Virtual PBX(R) Enhances Hosted PBX Voicemail With Voicemail Interrupt

    SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Virtual PBX(TM), inventor of
 the hosted PBX service, today announced a voicemail enhancement feature for
 its technology-leading VirtualPBX Service. The new Voicemail Interrupt
 feature is designed to give clients more control over voice messaging than
 is possible with standard business phone systems by allowing users to
 listen to messages as they are being left by the caller.
 
     Voicemail Interrupt lets users listen to voicemail messages in real
 time as they are being left on the system. If desired, the user can then
 interrupt the voicemail message and speak with the caller directly without
 losing control of the call until they hang up. With a typical business
 phone system, once a call is sent to voicemail it is inaccessible to the
 user. The only way for the user to know what the call was about is to play
 back the message that was left. This is true for cell phones, PBX equipment
 -- both hosted and hardware-based -- and virtually all business phone
 systems, including VoIP. The new release is available immediately to all
 Virtual PBX clients, at no additional cost.
 
     "Few people realize that home answering machines can do something that
 most business phone systems can't -- allow users listen in on voicemail as
 it is being left and pick up the call at any time," said Greg Brashier, COO
 of Virtual PBX. "With most business phone systems, whether premised-based
 hardware or other hosted systems, calls sent to voicemail are on an
 unstoppable one-way trip. With this release, we're giving our clients more
 control of the call by allowing them to listen in to the message being left
 and connect to the caller at any time."
 
     Voicemail Interrupt, coupled with Virtual PBX's SmartID(TM) capability,
 provides a wide variety of ways that users can know what a call is about
 before they connect with the caller. SmartID tells users who the call is
 from, what department in the company is being called, and whether a call is
 business or personal in nature -- all before the user actually takes the
 call. With the addition of Voicemail Interrupt, users can now also listen
 to the voice message to learn the identity of the caller, determine the
 sense urgency and decide whether or not to take the call.
 
     Virtual PBX's target markets for the new feature are small companies
 and firms with distributed workers, such as telecommuters. Incoming calls
 are answered by the Virtual PBX system and then routed, per caller
 selection, to an employee or department in any location. This original
 "virtual office" phone system does not require employees to work in the
 same office together -- adding flexibility to staffing and enabling client
 businesses to reduce office expenses. No hardware or software is needed at
 client sites, reducing capital and maintenance costs and IT staffing.
 
     About Virtual PBX
 
     Virtual PBX.com(R), Inc., pioneered the hosted PBX market, introducing
 the first product of this class in 1997. Virtual PBX utilizes the public
 service telephone network and the internet to provide PBX functionality as
 a hosted service. The three primary uses for Virtual PBX services are in
 small businesses that want full PBX functionality without the capital and
 support expense of installed equipment, companies of any size that need to
 route calls to telecommuters or other employees outside of a main office,
 and enterprises looking for phone system disaster recovery solutions.
 Additional information about VirtualPBX.com, Inc., can be found at
 www.virtualpbx.com.
 
 

     Virtual PBX and VirtualPBX.com are trademarks of VirtualPBX.com, Inc.
 
     Media Contact:
     Bryan Ferraro/Corey Oiesen
     Dovetail Public Relations
     (408) 395-3600
     vpbx at dovetailpr.com
 
 

SOURCE Virtual PBX