By Naomi Dolin-Aubertin
So every once and a while, I get struck by how cool technology is today. Actually, working in this industry that probably adds up to once or twice a day. Today's cool thing directly influences our hosted VoIP customers and so I thought I'd bring it to the blog. Hosted VoIP as I discussed in the past is a phone system run over the internet rather than traditional phone lines. This gives businesses enormous flexibility, while also driving costs down.
Now for the cool part. There's a thing called SIP, which stands for Session Internet Protocol. Hang on, don't reach for the caffeine just yet. Say you have a hosted VoIP service - and let's say that service is with us- you are able to setup SIP on your smartphone. In a nutshell, you would then be able to dial and receive work calls on your personal cell phone without a third-party app. It's like having two emails linked to one inbox; you can send out an email from either of them without crossover. SIP "let[s] you make calls anywhere you have access to a WiFi router...[and] is a significantly cheaper solution because the incoming number is free." [1]
For example, we use soft phones in our office. Setting up SIP on my smartphone would allow someone to dial my extension internally and the call would forward to my cell. In addition, if I made an outgoing call to a client, it would appear that I was dialing from my office phone. This is the essence of today's mobile workforce; the ability to work from anywhere on your own schedule.
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