Melissa Hedwall is one of our excellent technical support representatives based here, in the U.S. Normally, Melissa works from our Encinitas, Ca., headquarters but is temporarily working from New York City. When Melissa told her supervisor she wished she could spend more time with her parents, what would have been an unfortunate situation for an office with a traditional phone system, was an accommodation our hosted VoIP PBX platform allowed us to happily approve.

Our employees are tremendously important to us here at FreedomVoice. We know that a happy worker is a productive worker, and we are happy to provide flexibility for employees with unique needs. Currently, we have permanent remote employees working across the entire country, all virtually connected to each other and our headquarters. All of our employees, regardless of their location, receive the same training and are held to the highest standards of professional conduct.

It was Melissa’s supervisor, not Melissa herself, who actually suggested working from New York for a few weeks in order to spend more time with her parents. When given final approval, her emotions took over. “I chased him around the break area to give him a hug; I was so grateful.”

A few weeks later, she left San Diego and flew home to New York. Unfortunately, she hasn’t had the opportunity to go back as much as she would like, so it’s been a wonderful experience.

“I’m staying in the bedroom I grew up in. It’s different because the new buildings weren’t here two years ago. They were tennis courts.”

The physical changes to her neighborhood pales in comparison to being able to spend time with her parents. “They’re beside themselves; they’re thrilled,” she exclaimed.

Our FreedomIQ hosted VoIP PBX system allows Melissa to plug in from across the country and still be able to work as if she was in the office across the hall. All she needs is her VoIP phone and an Internet connection. While Melissa has been able to stay up to date on her work of resolving customer tickets over the phone and email, her supervisor is still able to monitor her calls and performance through FreedomVoice visual call reports and call record.

“The transition between working in the office and 3,000 miles away was virtually unnoticeable. I really thought it would be much more of a challenge to work here than at the office,” she said. “But I haven’t felt much of a difference in my productivity.”

Melissa is also planning on taking advantage of being home by reliving some of her favorite memories as a child.

“We’re going to spend a weekend up in the Catskill Mountains to see old friends. We’re going to stay overnight in a bed and breakfast.”

We are all looking forward to hearing about Melissa’s trip when she rejoins the team in Encinitas on Oct. 17. In the meantime, we wish her and her family well as they get to spend this time together.

For more photos of Melissa’s home office in New York, check out our Facebook Album.
What’s your company policy towards telecommuting and workshifting? We want to hear your story!

By downloading the Bria app from Apple’s App Store, you can take your VoIP phone system on the go with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch and either a Wi-Fi or 3G connection.

Just follow these steps!

1. Call FreedomVoice technical support at 888-955-3520 ext. 2 to get your unique 25-character password. You’ll need this later. Once you have it, go ahead and launch the app.

2. Select “SIP – Making Calls” under “User-defined Accounts”.

3. Next, you’ll need to configure your SIP account by filling in some blank fields with the information provided below.

4. Select “Account Advanced”.

• Out. Proxy: Enter “setup.hostedipbx.com”.
• Auth Name: Enter your DID.
• Global IP 3G: If you would like to make calls over 3G, set this to “ON”.
• Note: Enabling 3G will use data rates for these calls. Check your data plan with your wireless provider for details.
• Refresh Interval: Change to “300″.
• WiFi Interval: Change to “30″.

5. Go back to Settings and select “Preferences”.

• Allow 3G Calls: If you would like to make FreedomIQ calls over 3G, set this to “ON”. Otherwise, you will only be able to make calls with your softphone when you have a Wi-Fi connection.
• Note: Enabling 3G will use data rates for these calls. Check your data plan with your wireless provider for details.

6. Go back to Settings and select “Advanced Settings”.

• Quality of Service: Set this to “ON”.

7. Go back to “Accounts” in the Settings screen and select your account.

• Click the green “Register” button. The button should change to red and read “Unregister” if registration was successful.

Hooray!

If registration was a success, you should be ready to go. Click the “Phone” icon in the bottom-left to make your first mobile softphone call!

If registration failed, double-check the following settings:

• Username: This should be your DID.
• Password: This should be the 25-character code you received from technical support.
• Domain Name: This should be “setup.hostedipbx.com”.
• Out. Proxy: This should “setup.hostedipbx.com”.
• Auth Name: This should be your DID.

Android users: We didn’t forget about you. There are a few differences in the registration on the Bria Android app, and we’ll have an Android-specific guide published in the near future.

This new site and blog were a positive first step in helping our outer image reflect our inner quality, and we’ve furthered that with a brand new logo for a new decade. Are we just trying to be more cutting-edge?

As a wise man once said, “Do or do not. There is no try.” And we’ve been doing since day one, pushing the envelope of business communications. Not content to run with the pack, we’ve constantly rolled out improved virtual phone system features and innovative solutions like the FreedomIQ Hosted VoIP PBX and even the ill-fated Newber iPhone app. Where we’ve succeeded, we’ve grown. Where we’ve stumbled, we’ve learned.

This new logo not only represents where we’ve been, but also where we’re headed. In that vein, allow me to set the record straight – our logo may be getting a facelift, but our core values aren’t changing. Our commitment to quality, to affordable service, and to the success of our customers is as solid as it’s ever been. Think of this new logo as a badge of commitment to you, our customers, to keep pressing forward with new technologies designed with your business in mind.

We chose this logo out of countless alternatives because it really spoke to us as being representative of our services: bold, efficient, and easy to understand. So – love it, hate it? Tell us what you think.

Braun Mincher entered telecom in 1997 with the launch of PCG Consulting Group, a company focused on customer savings through a bill auditing and analysis model, and experienced immediate success.

A few years later he ventured into the budding installation and service sector with the formation of an AltiGen IP-PBX dealership. The company quickly rose through the ranks, prompting Mincher to sell and move on to author an award-winning book, titled “The Secrets of Money: A Guide for Everyone on Practical Financial Literacy.” The book was later turned into a documentary movie and is now a renowned financial resource.

Following the expiration of his non-compete agreement, and after exploring extensive opportunities, Mincher is now revealing what he predicts to be the next big thing.

“Current research suggests that upwards of 70% of new phone installations have a component of Voice Over IP,” says Mincher. “We are also seeing that customers are looking away from buying a premise based solution and looking towards buying a hosted solution.”

Mincher went on to say that “Savvy businesspeople are seeing that it is no longer necessary to make a huge capital investment in a PBX system that will be immediately outdated and require expensive ongoing service, upgrades and support. The hosted platform is a better alternative that easily allows scalability for a predictable monthly cost per user.”

With hundreds of hosted VoIP providers to choose from, selecting the right service was a big decision for Mincher.

“We chose to partner with FreedomVoice because they have a very similar story to us. They are a 13 year old company and are privately held, as PCG is. They are debt free, as PCG is, and they are profitable, as PCG is. They are not our only option for customers, but they are our preferred option.”

Mincher is a past recipient of the Ernst & Young / Inc. Magazine “Entrepreneur of the Year Award.” With the addition of this new power player, the FreedomIQ Hosted VoIP service is expected to significantly expand its reach. FreedomVOICE would like to welcome Mincher and thank him for his support!

Watch a video testimonial by Braun Mincher on the FreedomIQ Hosted VoIP PBX.