|
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Furniture firms to use VoIP to sell products
By Aurelia l. Castro
Sun.Star Correspondent
Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation Inc. (CFIF) will soon use iNTouch’s Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solution called Global e800 in their website to make their Internet presence more efficient, improving their availability in the local and global market.
Aside from this, residents of barangays Basak, Pardo and Opao, Mandaue City will also be able to make free calls to their families and relatives abroad because their barangay leaders will avail of VoIP solutions.
That’s what Simeon Edward Lim, chief executive officer and managing director of DB Edwards (DBE), which is the provider of iNTouch VoIP solution, told Sun.Star Cebu this week.
Ideal for companies with websites or online stores and services, Global e800 is a VoiP solution uploaded to a subscriber’s website where web visitors can talk to the person on the other end just by clicking on its (e800) icon, provided their personal computers (PC) are microphone or headset-ready.
Lim said this VoIP service, which is solely provided by his company in the country, will definitely make online business transactions faster and will bring in more possible sales because it will convert website visits into active voice calls allowing the caller to do product inquiry.
With active voice interaction, those inquiries could easily be converted to sales, he said.
What is common in many websites today are only two links, which is the e-mail or telephone.
A long-distance telephone call is expensive while an inquiry done through email takes time because it would depend on when the recipient would check his emails, Lim explained.
In their website, CFIF will launch an electronic directory, where its members could put their respective company logos.
Web visitors who would desire to contact any of them would just click on the logo and make a call.
Lim said they are now coming up with a memorandum of agreement.
With Global e800, a call from PC to PC is free while a call from PC to landline phone or mobile phone, as configured by the subscriber once he is offline, costs as low as P1.40 a minute, Lim added.
Another product innovation Lim introduced for individuals who don’t have websites but who use email is the Email Signature Callback, a software application that allows the email recipient to call for free the sender simply by clicking on the e-mail signature.
End-users won’t have to purchase expensive Internet protocol hardware. Their webphone software at www.intouch.com.ph is available for free, Lim said.
For people without PCs, they can avail of this service at Internet cafés.
Lim is optimistic after the National Telecommunications Commission released its draft ruling on VoIP last March that classified VoIP as a Value Added Service, it would no longer require a congressional franchise.
In a separate interview yesterday, Internet Café Association of Cebu president Felix Cogal said Internet café owners are now more interested to offer VoIP in their businesses.
In their general membership meeting last Saturday, Cogal said, “With the number of inquiries and interest we got about VoIP, we can expect more Internet café centers to offer it.”
Currently, only around 40 out of 350 ICAC members offer VoIP.
(June 9, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
