Now that I have started to get a handle on using Google Voice for my personal calls I am trying to identify how I can use it for work as well. Integration with our existing PBX has some interesting challenges. I am hoping that other people can provide some insight into how they are using GV to manage both business and non-business voice communications.
Some things I would like to accomplish.
- Elimination of my work voicemail.
- Ability to filter out cold sales calls and provide a distinct message.
- Notification of critical after hours calls
- One button and scheduled GV forwarding from my office
Some current issues with what is available.
- GV has no scheduling options for work/non-work hours.
- If I can’t make my work PBX pass through caller ID then there is no way to differentiate business callers.
So, in Google’s (Grand Central’s) vision you hand out your GV number to everyone and you don’t deal with your internal PBX at all. It’s possible I could reroute my current extension into GV permanently and create a new unlisted extension for myself, but then I have issues with in office calling and transferred calls not to mention losing some of the PBX scheduling functionality.
Tags: Google Voice