Comcast is a seasoned veteran when it comes to telecom and media. It’s the second-largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world and operates multiple branch entities under the Comcast umbrella. One of these is Comcast Business, responsible for the conglomerate’s internet phone, and TV distribution to enterprise customers. It was originally envisioned as Comcast Commercial online communications, over three decades ago. But after the dotcom bubble burst, Comcast realized the necessity of connecting with a growing enterprise customer base, launching Comcast Business.
The company has several solutions in its portfolio, spanning the cloud, smart offices, internet, TV, and business telephony. In this review, we are taking a look at Comcast’s cloud-based PBX solution – Business VoiceEdgeTM.
Inside Comcast Business VoiceEdge
PBX or Private Branch Exchange lets businesses create a multi-line telephony system that helps address a high volume of callers every day. With the advent of the Cloud, PBX has moved from hardware infrastructure to virtual systems, reducing costs, improving flexibility, and allowing businesses to scale faster than ever before.
Comcast Business VoiceEdge is a cloud-hosted PBX service that combines the features of a typical on-premises PBX with the advantages of the cloud. The company has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide its customers with a reliable and expansive cloud environment.
Let’s review the features of the Comcast Business VoiceEdge:
- Basic functionalities – Comcast Business VoiceEdge comes in unlimited calling with additional charges for nationwide long-distance communication. It can be used across locations and offers a directory listing to make your business more accessible. The line included in Comcast Business
VoiceEdge has a caller ID feature, supports local as well as remote forwarding of calls, and enables automatic rerouting in case of agent unavailability. Needless to say, call waiting, detailed histories and call parking are also bundled in. To drive greater mobility for your business, Comcast Business VoiceEdge lets you forward a call to multiple numbers, which could ring as per a specified sequence or simultaneously. And if you’re placing outbound calls on your mobile phones, there’s a caller ID to remind you of the customer’s information.
Business voicemail can be delivered on mobile in an audio or readable format. Comcast has partnered with hardware vendors to offer certified devices including DECT phones, HD phones, and LAN compatibility.
- Advanced functionalities – Comcast Business VoiceEdge is clearly designed for the digital era. No matter what device you use, it’s your business number and not your personal line that’s reflected. Configurations can be managed from an online portal, including billing, service requests, and more
Comcast Business VoiceEdge also lets you choose from four different Hunt Group settings, so that telephones ring either simultaneously, sequentially, in a circular (round robin) motion, or in a “uniform” mode. We were particularly impressed by the last option, as it directs incoming calls to an agent who has been idle for the longest time. To further improve customer experience, there is a virtual attendant to assign calls to the relevant department/agent.
And if the recipient faces any issues while resolving the customer’s problem, it’s possible to loop in another agent via conferencing.
- Optional functionalities – Apart from all the features reviewed above, Comcast Business VoiceEdge also introduces more powerful features for large enterprises, including longer call queues, a receptionist console, and additional voicemail boxes. There are three productivity apps deployed as part of the solution, speeding up everyday business processes
Why Comcast Business VoiceEdge Makes a Difference
Comcast Business VoiceEdge comes with a Polycom 301 business phone included in the package. It can address the needs of varying enterprise sizes, ranging from 5 to 5000 seats. In addition to all of the features we discussed, there are integrations with all software applications available today. For example, you can download Comcast Business VoiceEdge for Microsoft Office 365, Skype, and Chrome to make calls from any interface.
CRM integration is also available, converting your business telephony framework into a sales enablement tool. Finally, we really liked the audio-conferencing feature that lets you host conferences on the cloud without requiring a phone number – this supports an impressive 50 attendants on any operating system.
What We Think
Comcast Business VoiceEdge is billed as the perfect solution for professional service providers, manufacturers, retailers, and non-profits. We could imagine use cases in a variety of business scenarios, given the solution’s hardware-lite nature. So, if you’re looking for a cloud-based communication tool that comes with the first phone available free of cost, check out Comcast Business VoiceEdge – you only need to answer a quick questionnaire to find the right plan for you.
