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Flexible
Telecoms
 

Fast service - all day, every day

Having a Flextel number can help to support you when you most need it, especially when working unusual hours or responding to time-critical emergencies. Just a few of our clients include...

  • 24-hour automated systems (e.g. alarms)
  • Disaster and recovery planners
  • Health care professionals

Benefits

Callers can dial a single Flextel Number at any time, confident that the call will be answered by a support person. Calls are typically routed to the daytime office/work location and then to the person on call at night, via their home or mobile number.

This method of call routing is extremely efficient and far outweighs the current alternatives, which fail to enable smooth functioning of the 24-hour support service.

Standard procedure

Using Flextel Numbers

Lists of different contact numbers which are inconvenient for the caller or disruptive to listed personnel not on call. Just one Flextel Number is needed, which is routed directly to the person on call.
Call diversion can become very expensive and you are not in control of your costs. Call diversion on some numbers is free of charge.
You need to be "on site" to change ordinary diversion. You can divert a Flextel Number from any location.

Why?

A Flextel Number is the time efficient way to control out-of-hours calls and easily handover cover between shift workers.

 
 

We can help people or companies working with automatic alarm systems, where computers or other 24-hour monitoring equipment need to make calls to a central call centre.

Benefits

Since some Flextel Numbers are entirely free to use, there can be little or no financial impact by upgrading to these numbers for greater security. It all depends on your choice.

Example:

Supermarkets have alarms on their freezers to indicate incorrect temperature, this is centrally monitored, so there could be hundreds or thousands of units setup to dial this central call centre. If the telephone number of that call centre had to be changed, every single freezer unit would have to be reprogrammed to dial the new number, taking engineers many days or weeks.

Any alarm or security system that relies on dialling a call centre leaves itself open to this risk. However, if a Flextel Number is used, it would only take a few minutes to reroute the Flextel Number to the new central call centre number.

Why?

If the telephone number of the central call centre changes (or if there is a line fault and calls need to route to a backup site), then it is easier to reroute a single Flextel Number than it is to reprogram all your equipment at each location.

 
 

We help people or companies who are responsible for "emergency planning" and manage a Disaster Recovery Programme. Some of these include...

  • IT/Telecoms Managers
  • Local and Central Government Emergency Planners
  • Corporate Strategists
  • Emergency Services
  • Life Critical services
  • Security Services
  • Law Enforcement

Benefits

The telecom capability can be instantly restored under your organisation's secure control, rather than being subject to the time for physical repairs to be undertaken.

Example:

There has been an incident local to a strategic centre, where the facility has been evacuated or the phone lines are down.
There are no calls being answered or received as a result.
Using Flextel, calls can be rapidly rerouted to a new location where personnel are available, thus overcoming any bottlenecks or damaged networks.

How does it work?

Incoming phone calls are instantly redirected to a new location, anywhere in the UK:

Single numbers can be redirected using any tone phone or mobile, or even by anyone with PIN authority sending an SMS Text Message to Flextel's SMS gateway dedicated for this purpose.

More advanced multi-number rerouting can be effected via secure internet access using best practice encryption methods protected by a password of your choice up to 40 characters long.

Why?

Rapid restoration of telecoms is a major priority in any crisis situation where telephone links have been disrupted. It is vital they are restored with the minimum delay.

 
 

We can help NHS Trust managers, Practice managers, Administrators for GP, Dentist and Veterinary surgeries, and other healthcare managers

Benefits

Cost Saving: You can avoid costly diversion charges by choosing the right service.
Flexibility: You can divert at any time, to any place or number.
No future number changes: Your number need never change again.

How does it work?

A single Flextel Number would be used as the main surgery contact number, where patients can call this number day or night. The number would be directed to the main surgery during opening hours, whilst at night it would be diverted to either the doctor on call, medical co-operative or specialist messaging service. When surgery opening hours recommence, the number would simply be re-routed back to the surgery phone line. So now you can choose to receive calls wherever you are!

How Flextel Numbers can improve surgery efficiency:

  1. Connect your Flextel Number...
  2. Route it to the surgery's phone line...
  3. After surgery divert it to the doctor on call, medical co-operative or messaging service...
  4. Then re-divert it back to the surgery's phone line in the morning.

Flextel Numbers always work in parallel with your original surgery phone lines and on-call mobile numbers, so you can introduce them gradually without disruption to your service.

How to advertise your new number

  • Advertise locally in the surgery: A notice in the Waiting Room will alert many people, small printed handouts given out by the receptionist when checking-in would help as a reminder.
  • Advertise via the original surgery number: The answerphone on the old number can be used for a limited period and kept active for out-of-hours calls.
  • Advertise via the phone book: Flextel provides a free directory-listing service, where your new number can be seen in BT's White pages, Yellow pages and Thomson Local directories.

Why?

Flextel's solution to call diversion has been adopted successfully by many surgeries and is considered important in the current climate of patient care and support.

A Flextel Number is an effective means of controlling out-of-hours calls by providing a flexible call diversion service. This service allows greater control over incoming calls by enabling you to divert them to any location easily and speedily. Outgoing calls are unaffected by the service and you can use other cost saving features here.

The previously used alternative of an answering machine for out-of-hours calls is considered obsolete by modern practices, due to the inconvenience to the patients at a time when they need an available doctor for support. Our inbuilt voicemail and fax features support efficient and flexible operation.