IT professionals are busy. From installation to maintenance, they oversee every aspect of an organization’s network systems, including the phones. Being forced to get in touch with a provider to make minor and frequent changes to this service is a hassle, not to mention unnecessarily time-consuming.
That’s why self-service management portals are critical.
What is a VoIP Self-Service Portal?
A VoIP self-service portal is a web-based platform that telecommunication providers can supply to their customers. It empowers system administrators to manage their own service, so they can make service-impacting changes to their systems from their laptop or mobile device.
Say goodbye to calling your provider and requesting a change order! Whether you need to forward telephone numbers, make E911 changes or report on trunk utilization, TelNet Worldwide gives you the power to manage your SIP service on your time.
But it’s important to note that not all customer portals are created equally. Here are seven qualities to look for in a self-service VoIP portal:
1. Reporting Capabilities
You should be able to visualize your virtual SIP service through robust reporting capabilities. Make sure your portal of choice allows you to analyze your system and make plans based on real-time data.
TelNet Worldwide’s SIP Trunking portal allows you to pull reports on telephone number usage, toll-free traffic and concurrent trunk utilization. With greater insight into your busiest hours, you can properly plan for upcoming staffing needs based on recurring trends.
2. Strict Security
SIP Trunking delivers a host of mission-critical features that can make or break the success of your business. Only the system admin should have control over user roles and permissions.
With our VoIP portal, you can easily assign roles to new or existing users, and expand or restrict privileges. From Read Only to Billing and IT Admin, you decide which user can make service-impacting changes.
Plus, your administrator will never be able to change a user’s email address for compliance reasons, so adding and revoking access is easy.
For added peace of mind, you can also monitor the actions of your IT staff through Audit Logs. As the system administrator, you have the ability to view any changes that have been made on your account. Whether it’s as small as a Caller ID change to the rerouting of an entire trunk group, you’ll be able to see what’s changed, by whom and when.
3. Safety Measures
Enhanced 911 (E911) is a service that provides public-safety answering points (PSAPs) and first responders with your registered location when calling 911. This enhancement can be added to any telephone number within your network.
Our robust service management portal allows you to create, modify, remove or bulk update your E911 records easily. Given the increasing number of regulations surrounding E911, you’re going to want to make sure that you can keep your information up-to-date easily.
TelNet Worldwide’s portal makes it as simple as possible. To make a bulk update (say you’re adding more specifics to an entire floor or your business is moving), all you have to do is upload a spreadsheet from our template tool.
4. Redundancy Options
Disaster recovery and sequential routing are critical capabilities. With a management portal, you should be able to easily identify a telephone number routing order by viewing your routing sequences.
Our SIP service provides fail-safe redundancy options in our network and/or in yours. We strive to make sure your service is not impacted in the event of an outage. If an outage does occur, a seamless fail-over between TelNet’s geo-redundant data centers will kick in and you will never notice the difference.
5. Business Continuity
Telephone number forwarding is a must. Within a portal, each trunk group has a specific list of telephone numbers that are routed over that group.
No matter what the reason — remote work, sick employees, PBX maintenance — a portal should allow you to forward a number with ease. If you need to forward another telephone number in your network or send calls to your mobile phone, you can do so with the flip of a switch.
6. Inventory Management
You need to know the state of your inventory at all times, but it can often be more difficult than it needs to be. We give you the option to allocate telephone or toll-free numbers across SIP trunks. This will help balance your network and prevent any potential bottlenecks.
Manage your inventory on the platform or export it to a CSV file.
7. User Experience
People will debate the merits of form versus function, but if you’ve used an outdated, poorly executed interface lately, you know how frustrating it can be.
Knowing your way around the portal is critical, so make sure your portal has an updated, easy-to-navigate interface. The reality is that you’re going to be using it a lot. You might as well enjoy your time looking at the screen instead of dreading logging in.
TelNet Worldwide is established enough to provide top-of-the-line services and technologies, but agile enough to give your company the attention it deserves. We’re excited to come alongside you and support your business needs. If you have any questions regarding our state-of-the-art portal, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. It’s time you got the autonomy you’ve been looking for.
