An image from the Intermedia knowledge base, illustrating the company's Virtual Receptionist controls
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Web hosting and reseller email hosting provider Intermedia (www.intermedia.net) announced via its blog on Monday that it has launched a hosted phone answering and call routing service it calls its “Virtual Receptionist” offering it describes as a kind of “PBX lite.”
Intermedia says the service manages inbound call routing, and is designed ideally for small businesses with one to five employees. Hosted switchboard services are an increasingly popular service among small businesses – in part for their ability to offer a company with a small number of employees the appearance of a bit more organizational structure – but are still far from common among the value-added services offered by web hosting providers.
“Virtual Receptionist transparently works with a user’s existing phone service by forwarding calls to the phones they already use,” says Manlio Carrelli, Intermedia’s chief marketing officer, quoted in the announcement. “Businesses can immediately professionalize themselves with an automated attendant and main company number, so regardless of company size, they never miss a potential sales or customer call.”
Intermedia says its Virtual Receptionist includes functions for working with local and toll-free numbers, a voice menu that greets callers and can forward to an unlimited number of users and extensions, the option to handle calls differently after business hours, customizable greetings, “call groups” for routing to teams, and administration via an online interface.
The Virtual Receptionist offering joins a list of other Intermedia hosted communications and collaboration software, which includes hosted PBX, online backup, Office Communications Server 2007, SharePoint 2010, and Exchange 2010.
Intermedia is perhaps best known as a provider of hosted Exchange email for resellers, with many of its customers within the web hosting business. In late may, private equity firm Oak Hill Capital acquired Intermedia for an undisclosed amount.
No pricing for the new Virtual Receptionist service appears to have been posted to the company’s website just yet.
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
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