XO Communications, today announced that it has launched XO Anywhere, a new service that helps improve worker productivity with mobility and unified communications features. XO Anywhere turns any phone into an office phone, providing an ideal solution for companies with mobile and distributed workforces.
A recent study from the research firm the Yankee Group shows that 44 percent of all employees today at small and medium-sized businesses are mobile workers. Of this mobile workforce, 49 percent are mobile professionals (senior executives, managers, IT workers, consultant), 31 percent are field workers (sales, technical support, and other field-related services), and 21 percent are specialty workers with varying degrees of mobile job functions. [1] “Solutions like XO Anywhere are necessary as increasing numbers of workers find themselves outside of the office,” said Steve Hilton, vice president of Yankee Group’s Enterprise Research Group. “Being able to maintain contact with customers and partners without regard to physical location will help increase worker productivity and positively impact a business’ bottom line.”
Mobility Features
XO Anywhere bundles a variety of mobility features to help companies improve the productivity of their remote and mobile workers:
• Simultaneous Ring: Allows up to 10 different devices to ring at the same time, connecting the call to the first device that answers. Customers need only one number to be reached wherever they are.
• Remote Office: Enables employees to set up a remote office instantly, make or receive calls from any device, display their office phone number on the caller ID, and charge all calls to the office’s XO service.
• Click to Dial: Provides seamless integration with Microsoft Outlook and web browers. Users to simply select and click on any contact or phone number to make a call.
• Web-Based Tool Bar: Allows users to personally manage all features online at any time.
“XO Anywhere gives an employee the freedom to be on the road, attending a conference or working from home, and have the peace of mind that they will not miss an important phone call from a client or coworker,” said Nicola Jackson, director of IP and converged services at XO Communications. “We expect our customers to find XO Anywhere an integral tool for increasing employee performance, while their employees benefit from its ease of use and convenience.”
XO Anywhere is available now, and can be ordered as an additional feature for customers of XO IP Flex , XO IP Flex with VPN, and XOptions Flex. An administrator simply assigns licenses to users who are able to download the software and toolbar onto their computers.
If you recall, earlier this year, XO Communications introduced the innovative bandwidth-based pricing XO IPfolio. As I wrote then, "Instead of paying per minute for voice calls like both traditional TDM and even current VoIP offerings do, XO will be completely bandwidth-based pricing. Considering that voice is simply another application riding over IP, it certainly makes sense, but the premium of charging per-minute rates or per line rates even for VoIP calls is a hard habit to break."
According to XO, "IPfolio gives businesses and enterprises a broad range of IP convergence and networking service options, including XO IP Flex, XO SIP, XO One iPBX, XO MPLS IP-VPN, and XO IP Flex with VPN. In addition, XO Communications offers a new and groundbreaking pricing that simplifies how businesses can buy and scale IP services to support their communications needs. "
XO Communications is the first major nationwide service provider to offer an innovative pricing concept for converged IP services that eliminates pricing based on the number of voice lines. Unlike other approaches to IP pricing that still are based on traditional services pricing models, XO's bandwidth-based pricing offers rates based on the size of the port, not on the number of voice lines.
Customers can simply select an IP port speed from 1.5 to 45 Mbps, a calling plan and any additional features. In addition, customers pay nothing for incremental lines or voice channels provisioned within the port speed they have with their service. This innovative and unique bandwidth-based pricing is now being offered with XO IP Flex, XO IP Flex with VPN and XO SIP. For more information about XO Anywhere click here.
