covers Asterisk SIP Peers and how to register your SIP devices using the Asterisk CLI (Command Line Interface). So matter what device you would like to integrate, as long as it is SIP enabled you can integrate the device into your Asterisk VoIP Server setup. For example SIP desk phones, Door Intercoms \u0026amp; security systems.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES In today’s tutorial we demonstrate how you can integrate both a Snom SIP phone \u0026amp; a softphone. The reasoning behind using Softphones is that they are great for testing purposes. Many are free which means you can avoid all the hardware costs. Moreover, some allow you to add as many lines as you what – such as Telephone which is available from the App Store.\nStay tuned for next time when we will take a look at Asterisk Dial Plans and actually start making some calls. If you like this series, why not subscribe to our blog using the subscribe box on the right of this page and stay up to date with not only our Introducing Asterisk Series, but also all the latest from the VoIP Guys and pascom.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal employee collaboration but also to redefine your business telephony.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"November 24, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-05-asterisk-sip-peers/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 05 - Asterisk SIP Peers"},{"categories":null,"contents":"pascom on Tour with Yealink 2014 So having clocked up yet another 1,564 km, 16 hours in the car and 2 more cities, our 2014 roadshow season has sadly come to an end. Over the past couple of weeks, we have been on tour with our friends from ALLNET and Yealink, showcasing not only the lastest products from Yealink, but also having the opportunity to show off our pascom Business Communications solutions to a wide ranging base of potential new Value Added Reseller partners.\nWith two event locations across Germany, Munich and Essen, the conference style reseller event provided us with the chance to introduce previously uninitiated potential VARs to pascom solutions and demonstrate how the pascom phone system can add a powerful VoIP Communications asset to their existing product portfolios.\nMathias Pasquay, pascom CEO, introducing pascom\rWe would like to thank all the guests who took the time to come an visit the event, we know some of you flew in from across Germany to come and visit us, which is hugely appreciated. Moreover, we must pay a special thank you to ALLNET and Yealink for not only inviting us, but also for all their hard work and organisation.\nEvent Highlights And so to the highlights of which there were many. Firstly, our guests were treated to a sneak preview of the new Yealink products launching later this year and the beginning of 2015, including the brand new Yealink CP860 Audio Conferencing System (ACS) as well as a selection of new devices in the T2 series, such as the T23G. The new T2 series devices are designed for more price sensitive implementations whilst simultaneously offering advanced features such as paperless DSS keys and Gigabit support which are more akin to the Yealink T4 series.\npascom Yealink CP860 Interoperability\rRegarding the new CP860, it boasts a diamond construction as well as supporting HD audio codecs for enhanced audio distribution. In addition to audio output, the CP860 system also has an in built 360° omnidirectional microphone for enhanced audio pickup as well as a user-friendly keypad and an anti glare display. Other features also include support for USB recording and playback functionality for increased conference efficiencies.\npascom Yealink Reseller Conference\rFrom our point of view at pascom, the Yealink roadshow provided us with yet another excellent chance to reach out and speak to VARs who have had previously little or no contact with us, which is great for increasing our exposure as well as getting to know them and hearing their thoughts and feedback. Throughout both events, our presentation and live demo setup certainly drew the interest of a large number of guests, posing numerous interesting questions as well as one or two new feature ideas. We particularly appreciated the QA session where our guests expressed their views on the VoIP industry which generated lots of insightful feedback and highlighted areas in which they see potential for growth.\nFinally, the Yealink 2014 Reseller Conference Germany was a great success having made numerous new contacts, providing us with the potential to further grow our customer and partner base throughout the DACH region as well as further strengthening our relationship with the Yealink brand and generating insightful feedback concerning the issues facing VoIP VARs in 2014 and 2015.\nIf you are considering transitioning your telephony services to VoIP and would like more information regarding pascom and our Business VoIP solutions, contact us and one of our team will be more than happy to help. Alternatively, why try our Free Edition including free life time pascom.cloud hosting?\nTo find out more about pascom\u0026rsquo;s VoIP Solution and how we upgrade business communications, please visit our website.\n","date":"November 19, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/yealink-reseller-conference-2014/","title":"Yealink Reseller Conference 2014"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"8 Considerations for Choosing a Business VoIP Phone System Communication is essential for any business in order to connect with its customers, prospects and suppliers etc, no matter what industry they operate in. For many small business owners, switching to and deploying a VoIP system has ranked fairly low on their list of priorities. In the past, business owners simply contacted their local telecoms provider, or System Integrator and followed their advice or recommendations and accepted whatever costs as a part of doing business.\nRecently however, many small business owners have discovered that well developed and implemented voice over IP phone systems can greatly improve their core business process efficiencies. Which is great, but there is still a problem - how to choose a VoIP System? With the plethora of VoIP solutions available today, and the multitude of different pricing models, this decision in the vary least be confusing enough to put most people off or at worst seemingly impossible. This is why we have decided to compile a list of the top considerations to help small business evaluate the various VoIP Solutions and enable them to leverage the most out of their VoIP phone system.\n1. Reasoning behind transitioning to VoIP? What are the main motivators behind your VoIP initiative? You need to decide upon the most essential elements of your phone system as this will help you differentiate between certain VoIP PBX providers. The reality is, that most VoIP phone systems are fairly similar, and this is exactly why you need to know which features are of the most importance to you and which are simply \u0026ldquo;nice to have\u0026rdquo;. Make a list and compare this list to what your potential supplier offers. For example, features like Auto-Attendant vs IVRs (Interactive Voice Response) (yes - there is a difference) simple voicemail vs voicemail to email, find-me-follow-me functionality, integrated softphone, Call Center functions as well as CRM/ERP system integration all need to be considered and prioritised. The list goes on and on, but for reference purposes, we have highlighted our Top 10 essential VoIP features.\n2. Which VoIP system type to choose? Many providers offer a hosted system at seemingly low costs which can be attractive and may well fit your needs. Word of warning here, should you have 20 + users, it would be advisable to have an on premise system. That does not mean that if you have less than 20 employees a premise based solution is not a viable option, indeed it is, but by answering the proceeding questions, you will better determine which phone system is best for you. Having an on premise system may seem more expensive in terms of initial outlay and therefore less financially attractive, but that can be a rather short term view. In the long run, premise solutions have lower total cost of ownership (TCO) as well as potentially having greater ROI as they provide more flexibility in terms of features you choose to implement and develop, such as CRM or ERP integration.\n3. Integration into existing business systems? One of the most referenced benefits of a Voice over IP phone system is the ability to integrate with your existing business applications, such as your CRM or ERP platforms. If this is a hot priority for you, which it likely is if you are serious about optimising your core operating processes, then this question needs to be answered. A word to wise here; many IP PBX suppliers offer APIs (Application Programming Interfaces - sometimes more simply known as connectors) for certain programmes like Sugar or Salesforce CRM, but others do not. This will obviously affect your ultimate decision, as if a supplier may have everything else you need but not have the appropriate platform connector - which will defeat the objective of many of the other desired features.\n4. How will your voice be transmitted? When choosing a phone system, it is essential that you investigate phone service providers. Don\u0026rsquo;t be fooled into thinking that because you are buying a VoIP system, you will be able to make VoIP calls automatically. Most VoIP system developers will have partnerships with VoIP providers and it is essential that you make your buying decision with a provider in mind, and ensure the phone system you purchase is compatible with the provider. Another aspect to consider here is whether you will continue to use the PSTN (Public switched Telephone Network - basically traditional Landlines etc) alongside VoIP. The system you choose must be operable with both if this is important for your business requirements.\n5. System deployment, support \u0026amp; management Before making the transition to VoIP you need to answer one very essential question: who will manage the system? This leads into various other questions, such as do you have the personnel with the required IT skills in house, does the vendor provide training, does the vendor provide support services etc. If you do not have the necessary resources in house, then a choosing a vendor who is able to deliver additional services on top is probably the route to follow. Most VoIP system developers will have a network of resellers who can provide these additional services for you, but check that the vendor can fulfil this, either via the reseller or themselves whether it be onsite or remotely (also known as a Managed VoIP Systems). It is also recommended to research the vendor\u0026rsquo;s support infrastructure - do they have any documentation guides, or offer training in any shape or form as this will more than likely be essential at some point.\n6. Can the system grow with your business? At some point you will undoubtably need to expand your system, whether this be adding a new user, or networking new locations etc. Aspects to consider here include whether there is a maximum number of lines, users or devices. If the system cannot be grown as your company expands then eventually you will have to replace it. Ask for demos, showing you how simply this can be done, also referring back to the point above, check their wiki documentation as to whether these topics are covered and if so, how complex the instructions are. Another important aspect to consider is the upgrade path. Most VoIP phone systems are upgradeable with new features, bug fixes, modifications etc - this is particularly true if the system you are considering is a based on Open Source Software like Asterisk, but you need to uncover whether these are included or incur additional costs and how much these costs actually are. Perhaps more importantly, it is also advisable to find out whether these updates will function on your existing hardware infrastructure or whether you will have to replace your hardware.\n7. Find out what your employees want What use is investing in a system, if it does what you want it to do, but does not help your employees accomplish what they need to do? Find out which features they feel would be useful as well as investigating any current hinderances to your existing work flow processes that could be solved by implementing a VoIP solution. This will allow you to align your employee needs alongside your business needs ensuring that any solution you implement will fulfil all stakeholder objectives, which can only be beneficial for your business.\n8. Investigate Total Cost of Ownership We are all aware of the potentially huge cost savings VoIP phone systems can generate for a business, but it is imperative to look beyond this. Discover the upgrade costs, maintenance costs, new hardware costs, any monthly fees etc. By discovering the TCO of any system you will be better equipped to deal with decisions like hosted vs premise solutions, hardware infrastructure vs virtualisation as well as premise vs managed premise solutions. It is worth considering here, that a customisable solution is more likely to reliably fulfil your needs, are more flexible and scalable - that is why they cost more up front, but in the long run tend have lower total cost of ownership, faster and greater ROI as well as being future proof.\nGenerally speaking, an on-premise solution such as an IP PBX will provide you with the lowest total cost of ownership as well as providing the flexibility to manage and develop the system internally ensuring it actually meets your needs. That said, cloud solutions, such as ours, offer the same management benefits coupled with additional flexibility when it comes to OPEX pricing. As you may have gathered from this article, there is no substitute for doing your own research, speaking to vendors and discovering how VoIP will work best for your business.\nIf you are considering transitioning your telephony services to VoIP and would like more information regarding pascom and our Business VoIP solutions, contact us and one of our advisor will be more than happy to help. Alternatively, why try our Free Edition including free life time pascom.cloud hosting?\nTo find out more about pascom\u0026rsquo;s VoIP Solution and how we upgrade business communications, please visit our website.\n","date":"November 17, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/how-to-choose-the-right-business-voip-phone-system/","title":"How To Choose the Right Business VoIP Phone System"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems: Asterisk Network Setup Firstly, let me start by apologising for not posting this yesterday. I was at a technology reseller partner conference in Munich, and somewhat shockingly, I had no network access. As I am not a massive fan of automated posting, I was not able to put our latest Asterisk Video Tutorial online – Sorry!\nBut here it is now – Asterisk Network Configuration:\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES In a slight change to our plan (due to popular demand), I put Mathias under pressure by giving him a challenge, just like he did to Christian Richter from beroNet GmbH during our VoIP Guys Roadshow. I gave him 8 minutes to configure our demo Asterisk Network Settings – take a look to see how he got on and more importantly how he configured our network settings.\nReturning to normal next week, we will be covering how to configure Asterisk SIP peers and setup your phones.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal employee collaboration but also to redefine your business telephony.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"November 13, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-04-asterisk-network-configuration/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 04 - Asterisk Network Configuration"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems","Unified Communications","Contact Center"],"contents":"pascom Yealink T4 Series Review As we promised way back in June, here we are with our Yealink T4 Series review. In the review, we take a look at all the devices in the Yealink T4 Series, starting with the T41P entry model all the way through to the T48G, aimed at C level executives and busy professionals. Along the way we have provided our thoughts as to where these a classy and elegantly designed IP Phones fit into the market.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Yealink T4 Series Device Comparisons Model Lines Display XML Phonebook Ethernet Expansion Module PoE Yealink T41G VoIP Phone\r3 2.7\u0026quot; 192x64 pixel\nbacklit graphical\ndisplay 2 x 10 / 100 Yealink T42G VoIP Phone\r3 2.8\u0026quot; 132x264 pixel\n4-level grayscale graphical\nLCD display 2 x 10/100/1000 Yealink T46G VoIP Phone\r6 4.3\u0026quot; 480x272 pixel\ncolour backlit display 2 x 10/100/1000 Yealink T48G VoIP Phone\r6 7\u0026quot; 800 x 480 pixel\ncolour backlit graphical\ntouchscreen display Dual-port Gigabit Ethernet As the best all round performer in the series, we recommend the T46G. With the advanced functionality of the T46G, 4.3\u0026quot; backlit colour display, USB Bluetooth display, Gigabit switch, paperless DSS function keys and of course PoE, it is at home in every office.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based pascom Software PBX, please visit our website or even better why not get started today with our 30-day free trial.\n","date":"November 5, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/yealink-t4-series-review/","title":"pascom Yealink T4 Series Review"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"Deliver Great Customer Service With These 10 VoIP Features With so much competition within the market and an ever increasing freedom of choice over products and services, how do people decide from which company to make their purchase? One of the most important aspects in the decision making process is Customer Service. The best form of marketing any company can benefit from is word of mouth marketing. Meaning customers are talking about their experiences with the company, whether they be good or bad.\nDid you know that bad customer service will probably be heard by about twice as many people as good customer service, and on average it takes up to 12 positive experiences to make up for a bad experience? When one considers that the cost of winning new customers is 6 or 7 times higher than keeping you current customers, the implications of customer service are plain to see.\nThis is where voice over internet protocol (VoIP) or the more advanced Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) comes in to play and is why we decided to have a look at 10 great customer service VoIP features, which can greatly boost your customer service levels and help you and your business stand out from the crowd.\n1. Qualify calls Using tools such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menus, you can direct your callers to the right contacts even before the call is answered. Other qualification options include integrating your CRM, ERP or Ticket systems with your Open Standards VoIP system, ensuring that your employees have access to all the relevant customer data (if they are an existing customer), putting your agents in a position to better help and advise your customers.\n2. Personable Everyone in your customer service team (or company for that matter) can have their own personal telephone number, saving existing customers the time of having to go through all the switchboard or options repeatedly. A VoIP phone system can also automatically forward your calls onto a colleague who has knowledge of the customer\u0026rsquo;s needs should one of your agents be away from their desk.\n3. Never miss a call again One of the biggest problems facing companies is the number of calls that go unanswered. Every call is an opportunity, and when they go answered it can be a nightmare - particularly if you operate a call centre. With tools like Call Hunting and FollowMe FindMe (in combination with Bring Your Own Device - BYOD) which enable call forwarding through predetermined device lists, teams or queues, the number of unanswered calls can be greatly reduced, ensuring that a caller doesn\u0026rsquo;t get disgruntled because they cannot reach you.\n4. Local presence VoIP phone systems allow you to integrate local phone numbers for your customers wherever in the world they may be and the calls can all be forwarded to your contact centre. For example, you may be based in London but have customers in Munich. With VoIP, your customers in Munich can call a local German number and reach you without incurring international charges. A massive benefit of this is with new business generation - not many people are prepared to call a international number when they can get the same product/service more locally.\n5. Enables Flexi \u0026amp; HomeOffice working As workforce mobility and HomeOffice working increases, the question is how do I keep all my agents contactable. VoIP and Unified Communications enable exactly this functionality, ensuring your customer service or sales teams are always contactable, regardless of whether they are on the road, at home or on a business trip abroad. Also provides a great tool should you be rapidly expanding your team, but do not have the real estate to accomodate all your new staff in your offices.\n6. Scalable \u0026amp; expandable This is massive for customer service orientated companies. No matter how big you grow - your VoIP systems can be grown with you quickly and easily. Whether adding or removing users, locations, phone lines or extensions, VoIP is 100% Scalable and Expandable. So if tomorrow you win that contract that means you need 100 new employees, this can be done with the minumum of fuss and financial outlay.\n7. 24/7 service It\u0026rsquo;s the modern culture, we are always on the go and expect service whenever wherever. The old saying the customer is always right, well it is true. If a customer cannot get what they need at 2am on a Saturday morning, then they will look elswhere. As already mentioned VoIP comes fully equipped with Call Forwarding functionality - so why not forward those calls to the night shift team or a team in an appropriate time zone, depending on the time of day.\n8. Call reporting Most UC platforms will provide a basic element of call reporting, allowing you to analyse when and where to deploy your resources. More advanced solutions can even offer live statistics, meaning you can react quickly and efficiently to spikes in demand, by easily moving agents from queue to queue where they are needed most ensuring a minimum of unanswered calls whilst reducing the workload of the overstretched team, reducing stress and increasing productivity.\n9. In-call features Many VoIP systems will allow you to utilise a range of in call features such as call recording/playback as well as in call whisper coaching and barge in. All meaning that you can listen to or in on calls for quality and training purposes. The call whisper coaching is great for helping agents deal with issues that they may be struggling with, as more experienced staff can listen in and offer coaching all without the customer hearing what is happening. Another great VoIP tool is that internal calls are often free, giving you the ability to run live training scenarios internally, record them, listen to them, analyse and learn from them, which will only help improve the service provided on the phone.\n10. Voicemail to E-mail So if even after implementing all the above, you still miss a call and it lands in your voicemail, then this message can be transcribed and sent to your e-mail, which most of us have access to on our mobiles these days. This gives your users not only a notification that they have a voicemail, but the contents of the message so they can react straight away. Also has the added advantage that you don\u0026rsquo;t have to replay the message numerous times while trying to note down all the important information.\nSummary There you have it. Our take on how VoIP can improve customer service and satisfaction. What do you think? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment in the comments field below.\nTo find out more about pascom\u0026rsquo;s VoIP Solution and how we upgrade business communications, please visit our website.\n","date":"November 4, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/10-customer-service-voip-features/","title":"10 Customer Service VoIP Features"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems: Asterisk Start Stop Scripts Welcome to Introducing Asterisk from the VoIP Guys. In today’s episode we cover Asterisk phone system Start Stop Scripts, explaining why we do not want the Asterisk software to run as the root user as well as why it is important to have a good clean and professional setup for your Asterisk PBX.\nThis all means we will be showing you how to create an Asterisk start-up script, setup a new Asterisk user as well as assigning the user with access rights. We also explain what Asterisk privilege is and what the “live_dangerously” parameter is and what it is for. As if that wasn\u0026rsquo;t enough we also sho you how to change this parameter within your active asterisk service.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES In our Introducing Asterisk series, we are using an ubuntu linux operating system as a virtual machine in which to install our Asterisk PBX, so those of you looking for ubuntu asterisk start-up scripts - look no further.\nComing up next in the VoIP guys Asterisk series, we will be taking a look at Asterisk SIP peers and adding SIP devices to our demo Asterisk phone system.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"October 22, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-03-asterisk-start-stop-scripts/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 03 - Asterisk Start Stop Scripts"},{"categories":["News"],"contents":"MobyDick 7.08 - Delivering \u0026ldquo;Out of the Box Telephony\u0026rdquo; with integrated Softphone The MobyDick v7.08 Software PBX release delivers Out of the Box Telephony with a fully integrated Softphone as well as providing a platform for future growth in the SaaS market\nMobyDick delivers \u0026ldquo;Out of the Box Telephony\u0026rdquo; No matter where you are in the world, pascom\u0026rsquo;s MobyDick VoIP IP PBX is now the perfect telecommunications partner to take with you. With the latest release (7.08), MobyDick delivers a fully integrated fully functional Softphone for all every user within an organisation\u0026rsquo;s Telecommunications infrastructure.\nMobyDick Softphone - \u0026ldquo;Out-of-the-Box\u0026rdquo; telephony\rWhether your are in your HomeOffice or staying hotels abroad on a business trip, the MobyDick Softphone will be right there with you, ensuring you are contactable wherever you may be. All that is needed is WLAN and your headset of choice.\nThe MobyDick Softphone integration enables you to break away from the confines of your desk through supporting users by supplementing their existing desktop telephony hardware or through reducing future hardware expenditure by offering a real alternative to desktop phones, whilst ensuring greater work place flexibility as well as increased availability and productivity.\nPaving the way to SaaS\nThe MobyDick Softphone forms an integral core feature in achieving our goal of offering a the complete UC VoIP SaaS solution and paves the way for the future development of MobyDick in terms of both product development and offering a powerful communications platform, whilst maintaining pascom\u0026rsquo;s Made in Germany Quality image.\n","date":"October 22, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/mobydick-7.08-release/","title":"MobyDick 7.08 Release"},{"categories":["Cloud Phone Systems","Unified Communications"],"contents":"VoIP Made in Germany 2014 Roadshow - The Review 2,000 kilometres on the road, 4 Nights, 4 different hotels and 3 cities, all followed up by the release of the pascom phone system version 7.08 - That can only mean that The VoIP guys were on tour during their first ever VoIP made in Germany Roadshow and what a week it was.\nTogether with our partners from the VoIP industry, snom Technology AG, beroNet GmbH, StentonfonBaudisch and HFO Telecom, pascom took the pascom phone system on the road in the form of Roadshow Workshop events in Berlin, Cologne and Frankfurt. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our guests for taking the time to come and visit us during our 2014 Roadshow. We know some of you travelled from far and wide, had to put up with train strikes and horrible traffic jams - so a massive thank you and we look forward to seeing you all again soon.\nCheck out our Roadshow presentations on SlideShare and find more event photos on our Pinterest Page.\nSo we kicked of the event in style in Berlin at the headquarters of snom Technology who as usual were excellent hosts. For our first attempt at a Roadshow, we could not have expected a better start, despite it being a Monday, which we all know is a rubbish day for most people. Our guests were treated to a near perfect display during the Dangerous Demo as well as having their chance at an open QA session. During the event, we also got some great feedback from one of our partners concerning new Asterisk Video Tutorial Series a along with our VoIP Guys blog articles. It\u0026rsquo;s always nice to get positive feedback - so thanks!\nOne of the main highlights of the day was the Dangerous Demo, which as you will notice when you read on, is to become a recurring theme. During the demo, Mathias put his co-presenters under enormous pressure by deliberately disturbing and distracting them during the show.\nChristian Richter and Mathias Pasquay having a laugh during their Live Dangerous Demo\rToday, Mathias somehow managed to distract Christian Richter beroNet GmbH enough that he forgot to save his configurations. Mathias then tried to make things worse by challenging Christian to reconfigure the the pascom phone system beroNet appliance within 30 seconds, much to the amusement of our guests. To our amazement, Christian actually did it, stating \u0026ldquo;it\u0026rsquo;s simple when you know how\u0026rdquo; - so well played Christian.\nThe Appliance as reconfigured inside 30 seconds by Christian Richter\rAfter Berlin, we moved onto Cologne where after a 6 hour journey, some of us were lucky enough to get some sight-seeing done. If you\u0026rsquo;ve never seen the Cologne Cathedral - you really should go, it\u0026rsquo;s impressive to say the least. On Wednesday morning, we all woke to the news that there was a train strike, which did not bode well for the day. But we needn\u0026rsquo;t have worried. Despite the strike and excellent weather outside, we were full to the rafters. In today\u0026rsquo;s dangerous demo, Christian got his own back on Mathias, by highlight the fact that it was Mathias\u0026rsquo; fault that things weren\u0026rsquo;t going quite to plan. Mathias then decided to exact revenge on his next \u0026ldquo;victim\u0026rdquo;, Xenios Maroudas from StentofonBaudisch. Xenios looked a bit shell-shocked at times as Mathias deliberately saboutaged his demo. Just happy Xenios has a sense of humour and took on the chin in the name of good fun.\nThe VoIP Guys in Cologne\rSo on to Frankfurt. After an early morning start, we all arrived safe and sound in Maintal to setup for the final day. By now our team of merry VoIPers were seasoned pros with the setup process, so it took next to now time at all. That meant we were able to enjoy a well earnt coffee break before our guests arrived. During his presentation, Xenios decided to mix things up a littl bit, much to everyones amusement. Carrying his Intercom System through the crowd so he had something to lean on, lots of visual props etc where just what the doctor ordered after listening to the same presentations all week.\nXenios introducing his Intercom systems\rAs I mentioned before, the dangerous demo would become a recurring theme. Well today, after practicing all week, our presenters able to keep up with Mathias and prevent him from ruining their presentations too much. That does not mean that Mathias didn\u0026rsquo;t have any fun with his tricks, only that Christian and Xenios where well prepared to deal with his antics. My only regret from the Roadshow, is that I didn\u0026rsquo;t bring a Tripod with me, so I could have filmed these demos. But then I guess you had to be there!\nXenios \u0026amp; Mathias mixing things up in the Dangerous Demo\rBut what made the demos dangerous you may ask? Well firstly, we had never integrated all the different VoIP technology in one go \u0026ldquo;Live\u0026rdquo; before - and we all know how these things can turn out. Secondly, for certain aspects, we really didn\u0026rsquo;t know if they would actually work as we were using networks that we had no control over and had absolutely no idea how they were actually setup with firewalls etc. Thirdly, HFO Telecom are a new partner and the integration of their VoIP Trunks is in the beta stages and hadn\u0026rsquo;t been tested Live before. The fourth and perhaps most dangerous factor - Mathias. Being CEO means he doesn\u0026rsquo;t get to come out to play very much. So when he does, you\u0026rsquo;d better watch out.\nAll in all, we had an excellent week away and thoroughly enjoyed meeting and getting to know you all. So thanks once again for coming and making the event worthwhile. It is much appreciated not only by us, but also all our VoIP guys partners. Speaking of partners - I would like to especially thank Heike and Christian (Rapp) from Snom for all their support and hardwork during the organisation phases. I would also like to thank Christian (Richter - beroNet) for doing such a wonderful job in organising Cologne. Last but by no means least, a massive thanks to Xenios (StentofonBaudisch) for providing such wonderful entertainment and being a good sport putting up with all our jokes.\nWas great to have you all there - until next time, happy VoIPing.\n","date":"October 13, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/voip-guys-roadshow-2014-review/","title":"VoIP Guys 2014 Roadshow Review"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"Interactive Voice Response - a how to Guide to IVR best practices In order to understand IVR (Interactive Voice Response) best practices, it is first important to understand what IVRs actually are and what their intended purposes within business and call centre environments are. It is also necessary to understand why they are so important and how they affect your corporate image.\nSo what are they? Simply put, IVRs are automated systems that enable your callers to perform tasks over the phone through the use of either voice responsive or key pad menus. The aim of an IVR is to help customers get the answers they require or complete routine tasks, such as reservations or bill payments as simply, quickly and painlessly as possible.\nAll sounds good so far doesn\u0026rsquo;t it, but there\u0026rsquo;s a problem. IVRs are complex things, especially if they are not designed correctly. Should an IVR be poorly designed, then it can have a massive negative impact on your corporate image.\nExample IVR Fruit \u0026amp; Veg Merchants\rResearch shows that poorly implemented or badly designed IVRs can and do have catastrophic affects on a business\u0026rsquo; revenues, such as that conducted by Purdue University which found that up to 63 % of customers stop using a company\u0026rsquo;s products after bad experiences. Remember IVRs are the first point of contact, so you better make yours good or be prepared to lose your customers to your competition.\nWe were recently contacted by telecom [research organization] Software Advice, who having read our blog, asked us whether we would like to write a review of a recent survey they conducted, analysing the IVRs of 50 customer service orientated Fortune 500 companies. We of course were more than happy to lend our views to the topic. So what does their report say? Well its pretty thorough and has plenty of pointers which are explained with detailed expert analysis. So I will try to highlight the main points.\nHow many options? The statistics from the survey show that 82% of the companies reviewed, limit the number of options in the top menu to 5 options or less, with 20% only having one option. As a rule of thumb, we would suggest 3 options. We came to this conclusion as most business models, have 3 business departments that interact with customers; Sales, Customer Service and Support (technical, logistical etc). Which means, the majority of incoming calls, will need to be directed to one of these 3 departments. When using more than 5 options, you run the risk of losing your customer or needing a \u0026ldquo;to repeat these options\u0026rdquo; option, which can be very annoying. A good tactic here could be to use \u0026ldquo;More\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;Next\u0026rdquo; options if you cannot limit the number of options because you have so many products etc. This will help your callers remember the options and not overload them with options at the same time.\nRecommended IVR top menu number of options – Courtesy of Software Advice\rWhen to allow your callers to \u0026ldquo;zero out\u0026rdquo; This is a tough question as it varies according to your industry and business model. The report provides a very effective. Lets say that your business is the Ritz Hotel, you will want your customers to speak with an agent almost as soon as possible, so one top level menu to define the nature of the call but also giving the caller the option to speak to a member of staff may be just right for you.. On the other hand, if you are a Travel Lodge hotel, offering cost effective accommodation to business people, then perhaps more sub menus would be appropriate. Having asked around our office, the general consensus is for 1 top level menu with between 2 or 3 sub menus to help define the call before providing the press \u0026ldquo;0 to speak to a member of our team\u0026rdquo; option.\nRecommended IVR top menu number of options – Courtesy of Software Advice\rAlthough there was a little disagreement with Software Advice\u0026rsquo;s findings, concerning when to allow callers to \u0026ldquo;Zero Out\u0026rdquo; as some pointed out that some studies have shown that approximately one third of callers will always \u0026ldquo;zero out\u0026rdquo; and they argue surely it is better to have the customer on the phone than risk them hanging up. It\u0026rsquo;s a valid arguement, that needs consideration and the answer will more than likely depend on your business model and the industry you operate it.\nQuestion Styles Never lose sight of the fact that your options are in fact questions, designed to help your customers reach their objective. Therefore, it is important to use open ended questions as opposed to yes no questions. Another aspect to consider here is what your customer objective may actually be. For example, if your company operates within the telecommunications or financial industries, then quite likely you will require account numbers etc to be able to help your customers further. So ask for this information within the first menu, before frustrating your customer. Also bear in mind that, if you want a customer to effectively serve themselves, i.e. make a registration, pay a bill etc, then your IVR should be set up in a way that allows your customer to do exactly this within the first 2 menus, before they get impatient. This can be clearly seen in the survey results where 94% of the companies surveyed had their self service options within the top 2 menus.\nIVR Structures and self service options\rGreetings - How long is too long? Without fail, your IVR will include a welcome message of some sort, introducing your company. While it is tempting to fill your callers ears with your latest promotions, innovations, awards etc - don\u0026rsquo;t. They called you because they want something specific from you, so you have already won the first stages in the sales cycle, there is no need to bore your callers with extra promotion. In other words keep it short and sweet. Our recommendation as for IVR best practices is that the time taken from the start of the greeting to the end of top level menu options should not exceed 30 seconds. In fact, of the companies surveyed the average greeting was 7.9 seconds and even those who had longer greetings kept them under 13 seconds.\nIVR Average Greeting Length\rSoftware Advice also found that the average lenght per menu option was 4 seconds, meaning callers did not have to wait too long before the option they actually required appeared, which is obviously a good measure in assisting customer satisfaction.\nVoice Responsive? We\u0026rsquo;ve all been on the phone using an IVR with \u0026ldquo;Voice Response\u0026rdquo; system. The best one I can think of personally was calling a cinema for film times and it asked for my location. I said Brighton, it gave me the film times for Newquay - which clearly is not much use. Most systems these days are pretty good at yes no and numbers but unless you want to shell out lots for a solution with advanced speech recognition features, then only use the basic yes no 1,2,3 \u0026ldquo;Voice Response\u0026rdquo; aspect of IVRs. That does not mean that voice response is ineffective, on the contary it is, but it is expensive and the less expensive tools are bug prone, which is obviously not good for customer service. So our recommendation would be to use both key pad and voice response, ensuring that the right way can always be found, which ties in nicely with the survey findings whereby 42% of the companies researched implemented both dial pad and voice response.\nIVR Input Methods\rWhich Voice to Use? Now we come to the question of which voice to use. Simply put, get a professionally recorded voice and not a computer generated voice. Listening to an actual human voice is much more comfortable for your callers. Now the choice is between male or female voices and research has shown that us humans prefer listening to female voices which is reflected by the fact that 74% of the companies surveryed implement a female voice in their IVR.\nIVR Which Gender to Use\rUtlimately, the choice is yours and will probably be defined by your target market demographics. Another thing to consider here is to use language that your target customers use in their everyday lives, as well as ensuring a clear accent is also used. Back in the day when I worked in London, our sales managers would always say people with Irish accents were more successful - whether that has anything to do with the accent or the fact that they had the famous Irish charm, sadly I can\u0026rsquo;t say - but choose an accent that is appropriate to your market.\nSources: Wikipedia: Interactive Voice Response TechTarget net.Workspace BusinessZone Wikipedia: Auto Attendant If you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based pascom Software PBX, and to claim your 30-day free trial, please visit our Website\n","date":"October 13, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/business-phone-system-ivr-best-practices/","title":"Business Phone System IVR Best Practices"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems: Compiling Asterisk True to form we are continuing on from where we left off last week. In our introduction to Asterisk tutorial, we gave you a brief introduction to Asterisk as well as explaining the various versions and what they all mean. The VoIP Guys have now started compiling and installing their Asterisk OpenSource VoIP PBX. Our resident Asterisk expert Mathias will provide you with Step-by-Step explanations and tips as well as providing useful insights regarding how to build a “clean and professional” system.\nCompiling Asterisk Please accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES In our Introducing Asterisk series, we are using an ubuntu linux operating system as a virtual server on which to install our Asterisk PBX.\nIn order to compile Asterisk, you will need to add (build) some additional packages. This can be done using the command below:\nsudo apt-get install build-essential wget libssl-dev libncurses5-dev libnewt-dev libxml2-dev linux-headers-$(uname -r) libsqlite3-dev uuid-dev Next you will need to unpack your Asterisk source code as follows:\ntar zxvf asterisk-11-current.tar.gz Please note, unlike Mathias, please read the readme file unless you have done this process before.\nComing up next in the VoIP guys Asterisk series, we will be taking a look at Asterisk Start Scripts, how to start Asterisk automatically using scripts as well as providing some pointers on how to administer your system.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a highly professional impression. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilized will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"October 8, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-02-compiling-asterisk/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 02 - Compiling Asterisk"},{"categories":["Tutorials"],"contents":"Introducing Asterisk Phone Systems: the VoIP Guys on Asterisk Asterisk Tutorial 01 Introducing Asterisk is the start of a series of Asterisk tutorials from the VoIP Guys. We thought long and hard about which topics to cover in our upcoming series, it soon became clear that the popular open source VoIP PBX software Asterisk was one topic we simply could not ignore. Having started with a brief intro to what asterisk is and how to get going, we aim to provide you with a step-by-step beginners guide to asterisk. That means we will develop and expand the series into a complete asterisk guide. Covering a range of topics from the basics to the more advanced aspects and features of asterisk, providing useful tips and explanations along the way.\nPlease accept marketing cookies to watch videos on our site ACCEPT COOKIES Coming up next in the VoIP guys asterisk series, we will cover compiling asterisk.\nFinal Word A well-configured business phone system that oozes professionalism and useful tools, delivers excellent audio quality and intuitive call flows will leave callers with a great impression of your business. The configuration options and application availability and how well they are utilised will have a decisive impact on how professionally you manage your calls and therefore how your customers view your company. The switch to a pascom VoIP phone system solution provides the opportunity to not only upgrade your internal collaboration but also to redefine telephony in your company.\nIf you would like more information regarding pascom and our Asterisk based Software PBX, please visit our website or give the pascom team a call on +49 991 29691 0 to discuss your requirements and get started within minutes using our free hosted business VoIP phone system edition.\n","date":"October 1, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/pascom-asterisk-phone-system-tutorials_hu2f9991767da2a2f9938f841f23d325ec_303680_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/asterisk-tutorial-01-introducing-asterisk/","title":"Asterisk Tutorial 01 - Introducing Asterisk"},{"categories":["Blog"],"contents":"10 Essential Business VoIP Phone System Features With more and more companies dropping the their Plain old Telephone service (POTS for short) in favour of VoIP systems, identifying the essential VoIP features and understanding how your company can benefit from them is as important as the technology itself. Many companies often overlook certain features of VoIP and think purely on the feature they originally needed. VoIP services offer companies functionality that many businesses overlook. Take a look at the list below to make sure you are getting the most out of your VoIP services.\nIntercom / Door Entry System Integration A sometimes very essential VoIP feature, integrating your intercom door entry system will enable you to have a 2-way conversation with your visitors, and should you be in a good mood, you can then let them in from your desk. On top of that, as VoIP and SIP technologies have advanced, so has the integration of Video Intercom systems, which allow you not only to talk to your guests, but see them as well, which will give you visual confirmation that your visitors are who they say they are. This can be a very useful feature for example for a jewellery store who need top-notch security.\nAuto Attendant One of the often overlooked core benefits of Business VoIP, the Auto Attendant feature enables businesses to set up professional greetings and announcements for incoming calls. But the auto attendant is much more than just greetings. Combined with an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system, this feature of VoIP enables callers to choose the extension or department appropriate to their needs, there greatly improving your call flow management processes whilst simultaneously ensuring your calls are dealt with correctly at the 1st time of asking. Another benefit is being able to play greetings in multiple languages which inform your callers about a variety of important aspects, for example promotions, business hours, national holidays or up coming events. What this means for businesses is quite simple - they will automatically give the impression of being more professional as well as being much larger than they actually are.\nMusic on Hold \u0026ldquo;Silence is most definitely not golden\u0026rdquo;. There is quite possibly nothing worse than hearing that dreaded on hold tone or even worse silence. The \u0026ldquo;Music on Hold\u0026rdquo; feature may seem a nice to have feature, but if your company has to regularly put callers on hold it is an absolute must. With this essential VoIP feature you decide which music your callers listen to, but please, for heavens sake, choose something decent and not some horrid \u0026ldquo;Lift Music\u0026rdquo;.\nVoicemail to E-mail Ever listened to your voicemails and then had to scramble to find a pen and paper to note down the names, numbers and addresses contained within, only to have to listen to the voicemail again as you didn\u0026rsquo;t have time? This essential VoIP feature will transcribe your voicemails into written format and then send it direct to your e-mail. This will enable you to read your voicemails at your own leisure and help you organise, store and search their content at a later date, which is simply not possible with your actual audio Voicemail.\nCall Screening Now this really is an often overlooked essential VoIP feature, that has advantages that many simply do not think about, but are actually quite useful. How it works is that your VoIP system will let you look at the callerID and then decide how to handle the call. Let me give you an example, we all know how annoying those repetitive sales calls can be, then you simply reject the call or should say someone close to you be calling you on your business line, you can divert the call to your mobile and then talk more privately with the freedom to move away from your desk and not in front of all your colleagues.\nDND - Do Not Disturb So got a busy day, with that deadline for that report due for the boss by the end of business today? The last thing you want is someone to call and take up your precious time just for a chat. With DND, you can temporarily block incoming calls to your phone as well as having the option of setting up how these calls will then be handled. For example, you can decide whether the calls should be sent to voicemail or redirected to a colleague. This can be a very handy feature when you have meetings, conferences or like above that all important report to finish.\nFollowMe Call Routing In today\u0026rsquo;s business world, the workforce is becoming increasingly mobile and by combing FollowMe call routing with the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) concept, you can have a list of your numbers which you can then tell your VoIP phone system to contact you on before the call is sent to your voicemail. For example, you can set up the system so that your office phone rings 3 times before it tires your mobile and after the 6th ring, the system could try your HomeOffice phone. Once your VoIP system has tried all the numbers on the list, it can then send the call to voicemail.\nThe benefit of this is that it increases the availability of your staff, reducing the risk that they may miss that all important phone call no matter why they are. An additional benefit of such functionality is the ability to control and reduce expensive mobile phone bills for remote or mobile workers, such as field sales. FollowMe call routing also ensures consistency between remote workers phone numbers, as they will now be able to also have an office extension number which they can take with them no matter where they are.\nCall Conferencing Most people have been involved in a conference where it has all become just a little chaotic, with people talking over others etc. With the often overlooked advanced features of VoIP\u0026rsquo;s conferencing capabilities you can regain control over such conference calls through using features such as muting and un muting. Other useful tools include the ability to send invites, set up conference call room passwords for increased security and so on.\nIn Call Coaching Got a problem customer with whom an agent needs some help? With in call coaching or whispering as it sometimes known, supervisors, sales managers and trainers can help other agents by whispering in on a call without the caller knowing that they are there on the call. Of course you can also let the caller know you are there, if you so choose, or are required to do so. This allows you to help other agents while the caller is still on the phone and not after they have hung up, by offering tips and advice on how to deal with certain scenarios. Also a very useful tool for training purposes as well as monitoring the in-call performance of your call agents. Perhaps more suitable to call centre solutions, but also a useful tool for any company that has a large volume of either incoming or outgoing telesales.\nCall Reporting Ranging from detailed user call history for the phone suite to more in depth statistical analysis, Business VoIP can help you analyse your call data like never before. Meaning you can better understand where and when to direct your resources using call log histories over a period of time. Moreover, the same tool can be used to provide team leaders or supervisors with a current real time statistics about your incoming and outgoing calls, helping them react more effectively and efficiently to spikes in call volumes as well as call duration, origin, cost and so on.\nTo find out more about pascom\u0026rsquo;s VoIP Solution and how we upgrade business communications, please visit our website.\n","date":"September 19, 2014","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/10-essential-business-voip-features/","title":"10 Essential Business VoIP Features"},{"categories":null,"contents":"","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/profiles/andreas_hu8fe5420647be4ae3ce6896d4bae6ec0d_1547091_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/profiles\\/andreas_hu8fe5420647be4ae3ce6896d4bae6ec0d_1547091_650x0_resize_q100_box.jpg'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/author/andreas-grassl/","title":"Andreas Grassl"},{"categories":null,"contents":"A self confessed travel nut, I enjoy experiencing new places, cultures and meeting new people. I have always been an expat having spent many years living in various countries across the globe and therefore have family \u0026amp; friends scattered around the world. As such, I rely on the numerous benefits VoIP provides to be able to stay in touch with friends and family both abroad and back home - wherever home may be.\n","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/profiles/james_hu082d7d5db2e163cee0c5c4c45c3e894b_1433095_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/profiles\\/james_hu082d7d5db2e163cee0c5c4c45c3e894b_1433095_650x0_resize_q100_box.jpg'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/author/james-barton/","title":"James Barton"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Since 2020, Klara Novak has been responsible for Content Marketing at Yaasa, a company that combines creativity and dedication to produce smart, ergonomic office furniture. As such, her writing focuses on topics related to health and modern workplace trends and shares her experience and knowledge across many formats including blog articles. A particular focus lies with the electronically adjustable workdesks which can be adapted each individuals needs.\nWebsite: yaasa.com\n","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/profiles/klara-novak-yaasa_hufb2beec5ec57091e32f20ff965df80bb_1424394_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"582\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/profiles\\/klara-novak-yaasa_hufb2beec5ec57091e32f20ff965df80bb_1424394_650x0_resize_q100_box.jpg'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/author/klara-novak/","title":"Klara Novak"},{"categories":null,"contents":"pascom CEO and Co-Founder\nA software developer at heart, Mathias is self-described jack of all trades. A dedicated family man and loves nothing more than combining family-time with his passion for sports. A keen kick-boxer and runner, Mathias is also an avid Mountain Biker. When he\u0026rsquo;s not rushing around the Bavarian forest on his bike, he also oversees all aspects of pascom\u0026rsquo;s commercial activities from Sales and Marketing to Product Development - where do you find the time?\n","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/profiles/mathias-profile_hudcfc6cc6a3e2d08314aa23943d278232_1629600_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/profiles\\/mathias-profile_hudcfc6cc6a3e2d08314aa23943d278232_1629600_650x0_resize_q100_box.jpg'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/author/mathias-pasquay/","title":"Mathias Pasquay"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Automatic time tracking built for privacy Memtime records your time in programs and displays your day – to help you immediately remember every minute. We’re the only automatic time tracker that guarantees privacy by keeping your activity data offline.\n","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/profiles/memtime_hu88b81e747633aedfdc48ba0a08b407bb_54182_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/profiles\\/memtime_hu88b81e747633aedfdc48ba0a08b407bb_54182_650x0_resize_q100_box.jpg'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/author/memtime/","title":"memtime GmbH"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Meet Nandini Sharma, the creative force behind ProofHub\u0026rsquo;s marketing success! As the company\u0026rsquo;s marketing manager, she\u0026rsquo;s passionate about all things SAAS, project management, marketing, and teamwork. When she\u0026rsquo;s not at work, you\u0026rsquo;ll find her indulging in her love for arts and crafts or reading up on the latest trends in work management.\n","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/profiles/proofhub_hu88b81e747633aedfdc48ba0a08b407bb_44533_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/profiles\\/proofhub_hu88b81e747633aedfdc48ba0a08b407bb_44533_650x0_resize_q100_box.jpg'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/author/nandini-sharma/","title":"Nandini Sharma"},{"categories":null,"contents":"","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/profiles/ucs_hu095fea8732fbf9fc4ba40c491115fe33_8174_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"650\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/profiles\\/ucs_hu095fea8732fbf9fc4ba40c491115fe33_8174_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/author/nico-gulden/","title":"Nico Gulden"},{"categories":null,"contents":"","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/profiles/pascom-signet_hucdc0f446388db20710a22f4bd334e2a5_22423_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"650\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/profiles\\/pascom-signet_hucdc0f446388db20710a22f4bd334e2a5_22423_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/author/pascom/","title":"pascom"},{"categories":null,"contents":"pascom CEO and Co-Founder\nThe younger of the two brothers, Quirin is also the tallest and is known within the company for his quick, dry sense of humour! As co-founder and CEO, Quirin\u0026rsquo;s eye for detail are an essential asset as he oversees technical product support plus the legal and financial running of the company as well as keeping the team well motivated and catered for by ensuring that the office canteen is always fully stocked with loads of goodies!\n","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/profiles/quirin-profile_huf540d7d1eb6aaa6f0d86f8f02e158765_1399094_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/profiles\\/quirin-profile_huf540d7d1eb6aaa6f0d86f8f02e158765_1399094_650x0_resize_q100_box.jpg'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/author/quirin-pasquay/","title":"Quirin Pasquay"},{"categories":null,"contents":"","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/author/roanne-judson/","title":"Roanne Judson"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Meet Sandeep Kashyap, the CEO of ProofHub who is transforming project management and team collaboration with his innovative solutions. With an unwavering passion for leading his team to success, Sandeep\u0026rsquo;s mantra is simple - \u0026ldquo;keep growing, don\u0026rsquo;t stop\u0026rdquo;. When he\u0026rsquo;s not busy at work, Sandeep loves to explore new destinations and challenge himself with trekking adventures.\n","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/profiles/proofhub_hu88b81e747633aedfdc48ba0a08b407bb_44533_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/profiles\\/proofhub_hu88b81e747633aedfdc48ba0a08b407bb_44533_650x0_resize_q100_box.jpg'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/author/sandeep-kashyap/","title":"Sandeep Kashyap"},{"categories":null,"contents":"","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg src=\"/images/profiles/teramind-logo.svg\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\" img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"\"\u003e\n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/author/steven-briggs/","title":"Steve Briggs"},{"categories":null,"contents":"Tanja has been a member of the pascom team since her days as an apprentice in the accounts, logistics and office management team. Thanks to her creative flair, Tanja also supports the Marketing Team with Social Media planning and content creation.\n","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/profiles/tanja_hu28083dc86faf4b457739ae1298a0828d_359718_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/profiles\\/tanja_hu28083dc86faf4b457739ae1298a0828d_359718_650x0_resize_q100_box.jpg'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/author/tanja-richter/","title":"Tanja Richter"},{"categories":null,"contents":"","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cimg  src=\"/images/profiles/pascom-signet_hucdc0f446388db20710a22f4bd334e2a5_22423_650x0_resize_q100_h2_box_3.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"\" class=\"  img-fluid\" width=\"650\" height=\"650\" onerror=\"this.onerror='null';this.src='\\/images\\/profiles\\/pascom-signet_hucdc0f446388db20710a22f4bd334e2a5_22423_650x0_resize_box_3.png'\"\u003e\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/author/thomas-weber/","title":"Thomas Weber"},{"categories":["glossary"],"contents":"Definition of uaCSTA connection A uaCSTA (User Agent Computer Supported Telecommunications Applications) connection is a specialized type of telecommunication link. It is designed to facilitate communication between a user agent (UA) and a CSTA server. The UA refers to any device or software that interacts with the server, while the CSTA server manages telecommunications functions like call control and routing. The uaCSTA connection allows the UA to access these functions, enabling features like call forwarding, call transfer, and conference calling. This connection plays a vital role in modern telecommunication systems, enhancing efficiency and functionality.\nHow uaCSTA connection works uaCSTA is a protocol primarily utilized in computer-integrated telephony to control and manage communication sessions. The functioning of a uaCSTA connection involves a user agent, which is a software application that acts on behalf of the user. It communicates with a CSTA interface to establish, modify, or terminate a communication session. The CSTA interface then interacts with the telecommunication system to execute the requested actions. In other words, uaCSTA connection enables a computer to control and manage telephony sessions, making it a critical component in unified communications and contact center solutions.\npascom business phone system UCC apps\rBenefits of uaCSTA connection The uaCSTA connection offers various benefits. Primarily, it enables seamless integration between computer systems and telephony applications, enhancing operational efficiency. This connection type supports a wide range of telecommunication functions like call control, call monitoring and messaging. With uaCSTA, users can control phone functions directly from their computers, promoting multitasking and productivity. It also allows for the implementation of advanced features such as click-to-dial and automatic call distribution. Additionally, uaCSTA is standardized, ensuring compatibility across different devices and platforms. This interoperability reduces technical issues and simplifies system upgrades. Lastly, the uaCSTA connection provides a secure communication environment, safeguarding sensitive data during transmission.\nCommon applications of uaCSTA connection The uaCSTA (User Agent Computer Supported Telecommunications Applications) connection is primarily used in telecommunication and computer systems. It enables integration between a user\u0026rsquo;s computer and their telephone system, facilitating features like click-to-dial, call control, and automatic call logging. It\u0026rsquo;s often used in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to improve efficiency and productivity, particularly in call centers. Additionally, it can be used in Unified Communications (UC) platforms that integrate various communication methods, such as voice, video, and messaging, into a single interface. This connection is also beneficial for remote working setups, allowing employees to manage and control their calls from their computers. Finally, uaCSTA connections can be used in software development for creating telecommunications applications.\nKey features of uaCSTA connection A uaCSTA (User Agent Computer Supported Telecommunications Applications) connection is a key feature in telecommunication systems. It enables interaction between a user agent (UA) and a CSTA server. The main features include:\nCall Control: Facilitates the initiation, modification, and termination of calls. Agent Control: Allows for agent login, logout, and status updates. Device Monitoring: Monitors the status of devices like telephones or computer terminals. Call Event Reporting: Provides detailed information about call events. Multi-Line Support: Enables handling of multiple calls on different lines simultaneously. Compatibility: Works with various telecommunication systems, offering broad interoperability. Security: Ensures secure communication between the user agent and the CSTA server. Standardization: Follows the ECMA-269 standard, guaranteeing consistent performance. Flexibility: Adapts to different telecommunication needs and structures. Efficiency: Streamlines and simplifies telecommunications processes. Challenges and limitations of uaCSTA connection The uaCSTA (User Agent Computer Supported Telecommunications Applications) connection, while beneficial, has its challenges and limitations. Firstly, its dependency on a stable network connection can be a challenge, as any interruption can cause connectivity issues affecting call control. Secondly, the complexity of the uaCSTA protocol can lead to difficulties in implementation and compatibility problems with different telecommunication systems. Thirdly, it requires specific technical knowledge for effective set-up and troubleshooting, potentially leading to increased costs for training or expert assistance. Lastly, as with any IP-based communication, uaCSTA connections are susceptible to cyber threats, necessitating robust security measures. These challenges should be considered in the context of the specific needs and resources of the organization implementing the uaCSTA connection.\nConclusion and future prospects of uaCSTA connection The uaCSTA connection, an essential component in computer-supported telephony applications, has transformed the way businesses operate. It allows seamless integration of telephony systems with computer applications, enhancing efficiency and productivity. In conclusion, uaCSTA connection\u0026rsquo;s significance cannot be understated in today\u0026rsquo;s digital age. Looking ahead, as businesses increasingly adopt digital technologies, the demand for uaCSTA connections will likely grow. Future advancements may include improved connection speeds, enhanced security features, and more seamless integration capabilities. As telephony continues to evolve, the uaCSTA connection will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in shaping these developments.\nRecommended Further Reading 5 Reasons for Unified Communications What are Unified Communications Benefits of Unified Communications as a Service pascom Unified Communications Blog ","date":"January 1, 1","image":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n","permalink":"/en/glossary/uaCSTA-connection-definition/","title":"uaCSTA connection"}]