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Verizon's iobi Now Available in Great Lakes Region25 October 2005
Iobi (eye-oh-bee), the mostinnovative tool to hit the wired phone line since Caller ID, now is availableto Verizon residential and small business customers in Illinois, Indiana,Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. Families and workers now can manage all their communications functions ontheir computers with just a click of a mouse. With iobi, a customer canhandle incoming calls in real time; manage call records, voice messages andcalendars; synchronize multiple electronic address books; get a text messagenotice of an incoming call or new voice message; and lots more. In addition, many of the iobi functions, such as retrieving voicemessages, accessing address book entries and setting up call forwarding, canbe managed through two additional iobi access points -- the iobi Web site orthe iobi toll-free voice portal. Two products, iobi Home and iobi Professional, are already available inmany parts of the country. The expansion of the iobi platform to Verizonmarkets in the Great Lakes States is part of the company's plan to make iobiHome and iobi Professional available throughout the Verizon local servicearea. Iobi Offers Virtual Presence "Iobi is a cluster of features unmatched by any other wired or wirelessservice," said Jerri DeVard, senior vice president of national marketing forVerizon. "With a single tool, communications management in our complex andbusy world becomes stunningly simple. "This is a feature set that distinguishes a Verizon phone line from allother communications services by linking phone call, e-mail, text and voice-message management in a single, easy-to-use service," she said. "Withfeatures like programmable call-forwarding, a real-time call director tool forhandling calls as they come in with a click of the mouse, and integrateddirectories and calendars, iobi trumps traditional and voice-over-IPfeatures." Iobi is driven by a Verizon-proprietary data platform that integrates theVerizon wireline network with other networks and with the Internet. Thisenables otherwise separate networks to work with each other. For example, with iobi, a user can view on the computer a list of allincoming calls and voice mail messages. Iobi lets the user play the voicemessages through the PC with a click of a mouse and to forward the messages inthe form of sound files via e-mail. Iobi also lets users automatically send analert to any wireless phone every time the iobi-enabled phone line rings or avoice message is left. Because both versions of iobi let customers observe and manage calls to aniobi-enabled number, users can virtually be in two places at once. A workingmother, for example, can monitor incoming calls to the home phone and see whenher child's school is calling. The parent can then choose to transfer thecall to her office phone or to forward it to her wireless handset or to acaregiver's phone, in real time. For business people, that same feature lets them appear to be in theoffice even if they are in an airport, hotel, or client's office. They neverneed to miss an important call. Another popular iobi feature is the ability to schedule call forwarding bythe hour and day of the week, automatically directing calls as they come in. Iobi Professional Popular With Small Businesses With iobi Professional, small businesses reap the benefits of advancedtelecommunications without an investment in new hardware. Managers have theadded power of an administrative console to control features assigned toindividual office lines. Because there is no hardware, installation is quickand easy. "Informal feedback from customers in the Northeast tells us iobiProfessional is more to small-business owners than just another software tool;it's a whole set of tools for managing connections and time," said KarmalitaContee-Borders, product manager. "Communications features have long been time-savers to small-businesspeople," she said. "What they want to do is exercise their skills and managetheir products and services first and cope with managerial functions second.Good communications tools facilitate that." The most popular features and their applications, based on informalfeedback, are: * Anywhere availability. Using spontaneous or calendar-based forwarding in conjunction with on-screen or wireless text-based call alerts, users are available for the urgent customer query and can appear to their callers that they are right there, on the premises, answering the phone. "All businesses nowadays involve some mobility, some field time, and all are competitive. There is an advantage to being available when customers need you. The alternative is to miss the call and lose the customer," Contee-Borders said. * Time management is augmented. Being able to see each call as it comes in and then take it, forward it, send it to voice mail or reject it gives absolute time-management control to the user. "We learned from Caller ID in the small-business bundle that knowing who's calling gives the called party the choice to stay on task or allow the distraction," Contee-Borders said. "This tool takes it one step further by allowing instant disposition of the call." * Customers consider iobi Professional the best bargain in telecommunications. "The amount of time and trouble, the number of key contacts and messages, the volume of connections iobi helps manage more than cover the cost," she said. "Customers tell us iobi Professional is the perfect bundle of features at a price that individual features purchased a la cart could never touch." Both iobi services can be provisioned on any Verizon landline and requireonly desktop software, which is downloaded over the Internet. No specialhardware is necessary. Accounts are ID and password-protected. High-speedInternet access is not required. Verizon voice messaging services enhance thevalue of the iobi products. Iobi Home Available for $4.95 Verizon Long Distance, provider of iobi services, is offering a $3 permonth discount off the regular $7.95 price of iobi Home for customers who alsosubscribe to Verizon Freedom, Freedom Extra and Freedom Unlimited callingplans. Customers who qualify can buy iobi for just $4.95 per month. Existingcustomers with Freedom and iobi will automatically receive the discount. With iobi Professional, priced at $11.95 per line, small businesses reapthe benefits of advanced telecommunications without an investment in newhardware. Managers have the added power of an administrative console tocontrol features assigned to individual office lines. Because there is nohardware, installation is quick and easy An online press kit including high-resolution video, a flash demo and afeatures list is available at http://newscenter.verizon.com/kit/iobi/. With more than $71 billion in annual revenues, Verizon Communications Inc.(NYSE: VZ) is one of the world's leading providers of communications services.Verizon has a diverse work force of more than 214,000 in four business units:Domestic Telecom provides customers based in 28 states with wireline and othertelecommunications services, including broadband. Verizon Wireless owns andoperates the nation's most reliable wireless network, serving 47.4 millionvoice and data customers across the United States. Information Servicesoperates directory publishing businesses and provides electronic commerceservices. International includes wireline and wireless operations andinvestments, primarily in the Americas and Europe. For more information,visit http://www.verizon.com. VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speechesand biographies, media contacts, high quality video and images, and otherinformation are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web athttp://www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit theNews Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon newsreleases.
Source: PR Newswire
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