Frequently Asked Questions

» Questions about hosted communications services
» Questions about usage-based pricing
» Questions about VOIP technology

Questions about hosted communications services

• What is a hosted service?
One that is offered over the web, rather than as a product that resides at the customer’s premises as a private branch exchange (PBX). Versature’s integrated business communication platform is hosted. Many more products are being offered as hosted services today – partly because customers demand the savings that come with reduced duplication, and partly because they don’t want to invest money in infrastructure that would soon become obsolete.

• Why haven’t I heard of hosted services before?
Chances are good that you have heard of hosted services. Some examples of popular hosted (or outsourced) services include e-mail services, website hosting, and hosted customer-relationship management (CRM) services like salesforce.com. As technology advances and broadband Internet connectivity becomes more pervasive, more and more services will be offered as hosted solutions.

• What are the benefits of a hosted service?
There are many benefits of using a hosted service. Some of these include:

• Better value. Because the system does not reside at your premises, you enjoy all the features and functionality with none of the burden of maintaining the system. It is also a more reliable solution.
• Reliable and secure. Versature’s business communication system is hosted at a secure data facility with backup Internet connectivity and power, protecting your services against outages. And because you’re not tied down by a specific location, you’re also in a better position for disaster recovery.
• Flexible and easy to expand. With a hosted service, expanding the system as your business grows (e.g. new features, more phone extensions, etc.) is very simple – you don’t need to make any new capital investment in hardware or installation.

• Why use a hosted communications platform?
This allows a business to take advantage of cost savings and improved service quality: cost savings because hosted services are a more efficient means of enjoying sophisticated features; improved service quality because Versature’s business communications platform is hosted in a high-reliability, secure data center.

Questions about usage-based pricing

• What is usage-based pricing?

At Versature, we only charge you for the calls you make. Local and long distance calls are charged at a low per-minute rate to ensure that you only pay for your actual phone usage.

• Isn’t usage-based pricing just a way to charge me more money?

No, in fact usage-based pricing is certain to save you money. Most phone companies charge users a per-month fee that’s purposely set at a rate higher than what you’d pay if you were charged for each call individually. When our customers add up what they actually spend on calls in a month, they find that it’s almost always less than what they would have been charged under a flat monthly fee plan.

• I’m not charged for local calls by my current carrier. Why would I change that?

In reality, you are being charged for local calls by your carrier – you just don’t see it itemized on your bill. All phone calls have costs associated with them, but phone companies have traditionally offered “free” local calling as part of their phone packages. You pay for these “free” local calls, however, through high monthly fees. To make a profit, carriers ensure that their monthly fees exceed what you’d pay if you were charged for each call individually. Versature, on the other hand, charges you only for the actual minutes you use.

Questions about VOIP technology

• What is VOIP?
Literally, it is technology that allows voice traffic to be transmitted over the Internet (VOIP stands for voice-over-Internet protocol). VOIP technology translates voice (an analog signal) into digital data and packages it for transfer over the Internet. Once the voice data reaches the intended recipient, it is translated back into voice.

• Why should I consider VOIP for my business?
VOIP provides these benefits:

• Avoid long-distance charges between connected locations. For example, if you have an office in Toronto and an office in Ottawa with a VOIP phone system between them, you can make calls between the two offices over the Internet. You will bypass the traditional “copper wire” phone line and therefore will not incur long distance charges.
• Get more for your money. A VOIP-based phone system is digital, meaning that it is controlled by software. Therefore, expanding and enhancing your business phone system is accomplished with new software rather than with new hardware, making it simple and less costly to add new features. You also get many more features with a VOIP system than is possible with traditional phone systems. Integrated phone and e-mail messages is one example: phone messages can be sent to your e-mail account as sound files.
• Tie remote employees or home offices into the same phone network. No matter where they are, other employees will reach their colleagues through a three or four-digit phone extension. If you choose, this same benefit can be extended to companies within your supply chain, too.
• Present a single identity to the world. With a single phone number, callers can reach any of your offices or employees. No more asking callers to “please hang up and call this other number”.
• Work from anywhere. With VOIP, you and your employees can work from home or from anywhere they can connect to the Internet while remaining at the same phone number and extension as if they were in the office.
• Easily add new employees, telephone extensions, voicemail boxes and locations: just plug in a new VOIP phone to the Internet.
• Make and receive calls on your computer or laptop. This can improve efficiency (call a contact right from a contacts database) and can make you available at your regular phone extension even if you are online in a hotel room or at a conference.

• Do I still need a traditional phone line?
Only if you are concerned about being able to make 911 phone calls from the business line. VOIP phone calls placed to emergency services are like emergency calls made from a mobile phone: the emergency-service dispatch will not automatically know the location of the phone, so the caller will have to provide that information.

• What hardware is required?

All you need to run VOIP is a broadband internet connection and a VOIP-enabled phone. Some users place firewalls or other devices between the broadband Internet connection and the phone, but these are not normally required.

• I already have a business phone line and number. Will I have to change phone numbers?
No; your phone number is not owned by your telephone carrier. Versature will port your existing phone number(s) to the VOIP service.

• Can I choose a vanity 1-800 number?

Possibly; if the specific digits you would like are not already in use, we may be able to assign you the 1-800 number of your choice. We cannot, however, assign specific digits for local phone numbers.

• Is the quality of the voice call the same as it is over copper wires?
Yes, assuming that your Internet connection is sufficient. VOIP is now well established and becoming a mainstream technology, and the early bugs and glitches have been resolved. Many businesses report that VOIP phone calls placed within the same network have even clearer quality than traditional “copper line” calls do. In fact, you’ll never hear “static” on a VOIP call — static is an analog problem and cannot occur on a VOIP call.

• What sort of Internet connection do I need to run VOIP?

Using VOIP, each concurrent phone call requires 80K of bandwidth in both directions. DSL connections (on average) provide 3000K of bandwidth down and 800K up, allowing a total of 10 concurrent calls (assuming no other traffic on the data connection.)

• Will I still be able to send faxes?
Yes, and you will be able to choose how you prefer to send them. Incoming faxes can be sent directly to your e-mail inbox, and you will be able to send faxes electronically as well. If you need to send printed documents via fax, then you have two options:

• Scan the document and send it electronically, which is preferable for the majority of our small-business customers, and it allows them to become more “paperless.”
• Keep a traditional fax line for that purpose; the same line may also be used for an alarm system, if you have one at your place of business.

• My office has an alarm system that is connected to the phone line. Can that be sent over your VOIP phone system?
No, if you have this type of alarm system, you will need to maintain a traditional phone line. The same line may be used for fax purposes.

• How much does it cost?
Use our handy online quote generator to estimate the savings you can gain with Versature’s hosted VOIP communication service.

• What if my Internet connection goes down?
Both your Internet and phone lines will be unavailable to you, but callers will still be greeted by the standard automated attendant, and will be able to leave messages – so your business won’t be unavailable. Today's Internet connections from the reliable broadband providers are very stable and rarely go down. As an additional back-up measure, phone extensions can be redirected to cell phones or alternate land lines when an outage occurs or is planned for an extended period of time. Or, just head down to the local coffee shop and use your Internet access to get “back in business” immediately.

• What if I lose power?
Any business phone system will go down without power. If your business is telephone-based (such as a call centre) or if it is located in an area that has known or frequent power issues, we recommend a back-up power generator.

• If my business phone line has an area code in one city, can I take my phone to another and receive calls?

Yes! As long as you can connect your phone to a broadband connection, you’re ready to go. VOIP phones are “smart” and automatically obtain an IP address to “call home” when plugged into an Internet connection. Once our Versature servers locate a phone, we can route calls to and from that phone, no matter where it is physically located. Versature even offers a “soft-phone” option that runs on your laptop — perfect for employees who want to travel light but keep in touch with the office while on the road.

• Can I receive collect calls?

No, collect calls are not supported on the Versature system. We recommend customers purchase a 1-800 number. Contact us to get a low quote on a VOIP 1-800 number.

• Can I dial 411 from a Versature phone?

No, Versature does not support the 411 information service, but you can always use the www.canada411.com service at no charge.

Have a question that isn't answered here? Contact us.