OtherNum - The Virtual PBX in the Cloud

We pushed out a minor update tonight to address a few cosmetic issues and to enable integration with the MailChimp API.  The only thing users will notice is that the "Name" field has been split into First and Last but no data should be affected.

When you log in and click on the Profile tab you will see your name contained within the "First Name" field.  Feel free to redistribute it as you see fit!

Also, new users that sign up for accounts will automatically be added to our MailChimp mailing list.  That means that you'll be subscribed to getting updates and announcements from us.  You can unsubscribe from the list using the link in the email.

They have a great API and I'm really glad to be able to take advantage of it!  You should really check it out if you have a mailing list you maintain.  It's a great company to work with!

Hardware Sucks.


Thinking of setting up a phone system for your small business or startup?


Take a look at this from CudaTel.



This is the entrenched competition we're up against.  Look at that low end model... 10 calls at a time.  That model costs about $2000 (plus tax and shipping...) and then you have to buy the phones and get it set up somewhere.  Oh and there's an extra $749 charge for "Energize Updates".  That appears to be non-optional.


Then what happens if it suffers a hardware failure?  You better have purchased at least 1 year of Instant Replacement for $549.  Even then, how long does "Instant Replacement" take?  However long it is, your phone system is completely disabled in the meantime.  What about your configuration?  messages?  Are they backed up?  How do you know?


That adds up to over $3000 before you even make a phone call.  And then there is the cost from the phone company to get the phone lines all setup, get them run to your office and into the demarcation point etc...


Now, granted that's just one example of a hardware vendor.  There are many others with different prices and different features available.  They all share a lot of the same downsides, though.


We had a Lucent PBX at a startup I worked at in Orlando and it was a huge nuisance.  We needed to add extensions because had staffed up but we were out of ports!  We had to order a card, shut down the system, load the card in, boot it back up and then configure the whole thing all over again.


So what do you do? Go Virtual!


If you're a small company that provides cell phones to its employees or a startup where all the co-founders have their own cell phones then that's all you need.  


Implement the PBX as a virtual layer.


A service like OtherNum provides you with a virtual PBX in true "Infrastructure as a service" style.  


There's no $3000 expense to get you up and running.  There's no waiting for replacement parts to arrive so you can get your phone system back up and running.  There's no running out of ports or capacity.  There's no cards to install and...


There's no single point of failure.


As other services are moving to "The Cloud" like storage and processing it's only natural for other services to follow.  "Software as a Service" is evolving into "Infrastructure as a Service" and virtual telephony platforms are going to disrupt the old hardware platform vendors as surely as travel websites destroyed the travel agent.


Try it today!


Go Here and sign up for an account with OtherNum.  It's still in beta so we'd love to get your feedback on it.  We're really excited about it and to be building the next generation in telephony platforms!

A lot of my favorite startups and mentors have "Office Hours" where they are available for discussions on a wide range of subjects.  ATDC does it extensively.  Twilio also has office hours that you can attend in person and via IRC.

So we've decided to do the same thing with OtherNum users.  We'll be doing the first session on the Tuesday or Wednesday after Christmas so stay tuned for more details on that.  Sign up for a beta account to get on our mailing list.

We'll be using our own OtherNum conferencing system, of course.  Currently, conferences are limited to 20 people each so be sure to let me know ASAP if you want to take part.

How do you R.S.V.P.?

1. Twtter us @othernum
2. email hours@othernum.com
3. Call (404) 631 - 6869 Option 4 and leave a message

Hopefully we'll get to discuss any questions you have about OtherNum or suggestions you would like to make for our future direction.  If we run out of time, we'll schedule another call to talk to you individually.

We're looking forward to hearing from you!

OPEN BETA

We're proud to announce that tonight we've flipped the switch and the OtherNum Beta is now an open beta.

Come on in, kick the tires, see the future of dynamic telephony and get a sophisticated phone presence for your small business or startup free of charge.  Setup mailboxes, call routing, conference calling and more in minutes.

We're placing a couple of restrictions on accounts until public launch but we're also willing to make exceptions for users that are using it heavily and providing us with feedback about how the product meets their needs.

1. You won't be able to provision your own numbers (local or toll-free) until launch
2. Transcription of voicemail messages will be disabled
   

As I said, though, we're willing to enable those features for users that are using the system and providing us with the feedback we need to achieve Product/Market Fit.

We're very grateful to the team at ATDC and the staff at Twilio for all their assistance and guidance over the past few months.  We're looking forward to working with both of them as we get ready to launch at Atlanta's own Startup Riot in February

Please come sign up, check us out and see how it works!

• You can only provision inbound 1 phone number at a time
• If you don't log in to your account idle for 30 days we reserve the right to pull the plug on your provisioned number and save us the cost renting it.

• Earn a bounty if you are the first person to report a bug ( the more severe the defect, the larger the bounty!)
• Providing us with feedback and/or answering surveys to help us improve the product will earn you credits for free usage
• Actual amounts TBD (the more time required on your part, the more credit you get!)

I get that question sometimes.  It's a good question because some of what we do is available from Google Voice but a lot of it is not!

We have voicemail with email delivery and transcription.  That's just like Google Voice... unless you want more than 1 mailbox on that phone number.  You also can't have an interactive menu with GV or have conference calls all built into the same number!

With OtherNumber you can have as many phone numbers as you want and they can all have their own menus or they can share!  Do you live in an area with local toll calls?  Do you want customers to be able to call you without paying $0.25 each time?  Setup a number in each zone!

We just launched conference calling last night, as well.  Quickly and easily setup a conference bridge using your OtherNumber.  See a list of who is attending in real time as people join or leave the call.  Get a report that shows who called in, when they called and how long they stayed.

We're also working on lots of other features Google Voice will never have... like toll free numbers, hold queues and massively flexible user customization.

So no, we're not just like Google Voice.  We're better!

Related articles by Zemanta

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• Google expands availability of its free voice mail (sfgate.com)

It's official!  OtherNumber 1.1 is live!  With this release we added call screening, voicemail delivered via email, voicemail transcription and CONFERENCING!

Go check it out!  Sign up for the beta program!

We're also entering OtherNumber in the Twilio Netbook Contest!