Virtual Numbers With Real Value

Virtual number services provide a new number to an old phone. It is a clever cloud concept that solves lots of problems associated with mobile and distributed workforces and delivers UC as a service. For workers on the go, making and receiving calls is fraught with problems. Call forwarding helps, but can be hard to deactivate remotely. The simple approach of giving out the cell number makes it hard to limit availability to just friends and family when appropriate. Then there is the nightmare of outbound callerID management – make a call from one private phone and get return calls there for life.

Enterprise equipment vendors are rapidly embracing the cell phone as a virtual extension. These offerings are so feature rich that the need for a desktop phone becomes questionable. Virtual number services go one step further and the need for premise based equipment (or upgrades) becomes questionable.

Virtual number services combine call rules with a web portal and whatever phone the customer has – often mobile phones. Incoming calls can be routed to any phone number, and there are a variety of methods to address callerID on outbound calls. The most well known virtual number service is Google Voice, but it’s a consumer service lacking many features businesses require. For example, Google Voice has no administrative portal to manage all of the company’s numbers, nor does it have a solution for an auto attendant.

But two new virtual service numbers are targeting the office with business class services. These are highly innovative offerings that question the very need for premise based upgrades. Ringio was launched last April and offers businesses a fairly tightly integrated solution for CRM.  Open VBX launched in June by Twilio offers extensive APIs and capabilities.

Ringio offers packages for as few as four users. Each user uploads their contacts to create a personal online directory. Any contact that gets tagged as a “client” becomes shared. A web based dashboard provides basic CRM information such as shared notes about the client. All incoming calls from that client will pop CRM information to whomever takes the call. Ringio’s packages include just about everything except dial tone, including; voice mail, long distance minutes, auto attendant, presence capabilities, shared address book, and of course virtual numbers.



Ringio levels the playing field, it allows SMB firms, even when distributed across the continent, to share real time CRM information with telephony integration. Like all virtual number services, it requires a phone to use - this can be an existing phone system, a home phone, or cell phone. Click to dial solves outbound callerID issues, and even that can be customized by the user with a number, company name, or other text.

While a start-up voice service may ‘ring’ a few alarms, it should be noted that Ringio’s infrastructure is powered by the larger and more established Voxeo. Ringio’s contribution is the rich CTI capabilities and its own CRM. Its aggressive development plans include many other CRMs and calling feature enhancements.

Twilio offers tools and APIs to create a variety of telephony related services, and has now created a powerful umbrella solution as a virtual number platform called Open VBX. It is an ingenious twist to the virtual number concept - where a drag and drop interface allows sophisticated call flow programming.



The “open” part refers to both its open source nature and its support of “plugins” which extend functionality by leveraging combinations of Twilio services (such as text to speech and SMS messaging) with reusable modules. The list of plugins is growing rapidly and include the serious and whimsical. For example, serious tools allow calls to automatically route to the right sales rep via account lookup, or even hook into other applications such as Google Maps. The whimsical includes plugins such as FourSquare integration, which routes calls based on a user’s checkins.

Open VBX’s capabilities are rich and require some technical expertise to fully leverage, but the potential is far greater than many premise based solutions. One unique angle is the ability for third party OEMs to use Open VBX to seamlessly integrate voice into their offerings. A manufacturer of medical practice management software could, for example, use Open VBX to expand functionality by offer automated appointment reminder calls. Twilio allows customers to completely hide Twilio and OpenVBX branding from the delivered solution.

Open VBX is priced by usage; meaning there is no cost for the complexity or capability of designed applications. That’s a significant leveler for UC - it means a small business could benefit from customized SMS integration, text to speech, voice transcription, unified messaging, and more and only pay per call.

Virtual number services are how the cloud will disrupt telephony. Virtual number services are heading for the enterprise and with them will come a bevy of mashup capabilities. But these sophisticated tools of UC are also headed to SMB - with a wide range of tools and capabilities that were simply cost prohibitive before. The best part is the show is just getting started.