Keep your business options open with virtual phone numbers

Once again we are faced with increasingly depressing headlines in the news when it comes to the economy. Greece has long been in deep financial trouble, and over the last few weeks we have seen its Prime Minister accept a bailout package from the European Central Bank which had as its conditions tough austerity measures, only to then turn around and say that accepting this would be subject to a Greek referendum, then to say the referendum was cancelled, and then to finally resign, leading to days of wrangling trying to put in place a new Prime Minister and new coalition cabinet. This alone would have been pretty scary, but is nothing compared to what is going on in Italy, with their cost of borrowing soaring dramatically in the last few days, finally bringing down long serving Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and leaving the third largest economy in the Euro teetering on the verge of default. As has been said many times in the last few weeks, Italy is too big to fail, but also too big to bailout. Europe cannot afford to bail Italy out, but if it goes down, it will probably take the Eurozone down with it. A new recession looks increasingly likely as Europe yesterday dramatically cut its growth forecasts, and we are all collectively holding our breath.
 
Of course, it isn’t all bad news. Yesterday there was the fantastic announcement that Jaguar Land Rover are to hire 1000 new staff in Solihull in the West Midlands, which is great news for the local economy there. But for many businesses, this is a time for caution. However, what we really need is the economy to grow, and by taking an increasingly cautious approach, it is hard to see how that is going to happen to the level that is needed. One small way that can help businesses that want to expand their trade but don’t want to make any major investments or changes at this uncertain time is to get a virtual local phone number. 
 
“If a company wants to expand the area it does business in, but understandably doesn’t want to buy or rent new property in that area at the moment, then a great way to do it is by getting a virtual phone number with the area code for that area pointing to your existing landline or mobile phone” says David Clarke, Director of DBS, a leading provider of virtual phone numbers. “For example, getting virtual 020 numbers for London pointing to your mobile or pointing to your property outside of London. Then, you can advertise your number in that area without the commitment of having property there, and in the future if you do decide to get property there, you can take the number with you. You can transfer the numbers to wherever you like, so you get to keep the same numbers so that your customers don’t lose how to contact you”. 
 
DBS Telecoms also provide freephone 0800 numbers, 0845 numbers and international toll free numbers to cater for businesses varied needs.

How using Fax-to-Email can make your office more organised

“If you’re a business which still needs to send and receive faxes, and still uses a fax machine, then DBS offers an alternative which can make your office far more efficient and organised, which can save you money as well as help make you more of a green, energy efficient company: Fax-to-Email”, says DBS Director David Clarke.

Fax-to-Email is a fantastic alternative to using a fax machine. Quite simply, when someone faxes something to you, fax-to-email converts the document into a PDF document and sends it directly to your email inbox.

The benefits of this to your office are huge. Firstly, you no longer need your old fax machine. This is a huge benefit because it means that you no longer have to leave it switched on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in order to make sure that you don’t miss any faxes. This saves you quite a bit on electricity over the year. It also saves you on paper, ink and toner, because the old fax machine would print out everything that was sent, most of which was often thrown straight into the bin or the shredder. It also saves your staff time, because generally you would have one fax machine per office or department, so someone would often have to go and check it, or go and pick up or keep an eye out for something they were expecting. So, fax to email means you can get rid of your fax machine without getting rid of the ability to receive faxes.

As we all move towards less paper in the office, fax to email is incredibly useful. Most of your correspondence with your clients and customers is probably done through email these days, most documents are probably stored on your computer’s hard drive. Phone calls are probably logged on your computer, and can even be stored on there as recordings thanks to one of the features offered by DBS to accompany their 0800, 0845, 0844, London phone numbers and local phone numbers. Faxes are one of those few things that you have to keep in a file, and with everything else being stored electronically, are most likely to just get forgotten about and gather dust on a shelf. With fax to email, everything is all together on your computer and so makes for a much more organised and efficient filing and record keeping system.

Your fax to email number has to be different from your telephone calls number, but is available from DBS as an 0800 fax to email number, an 0845 fax to email number, an 0844 fax to email number or a virtual local fax to email number, to ensure that your fax number matches for your phone number.  

London 0203 numbers, 0207 numbers and 0208 numbers: the difference

DBS Telecoms is a leading provider of many different types of phone number, including freephone 0800 numbers, revenue sharing 0844 numbers and lo-call 0845 numbers. However, one of its most popular types of phone number is the virtual local phone number. DBS provides virtual phone numbers for 479 different area codes across the UK, and not surprisingly the most popular of these are London phone numbers.

“One of the questions that our customers or potential customers ask most frequently when they call us is ‘what is the difference between 0203, 0207 and 0208 numbers?’” says DBS Director David Clarke. “Well, firstly, there is no such thing as an 0203, 0207 or 0208 area code. The only area code for London is the 020 area code. 020 is the London phone number. 0203, 0207 and 0208 numbers are simply the result of taking the 020 and adding the first digit of the next part of the number to it. The next part of the number only starts with either 3, 7 or 8. It is a common misconception to think otherwise.

“The London 020 number being split into sub divisions is as a result of historical differences.  Numbers starting with 01 were London numbers until 1990. The 01 was followed by three digits, and these three digits corresponded to the area that the phone number was for. In 1990, 01 was split into two different numbers, 071 for Inner London, and 081 for Outer London. In 1995 this became 0171 for Inner London and 0181 for Outer London. In 2000, this was replaced with 020. However, for previous 0171 numbers the first digit of the next part of the number was 7, and for previous 0181 numbers, the next part of the number was 8, so in effect 0207 numbers became the number for Inner London, and 0208 for Outer London.

“As time has gone on, the distinction between the two has blurred, and the introduction of 020 followed by 3 (commonly referred to as 0203) numbers has further blurred that. 0203 numbers cover all of London, and are not specific to any sub division. When people with 0207 or 0208 numbers moved house they kept their numbers, so now there is quite a mix.

“Therefore, when people ask us what the difference is, in short, there is none. It does not matter whether the first digit of the second part of the number is a 3, a 7 or an 8 now, as 020 is the number for London and Greater London, and the second part of the number no longer carries any form of stigma. It does not matter”.

DBS Telecoms sell a wide range of virtual London phone numbers which can be pointed to both landlines and mobile phones. Their London phone numbers are also available as fax-to-email numbers and come with a wide variety of handy additional features.