Thinking Phone Networks Cloud VoIP Assessment

Unlike many cloud VoIP providers, Thinking Phone Networks is intent on selling its services to mid-size and large companies. To appeal to such customers, the venture capital-backed provider, known for short as TPN, is marketing a lot more than cloud-based voice phone systems. Indeed, it calls itself a cloud UC provider, and touts a variety of features and functions in addition to basic voice calling capabilities. These range from presence detection to instant messaging to contact center capabilities to video conferencing. It also operates an end-to-end network that allows it to maintain maximum control over its services. The result is a potentially potent alternative to premises phone systems for businesses that have multiple sites with lots of employees.


The foundation of TPN's offering is its ThinkingVoice cloud-based IP PBX product. This service includes a solid set of call-handling features including:

Auto attendant that lets callers reach any user connected to their company's ThinkingVoice network, with no limits on the number of calls or locations. Companies with multiple sites can have a single auto attendant serve all of their locations

Find me/follow me that allows calls to a single extension to ring different phones simultaneously or in sequence based on user-specified rules and settings

Voice mail to email that delivers notifications of messages, and the messages themselves in the form of audio files, to users' email inboxes

Conference bridges for audio meetings of up to 100 participants

Ring groups that allow routing of incoming calls to multiple extensions, so that anyone in a department or team can answer the calls

Fax to email which, although not a voice service, brings considerable convenience by delivering incoming fax messages to users' inboxes in the form of PDF attachments
ThinkingVoice service employs Polycom phones capable of handling from two to 48 lines.

TPN's contact center product, dubbed ThinkingContactCenter, boasts a similarly substantial list of features. It allows routing based on agent skills, customer information, time of day and day of week, among other parameters. What TPN describes as a unified desktop client provides such features as presence information, instant messaging and screen pops. Supervisors can access extensive real-time information about agents and queues, as well as historical reporting in a large variety of formats.

The ThinkingCommunicator app both delivers presence information and instant messaging, which are key elements of the overall UC functionality, and initiates outbound calls and provides notification of inbound calls. It also provides access to centralized contact lists, including groups. It works in conjunction with call center and other applications. A related downloadable application called ThinkingMobile provides mobile integration. It is available for iOS and Android smart phones and tablets, letting users access the main functions of the office phone system even when they are away from their desks. Among other things, it allows them to make calls from and receive calls to their office numbers via their mobile phones. It too supports presence detection and instant messaging.

The video conferencing application is unsurprisingly called ThinkingVideo. TPN describes it as a bridging service that supports point-to-point and multipoint video communication. It too is accessible through the Thinking Mobile app. TPN claims to provide all the components necessary to deliver professional-grade video conferencing. This all-encompassing strategy combines with the Quality of Service technology built into its network that connects sites to maximize the providers' control over the video communication experience.

The network is part of a national infrastructure that Thinking Phone Networks has built to support its ambition to serve large companies with multiple sites. TPN runs its cloud services on five data centers geographically dispersed across the U.S. It then provides broadband IP connections to customers' sites and links them via its own backbone network. This allows it to keep end-to-end control over all of the services it delivers.

TPN illustrates a typical installation as having a 20 Mbps SIP connection with QoS functionality to a company's main office, with both an Internet router and a managed switch within the same office. Connections to remote offices may be T1 or 10 Mbps IP links. Since TPN provides and manages the connections, it is thus able to control their performance to optimize the quality of voice and video. As such, it removes a big barrier to enterprise adoption of cloud UC.

Like this blog article? This assessment is the 18th in a series of articles evaluating the offerings of cloud/hosted VoIP providers. Check out the others here:

Fonality Cloud VoIP Assessment
ShoreTel Sky Cloud VoIP Assessment
8x8 Cloud VoIP Assessment
RingCentral Cloud VoIP Assessment
Momentum Cloud VoIP Assessment
Vocalocity Cloud VoIP Assessment
XO Communications Cloud VoIP Assessment
Digium Cloud VoIP Assessment
FreedomVoice/FreedomIQ Cloud VoIP Assessment
Nextiva Cloud VoIP Assessment
Jive Communications Cloud VoIP Assessment
SimpleSignal Cloud VoIP Assessment
VirtualPBX Cloud VoIP Assessment
Cbeyond Cloud VoIP Assessment
PanTerra Cloud VoIP Assessment
OnSIP Cloud VoIP Assessment
MegaPath Cloud VoIP Assessment

About the Author

Robert Poe has written extensively about technology in the U.S. and Asia. He is a portrait, sports and dance photographer, and likes karate, Argentine Tango, bicycling and running. He has worked for two startups, neither of which made him rich. His website for VoIP coverage is VoIP Evolution.

thinking phone fuze, thinking phone networks, thinking phone networksthinking phone networks llc
Source: http://docphy.com/technology/computers/software/thinking-phone-networks-cloud-voip-assessment.html