As remote IP Soft Phones become more common and more popular, one feature stands out as a user favorite. Scraping. Scraping is the ability to highlight a telephone number on your computer or laptop screen, whether it appears on the web, a document, or in a program, right click on the highlighted number, and have the telephone number dialed automatically for you automatically!

Traditionally, the IP Softphone has been viewed as a very limited application. Send one home loaded on a laptop for the office worker who needs to work from home a day or two here and there, and they can stay connected to the office. While remote, they maintain all the features of the main office telephone system without the pain or cost of lugging an IP telephone handset back and forth to the office. Remote workers can even have line appearance on the telephone system, so office coworkers know when and if they are available.

The problem has always been how inefficient IP Softphones are at dialing outbound calls. Who wants to have to point and click their mouse at an onscreen dial pad to dial out a 10 digit number? It was so inconvenient, that the calls just didn't get made. Depending on the industry, if the calls weren't being made, then work just wasn't getting done. If the work isn't getting done, then all of the benefits of remote working go out the window.

Enter the IP Softphone with scraping capability. Remote users can now dial outbound calls from their laptop or PC via IP Softphone using only their mouse to highlight the desired number to call. Simply right click on the desired number (With most Softphone applications), and the Softphone will dial and connect you to your number!

The application has been so successful and easy to use that remote workers now prefer the IP Softphone over the more traditional IP handset. Instead of pointing and clicking to dial a number, a quick swipe of the computer mouse now has you connected! In addition, you can operate on a simple soft VPN connection back to the office vs. the more expensive recommended router and static IP address connection for IP handsets.

Some call centers that previously deployed traditional handsets with headsets now only deploy IP Softphones and headsets connected to their computers. While working from a database for their outbound calls, the system either dials the numbers for them, or they are able to highlight the desired numbers and dial. For inbound operations, a simple click of the mouse answers the call, so no handset is really needed. All other features normally associated with the traditional handset are also available on the IP Softphone, so all employees retain the ability to transfer, hold, conference, send calls to voicemail, record calls, etc. The cost of IP Softphones compared to traditional handsets is dramatically different, so for the right applications, not only are they more efficient, they are more cost effective.

Sales applications are booming. Certain fields make tremendous use of the internet as a powerful prospecting tool. Imagine the efficiency of click and dial vs. looking back and forth at the number you are researching while changing screens, pointing and clicking, etc, in order to complete your call. Whether you are calling from a database, document, or via the internet, a tremendous amount of additional calls can now be made via Softphone. Check with you telecommunications professional to see if IP Softphone applications are a fit for your business.

Steve Norris is a Texas based Energy Efficient Electrical Contractor and Independent Telecom Broker for over 80 carriers nationwide, and specializes in multi-location businesses with advanced infrastructure needs. Over 90% of his clients are able to implement new technology at little or no cost with his proprietary TeleTAP solution. Visit him on the web at http://www.telephoneguru.net and http://www.energyretrofitters.com