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Getting Started

Overview

The {EVATEL} system uses speech technology combined with IP telephony and messaging to give you enhanced productivity and safe mobility on the road. It turns your phone system into a smart and portable office with a personal assistant.

Your service includes a suite of mobility and business productivity features:

  • Voice Dial Contacts: call your contacts and colleagues or send them emails using speech commands from any phone. 
  • Voice Access Emails: listen to your emails and send new ones to your contacts and colleagues using speech commands. You can also delete, archive or forward emails to contacts hands-free, using speech.
  • Voice Access Calendar: review appointments and schedule meetings using speech commands on any phone.
  • Smart Number: your single number for people to call you, send you faxes and text messages (SMS). Calls reach you at the locations of your choice.
  • Voice Access Voicemail: listen to your voice messages, forward them to your contacts and colleagues, or call back senders from your Web portal, Mobile app or using speech commands on any phone. You can also delete and archive messages using the same interfaces.
  • WebPhone: your softphone to call people from your Web portal and Mobile app.
  • Smart Fax: receive faxes on your Smart Number by email, on the Web portal and your Mobile app.
  • Smart SMS (Texting): send and receive text messages (SMS) on your Smart Number by email, on the Web portal and your Mobile app.
  • Reminders: set reminders for tasks and events such as wake-up calls, things-to-do or a call-back to save on wireless or long distance charges.
  • Call History: keep a record of all your incoming and outgoing calls for archiving, follow up and billing purposes.

Key Notions

There are 2 key concepts that you must first grasp before you start using your new {EVATEL} services:

Smart Number - A single phone number for all your communications (voice, fax and texts)

People only need to dial your Smart Number to call you or send you faxes and text messages. Calls will reach you at the location of your choice. When people dial your Smart Number, the Virtual Assistant uses your status and call forwarding settings to answer and route your incoming calls efficiently. These settings are:

  • Your current status: Working, Out-of-office, In-meeting, Not available or any other personal status profile. See Status Profiles for details.
  • Your phone numbers: all the phone numbers where you want to be reached. Use the Web portal to manage them. The Virtual Assistant uses these numbers to route calls to you and to identify you when you call. See Phone Numbers for details.
  • Your Call Filtering Preferences:  rules that specify which groups of callers can reach you and if the importance of their call needs to be checked before routing the call to you. Call Filtering preferences specify how to handle your incoming calls for each status. See Call Filtering for details. 
  • Your Call Forwarding Schedules: define how your incoming calls will be handled during recurring and scheduled periods (weekdays, weekends, special events, etc). For each period, you specify the status profile to be used for call filtering and call forwarding. This could mean reaching you at different phone numbers or having calls go directly to your voice mail. See Call Forwarding Schedules for details.

Unified Messaging - A single inbox for all your communications

Unified messaging is the integration of different types of communications (email, SMS, fax and voicemail) into a single message store. Your Virtual Assistant enables you to receive calls, faxes and SMS messages on the same Smart Number and makes your voicemail, faxes and SMS text messages accessible to you on your Web portal, Mobile app, speech commands on any phone, deskphone keypad, and in your Inbox with other emails.

By default, the Virtual Assistant saves your faxes as PDF documents and voice messages as .WAV audio files before emailing them to you. In doing so, the Inbox where you traditionally receive your emails becomes a one-stop-shop to access and manage your voice messages, faxes, text messages as well as your emails.

Virtual Assistant Roles

The Virtual Assistant roles are twofold:

  1. IT ANSWERS PEOPLE WHO CALL YOU
    It answers people who call you and routes their calls to you based on your preferences. If the call is a fax, it stores it in your mailbox and notifies you. If the call is a text message, it receives it and communicates it to you, either reading it to you on the phone if you are driving, sending it to your Web portal, Mobile app and your mailbox. For regular phone calls, it uses advanced call filtering and call forwarding rules to make you easily reachable for important calls while avoiding unsolicited ones. It checks your status (busy or available) and the type of caller before deciding how to handle your calls. It can also give you the option to take or reject calls.
     
  2. IT EXECUTES YOUR COMMANDS WHEN YOU CALL (LIKE A PERSONAL ASSISTANT)
    It greets you when you call and executes your commands such as checking your calendar, reading your messages, scheduling appointments, calling or sending messages to your contacts, changing your status and call forwarding, dialing numbers for you, telling you who called you and giving you the option to call people back, etc.

To accomplish these tasks:

  • The Virtual Assistant must know where to reach you (at what phone numbers and when).
  • You must enable your Virtual Assistant to access your emails, calendar and contacts.

Before you start using the Virtual Assistant, you will need to login to the Web portal and configure your account (email connection, phone numbers, contacts, etc). See Ready to Start? below for links on how to get started.

Do's and Don'ts

To take full advantage of all features of your VIRTUAL ASSISTANT service, MAKE SURE THAT ALL  incoming and outgoing calls USE YOUR {EVATEL} SERVICE.

  • Incoming calls: calls to your Smart Number (or virtual receptionist if you have a corporate account) go through your {EVATEL} services.
  • Outgoing calls: To call someone, use your {EVATEL} service.

See How to Contact the Virtual Assistant for details.

Two examples why all incoming and outgoing calls must go through your {EVATEL} service:

 

WRONG USE

RIGHT USE

INCOMING CALLS

A caller dials your mobile phone directly.

  • Your don't pick up and the caller leaves a message.
  • The voice message resides in your mobile phone voicemail.
  • You will not be able to use the Virtual Assistant to access the voice message on your Web portal, Mobile app, email or by phone using speech commands.

A caller dials your Smart Number.

  • You are in a meeting but the call gets transferred to you on your mobile phone if the caller said that it's important.
  • If the caller prefers to leave you a voice message, you can later access it in your emails, on the Web portal, Mobile app and using speech commands on any telephone (by calling the Virtual Assistant).

OUTGOING CALLS

You are a lawyer and decide to call a customer directly from your mobile phone.

  • You dial the customer from your mobile phone.
  • The call is logged on your mobile phone, not on your Web portal or Mobile app.
  • When it is time to prepare your customer billing, you must check the call history on your mobile phone in addition to other phone services you use to call customers.

You are a lawyer and decide to call a customer using the Virtual Assistant.

  • You use WebPhone on the Web portal or Mobile app to call the customer, or you call the Virtual Assistant and use speech commands to dial the contact by name. 
  • The call is logged with your other incoming and outgoing calls on your Web portal and Mobile app.
  • When it is time to prepare your customer billing, you go to your Web portal and download the call history details of all your incoming and outgoing calls.

User rights and permissions

There are 2 types of end-user accounts:

  1. Employee account: This type of account is for a user within a Company account (multi-user subscription). Employee accounts are created and managed by the Company Administrator. These users can only make changes that do not generate extra charges or modify the company's subscription.
  2. Professional account: This type of account is for individuals (single-user subscription). These users can make changes that will affect their subscription and result in additional charges. They can also access the billing module and features.

Ready to start?

Before you start using the Virtual Assistant, you will need to login to the Web portal and configure your account (mail access, phone numbers, contacts, etc). See Login to Web portal and Initial Setup for details.