DIGITAL LIFE

5 Things You Didn't Know Your VoIP Softphone Could Do

As the name implies, a softphone  is a software application that duplicates the functionality of a telephone, just on a PC or other computing device. Nowadays, such apps are standard equipment for most any small to midsized business (SMB) voice-over-IP (VoIP) service. On the surface, these apps are designed to mimic a desktop handset, with a dialpad and the usual phone features, like Mute, Transfer, and Hold. That makes them very easy to learn without the need for user training. But because they're software, these apps are often stuffed with more features that many users seldom access. For one thing, wherever you plug in your device and start the app is where your phone will ring, which is highly useful now that so many of us are working from home. But there's a lot of additional sophistication as well and much of it can help businesses deal with life during COVID-19. Time to crack the manual. This long laundry list of features pertains largely to voice calling functionality and call handling features. For example, most vendors bundle conferencing, visual voicemail management, chat, and SMS functionality; but IT often overlooks these features when deploying to users since they're just looking to replace their current phone system with something else that costs less. Plus, VoIP systems can have a big impact on local network management, so IT sometimes likes to roll out new features more slowly so the new traffic doesn't choke other apps. 
But now that we're home, these local area network concerns aren't as worrisome. In fact, it can actually be easier to access more advanced softphone features in this model since home networks generally have a lot less traffic to worry about and manage than a typical business network does. And many of these less emphasized features can really help bridge the virtual gap that so many employees are facing during the pandemic, especially capabilities like video conferencing, file-sharing, project management, and even team communications.
 
1. Make Video Calls 
The ability to make voice calls is often a key feature that attracts SMBs to a VoIP solution, especially now that workers are sheltering in place due to the coronavirus. The ability to have your business number on tap anytime is fantastic for quickly building a virtual business presence, but the ability to enhance that call with video can help take the place of social interaction, not only for customers or partners, but also simply for in-house, employee-to-employee conversation. Take for example Editors' Choice selection RingCentral Office, which until recently made Zoom's popular video conferencing service available from inside its softphone app. The company has just released a new video client, but is deploying it the same way. That means using RingCentral allows users to hold or join HD video meetings where participants have the option to join audio through their computer, mobile app, or dial in using local and global numbers. SMBs can also collaborate in real-time with screen sharing and whiteboard functionality. 
Granted, the feature set offered by VoIP softphone solutions may not be as expansive or immersive as team messaging solutions like Microsoft Teams, or standalone video-conferencing giants like Cisco Webex. But many businesses will enjoy the ability to make a quick video call or enable some quick screen sharing on the fly right from their softphones without the need to deploy a whole new solution. 

2.  Send and Receive  Faxes 
Sending and receiving faxes may not be a top of mind feature for many business users until they urgently need to sign and send faxed documents. And, surprising as it may seem, faxing is still a necessity for many legacy business workflows, especially those focused on healthcare, legal, insurance, and real estate among others. Being able to quickly receive faxes on a PC or smartphone beats having to dig up a dusty old fax machine -- or in these corona-times, dig up a separate dusty old fax machine for every home-bound employee. And it certainly beats having to buy, test, and deploy a separate electronic faxing service. Solutions like RingCentral  make it easy to create a "new fax" in the RingCentral mobile or desktop app. Simply enter the recipient's fax number, add the message text, and attach files from DropBox, Box, Google Drive Enterprise, or any Microsoft Office application.
Receiving faxes is deceptively easy as well. RingCentral provides subscribers with their own fax number or they can use their existing number. Customers can receive internet faxes in their inboxes as email attachments which they can forward, file, or print. For SMBs that have desktops, tablets, or 2-in-1's that can take pen or stylus input can easily access and sign print documents and send them back as faxes. 

3. Send and Receive Files 
One of the advantages of having a cloud-backed VoIP service is that because it's able to handle voice and video data streams, developers can enhance their softphone apps to handle other data as well. That means VoIP makers can add features like faxing (above) or simply the ability to access and share files. Team messaging and collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack generally offer more comprehensive and instantaneous solutions for sharing files between users. But VoiP providers have started to offer such integration, too, as well as basic file sharing functions to help businesses conduct more work without having to switch between different services.  RingCentral delivers a multi-faceted communications platform including business phone or toll-free numbers and unlimited business SMS. You also get integrations with Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft Office.  File sharing within RingCentral through Glip is convenient and intuitive, you can annotate documents without altering the original file. Shared files can be uploaded to tasks, calendar events, or directly through a chat message. 

4. Team Messaging and Collaboration 
With VoiP softphones already offering voice, video, and data sharing, it's a short design hop to get to team messaging and collaboration functions. As an example, RingCentral features integration with its Glip team collaboration app, which lets you have real-time or asynchronous conversations with coworkers in a space that favors brevity and directness. It also tosses in to-do lists, document sharing, a team calendar, and great video calling, all of which add value but also cost a bit more. SMBs need to determine if adding on a Glip subscription to RingCentral makes better sense than adopting a dedicated, third-party team messaging applications, like Slack or Microsoft Teams. 
We're now seeing various business software vendors adopt new functionality into their products based on what their users want. We can expect VoIP solutions to continue to integrate various collaboration features. 8x8 Series similarly features softphone clients using either the desktop app or the smartphone apps. Any of these methods lets users make and receive calls, check voicemail, or conduct online meetings using conferencing options that include support for chat, shared screen, and video conferencing.

5. Access and Manage Calendars 
Various VoIP products already integrate with users ' contact lists, both a business-wide contact database as well as personal contact lists stored on PCs and mobile devices. This makes it easy to track and find contact's names and initiate calls. With that functionality already there, it makes sense to also provide access to calendars for quick scheduling.
RingCentral's my Calendar feature allows you to connect your work calendar, such as Microsoft Office 365 or Google Calendar, to the RingCentral app. This integration enables you to see your upcoming meetings, easily join a video or audio conferences, and schedule new meetings. Team events allows users to create team calendars so that everyone on the team can be in sync - it's useful for tracking project milestones, upcoming tasks, vacation time, and more. When you create an event in a Team, everyone will see it in Team Events. 8x8 and Vonage similarly offer integrations into Google Calendar to make scheduling of calls and conferences easier. The Vonage for G Suite Integration requires Google Chrome browser to work with the calendar.

by Gadjo Sevilla