For small businesses, particularly SOHOs (small office/home office), a lot of time can be spent away from the office doing your job, meaning that your mobile phone is your most important means of communication. Advertising your mobile number to your customers does not present a professional façade and for credibility a landline number is needed.

However a landline, or fixed line, ties someone to the office, is answered by an answerphone message or, in the worst case scenario, rings unanswered. Could a landline number that rings on your mobile phone be the answer?

There are now many different solutions that give you a virtual landline number that rings on your mobile. The main difference is pricing and which one is best for you will depend largely upon your usage.

Vodafone One Net Express

Probably the most well known solution is Vodafone’s One Net Express. Originally a standalone product it is now possible to include it with a standard Vodafone tariff making it much more attractive and affordable to the average small business user.

Your virtual landline number is held by Vodafone and rings on your mobile without being diverted. This means that there are no call charges for transferring calls between landline and mobile. You also get a number of phone system features such as call waiting, music on hold, hunt groups etc. which are included within your package.

Basic tariffs start at £35 plus VAT which includes 300 mobile minutes, 3,000 landline minutes, 250 texts and 500MB of data. Higher tariffs are available for larger users.

Other networks offer similar products which work slightly differently but produce broadly the same end result.

Call management solutions

Other products exist which give you a virtual landline and then divert the calls to your mobile. This makes them non-network specific and means you can have your mobile contract with any provider and still receive calls. There is usually a charge for the diversion though so they only really work out cost effective for light users.

They do have the flexibility to be diverted to any number, so you can divert them to another landline at reduced costs, or change the diverted number at any time.

Compare available solutions

At Business Mobile World we offer a range of solutions for having a landline number on your mobile. We can provide you with a comparison between products and guide you to the best option for your usage.

It is not only SOHOs who take advantage of this new technology, many larger businesses look at similar arrangements to make their method of communication more flexible, ensuring more calls get answered by the right person first time. This increases productivity and customer satisfaction.

Vodafone continue to push their One Net integrated telecoms solution heavily in the media. This merging of devices, having a single number which rings wherever you are, enables more flexible working and is ideal for users who are away from their office/home a substantial part of the time.

Whilst the Vodafone One Net solution offers a lot features, it is not always the best option for businesses looking for a call management package. There are alternatives, one of which is Inbound Call Management.

Vodafone One Net Express

The most popular One Net product is the Express variant, which is squarely aimed at SMEs with up to 10 users. Larger companies can use it but their needs are usually better served by the One Net package.

One Net Express offers a quick set up, no need for any type of installation or fancy hardware, making it ideal for small business users. It also features inclusive calls, texts and data making budgeting much easier and reducing the chance of "bill shock".

The landline number (or numbers) you choose are contained within the Vodafone network, meaning that there are no diversions when people call the number. This is the main distinction between One Net and its competitors.

Because most people carry their mobiles wherever they are these days, you can be taking important business calls out of hours, on holiday, or wherever you are, leading to the Vodafone One Net slogan "never miss a business call again".

The advantages of Vodafone One Net Express are the features it offers which are not usually available to small businesses, such as music on hold and hunt groups, and the flexibility of configuration. Whilst a price of £55 per user might not seem cheap at first glance, this is the cost for a combination of landline and mobile bills and unlimited calls. Add into this the improvements in customer service and the opportunity to win more business by answering more calls and it becomes more appealing.

Inbound Call Management

With the call management option you can have a virtual landline number which can be diverted to any other numbers, landline or mobile. It can also be diverted to multiple numbers which ring at the same time or call a single number with multiple failover options. For instance it could ring a landline number first and if not answered failover to a mobile or group of mobiles.

With this option you are charged for the diverted calls, however the monthly charge is only £9.95 per month. Diverts to landlines cost 1.25ppm and to mobiles 9.95ppm, charged by the second subject to a minimum 1p call charge. It is highly configurable and you can change your options at any time via the intuitive web interface.

Which option suits your business best depends upon the number of users and how many calls are being received. We can run through the different options with you calculate the most cost effective for you.

Snow is on its way again. Around here it's due Thursday afternoon continuing on Friday and possibly the weekend. At the moment the forecasters seem a bit vague about how much there might be but what if it's as bad as the last snowfall?

Many businesses suffered significantly in the last bad weather with employees stranded at home and offices barely manned. However, after a few days the panic is over and things go back to normal. Ways of avoiding business disruption are forgotten.....until it happens again!

Preparing your business for disruption does not have to be costly or difficult to implement. Facilitating employees working from home as if they were in the office not only helps when they are stranded but can also be a positive factor in attracting and retaining good staff.

There are several products which could help your business.

• With MyInbound you can redirect calls to your employees' homes or mobiles or other branches at the touch of a button. You can set up pre-planned disaster recovery plans, or create a new plan to instantly come into effect. Read more about call management solutions.
• Conferencing. If you can’t travel to that important meeting, don’t cancel it. You can show presentations, work on documents together, video conference, or just talk.
• Hosted IP Telephony. Work from anywhere there's an internet connection and have all the same telephone functionality as if in the office.

We can help your business prepare for disruption and keep it up and running in difficult circumstances. Get in touch with us for a quotation or a total business telecoms healthcheck and solution.

As the snow continues to fall, some areas are experiencing considerable business disruption. We know because some of the companies we deal with are based in the frozen north and are struggling to cope with skeleton staff and even office closures.

Do you have contingencies in place for business disruption like this?

VoIP technology makes remote working solutions easier. No matter whether you’re working around planned holidays, or unexpected weather related disruption, remote working functionality allows users to operate as though in the office.

• Make and receive calls
• Access voicemail and fax
• Communicate with others via private instant messaging server
• Monitor the availability of colleagues
• Twin the users’ mobile phones with their desk phones to ensure they can receive every call
• Control the behaviour of incoming calls to full effect during extended periods where employees are unavailable

When implemented properly a VoIP remote working solution will make your customers believe you are trading as normal no matter how much disruption.

VoIP technology and software can also help you with business metrics. Monitoring and measuring your business performance with one-click reporting allowing you to see where you are performing well and where improvements can be made.

For more information regarding remote and flexible working solutions or for a VoIP evaluation and quotation please contact us.

We offer a number of other services in addition to our core business mobile phones. We have now expanded our site to take into account two new pages:

• Business Landline and Fixed Line Telephony
• VoIP Phone Systems and services

Business Landlines

Has your business reviewed its fixed line telephony recently? Did you know you could be making savings of 40% on your call charges?

We offer all business users a free review of their business landline costs. All we need is a copy of your latest bill which ensures we are basing our savings on your actual usage.

We analyze all of your call spend broken down between local calls, national calls, international, calls to mobiles, premium rate etc. We apply our best rates to each call and show you what your bill could have been had you been with us.

As well as savings on call charges we can also provide line rental cheaper than many other suppliers as well as call management, phone numbers and telephone systems.

VoIP Phone Systems

Has your business looked into the benefits of an internet based telephony solution? IP phone systems offer flexibility and features way beyond the average analogue phone system.

With VoIP phone systems becoming more popular and prevalent the prices are also coming down. Now many small businesses can take advantage of the latest technology without breaking the bank.

Hosted solutions are available too, meaning that you don't need servers and expensive hardware on site. Nor do you have the maintenance and update issues when you run a cloud based system.

There are also VoIP systems with integrated sim card readers for free calls to mobiles - a great source of cost reductions these days with so many mobile calls being made by most businesses.

These are just a couple of the extra business telecoms services we offer. We can also help with employee management (vehicle and device tracking), broadband and mobile broadband, plus a range of website services.

Businesses looking at their landline phone bills will know that a large proportion of their monthly spend is likely to be outbound calls to mobile phones. As more consumers rely upon mobile phones and don't even have a landline the cost of calling mobiles is going to rise further still.

Obtaining free calls to mobiles would considerably reduce the average bill of most business users and there are options available. A GSM Gateway, also known as a Premicell, is a hardware device which contains one or more SIM cards and allows a landline based call to be routed through a mobile phone in the most cost effective way.

It allows your telephone system to differentiate between numbers beginning with 07 (mobile calls) and others, routing calls to mobiles via the sim card and other calls over your landline. The sim card can belong to your standard business mobile contract, meaning that calls to your own company mobiles should be free and to other mobiles come from within your inclusive minutes.

Whilst this solution would save companies money, it will not be the solution for everyone. For many SMEs the answer is to obtain the best landline call rates for mobile phones. Check your latest bill and see how much per minute you are paying to ring a mobile number. Expensive?

We offer a free service to all businesses. You show us your bills and we will show you where savings can be made. In many cases savings of 40% can be achieved and this is not to be ignored even with a low call spend.

Obtaining the best business landline contract, reducing your line charges and call charges, will save your business money each and every month. These savings really add up. At the same time we can advise you about telephone systems, call management and other measures which could improve your customer service and deliver increased profits.

Even if you are in contract currently give us a chance to show you what your savings could be and we can then contact you nearer the contract expiry date and give you a firm quote based on the latest call details.

Savings are not limited to mobile phone calls, we can also save you money on local, national and international phone calls. We have our own bespoke tariffs and billing engine to ensure you get the best business landline deal.

Originally this site was started solely to sell business mobiles, and products and services related only to this category. We worked closely with 21c Telecom Ltd, our main supplier, and had good success supplying businesses with phones on contract terms.

However, the telecoms market has moved on, and more and more businesses are sourcing all of their communication products from a single supplier. The advantages of this approach include cost savings, reduced administration, better customer service and enhanced fault resolution.

We are also able to offer a full range of business telecom products including:

• Business Landlines

This includes line rental, reduced call charges, telephone systems, telephone numbers, maintenance contracts, call management and more. Easy to understand monthly billing and a single point of contact for questions and problems.

• Business Broadband

Business grade broadband with low contention ratios giving your business a greater share of the available bandwidth. High speed, reliable broadband with routers supplied and installed where necessary.

• Mobile Broadband

USB dongles supplied to give you 3G mobile internet via your laptop or netbook. Speeds up to 7.2mbps.

• Vehicle Tracking

Track your vehicles or employees via hardware or a mobile phone. Live view of current position via real-time web interface.

All types and size of business can benefit from taking out a range of services with us, achieving large savings over a multiple supplier solution. Quotes are always free and we aim to save you money whilst simultaneously improving your business communications.

We are always looking at new products and services that can benefit our customers by reducing costs and improving communications. One such product allows you to control your inbound calls on any number, anywhere, from any device.

It works for both geographic and non-geographic telephone numbers and provides online access to a full range of call routing, monitoring and management tools, helping your business improve its customer service.

The benefits of this service include:

• Use with any number, anywhere, from any device
• Easy to use, designed to be intuitive
• Immediate to set up
• No capital outlay

There are three plans available on this service, designed for all sizes of business from sole traders and single site businesses, through multi site/multi department organisations, up to large call centres.

The features provided include:

• Tailored call plans - build plans according to your business operating hours, schedule call routing, handling and divert options to maximise your call handling potential.
• Call statistics - easily interpreted graphs of your inbound call statistics, results of call handling.
• Call queuing - Queue incoming calls during busy periods. Live queue statistics and queue management.
• Auto attendant - interactive voice response can be uploaded for announcements to callers
• Optional call recording - record inbound calls for compliance, customer service and audit purposes.

The easy to use online interface gives you full control of the handling of all of your inbound call traffic. If this feature is something you think could aid your business please contact us to discuss your requirements.