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Cisco Smart Business Communications System

Cisco Smart Business Productivity Applications: Unlocking Powerful New Capabilities

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New Smart Business Productivity Applications integrated into the Cisco® Smart Business Communications System (SBCS) help your employees work more productively, efficiently, and collaboratively. With these applications, you can streamline many business processes and benefit from new communications capabilities such as call recording, video conferencing, voicemail/email integration, and time and attendance tracking. And since these capabilities are already integrated into the Cisco SBCS, you can deliver them within the communications framework you already have in place, without having to deploy any additional components.

Challenge

In a world that never slows down, your business needs to keep moving. That means keeping employees connected at all times - to customers, to each other, and to the business applications they need to do their jobs. However, as employees become more mobile, business communications become more complex. Mobile smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and notebook computers help employees work productively from virtually anywhere. But they also create new challenges for employees and customers, who must contend with an ever-expanding array of devices and communications processes.
To succeed, you need to provide your employees with the productivity and mobility tools they need while streamlining business applications and processes. The Cisco Smart Business Communication System, a complete system of voice, data, video, and wireless networking products for small businesses, provides the ideal solution with a suite of integrated Smart Business Productivity Applications. These applications address the key communications requirements small businesses face, including collaboration, mobility, messaging, and business process simplification. And they deliver these benefits as integrated features of the Cisco SBCS, extending the value of your communications technology investment.

Business Benefits

With Cisco Smart Business Productivity Applications, you can:

• Improve operational efficiency and productivity by helping employees stay connected to customers and to each other, regardless of location, and by making it easy to use even advanced calling and messaging features

• Better manage costs by using applications such as call recording, video conferencing, and time and attendance tracking as integrated features of the Cisco SBCS, without the need to deploy and maintain separate systems

• Deliver superior customer service by making it easier for employees to quickly reach and be reached by customers and associates

• Achieve a competitive edge by empowering your employees to quickly access and act on information at any time, from anywhere, with any device

• Maximize the value of your technology investment by delivering new tools and applications through the communications framework you already have in place, and by making it easy for employees to benefit from advanced telephony features

Solution

Cisco Smart Business Productivity Applications include:

• Cisco WebEx™ PhoneConnect: More and more businesses are using Cisco WebEx conferencing to schedule and conduct rich, immersive meetings. But for users - especially mobile users - who want to quickly call in from a phone, joining an online conference can be a time-consuming process. With Cisco WebEx PhoneConnect, you don't have to remember any URLs, dial-in numbers, or meeting passwords to join your conference. Press a single soft key on your Cisco IP phone, and you're immediately connected. Cisco WebEx PhoneConnect also lets you manage meetings and alerts using your Cisco IP phone display, saving time and making it easier to connect with colleagues and customers.

• Cisco TimeCardView: Time and attendance tracking is critical for many businesses, but deploying and maintaining a standalone timecard system can be a costly undertaking. With Cisco TimeCardView, you can let employees clock in and out right from their Cisco IP phone. TimeCardView also includes an interface for supervisors and payroll specialists to validate timecard data, export data to a payroll application, and generate reports. It provides a complete, easy-to-use time and attendance system that is fully integrated into your Cisco SBCS platform.

• Cisco Single Number Reach: With the ability to work from the office, from home, and on the road, your employees can be more productive than ever before. But for the customers and colleagues trying to reach them, navigating all the various phone numbers can be frustrating. With Single Number Reach (SNR), you can set up "follow me" calling features that allow people to reach you using a single number, no matter where you are or which phone you're using. You can even pick up calls in progress, and easily switch from a mobile phone to an office or home phone in the middle of a call.

• Email integration: With voicemail, email, and faxes, customers have more ways to reach your business than ever before. But keeping up with multiple messaging systems and inboxes can be a time-consuming challenge for employees. Email integration converges voicemail and email into a single email inbox, letting you view, listen to, and delete voicemails just as easily as you can emails. The application eliminates the need to listen to a long series of messages to get to the information you need, saving time and improving productivity.

• Video telephony: You can unlock richer, more meaningful face-to-face communications in your business by adding video telephony, using the Cisco SBCS communications framework you already have deployed. Just add a USB video camera, and you can stream real-time video on your PC while conducting calls as you normally would with your Cisco IP phone. The solution enhances interactions and speeds decision making while offering major savings in time and travel costs compared to the cost of face-to-face meetings.

• Live Record: Nothing can replace the immediacy and impact of direct voice communication. And yet when conveying important information by phone, there is always a chance of not remembering exactly what was said or writing down important information incorrectly. With the press of a button, you can have Live Record capture live conversations and store them in your voicemail system. Once stored, any conversation can be played back, saved, or forwarded like any other voicemail.

• Live Reply: When your employees receive a voicemail from another employee, how much time does it take them to hang up, find the caller's phone number, and call back? Even if it's just a minute or two, those minutes quickly add up - especially for employees who spend a large part of their day on the phone. With Live Reply, employees simply press a button on their IP phones while listening to a voicemail to immediately call back, saving time and boosting productivity.

• VoiceView Express: Modern voicemail systems give users unprecedented control over their messages and phones. But when employees have to remember the right code to enter for all the various commands, many useful features go unused. With VoiceView Express, you can manage messages, greetings, and notifications using your Cisco IP phone display and soft keys. The application saves time and makes it easier to take full advantage of the productivity and collaboration features your phone system has to offer.

Together, these applications provide a full spectrum of tools to boost efficiency, streamline business and communications processes, and help your employees work more productively. And as integrated features of the Cisco SBCS, they eliminate the need to purchase and maintain separate systems to provide these capabilities, and extend the value of the business communications investment you've already made.

Intelligent Networking

To compete effectively in today's dynamic economy, small businesses must boost productivity through better communications, simplify business processes, generate the most value from resources and applications, and control costs. As Cisco's comprehensive information and communications architecture for small business, the Cisco Smart Business Communications System provides a complete system of voice, data, video, and wireless networking products in a single, all-in-one solution. The Cisco SBCS offers a new way to communicate, providing highly secure access to information anytime, anywhere, over any device, while helping people work together more efficiently and effectively. For small businesses that want to improve the way they communicate, collaborate, and reach and respond to their customers, the Cisco SBCS provides an ideal solution.

Why Cisco?

Cisco is the worldwide leader in networking technologies, with a 20-year track record of supporting customers of all sizes. With solutions like the Cisco SBCS, Cisco is extending the industry-leading, rich communications experiences provided by Cisco solutions and network connectivity to small businesses. By working with the established industry leader, you can benefit from:

• Decades of experience delivering proven, easy-to-use data, voice, and video solutions for demanding business environments

• Proven network performance, reliability, and security

• Award-winning services and support provided by Cisco and our partners

• Flexible end-user and partner financing packages

Building on the Cisco SBCS, Cisco Smart Business Productivity Applications provide a broad range of tools and applications to boost employee productivity and streamline business processes. Other vendors can provide standalone components from multiple third parties, with limited integration and complex deployment and maintenance. Cisco designed all of the components and applications within the Cisco SBCS to work together as part of a single system. In addition, by building your business communications framework on a Cisco technology platform, you gain the flexibility to easily adopt more advanced Cisco solutions as your business grows. Only Cisco provides a comprehensive communications solution that can evolve with your business and continue to extend the value of your technology investment even as your needs change.

For More Information

For more information about the Cisco SBCS and Cisco Smart Business Productivity Applications, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/sbcs.