Telephony solutions for business continuity

25 February 2020 | SMB, Digitalisation, Voice and Collaboration | 5 min read

Although businesses are focused on moving their customer engagement online, many customers still prefer a warm body to speak to when it comes to getting assistance. In fact, as much as 92% of calls made to businesses are a result of marketing efforts on digital channels.

This online-to-offline engagement suggests that businesses cannot afford to neglect the importance of staying contactable via phone calls. Even when business continuity plans require teams to work in alternative arrangements, or even shut down the main office to work from home, there are telephony solutions to ensure customers can reach the team.

For companies with an existing Singtel Business Fixed Line in the office, the main telephone line can be set to redirect the calls to an alternative number, such as a mobile line. This will ensure that someone on duty can still answer product enquiries or respond to a customer’s request.

Combining Call Transfer with Remote Command will allow you to transfer your business fixed line calls from anywhere in Singapore, as long as you have access to another local line.

If you do not have the call transfer or remote command service yet, you can subscribe to it through the Singtel Business Whatsapp bot Anna at 6221 1606. Just click here to start a conversion with Anna and follow the instructions on the chat to activate the service.

How to do it:

• Call 1606 to subscribe to Call Transfer and/or Remote Command services
• If you have access to the phone line in the office, you can enter the following to redirect the call to a specified phone number - #2 1 0 61234567 # where 61234567 is the number you want to divert your call to. Use code # 2 1 1 # to deactivate the service.
• Alternatively, with the service activated, you can remotely turn it on:
  • Call +65 6836 3636
  • Press 2
  • Enter your registered telephone number followed by #
  • Enter your 5-digit PIN followed by #
  • Press 1 to select Call Transfer
  • Enter the number you want the calls to be transferred to, followed by #
  • Press 1 to confirm

Singtel BizVoice is a Unified Communications (UC) solution that offers business-grade IP telephony for businesses of all sizes.

It acts as a cloud-based private branch exchange (PBX) solution that lets you enjoy all the features of a hosted PBX such as a call forwarding, company phone directory for internal calls, and single business number for all users. There are also collaboration features such as video conference calls, instant messaging and desktop sharing for computer users.

Users have the options of using BizVoice via desk phones, mobile phone app as well as desktop PC or Mac applications. Those who choose to use mobile or desktop applications can answer calls from their land line number just like they normally would.

How to use it: 

• Forward calls to another number by using the code *05 and #05 to deactivate it, or simply use the online BizVoice portal to forward your calls to another local number.
• Subscribe to BizVoice UC to enable the option of answering calls from your land line number using your mobile.

BizVoice UC is available for a free 3-month trial.

If your company is running an on-premise PBX or IP PBX connected to Singtel Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), you can also make use of the call forwarding feature to route calls to off-site numbers where your team is located. IP PBX telephony solution providers would provide instructions for such features for their systems.

For Singtel ISDN users, there is a Route On Demand Service (RODS) which allows incoming calls to be diverted to another local number when your premise-based phone system is unreachable. This service can be activated when it is required.

How to use it:

• RODS must be pre-subscribed prior to activation, and you can do so via your account manager.
• To activate it, the pre-registered authorised personnel can call 1800-737 4399 to request for the activation of RODS. Once verified, a Singtel personnel will activate RODS within 1-2 hours.

To activate Route On Demand Service, click here.

Whether it is the ongoing COVID-19 or any other situation that may impact your business, companies must have contingency plans in place for communications. Using the various telephony solutions available, you can ensure that there are minimal interruptions to your business operations, and you can continue to keep your customers happy.