Auto-attendant
	Answer all calls professionally, without the need for a receptionist
	Custom greeting
	Personalized, professional business greeting for all callers
	Music/info on hold
	Improve your image with a variety of music, or a promotional message
	Automated directory
	Dial-by-name directory updates itself as employees change
	Day and night modes
	Change the company greeting at night and/or send all calls to voicemail
	Direct Inward Dial
	Optionally bypass greetings and send calls directly to an extension
	Music jukebox
	Choose different songs in a variety of styles

Call Routing

	Virtual extensions
	Extensions are assigned to people, not physical phones
	Follow-me calling
	Calls can automatically follow you to any location there is a phone
	Phone-type freedom
	Connect to any type of phone, land-line, cellular, VOIP, etc.
	Advanced transfers
	Transfer calls to other extensions, the operator, voicemail, or a queue
	Mail-only extensions
	Play informational messages or just take messages

User Experience

	Caller ID/preview
	Calls are announced to users with caller ID and more—customizable
	Call screening
	Know the name of the person calling before deciding to answer
	Web-based setup
	Set up follow-me and other options or get messages on the web
	Call-answer security
	Password protect calls so only you can answer them
	Do-not-disturb
	Send calls directly to voicemail when you don't want interruptions Conferencing

Conferencing

	Conference-on-demand
	Start a conference at any time, without reservations or scheduling
	Every extension
	Each extension can have (or be denied) its own conference room
	Flexible security
	Lock, password protect, or open a conference room at any time
	Real-time monitoring
	Watch your conference room activity on-line—see who is on with you
	Easy to use
	No PINs to remember, no schedules to set up

Voicemail

	Never full
	No “mailbox is full” messages, no messages lost
	Centralized messages
	Messages kept centrally, no searching through multiple systems
	Personal greetings
	Extension owners can record their own voicemail greeting
	Notifications
	Know when you've got mail through email, pager, and web alerts
	Get voicemail anywhere
	From any touchtone phone, or listen through email or on the web
	Fax viewing options
	Faxes are delivered as .pdf files, viewable on the web or from email
	Automatic callback
	Simply push a button to place a return call to a voice message

Call center and Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) queuing

	Virtual call center
	Agents in the call center can work from the office, home, or anywhere
	Even load distribution
	Route calls evenly to all agents, not just a list of numbers
	ACD queuing
	Full-featured ACD queuing for managing calls to a department
	Self-managed agent presence
	Queues self-adjust, without admin handling as agents log in or out
	Skills-based routing
	Ensure that calls are answered by the most skilled agents first
	Queue optimization
	Patent-pending queue algorithms get calls answered faster
	Overflow queues
	Add helpers when hold time is too long or with too many waiting
	Protected queues
	Limit access to support queues through password protection
	Call waiting signal
	Agents are signaled when callers are waiting to be helped
	Information on hold
	Give your callers promotional messages or music while they wait
	Real-time monitoring
	Know how many callers are waiting, wait time, and agent status
	Queue logs
	Audit agent activity and queue history to improve service

Other features

	Call Blocking
	Block calls from specific phone numbers, exchanges, or area codes
	Dynamic operator
	Change the individual called for “operator” help
	Web callback
	Get rates when traveling by having our system place your calls
	Call detail records
	Manage your business through complete phone records
	Multi-stage dialing
	Dial through existing PBXs to unify branch offices
	Virtual calling card
	Place calls from any touch-tone phone without a calling card

Call Answering

Layer 2 Communications Hosted PBX gives many options for call routing, including:

	A specific extension number/employee
	An ACD queue (dial 1 for sales, 2 for support, etc.)
	Select an employee by first or last name from a company directory
	Send a fax to an employee extension
	Enter a tele-conference
	Transfer to an information extension, such as a message giving driving directions or office hours
	You can customize the response of the auto-attendant through your custom greeting.

Custom greeting
The message heard by callers when the auto-attendant answers incoming calls can be changed to meet your specific needs. Setup of your Hosted Virtual PBX system includes a professional voice talent recording of the exact greeting you want callers to hear.
You can also use the custom greeting to help callers find the people or information they want. For example, you can direct callers to an ACD queue (dial 1 for sales, 2 for support, etc.) if they know the department they want, but not the name of an individual, or give them access to a company directory.

Music/info on hold
Improving your company image can be as easy as playing a little music. While callers are waiting to be connected to an extension, they can listen to music or a recorded message. Choose music from a wide variety of interesting titles, or generate excitement with a promotional message.

Automated directory
Callers can be given access to a company directory when they don't know a specific extension number. You have the option to base the dial-by-name directory on either the first name or the last name of the employee.
Layer 2 Communications Hosted Virtual PBX removes the administrative pain of setting up and maintaining the company directory by handling this activity automatically. To set up and automate the company directory, employees need to make sure that they record their own name to greet callers. Extensions with no recorded name will not be listed in the directory.

Day and night modes
You may want your phone system to act differently after business hours. With our Hosted Virtual PBX, you have several after-hours options, available at the click of a button:

	Change the greeting callers hear, but leave the system fully active. Callers will know that business hours are over, but may still try to connect to an extension. With follow-me calling, answering options and voicemail each employee can decide if they want to continue to take calls or simply collect messages.
	Change the greeting and send all calls to voicemail. You'll know that messages have been recorded through our notification features.
	Leave the system in full operation, or put it back when the office opens again.

Direct Inward Dial
Direct Inward Dial (DID) is a well-know PBX function that allows calls to be routed directly to an extension without going through the auto-attendant or hearing a greeting. Typical virtual phone systems don't have the ability to allow this function, but a Layer 2 Communications Hosted Virtual PBX isn't a typical virtual phone system. We're better.

Music jukebox
Improving your company image can be as easy as playing a little music. While callers are waiting to be connected to an extension, they can listen to music or a recorded message. Choose music from a wide variety of interesting titles, or generate excitement with a promotional message.

Call Routing

Follow-me calling
With follow-me calling, extension owners (employees) create a list of phone numbers where they might be reached, such as the number of the phone at their desk, their home office, or their cellular phone. One of these numbers will be set as the default number that the Hosted PBX system sends every call.
If the employee enables follow-me, calls not answered at the default number will then be transferred to any other enabled numbers on the follow-me list, as the system attempts to “find” the employee and connect the call. If no one answers any of the numbers, callers are routed to the employee's central voicemail.
With follow-me from Layer 2 Communications Hosted PBX, you never have to miss an important call because you're on the road. We can reach you in any location there is a phone.
Setup for follow-me is easy, and it's done through our web-based management tool. You can change your number list, change the default number, enable or disable any of the numbers from taking calls, and more.

Phone-type freedom
Because Layer 2 Communications Hosted Virtual PBX is a hosted service, not a physical PBX, we can connect calls to any type of phone, over any kind of transport. Land lines, cellular phones, satellite phones, Voice-Over-IP (VOIP)—if you can receive standard telephone calls, we can reach you.
In-house PBX systems are not only expensive and difficult to maintain, they have limited connection capabilities. With premises equipment, connecting with outside employees or branch offices is either very expensive or impossible. Going virtual increases your options while reducing your costs.

Advanced transfers
Sometimes the caller you are speaking with needs to talk with someone else in the company. Most virtual telephone systems can't do transfers of any kind, and callers are required to call back in to the main number and ask for another extension. With Virtual PBX, you can transfer callers anywhere in the system: - to another employee, to the operator, or to an ACD queue. You can even drop calls into your voicemail so callers can record their phone number, address, or other important information.

Mail-only extensions
Mail-only extensions are used when you want to have callers receive a specialized pre-recorded message, but you don't want anyone to answer the phone. For example, you might an extension that callers can reach to get company business hours or driving directions. These reduced-cost extensions can be enabled to take voicemail messages which can then be forwarded by email to anyone in the company, or retrieved on the web. Alternatively, you can turn off the voicemail capability, and once the callers hear the extension's message, they will be routed back to the auto-attendant.

Centralized messages
Some people have several phones, each with its own voicemail. When they want to check their messages, they have to search through each system separately. Layer 2 Communications Virtual Hosted PBX lets you centralize all the messages in one place. Using follow-me calling, your calls can be routed to any phone you choose, and if you don't answer at any number, callers are sent to your personal voicemail. The callers hear your custom greeting, and then can leave a message in your personal, centralized mailbox. You don't have to search through multiple systems; you just look in one place.

Personal greetings
Instead of canned messages, our virtual hosted PBX allows you to customize the greeting that you give callers. Let your personality shine through. Be professional or laid-back, it's your choice. You record your own voicemail greeting, so callers hear your voice and you can say anything you want.

Notifications
Many times, knowing that you've got messages is critical. The Hosted Virtual PBX system includes multiple ways to let you know a voice message or fax is waiting. You can receive email notification, pager signals, and web alerts. By using text messaging, your cell phone can even know when you've received a fax.

Get voicemail anywhere
You have many choices for message retrieval with a Virtual Hosted PBX. Naturally, you can get your voicemail from any touchtone telephone, but you can also have your messages routed to your email as .wav files, and you can listen to them from your computer. The voice messages are also available through our web tool and you can retrieve them from any computer with web browsing capability and speakers.

Fax viewing options
Layer 2 Communications Hosted Virtual PBX handles incoming faxes automatically, without the need for a fax machine. The faxes are delivered as .pdf files to your email for viewing. Please note that outgoing faxes are not part of the system at this time.

Automatic callback
Many times we want to call back the person who left us a voice message, but the caller didn't leave a phone number. With our Hosted PBX, you can return a call to the phone number from which the message was left at the push of a button. Our phone menu tells you how.

Virtual offices and virtual call centers
Because we can send calls to any phone in any locations, the Hosted PBX system allows you to set up call centers with distributed workers. Hardware-based PBX systems usually require all employees to be in a central business office. With our Hosted PBX, call center agents can work from a main office or branch offices. They can set up home offices and still be a part of the call center. They can even log in while they are traveling and receive calls as though they were still in the office.

When your employees can work from anywhere, you have the freedom to set up your company any way that makes sense. Keep your agents together in an office most of the time, while facilitating travels or telecommuting, or set up a virtual office, with employees scattered across town or around the globe. Make your phone system adjust to your business needs, instead of the other way around.

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) queuing
ACD queues are used when callers may know what they want but not who they want. Typically, these callers will want to be connected with a department, such as sales or support. Without ACD queuing, callers must know the extension number of the person with whom they want to speak. With ACD, employees (agents) log into a queue group so they can answer calls for a specific department. Incoming calls are routed into the appropriate queue, and the calls are distributed to the agents logged into that queue. ACD queuing is a critical business function, especially for call centers, and needs to be as robust and feature-rich as possible to allow the maximum flexibility for your company. Many suppliers simply route calls to a list of names (a hunt group) and call it ACD queuing—leaving customers with incomplete and frustrating systems. Layer 2 Communications Hosted Virtual PBX offers the most sophisticated ACD capability of any hosted system, through our ACD technology, which offers a whole list of advanced features, such as:

	Even load distribution
	Self-managed agent presence
	Skills-based call routing
	Queue optimization
	Overflow queues
	Protected queues
	Call-waiting signals
	Custom on-hold information
	Real-time monitoring
	Queue logs

Even load distribution
ACD queuing includes the ability to guarantee an even distribution of calls across all employees logged into an ACD queue. We keep track of how long it has been since the agent last received a call, and route the next call to the person who has been off the phone the longest time. Competitive offerings usually try to pass off hunt groups as giving even distribution of calls. Typically, however, this type of solution simply creates a list of extensions and the calls are sent to the same extensions, in the same order, every time. The first person on the list gets every call, and if that agent doesn't answer the call is routed to the next. The employee at the end of the hunt group may never receive a call at all. A few vendors have started randomizing the hunt group list, which pays no attention to how long it's been since an agent received a call and therefore doesn't really balance the load. If you want real ACD queuing, get ACD from Layer 2 Communications Hosted PBX.

Self-managed agent presence
Managing ACD queues can be complex and time consuming for administrators. With most systems, administrators must keep track of who is working, when employees go on breaks, when someone comes in late, etc. ACD queuing allows employees to log themselves in and out of queues, and the system dynamically and automatically adjusts call routing appropriately. Administrators never have to be involved in the process. Management can monitor queue and employee activity, in real time, but they don't have to re-configure the system with every employee change.

Skills-based routing
Of all the hosted PBX systems, only Layer 2 Communications Hosted Virtual PBX offers skills-based call routing. This feature allows administrators to rank employees in ACD queues by how skilled they are, or by the priority the employees should have in answering calls. There are several important ways this can be used to improve business operations, here are two:
You can set the rank of the most skilled agents to the highest level, and decrease the ranking for those with lesser skills. When a call arrives, the Hosted PBX system knows which agents are already assisting customers, and the incoming call is routed automatically to the highest-ranked available agent. This ensures that the most skilled agents take the most calls. New employees in training can be ranked at the lower levels, allowing them to help when the need is great but giving them more time to learn from peers.
Another usage for skills-based routing is to allow all calls to be answered first by employees that should take them, but add other human assets when all of the regular agents are busy. A CEO, for example, could arrange that sales people are the first to take sales calls, but if all those agents are busy, support people would answer incoming sales calls, and if everyone in both groups is busy, the CEO will take them personally.
Never miss an important incoming call, even if the CEO has to get involved. Make sure your most skilled people answer each incoming call, for whatever type of call. Get ACD queuing from Layer 2 Communications Hosted PBX.

Overflow queues
ACD from our Hosted Virtual PBX allows you to set up overflow queues that will be invoked when the incoming call load really gets heavy. With this feature, you can designate an extra set of employees to help with answering calls if the normal ACD queue gets too busy. The determination of when to bring in the help can be based on two situations—when callers have been on hold waiting for an agent for too long, or if too many callers are waiting in the queue. Both of these settings are customizable, letting you reduce frustration for your callers, improving your business image, and making you more profitable.

Protected queues
A Virtual PBX system allows you to set up ACD queues that employees can log into whenever they are needed, reducing administrative load. If you want to limit access to certain queues, we give you the option to set up a queue password that will be required before queue entry is allowed.

Call waiting signal
Sometimes employees in queues think they can chat because the phone lines aren't busy. ACD signals all queue members whenever there are callers waiting, so the agents know that they should wrap up their current calls in a businesslike fashion so they can help the next caller. There's never a case where an employee doesn't know people are waiting.

Information or music on hold
ACD queues are used by many businesses as a way to keep up with a large number of incoming calls using a limited number of employees. The highest business efficiency comes when there are always calls waiting to be answered—as long as they aren't waiting too long. Layer 2 Communications Hosted PBX gives you the option to play music from a broad selection of styles while callers wait, or to play a custom informational or promotional message. The music and message can be different from queue to queue and you get wide flexibility in when to use the recordings.

Real-time monitoring
Effective management of a call center often means knowing what is happening all the time. How many callers are waiting? How long is the wait time? How many employees are actively answering calls for each queue? These questions and more can be answered in real-time through our sophisticated queue monitoring tools. Part of our browser-based management suite, these tools allow managers to see exactly what is happening from any computer with internet access. Whether employees are located in the same facility as the manager or telecommute from home offices, management can monitor activity levels and ensure that calls are being taken in an efficient manner.

By monitoring call activity, managers can move assets from one ACD queue to another as needed, or know when they need to get extra help. Real-time queue monitoring will improve your business response and efficiency. Most virtual phone solutions don't offer it.

Queue logs
In addition to knowing what is going on at any given moment, it is often useful to know what has happened in the past. We provide our customers with queue logs, so they can see when agents logged in and out of queues, how many callers were waiting at any time, and other important management data. This queue history will help your organization improve customer service and staff your organization appropriate to need.

Other Features

Call blocking
This feature lets you identify certain phone numbers, exchanges or area codes from which you will not take calls. In addition to saving you time and frustration from spammers, Call blocking saves you money, because you don't have to pay for incoming calls you don't want. Wouldn't it be nice to ignore some calls when you know the caller is just trying to harass your employees? Wouldn't you like to save money by not paying for calls from an area where you can't do business? Does your existing PBX system give you this capability?

Dynamic operator assignment
Layer 2 Communications Virtual Hosted PBX gives you the flexibility to change who the “operator” is at any time. Most PBX systems route calls to specific phones, not to people. Our virtual system can route the call to any phone, anywhere, and can change the phone number to which calls are routed for a particular extension at any time. If your normal operator is going to be out for a while, simply re-assign the extension that is called when someone dials “0” for the operator through our browser-based web tool.

Virtual calling card
You need to make calls that will not be billed to the phone you are calling from, you can call your own toll-free number and ask your Virtual Hosted PBX system to place the calls for you. This feature is password protected and tracked by user extension, so you can eliminate abuse. It's perfect for calling from a friend's house, a hotel, or a pay phone. And you don't need to keep track of special code numbers and dialing strings, you just dial yourself.

Call detail records
Managing your phone system is important to both business efficiency and cost control. If you don't know how many calls are coming in, how many are being handled, or how long callers have to wait to be connected, how can you improve your response? Also, phone expenses need to be controlled or they can seriously hurt your business. Layer 2 Communications Hosted PBX will give you complete records of all calls that come into the system, including call date and time, the incoming Caller ID, what extension or ACD queue the call was routed to, the caller ID of the phone that answered the call, how long the call was, and more. This information is delivered to you electronically in two formats—an easy-to-read HTML format that you can view from your web browser, and a text version that you can enter into other programs for processing.

Multi-stage dialing
Multi-stage dialing lets you use your Hosted PBX system to unify and integrate businesses with more than one location at a very low cost. Many businesses have more than one branch office and must either give callers multiple numbers to choose from in order to get to the office they really want, or pay for very complex and expensive equipment that unifies the different branches under a single number. Your Hosted PBX number can serve as the umbrella under which all of your offices operate, even if you have hardware PBX's installed in some of your branches, at a small fraction of the cost of other solutions. By using multi-stage dialing, incoming calls can be routed to and through existing hardware PBX equipment to get directly to the correct employee extension in other systems.
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