Getting the most from your IP telephone
You can use an IP-enabled browser
phone such as the Avaya 4630SW IP
Screenphone to accomplish much of
what you can do on your desktop
computer. For example, Joann works
for one of the top healthcare insurance
providers headquartered in the
Northeast. Her company has 17 locations
connected over a VoIP supported
Wide Area Network (WAN).
Throughout her typical day, Joann
uses an IP-enabled browser telephone
to receive announcements,
make phone calls, and send and
receive e-mail.
Joann starts her day by checking
her IP telephone’s Web page for
announcements. One morning, she
read that her friend and coworker
Rae Lynn had a baby boy the night
before. She made a note to send Rae
Lynn’s family a card.
As part of her job, Joann reviews and
approves/denies healthcare claims
that do not fit the normal criteria for a
final decision by the utilization review
(UR) department. Much of Joann’s
communications relate to the status
of the claims she is investigating. She
regularly communicates with people
located at her home office and other
sites, usually the site of the claim(s)
origin. Joann also interacts with staff
from their company’s huge healthcare
provider network to determine
the fine details of each claim she
receives for disposition.
With the exception of any calls made
in the local calling area, all Joann’s
telephone calls are carried on the corporate
VoIP network. When the call is
to a provider located off-net near one
of the company’s other locations, the
call travels from Joann’s IP telephone
over the corporate VoIP network to
the distant site’s location where it
goes over the company’s LAN at that
location, out the gateway there, and
into the local calling area of that location.
As a result, for all Joann’s telephone
calling, her resulting, monthly,
off-net, billable telephony charges are
minimal and for the most part are
billed as local calls.
All the claims Joann’s company
receives are transmitted to their UR
department via the Web. If a claim
cannot be approved for payment
upon receipt, the UR department forwards
it electronically via the corporate
VoIP network to Joann, with a
copy to the medical director of the
respective source location and a
copy to the headquarters’ medical
director.
Joann works frequently with the medical
director at the headquarters’ location
because of the technical nature
of many of the claims she receives. On
average, Joann calls this medical
director 7 to 10 times per day on
claim related matters. Therefore, she
includes this medical director in her IP
telephone buddy group and makes full
use of the “presence” feature alert
indicator on her IP telephone. If the
presence indicator is lit, she knows
not to waste her time calling the
medical director because he is on the
telephone with someone else. Joann
also has a presence indicator set up
for her immediate report and the
coworker that must fill in for her (and
vice versa) when she is not at her
desk.
Much of Joann’s day is spent on her
IP telephone. She uses it to process
inbound or outbound e-mail from the
company’s various locations. Sometimes
the content of a claim requires
Joann to contact other personnel in
the company. When she needs to do
this, Joann accesses her browserbased
directory to retrieve the
person’s contact information and
automatically dial their IP telephone
number. Or, if Joann is on the road,
she can use Avaya’s Speech Access
application feature to have the
system automatically dial anyone in
the directory by simply speaking their
name.
Needless to say, Joann is a busy
woman. About 30 minutes before her
workday ends, she checks the
weather advisory corner of the Web
page on her IP telephone. She wants
to know whether she needs to bring
her umbrella when she heads over to
the subway station. She checks her
voicemail and typically opts to have
the remaining unheard voicemail
messages printed so she can read
them on the subway ride home.