If you thought you finally had a handle on the VoIP phenomenon, think again. The virtual phone line established with VoIP has been taken to the next level, the virtual call center. With the continuous stream of new possibilities opening up as a result of ever-improving VoIP technology, it was only a matter of time before someone came up with the idea of a virtual call center. Well, not only have they come up with it, they've made and marketed it, too. And as someone who spends a lot of time writing about VoIP, all I can say is that it's about time.

It's called the VirtualOne, and they are a company called GotVMail, specializing in (you guessed it) Vmail services.

So what is it? GotVMail advertises VirtualOne as a virtual PBX. If you're not up on your telephony terminology, that's short for private branch exchange the internal phone system generally used by larger companies that allows for multiple lines, mailboxes, transfers, etc... VirtualOne is a platform geared toward smaller businesses that need the functionality of a hardwired PBX or call center but don't have the resources to merit such a substantial investment.

VirtualOne allows a small company to present a unified front to callers, even if its employees are scattered across the globe. It's remarkable in that's it's cheap, portable, largely customizable, and very flexible in terms of both pricing and functionality.

This is not intended to be a sales pitch, but rather a source of information for interested parties, so with that in mind, let's dispense with the pleasantries and get to the meat of it the features.

VirtualOne furnishes a company with a toll free telephone number accessible anywhere in North America and/or a local number for international use. Callers are greeted with a custom-made main greeting which lists extensions for departments, individuals' mailboxes, etc... Callers are then transferred to the appropriate destination which, thanks to the virtual bit, can be anywhere in the world, and any kind of telephone number office, home, or cell. In conjunction with live call transfer, this means that a salesperson in Winnipeg can transfer to an accountant in sunny SoCal as if he or she were down the hall. It supports a limitless number of calls to avoid leaving callers with a busy signal, and plays canned waiting-on-the-line music between transfers. Using live call forwarding and what they call a dial by name directory VirtualOne forwards calls to wherever your employees may roam, as if they were sitting behind a desk.

If the appropriate party cannot be reached, there is of course voicemail unlimited capacity voicemail to be exact. Mailboxes can be designated to any purpose, and each employee can check his/or her mailbox via phone or online. In conjunction with myGotVMail, voicemail messages and faxes can even be automatically forwarded to email as audio and visual attachments, letting employees stay in touch anywhere.

Call announcing lets employees easily screen calls. They are able to hear the caller's name and the mailbox from which they are calling from before choosing to accept the call. The system can also instantly transfer the caller, ask if you want to accept the call, or it send callers directly to voicemail.

There are a host of other features(some optional at extra cost) such as after-hours greetings, automated caller Q&A scripting(letting the system ask callers for basic information), rotational mailboxes, offsite backup, and even professional voice talents for your greetings.

But perhaps the most impressive thing is this: no hardware or software is required to setup or use VirtualOne. None. VirtualOne lets your company have a highly efficient call center and PBX even if you don't have a physical location, which can really be a boon for a small business.

And now, the numbers. How much does this beauty cost? Surprisingly little, actually, which is the other draw for the small business community. GotVMail offers three package deals with varying options the Standard, Advanced, and Premier Local packages. A brief comparison follows.

The Standard package is(unsurprisingly) the most basic and the cheapest. It's $9.95 a month base rate. The Advanced runs $19.95 a month for a little more functionality. The main difference is in the number of mailboxes you get: the standard only comes with 5, while the advanced gets you 10. A few other optional features(Dial-by-Name Directory, Virtual Marketing Extensions, Virtual Fax) come at an extra premium to Standard package users but are included at a discount in the Advanced fee.

The most robust package is the Local Premier, which at $39.95 a month is still very inexpensive and includes a virtual local number in addition to the toll free number (Note that for all packages toll free service is an additional variable per-minute charge). The Premier package also comes with 20 mailboxes total and more optional services than the Advanced at no extra cost. Additional mailboxes can be purchased for any plan (for a nominal fee, of course), and some optional features, such as rotational mailboxes, cost extra under every plan. The deciding factor will probably be the size of your business for the most part.

So, if you're a small business-person looking for an affordable and easy solution to your communications problem, this really does look like a great option. High efficiency, no special hardware or software, and let's face it dirty, dirty cheap. This is what VoIP is all about.