Ooma, a smart communications platform for businesses and consumers, introduced a desktop app for Ooma Office Pro that expands its work-from-anywhere capabilities by turning Windows PCs and Macs into full-featured business phones.
For workers who spend most of their day in front of a computer, the Ooma Office Pro desktop app provides a virtual endpoint as an alternative or addition to a traditional desk phone. The app works anywhere the computer has an internet connection, keeping employees connected while working on the road, from home or in the office.
Beyond making and receiving phone calls, the desktop app provides advanced features that go far beyond a physical desk phone, including:
- Search the company directory to find colleagues and dial with one click.
- Access call controls, such as forwarding, recording and call flip (transferring a call in progress to another device such as a mobile phone).
- Start a conference call with one click.
- Listen to voicemail messages.
- Review call recordings.
- Send and receive virtual faxes.
- Manage personal settings, such as voicemails options, Caller ID or how incoming call should be handled.
Ooma Office Pro offers all the reliability, call quality and functionality of the Ooma Office while adding capabilities that meet the professional needs of businesses seeking a further productivity boost. In addition to the desktop app, these added capabilities include:
- Call recording. Account administrators can designate automatic recording of all incoming and outgoing calls for an individual extension, while individual users can start a call recording on demand at any time.
- Enhanced call blocking. Incoming calls to all extensions are screened against a dynamic database of more than 2 million phone numbers associated with robocalls. This database is growing by 1,500 phone numbers per day and calls from any of these numbers never ring on the user’s phone.
- Voicemail transcription. Ooma Office sends voicemail messages to users via email with attached audio files. In Ooma Office Pro, these emails also provide a text transcription for a quick view of what the voicemail is about.
- Overhead paging support. Ooma Office Pro integrates with leading overhead paging systems, so that any IP phone can be used to make an announcement heard through the public address system in a large area.
There are more than 35 advanced features in Ooma Office, all included in Ooma Office Pro, such as a virtual receptionist, text messaging, ring groups, call park, extension dialing, virtual fax and a dedicated conference line for each user.
“With the new desktop app and our existing mobile app for iOS and Android smart phones, Ooma Office Pro deployments can now be fully virtual,” said Dennis Peng, VP of product management for Ooma. “Of course, many businesses prefer physical phones. That’s why Ooma Office and Ooma Office Pro give customers the flexibility to mix and match between virtual phone extensions, traditional analog phones and fax machines, and advanced IP phones.”