Atlanta, GA – September 12, 2006 — Presence Management is the hot new technology reinventing how busy executives manage their availability, contacts and daily workflow. The concept revolves around a series of tools designed to allow a professional to dictate exactly when and how he or she is to be contacted throughout the day, so that no opportunities are missed and less important calls are appropriately routed. Presence management does for phone calls what the PDA did for calendars and email five years ago — it makes executives more efficient and productive.
VoiceNation, a provider of value-driven outsourced voice telephony and disaster recovery solutions, sees this technology as a watershed catalyst for business productivity. “What if you could control exactly which calls you receive no matter where you are, directing both important and unimportant calls to exactly where you want them to go; how could that impact your day?” asks Jay Reeder, President and CEO of VoiceNation. “If you could ensure that critical conversations, such as sales opportunities, take place immediately, while less urgent minutia went to voicemail, could that benefit how you run your business?”
Presence Management is not comprised of one tool, but several. The foundations of this technology include:
Status Profiles — Status Profiles allow a user to specify exactly where inbound calls go. It could be to an office line, cellular phone, or voicemail. Profile updates can be handled over the web, or even using a pre-programmed speed dial sequence on the user’s phone. Once the executive defines his or her status (home, office, mobile, etc.), a caller will be directed to the appropriate number automatically. Certain status profiles can even direct a caller to leave a message that is converted to a .wav or MP3 file and sent to the receiver via email.
Instant Messaging — A user’s status updates can be integrated with Instant Messaging (IM) technology. Coworkers anywhere in the world can find the current status of a colleague by looking at their instant messaging chat window. That way, colleagues know who is on the phone, and who isn’t.
Find Me/Follow Me — This technology works in one of two ways. The user can use a remote access device, such as a laptop or PDA, to go online and change where inbound calls should go. That way they can dynamically update how they are reached. Or Find Me/Follow Me can instigate a process known as “shotgunning.” With shotgunning, every contact number for the user is rung simultaneously with each inbound call. The call is then directed to whichever number picks up first.
Call Screening — Call Screening empowers a user to dictate which calls are received, and which go to voicemail. An automated response will prompt an inbound caller to provide his or her name. The user’s phone will display the name of the caller, and the caller can decide whether or not to take the call. One unique feature of call screening is the ability for the user to create a personalized message to send back to the caller if they cannot take the call, but they still have important information to relay (such as “I’m in a meeting, but I will call you back in 5 minutes.”).
Time Management = Opportunity Management
Joe Schiavone, Vice President of Sales for VoiceNation, feels that Presence Management will soon be an essential component of sales strategies. “Imagine a prospect standing in front of a home for sale, calling the number on the sign. Is it ok for that call to simply go to voicemail? What if the realtor could be guaranteed to get that call in real time? An immediate appointment to show the home could be scheduled before the prospect even looks anywhere else. And this is just one example in one particular business. Imagine how Presence Management can help capitalize on opportunities in any industry.”
VoiceNation has invested heavily in Presence Management technology. The firm includes Status Profiles in their standard voicemail package that costs as low as $4.95 per month. VoiceNation also offers Find Me/Follow Me and Call Screening with the ability to ring up to 5 numbers and send automatic emails with recorded messages to 7-8 email addresses all simultaneously. They use a proprietary web interface where users can access their accounts and make changes to their contact status at any time. This eliminates the previous daily, or sometimes hourly, ritual of executives constantly changing their voicemail greeting to update their current status. And VoiceNation continues to refine their Presence Management capabilities, maintaining the organization’s status as a knowledge leader in this field.
About VoiceNation:
VoiceNation, America’s leader in virtual PBX and voicemail was founded in 2002 by President Jay Reeder and opened their Next Generation call centers in 2009. The company has grown to serve more than 40,000 customers including FEMA, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Dell, AIG and the U.S. Coast Guard. They leverage the very latest in proprietary technology solutions in order to deliver quality call answering services at the lowest cost to their customers. To learn more about VoiceNation and their services, please visit http://www.voicenation.com/.
For more information, contact:
Graham C. Taylor
Media Relations
1.866.766.5050, ext. 150
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