Web and voice solutions provider OnePIN Inc. has reportedly selected Whaleback Systems’ CrystalBlue Voice Service for enterprise-wide telephony communications.

OnePIN reportedly chose the hosted service because it enables it to avoid the cost of purchasing and maintaining a PBX (News - Alert), but at the same time it can benefit from all the advanced features VoIP service can provide. The company will benefit from improved communications between employees and subsequently increased productivity.

In a press release, Paul Novak, director of IT for OnePIN, said Whaleback’s VoIP service “offers more functionality, requires less maintenance and costs dramatically less than alternate solutions.”

“We didn’t have to purchase any equipment and we can rely on Whaleback to monitor and manage the service,” he said. “The CrystalBlue Voice Service frees up my time so I can focus on internal IT issues, and OnePIN benefits from robust VoIP features and the ability to easily and cost-effectively scale the solution to support additional employees and new offices.”

OnePIN had apparently outgrown its small PBX (News - Alert), which couldn’t scale to support new locations and a growing number of employees. Furthermore it didn’t deliver advanced calling features such as “direct inward dialing” and “3-digit extension dialing” – features which have become essential to most companies in today’s competitive business environment.

“We are building an international business, and that requires teamwork and efficient communications across the company,” Novak said. “CrystalBlue is a feature-rich voice service that improves communications within the company and allows employees to leverage advanced telephony features to improve productivity.”

The switch to the hosted service will, according to Whaleback, reduce OnePIN’s telecommunications costs by as much as one third in the first year.

“Whaleback quickly installed and activated the service and taught us how to use the Executive IP Handsets,” Novak said. “Now, when we need additional handsets we place the order, receive them the next day, plug them into an Ethernet connection and they are fully operational. Whaleback performs the necessary management and administration and we don’t have to deal with it. We get regular reports from Whaleback and their service is reliable and dependable.”

According to the press release, OnePIN has purchased about 20 Executive IP Handsets which are connected via a “voice-only” DSL connection to a SMB 1500 IP PBX. The server is fully monitored and managed by Whaleback, which takes a lot of stress off OnePIN’s IT department.

“Customer support for Whaleback has been excellent,” said Novak. “They respond immediately and monitor traffic and make sure that we benefit from business-quality voice over the Internet.”

”I’ve managed PBXs and I’ve managed Centrex services in the past, and both are a drain on IT resources,” he added “By selecting a monitored and managed service, we can focus on running our business instead of focusing on telecommunications. We’ve had no outages and everybody’s happy with the service. The Whaleback support and network operations organizations have been phenomenal and we benefit from a great service that Whaleback manages so that we don’t have to.”

Key to the system – especially for OnePIN – is its Road Warrior remote worker functionality, which allows OnePIN employees to have full access to the PBX from any broadband connection. The system can push desktop functionality to external phones – and that means employees can make use of features such as four digit dialing even when they’re out of the office. Thus, users can move their Executive IP Phones to a another location when needed.

“We’re in a development-focused environment that often requires intense concentration, and an employee that wants to stay at home for a few days can bring home their desktop phone, plug it into their home network and send and receive calls as if they were in the office,” Novak explained.

Whaleback made news on TMCnet earlier this month when it announced the release of a new version of CrystalBlue geared for small to medium-sized businesses. The company’s new “Cuttyhunk” product offers new features including enhanced Key Systems Unit (KSU) and IP PBX calling functionality, a hosted desktop fax service and new calling plan options. In addition to delivering new hosted services - including OrcaFax and Multisite Integrated Dial Plans - the system now sports new KSU features including “Intercom Groups” and “Shared” and “Bridged Line Appearances” that can be mapped on both local and remote phones. Among other new capabilities are “Page All,” “Page Zones,” “Handsfree Answer Back,” “Call Diversion,” “Call Screening,” “Multilevel Automated Attendant” and “Multiple Operator services.” With these new features Whaleback is clearly positioned to go out and plunder the SMB market.

For more information, visit www.whalebacksystems.com.

---------

Patrick Barnard is Assignment Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.