eVoice Technology and how it works
One of the newest trends in business communications is eVoice
service. Simply put, eVoice is a service that acts like a
voice-mail box, but in addition to recording a message,
allowing the caller to assign a priority to the message and
the like, it will also send the message to an e-mail
address of your choosing!
The advantage of this is that, unlike traditional voice-mail,
eVoice messages can be kept for an unlimited amount of time,
and you can have many "folders" of eVoice messages, to let
you sort your messages in a meaningful way. Of course, these
messages take up much more disk space than traditional
e-mails, but disk space has gotten much cheaper in the last
few years, as well.
And, there is the issue of possibly losing your messages when
you change PC's, or if your PC crashes. (Most people do not
back up their desktop files regularly.) However, if you use a
Web-based e-mail service (like hotmail, gmail or Yahoo mail),
most of these issues are solved, although you do run
the risk of using up all your disk space, since voice
messages use up a lot more space than traditional e-mail.
(A typical 30 second message will be about 500K, and gmail
allows you 250MB, where 1024K = 1MB.) But, that is an
incentive to keep your voice message folders cleaned out!
There are many eVoice systems available, each with it's own
mix of features and functions. And, usually you can add
your own 800# to the service (if you have business phone
service), or use one provided by the eVoice service. They
also can provide call forwarding service, so that your
calls are forwarded to your home phone or your cell phone,
instead of recording a message and e-mailing it to you.
The best of these services will allow you complete control
of these features and functions through a Web interface,
and even let you return the call to the eVoice system if
you don't answer the forwarded call in a specific number
of rings. So, you can move from home to office to
on-the-road seamlessly, as far as people who are
trying to reach you are concerned.
You do have to be careful about the technical details of
the eVoice service you choose. Some services require you
to install their software on your PC in order to listen
to the messages, while others use standard Windows
programs (like Windows Media Player) or free add-ons
(like WinAmp) to use their service.
We will be adding articles to this website about eVoice
service as time goes on. We hope to be able to tell you
about the different kinds of eVoice service that might interest
you, new features and functions that are available, and what
you need to do to use an eVoice service most
effectively. With good planning and a little luck, you may
just find an eVoice service that will make contacting you
easier and more convenient for your business acquaintances
and/or friends.
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