The Security Catalyst

I just posted this to the community, but for those of you who are not yet members (and really - why aren’t you part of a growing, positively focused security community?), I need some help. If you have experience with VoIP, especially with hosted-solutions for small business, read on.
As my company grows, it’s time to get a more professional and feature-capable telephone system. As we grow, we’re going to have people located in different parts of the country, so VoIP in a “virtual office” arrangement seems to be the best fit for price/performance. Currently, we have the need for two extensions, based in the same physical location. We’d like to have an attendant that would direct calls to the right places, roll incoming calls and even forward to cell phones, if needed. As we grow, we will have multiple extensions geographically disbursed, as well as some who are mobile.

I’m looking for some feedback and experience with different providers, hardware and solutions. I toyed with asterisk, but I want to focus on my business and not building and maintaining a solution. I want something that is simple, reliable and effective. If I sound like I’m on a tin-can, or like I’m max headroom, it won’t work.

Any ideas, experience, companies to consider, etc. are greatly appreciated!

Initial Needs

• Toll Free Number
• Single number presented for outbound calls
• Single number for inbound calls, automatically routed
• DID for specific people; non-extension
• Ability to send and receive fax communications
• Ability to transfer calls to cell phones
• Virtual Extension, with DID, for “friends and family”

Growth Considerations

• ability to add new extensions, independent of where someone is located and have them included in our system
• effective central management
• call detail reporting (then again,maybe I don’t really care)

Travel Considerations

• ability to travel with telephone and hook in through different networks (yeah, I understand potential risks)
• wireless options/considerations - for example, is there a wireless handset that could be used when I’m traveling?
• ability to bring system in RV and use on network powered by EVDO-RevA (for what it’s worth, I’m considering the Sonicwall TZ190 for the RV, and if that works, for the home network)

We are also interested in understanding

• quality and service guarantees
• equipment used and supported
• number portability
• security of network (then again, I feel like I have to ask, but I don’t ask Verizon that question today)

Additional Features of Interest

• voicemail saved as audio files and submitted to email
• ability to conduct conference calls
• ability to call into the system and then make outbound calls (allowing me to hide my cell phone, or to call Canada, etc.)

Potential Providers

• http://www.packet8.net/business_services/
• http://www.aptela.com/
• http://www.zingotel.com/online/en/business/ ** I understand this is a hardware solution I probably don’t want

Who else should we be considering? Feel free to hit me with an email: securitycatalyst@gmail.com

The thread is here if you care to comment: Small Business VoIP Solutions - hosted provider experience?

Thanks in advance for your ideas, insights and experiences…

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