New, smarter, more secure, better looking in 2018 and 2019

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Alex Sudheim

16 Jan 2019 Clock 4 min
Voys Telecom colleague playing chess

Ever since 2006 we’ve been developing a telephony platform for and together with our customers. We do this by continually mapping out what our customers find the most important features for in a telephone system. The more demand there is for a particular feature request or improvement, the higher the priority. In addition, our development team has been working hard last year on improving the stability of the platform and making our services more secure. We understand that business owners do not have the time to keep an eye on our platform for changes and that’s why we’ve compiled what we’ve done in 2018 and what you can expect from us in 2019.

Fresh off the 2018 press

Statistics

The statistics feature has been part of Freedom for five years. The feature makes it very easy to see how many calls are received per day, week or month and whether your company is doing OK with answering those calls. Due to technical limitations our system, unfortunately, could not see if a call was answered by a welcome (or voicemail) message or by a person. As a result, the percentage of answered calls at many customers was 100%. A figure to be unjustly proud of! Since December, the statistics have become better and more accurate, because the system can now see whether a person or a message has answered the call. Furthermore, you can filter statistics on multiple variables. This not only provides nice insight but also allows you to extract useful data from the system that allows you to optimise the availability of your organisation.

Encryption

We find privacy very important. Governments are proving they are finding privacy less and less important. That’s why we put a lot of effort into making encryption of call traffic via our platform possible. To use encryption on a fixed VoIP telephone, you have to carry out some actions yourself. Encryption is enabled by default on the Voys 4G app.

Beep-beep

It seems so small, but it’s nice: a beep when transferring. Previously you did not hear that a caller had been connected when doing a call transfer and that sometimes caused awkward conversational situations. From now on, this is a thing of the past, because the beep tells you when the transferred call is connected and the conversation immediately runs smoothly! We have enabled the beeps for both attended and unattended transfers.

Voys App for iOS and Android

Thanks to your feedback, we’ve made great strides in the stability of the app. We have ensured that a significantly larger proportion of the calls are delivered on the app. Furthermore, piles of bug fixes have been done and we have made considerable progress in increasing usability.

On the cards for 2019

Phone app for your laptop

Isn’t it astonishing we’re still seeing plastic devices on almost every desk: telephones. Meanwhile, the laptop has replaced all other items on a desk but still, a desk phone is immensely popular. Although we still sell phones, we think it’s time to get them off that desk. We’ve already created the app for your smartphone and in 2019 we’re launching the phone app for your laptop! We are already extensively testing it ourselves: a self-built softphone that works via a browser plugin in Chrome. All Voys colleagues have been using it for over 6 months and really like it! Requirements: a laptop / PC with Chrome and a good USB headset. We are currently testing with different types of headsets. Wireless headsets with a noise cancelling microphone and earpieces are especially nice during a phone call, you hear your colleagues less and your customer doesn’t hear your background noise either. Of course, we’ll let you know as soon as the browser phone is good enough for an official launch!

Call notifications and integrations

Telephony is much more than a ringing telephone. We think you should see it more as a tool in your portfolio of communication methods. That’s why that tool must connect seamlessly with other tools from your portfolio. With this conviction, and because of the frequently asked question: “Can I also connect with software XYZ?” We’re making our platform ultimately linkable. For 2019, we expect that we can connect with Zapier, Slack and multiple frequently used CRM packages. The biggest advantage to a link with your CRM package? Time savings, more fun work and happy customers. When a customer calls, you see a pop-up. Click on it and you will immediately see the customer details on your screen.

Ease of use of Freedom

Freedom, your online self-service web portal, is continuously being updated, kept secure and we try to make it as user-friendly as possible. Nevertheless, we notice that customers without experience sometimes find it difficult to change settings. That’s why we’re really focussing on User Experience in 2019: Freedom will become more intuïtive and more fun.

OPUS

OPUS, it sounds impressive, grand and compelling, and it is. Although you won’t notice it immediately. You will benefit from it, however. Let me explain: OPUS is an audio compression technique (codec) that we’ve added to our platform. This codec handles internet connections of varying quality very well. With an excellent internet connection, you’ll experience HD sound quality. If your connectivity is less good, the call quality will still be as optimal as possible, because OPUS adapts itself automagically. This codec will be used for the Voys App at the beginning of 2019. And it’s even available for VoIP devices!

Up to date

In 2019 we’ll keep you informed of all developments. If you want to be the first to know when, for example, the new phone app for your laptop is launched, follow us on one or more of our social channels.