IP Multimedia
IP Voice, Video, Collaboration & Messaging
What is IP Multimedia? In a nutshell, it’s a fully managed,
network-based service, which provides IP based voice and video
communication as well as supreme messaging capabilities. It really
is the perfect choice for large or dispersed organisations looking
at areas like ‘hot desking’ and home working.
The service easily sizes up or down and is available to
locations up and down the country. So, whether you're looking to
move into new premises, or to replace or enhance your existing
system, with minimal or no outlay, our IP Multimedia fits the bill,
perfectly.
What it does
IP Multimedia handles voice and video calls, instant messaging
and file transfers, audio/video conferencing plus so much more. And
this is no one-size-fits-all solution. We’ll shape IP Multimedia
around your needs.
Key features
- Voice & video calls, instant messaging, data file exchange,
simultaneously
- Audio & video conferencing, address book management, check
colleagues’ availability online.
- Fully managed service (takes the pressure off your IT
folk).
- The best thing to happen to remote working (because it’s so
secure).
- Saves time and money spent travelling to and from
meetings.
- Brings colleagues closer together, wherever they are, and gives
them advanced tools to collaborate with.
- Simplifies communications with voice, data and video integrated
into one streamlined managed solution.
Unified Messaging
The incredible functionality of IP
Multimedia includes desk-to-desk video, multi-party video
conferencing and sharing tools, such as web push (where you
initiate the request for a given transaction), shared whiteboards
and shared clipboards. Files can be transferred between two users’
PCs, bypassing the email system and transferring larger files
instantly, without clogging up email server storage. (That should
delight everyone - including the IT people.)
Unified Messaging also provides one centralised mailbox for all
your voice messages. This means that messages can be played,
replied to, saved or deleted in the user’s email inbox. You can
also use a web portal to play voicemails, forward as emails, or
change mailbox settings.
Flexible Working
Working remotely is spreading like
wildfire. Our IP Multimedia services can help to get the most from
your people and their time (wherever they choose to work) through
the more effective use of communications technology. A single IP
network can be used for all data and voice needs, meaning an
employee with an IP connection has access to both voice and data
applications through their PC.
Features & benefits
IP Multimedia
IP Voice, Video, Collaboration & Messaging
Features
IP Multimedia is all about making it easy to communicate
effectively with just about anyone, inside or outside your office
or organisation. It includes many powerful features as standard,
and you can extend these capabilities with a range of optional
features, which include:
- Instant Messaging (IM) - allows colleagues to
have a text-based, online computer conversation. When an IM is
sent, the receiver is instantly notified that they have a message.
This puts a popular and familiar consumer technology to work for
your business, improving collaboration and job satisfaction.
- Presence - helps employees find out if a
colleague is available. Presence detects when a PC isn’t in use and
updates the status on the network so the employee can see who is
online and let others know that they’re online. There’s also a
great do not disturb (DND) feature.
- Desk to desk video - an easy-to-use webcam
enables the use of point-to-point video service between Multimedia
PC Clients offering on-demand, one-way and two-way video.
- Meet Me - multiparty video conferencing for
two or more colleagues via web clients and webcams.
- Unified Messaging - enhanced voicemail. UM
systems provide one centralised mailbox for all voice messages. You
can play messages, reply to emails, saved or deleted in the user’s
email inbox. You can also use a web portal to play voicemails,
forward as emails, or change mailbox settings.
- Sharing tools - tools such as web push (where
you initiate the request for a given transaction), shared
whiteboard (offers users the ability to view a whiteboard display
to draw diagrams) and shared clipboard, are available with the
Multimedia PC client.
- Online directories - list of all multimedia
package users of the service, including the ability to view the
colleague's photo and alternative contact numbers.
- Instant file transfer - files can be
transferred between two users’ PCs, bypassing the email system and
therefore transferring larger files instantly, without clogging up
email server storage.
Benefits
- Remote working - gives your people far greater
control of their time, improving their work/life balance and
productivity. Incoming phone calls can be automatically routed,
irrespective of where they’re connected to the network.
- Cost reduction - calls between people at
different sites are free. Presence options will help people to work
smarter. Phone calls can be made via their PC, using video from
inexpensive webcams.
- Flexible messaging - converged email and
voicemail boxes help people pick up messages wherever they
are.
- Fully managed - IP Multimedia is a fully
managed service, allowing your IT team to focus on more
business-critical functions. It operates over our national IP
network which is monitored 24/7. You only need to rent the
functionality or capacity that you need. You'll then be able to use
the expertise of our technical, project planning and provisioning
teams to define the best solution for your organisation.
Detailed Info
IP Multimedia
IP Voice, Video, Collaboration & Messaging
Open up to a world of communication
IP Multimedia is telephony, but not as
you know it. Here’s why: it uses Voice over IP (VoIP) networks -
such as the customer's LAN and inter-office WAN - rather than the
legacy protocols of the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
But IP Multimedia goes beyond VoIP too. Where VoIP only offers
services for voice, IP Multimedia extends it with visual options,
Instant Messaging, collaboration and Presence indicators.
IP Multimedia uses an open, standardised, operator-friendly, Next
Generation Networking (NGN) multimedia architecture for IP
services. It's a VoIP implementation based on Session Initiation
Protocol (SIP), defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). SIP has been selected by the telecoms industry as the
protocol to replace the legacy PSTN protocols for IP traffic. NGN
networks combine voice and data in a single packet switched
network, to offer network controlled multimedia services.
All pretty technical, sure, but we figured you’d want to know
that our IP Multimedia is no closed, proprietary solution: it’s
open and accessible.
IP Multimedia options
With our IP Multimedia, you can introduce multimedia
communications as and when across your network. IP Multimedia can
be used with:
- Your existing PBX
- Network hosted (Centrex) services
- Existing analogue phones and equipment.
Our network design teams will use all of our experience in
managing change in communications to work with you to identify
exactly what you need, and then set about delivering it for
you.
We fully manage our IP Multimedia (so your people don’t have to)
and monitor it 24/7. The good news is that you only need to lease
the functionality or capacity that your business demands.
We’ve developed a range of packages that deliver basic and
advanced features and services on different terminal platforms,
depending on your day-to-day needs. And we’ll also take into
consideration where your people will be operating from. That
includes specialised workers such as call centre personnel.
Enhanced voice capabilities can be accessed either through feature
codes on analogue handsets or feature keys on IP telephones and
soft phones. These packages are:
Option 1 - Multimedia
Put simply, a package of powerful communication tools that bring
voice and data together, integrating your telephone with your PC,
over a single network. We can also offer your business a vast range
of multimedia services and features that can enhance employee
communication, productivity and efficiency, wherever your people
are working.
- Multimedia PC Client – a Microsoft® Windows®-based application
that enables advanced IP Telephony features, many of which are
unavailable to traditional Private Automated Branch eXchange (PABX)
extensions.
- Collaborative Services – allow workers to share files, images
and text in real time.
- Presence – dynamically communicates a user’s status and
availability across the network, e.g. ‘on the phone’, ‘available’,
‘out of office’.
- Instant Messaging – business grade tool which enables real time
text-based conversation between users.
- Call Logs – creates and maintains a log of outbound and
received calls.
- Conferencing – instantaneous or scheduled audio or video
conferencing, private ‘Meet Me’ conference bridge for multi-party
video conference meetings.
- Video calling – from a user’s desktop.
- Telephony – delivery of traditional voice services as well as
Unified Messaging (Next Generation voicemail), personal and group
directories, dynamic call handling and picture ID.
- Call screening and personalised routing – allows you to handle
incoming calls in a variety of ways. For instance, you can divert
certain calls; send calls to alternative numbers and even route by
time of day, ensuring that calls are answered wherever you
are.
Option 2 - IP Voice
IP Voice enhances traditional voice technology with time-saving
features while allowing you to keep your existing systems in place.
It provides all the benefits of IP telephony for organisations that
don’t need multimedia applications like video calling and Instant
Messaging, while giving access to time-saving features, including
specialised functions required by call centre agents and
supervisors.
Employees using their phones from a remote location can enjoy
the same functionality as they would from their desk phone in the
office. The exceptional flexibility of IP Voice can help to
increase productivity, support business continuity and eliminate
the need to relocate staff.
- Enhanced voice quality and reliability
- Next Generation telephony applications
- Sophisticated call management options
- Unified Messaging
- Hot desking
- PC soft phone for those on the move
Option 3 - Centrex (IP)
The Centrex (IP) package is a network hosted telephony solution
that gives you similar capabilities to premises-based equipment,
which means there’s no need to buy, manage or upgrade hardware.
Centrex (IP) provides an analogue phone line which can access
features via * and # codes. In addition to Unified Messaging
capability, you can benefit from:
- Convenience dialling - direct dial, call transfer, speed
dialling
- Efficient call handling - call park, hold, divert, barring
- Time efficiency and call completion - ring back when free, last
number redial, 1471, reminder call
- Number display services
- Unified Messaging
- Incoming Call Management.
Option 4 - Call Centre Services
For those requiring specialised call handling, our call centre
capability provides a suite of specialised features for agents,
including call queuing, agent phones and supervisor phones. It also
enables a call centre supervisor to use real time graphical screens
on their PC to monitor and manage both agent and queue
performance.
Access network
IP Multimedia users can connect to the network using various
methods, all of which use the standard Internet Protocol (IP). We
provide managed IPVPN connections to all the customer locations, or
just the main locations, which then connect to branch locations via
existing WANs, or to any of our MANs and WANs, for example, using
Metro Ethernet VPN. Fixed access, using DSL or cable modems, is
supported, while other analogue phone systems are also supported
through gateways.
Equipment
You’ll be using supplied soft clients on your PCs and will
normally also use IP desk phones such as i2001, i2002 and i2004.
The IP Phones that we supply can be configured to use one of two
different CODECs, depending on bandwidth required: G711 or G729.
Most users will also prefer to use headsets for making and
receiving voice calls. In addition, webcams will be required for
video conferencing functionality..
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