Phone systems can do amazing things, but usually you pay for that. There are set up costs, monthly costs and then there are the call costs. Aya. When Clearman Lawyers looked at the fine print and did the calculations, for our expected use patterns the quotes we had would have cost us about AUD$16,000.00 to $20,000.00 per year to run with just a couple of users. By contrast, the system we built costs just around two cents a minute (US1.8c plus GST) with negligible ongoing costs and no lock in contracts (assumes that you are already paying for Microsoft Office 365). That’s about $2.40 a day (2 hours talking, one person). BUT it took me a while to bootstrap the system and connect the parts together. There be dragons in the setup but not in the costs. This system is based on an Amazon Connect phone system (full function call centre).
What can it do that’s better than a standard Amazon Connect phone system? When someone calls your Amazon Connect phone system, Amazon reaches into your (almost free) Microsoft database and automatically shows who is calling, their details, call history etc. It’s a one way relationship so Amazon reads but doesn’t write to your Microsoft database.
Who is this suitable for? Folks in business who are happy to manage a learning curve to have control over their own communications and costs and who want to make sure their people have the right information in front of them so clients can tell the business cares.
At the time of writing, after a LOT of Googling, we’re not aware of anyone else doing it this way. We just want to share this top quality, low cost solution because most people are already paying for the infrastructure (Microsoft) and the call system is so cost-effective.
Here’s a very high level snapshot of how it works and if there’s some interest, we’re happy to provide further details including links to the right ‘how to’ materials. 1. Get a telephone number (or use the one Amazon Connect offers you). 2. Set up an Amazon Connect phone system / call centre (see Busyping tutorials on YouTube). 3. Set up a contact database in Microsoft PowerApps. 4. Connect the phone system and the database together with Amazon AppFlow (free but takes time and effort). 5. Map fields from your PowerApps Database to Amazon Connect Customer Profiles database. 6. Your people will then have helpful information about your callers at their fingertips. 7. Stop fretting about how much your communications system costs. 8. You can build out an absolute state of the art communications with the Amazon Connect Omnichannel system complete with all AI, chat etc bells and whistles and link it to your own database. 9. Build your business’ heart around that PowerApps Database to keep communications open and strong with your people.
Disclaimer
This page is not intended to provide legal advice and does not create a client-lawyer relationship. This post is provided for general information purposes and should not be relied upon as a substitute for legal advice. If you need help with legal advice for your particular situation, please contact our office (details below or on ‘Contact’ page) and we’ll be happy to assist you.