By Claire Hibber

Using software over the internet enables you and your team better communication, business anywhere via PC, laptop, mobile, home or abroad. It is cheaper to run as the software is always kept up to date and there are no maintenance fees or costly contracts to have to absorb (hidden costs you later discover when using traditional software). The benefits far outweigh traditional software packages and more small businesses are reaping the benefits.

However, one ‘cloud computing’ provider icomplete.com is going one step further by integrating telecoms with SAAS in a very dynamic way. The telecoms aspect using VoIP brings the software alive by improving communication in a very simplified and dynamic way. So how does it work?

Imagine being able to access your customer records in more detail. Using the current cloud computing database software on the market today you will already be able to store a variety of document formats and images into your customer history, but imagine if you could also access emails, faxes and voicemail. It would provide a very comprehensive profile of your customers/suppliers/salescontacts instantly. This information because it is ‘in the cloud’ will enable you or your team to access all the latest up to date information which can be vital if you are heading off to an important meeting client meeting. Especially if you need to access it via your blackberry, iphone or smart phone with all the real time up to date information. It is mobile office in your back pocket!

It can also be extremely valuable if you are running a practice where you need instant access to customer data and can look through all of the history and correspondence including voice mail, call logs and recorded call logs. Everyone is kept in the picture and your customers will be impressed you remembered the fine detail too!

The beauty of the technology is the flexibility which is paramount when many architects are out in the field – customer records are kept up to date by all of the team with multi-access and the power of telecoms ensures you have not only all of the correspondence but also voicemails and recorded calls all in one place. It works particularly well for the legal and financial sector on this level. You even have click-to-call button feature built into every customer record, simply click on the button and it will dial it over internet immediately for you – how easy is that?

Using the VoIP (cheap calls over the internet) integration dramatically reduces your phone bill but at the same time given the added benefits of the features it brings with it. You can use the one number facility which will enable you to divert you calls depending upon your availability to wherever you need i.e. landline, mobile, softphone (headset – to your receptionist/PA), home on-site or abroad so that you or your call answering alternative never lose calls or business and your poor customers will not be subjected to an ansaphone or recorded voicemail message again! Everyone is a winner.

About the author

Claire Hibbert is Co-founder of www.icomplete.com. For further information contact: 01793 250002 or email: claire@icomplete.com.