Top 6 Questions Asked by New Intulse Clients

Businesses and organizations ask many questions about VoIP phone systems when considering a new phone system. These questions and the answers found online can often help a business owner or CIO find the best solution for their business or organization.

When Intulse onboards a new client, we work with them to ensure their internet connection and network hardware are sufficient, and determine how many users, extensions, and devices they may need. We also work to discover if they need CRM integration or video meeting add-ons. This process can sometimes generate some common questions.

However, these questions can also inform those considering new phones, so we wanted to share these questions and the answers with everyone. Let’s get into the questions!

1. Can I Work from Home and Use My Intulse Desk Phone?

Absolutely. The Intulse VoIP phone system is fully portable because it is cloud-based, and not reliant on a traditional, in-office phone system. You can take a physical Intulse desk phone home, connect it to your home network, and use it just like in your office.

A few things are required for this to work. You will need the power adapter or a Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) adapter, a physical connection (not wi-fi) to your home network. Intulse can provide many of these items upon request. Phone power supplies can sometimes have availability challenges due to ongoing global supply chain issues.

When you get the phone to your home, be sure to connect the ethernet cable to the “LAN” or “Internet” port (depending on model), not the port labeled “Link” or “PC”. The other end of the ethernet cable should connect directly to your home network.

Sometimes when connecting an Intulse VoIP phone to a home network, it may be blocked from connecting by our security tools. Contact Intulse support and provide us with your home IP (a.k.a. IPv4) address. If you do not know your home IP, you can find it at www.whatismyip.com.  

Alternatively, you can avoid these steps by using the Intulse App on a mobile device or a desktop computer (web-based) with a headset. You can do the same work from within the Intulse App, and more! Learn more about the Intulse App here.

2. Can I Set Up My System to Automatically Change the Call Flow Based On the Time of Day?

For non-Intulse users, this can be an incredibly frustrating and complex process on traditional phone systems with on-premise hardware. It often involves convoluted web interfaces and using a desk phone or a computer to record custom greetings.

With Intulse, setting up time controls is much easier! Simply log into the account center (https://manage.intulse.com) to set up a time control with a calendar and place it into your call flow. A comprehensive guide for using Time Controls is in our support center.

3. We Have Had Some Staffing Changes. Can I Update the Extension Names Myself?

Again, for non-Intulse users, this can be a difficult task and often requires you to reboot the whole system and individual phones to make these changes.

With Intulse, this is very easy to do. Log into the account center at https://manage.intulse.com and go to Extensions – Manage. Once there, click on the extensions you want to update and make any necessary changes.

If the extension had any physical devices assigned to it, you will also need to update the device. This is easy to accomplish, and instructions are located in our support center here: https://support.intulse.com/account-center/walkthrough/extensions/manage

4. Am I Able to Change the Buttons on My Physical Phone Myself?

This answer may sound familiar: on other VoIP systems, you might need an IT degree and hours of study to get this done. With Intulse, this is easy to accomplish.

You can update the buttons on your physical phones through the account center. Log into the Account Center at https://manage.intulse.com and go to Devices-Manage. From there, select the device you want to update and then expand buttons. Here you can add buttons for internal extensions (BLF) speed dials, prefixes, and much more.

Additional details can be found here in our support center: https://support.intulse.com/account-center/walkthrough/devices/manage

5. Can I Record My Calls?

Short answer: yes, you can absolutely record your calls with Intulse.

Unlike many other VoIP systems or traditional on-site phone systems, Intulse offers call recording as a standard feature. As we do not offer “plans” or “levels”, but we offer the same robust set of features to all users.

Yes, you can record your calls with Intulse. You can do this on-demand or automatically based on the number dialed, or by options chosen in a menu. You can find instructions for two ways to do this here:

By number: https://support.intulse.com/account-center/walkthrough/inbound-routes/manage

By Ring group: https://support.intulse.com/account-center/walkthrough/ring-groups/manage

Additionally, if your business or organization uses a CRM like HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, or other popular or industry-specific CRMs you can integrate and access recorded calls from within the client record in the CRM. Our CRM integration add-on is a key differentiator between Intulse and other VoIP phone systems.

6. Can I Send and Receive SMS Texts on My Intulse Phone Number?

Yes! You can enable business SMS texting for your Intulse numbers. Texting is done through the Intulse App. You can enable texting on a number-by-number basis in the account center. Enabling business SMS texting does include various regulations, and additional telecom industry fees apply.

Details about the additional fees are available here. Learn about business SMS texting regulations in one of our recent blog articles here.

Texting through the app: https://support.intulse.com/app/walkthrough/chat Enabling your numbers for texting in the account center: https://support.intulse.com/account-center/walkthrough/phone-numbers/manage