Feature Spotlight: Real Life Benefits of a Web-Based Softphone

Recently, I was pleasantly reminded why I am happy for a softphone that could be used inside of a web browser. For those of you that are not familiar with the Cloud PBX space, I will go over the industry standard. In many cases, Cloud PBX or Hosted PBX solutions on the market offer a softphone for free. As you are walked through your on-boarding experience, you will come to a spot on their website and shown where you can download their softphone software. Usually, you will be directed to download an executable file (.exe) based on computer’s platform – iOS, Windows or Lennox. Most people understand this antiquated procedure and accept it as the industry norm.

PanTerra Networks is NOT okay with the industry standard. Instead, our research and development team created a softphone that is 100% browser based. I had the pleasure of demonstrating for a group of 20 or so department heads at a highly respected non-profit organization in the Phoenix area. I was excited to have the opportunity to show what PanTerra could offer vs the competition. I had built what I thought was a smart PowerPoint presentation that would rival my toughest competitor. I had even gone above and beyond to be prepared in asking that they provide a projector for me.

I arrived at the location with 15 minutes to spare before the presentation was to begin. The Director of IT walked me to the Projector and I froze! That moment where your stomach drops to the floor! My laptop is super thin and only has a USB or HDMI port. No Ethernet port, and no VGA port. Unfortunately, this non-profit was not working with the same hardware cable that I was. In my mind I felt like technology had stumped me once again. The IT Director offered up the computer. This computer was older, but it had Google Chrome on it and it was connected to the Projector. With a few clicks of the mouse, I had pulled up my browser-based Unified Command Center (UCC) and I had access immediately to my files, my UCC for the demo, and I was able to still communicate with my remote team of Sales Engineers.

I walked away from that meeting with a nice reminder that, we never know when technology is going to throw a curve ball at us. If PanTerra had only released a softphone as a piece of software instead of a browser-based portal, I would’ve had to download a softphone executable file and configure it with the right proxy settings and protocols (a nightmare in the making). The process would have taken 30 minutes at minimum. Instead, within 3 minutes I had logged in, went through the multi-factor authentication and had access to my entire desk. As I explained this to the group of managers there, they thought for sure I had planned the whole thing in order to show the versatile function of the PanTerra Cloud PBX solution. I can assure you, I am not that clever, but someone (thankfully) in my research and development team (R&D) is. They knew what I would need before I even realized it myself.

Learn more on how PanTerra can add peace of mind to your communications operations.