4 Available Options to Connect Remote and Branch Offices

4 Available Options to Connect Remote and Branch Offices

For multi-site businesses today, having a high-quality branch office VoIP network and choosing the services that come with it has never been more important. It’s imperative that all remote sites,  branches, and mobile workers can effectively communicate, smoothly co-ordinate, and operate in tandem so as to achieve the highest efficiency.

The deployment of a multi-location VoIP system can be extremely beneficial to keep all dispersed aspects seamlessly connected and solve common branch office issues like spiraling inter-office call costs and remote workers disconnection. In this blog, we will dig into a couple of available options to extend VoIP to remote sites and discuss how to build a seamless multi-site telephony system.

How to Connect Your Remote Offices

There are actually a number of economical branch office solutions to link remote branches to corporate communications platforms based on the size and number of remote sites you are looking to connect. Beyond the size and number of branch offices, functionality, costs, ease of use, and reliability of an interconnection system should also be taken into considerations.

1. Remote Extension Registration

For very small branch locations with only a few endpoints, one of the most cost-effective ways is to connect endpoints through a remote extension registration. A few phones/softphones can be located at any site without additional hardware investment on the branches. These phones can be registered to an on-premise telephony server (PBX system) in the main site via VPN or DDNS (Dynamic Domain Name System) configuration, for example, register remote extension on Yeastar S-Series PBX. In this way, all voice calls are routed to the central IP PBX, which completes the call. But what worth noting that the remote connection via DDNS inevitably requires some firewall configurations like port forwarding on the router, which might pose potential security threats.

2. Networking IP PBXs for Multi-Site & Branches

A premise-based, system-to-system multi-office VoIP network is ideal for larger separate offices, where branch office workers require the same level of communications and collaboration capabilities as those in large offices. In such kind of system-to-system multisite VoIP network, each location is equipped with their own PBX and are interconnected through SIP trunk or the PBX’s exclusive built-in interconnection method.

The benefits of networking multiple PBX systems abound: you will be able to make free inter-office calls, share trunks among these offices to extend your available resources across your multiple locations, and maintain control of employees and costs. Greater redundancy can also be achieved as each PBX can work as a stand-alone system even if your VoIP link goes down.

But there are still obstacles lie ahead. Networking multiple telephony systems can be complicated via traditional way of SIP trunking. The necessity of port forwarding, static public IP address settings, and the number of SIP trunks to configure can be time-consuming and troublesome for the unprofessional. Thankfully, to remove these obstacles, some PBX providers offer easy solutions to intercommunicate multiple on-premises PBX. Yeastar S-Series VoIP PBX’s multisite interconnect feature allows you to connect your branches in minutes, and enjoy additional business-enhancing benefits like single dial plan across all sites, centralized call processing, seamless inter-office call transfer, enhanced network security and more.

SIP Trunking VS Yeastar Multisite Interconnect

Figure 1: Traditional Way of SIP Trunking vs. Yeastar Multisite Interconnect

3. Utilizing VoIP Gateway to Connect Remote Sites

If you have more than a few endpoints in geographically distributed offices and do not want to deploy extra PBX systems on remote locations, you may need to deploy VoIP Gateways to connect your headquarter PBX system and your phones in the branches.

VoIP gateway solutions are perfect for small business and branch offices with analog voice infrastructures to capitalize on the power of VoIP technology. FXS gateway provides support for the integration of analog endpoints; FXO gateway can integrate local PSTN (Public Switch Telephone Network) and allow remote headquarter office to make local calls, which helps save long-distance charges; and GSM gateway could also offer local GSM trunk connectivity.

Typically, a VoIP gateway solution for branch offices can realize the following features: free inter-office calls, the use of corporate trunks for both inbound and outbound calls on branches, and vice versa.

4. Moving to the Cloud

When a business spans more than one location, the complexity of maintaining a multisite phone system can present major challenges. A cloud communications system can free you from such trouble, as it serves all locations – large, small, global, and even at-home offices – via the internet. By moving to the cloud, IT managers can reduce or eliminate the need for dedicated staff to support remote locations. All-inclusive communications services are delivered seamlessly anywhere: direct extension-dialing, call transfer, unified communication, and much more. As you can imagine, perfect for a company with a dispersed workforce.

Cloud Branch Office Solution

Figure 2: Cloud Communications System for Remote Site and Mobile Workers


Dig Deeper on Efficient Branch Office Solution

Yeastar offers a complete range of cost-effective branch office solution. Whether it’s hardware in a server room or a virtual system in the cloud, you can find the right solution that offers the best features that fit your company size and type of business. Take a look and find the best solution for you now!

Yeastar Branch Office VoIP Solution

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IVR

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Add voice prompts on multiple levels for more effecient and precise inbound call routing.

Voicemail

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Reports and CDR

All call log activities are stored, with the option of having audio conversations recorded by default or for specific extensions.

Use intuitive visual call reports, to check various call statistics over extensions, trunks, queues, ring groups, and more.

Call reports can be viewed and downloaded directly from the PBX, or scheduled to be sent via email to respective parties.

Security

Restrict a general group or specific IP addresses to prevent unauthorized access to your PBX.

Limit the number of otbound calls users are allowed to make within a time period to protect against toll fraud.

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User Login

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Recordings

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Paging and Intercom

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Maintenance

Check for and download firmware upgrades to ensure that your PBX is always up-to-date.

Perform back-ups to prevent data and settings from getting lost.

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Conference

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Speed Dial

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Speed dial is activated when the set prefix (default or customized) is dialed.

Ring Group

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Call Queue

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Static agents permanently answer calls in queue, while dynamic agents can log in and out. Allocate different extensions to each group.

Determine what actions are to be allowed for Mangers or Agents to manage on the Queue Panel.

Call Control

Have calls received on specific SIP trunks routed to designated extensions or destinations within the PBX.

Set-up dial patterns so that outbound calls are routed to their intended destinations.

Determine how calls are routed and received at different times of a day.

Contacts

Store, retrieve, and share company contact details easily on your PBX.

Organize company contacts into dedicated phonebooks and determine accessibility rights to extension groups for each.

Bulk import a list of contacts instead of having to key details in individually.

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Different types of trunks can be created, Caller ID can be customized.

Extensions

View, deploy, add, and remove user extensions within your PBX system.

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Receive your administrator log-in credentials and set-up guide via email.

Log-in on any web-browser to get started with PBX set-up.

Installation Wizard will guide you through basic configurations.

User Login

Access all company contacts made available to you by the administrator.

Create your own personal contacts list for easy reference and dialing.

Bulk import contact details for convenient data entry.

User Login

Access and manage user settings for softphone application and voicemail.

Manage call routing and presence status for your individual extension.

Retrieve or download your personal call logs and recordings.

User Login

Receive your log-in credentials and set-up guide via email, sent by your admin.

Log-in on any web-browser to get started with PBX set-up.

Configure contacts and personal settings from the web portal.

Auto Provision

Add, remove, or modify IP phone settings from your web interface.

Upgrade IP phone firmware conveniently from your PBX.

Upload various default setting parameters specific to respective IP phone models for greater convenience during set-up.

Contacts

Store, retrieve, and share company contact details easily on your PBX.

Have detailed contact information for your vendors and clients conveniently stored .

Bulk add a list of contacts instead of having to key details in individually.

PBX Monitor

Monitor the status extensions, whether they aren idle, in use, or unavailable.

Know whether your SIP Trunk running properly, or experiencing problems.

Monitor the number of call conferences currently running on your PBX, and their individual durations.

Maintenance

Check for and download firmware upgrades to ensure that your PBX is always up-to-date.

Perform back-ups to prevent data and settings from getting lost.

Perform troubleshooting on your own to debug.

Call Detailed Report

All call log activities are stored, with the option of having audio conversations recorded by default or for specific extensions.

Filter by date, time, or extension number to retrieve specific call logs or recordings

Playback call recordings directly from the PBX or download to store externally.

Event Center

Determine what events and logs are to be recorded and/or have notifications sent.

Specify particular notifications to be sent to respective authorized personnel.

User Permission

Set up vaious groups of users for allocation to certain sets of access rules.

Determine what features a certain group of extensions can or cannot access.

Determine if users can access, play-back, or download call logs and recordings from the pbx.

Security

Restrict a general group or specific IP addresses to prevent unauthorized access to your PBX.

Determine specific the range of SIP ports for connection between your PBX and endpoints.

Restrict country codes for outbound calls either company-wide or on certain extensions.

Voice Prompt

Upload and designate customised audio recordings at multiple levels of a call journey.

Upload recorded music to fill the silence that would be heard by callers on hold.

Upload customised voice prompts to create a professional call experience.

General

Customize general call preferences either company-wide or for individual extensions.

Set-up feature dial codes for convenient user navigation to specific call features.

Determine how voicemails are retrieved, and also upload custom voicemail recordings.

Call Features

Add multiple automated responses to be played at different phases of a call journey.

Designate specific extensions to ring concurrently based on an external caller's dial pattern.

Customize messages and waiting times to keep external callers engaged when put on hold.

Call Control

Have calls received on specific SIP trunks routed to designated extensions within the PBX.

Set-up dial patterns so that outbound calls are routed to their intended destinations.

Determine how calls are routed and received at different times of a day.

Trunks

Register multiple SIP trunks on a single PBX as needed.

Provision SIP trunk settings and dedicate them to particular extensions.

Bulk add DDIs on each SIP trunk, for allocation to an individual or groups of extensions.

Extensions

View, deploy, add, and remove user extensions within your PBX system.

Allocate and deploy specific extension numbers to respective users via email.

Set-up default ring and presence status settings for individual users.

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