The Telework Coalition – a national organization that promotes telework and telecommuting – needed a VoIP Phone (News - Alert) Service that met their specific communication needs.

The coalition has offices and employees across the United States. The organization has an office in Washington, D.C., near Capitol Hill, but CEO Chuck Wilsker (News - Alert), and his colleagues, was rarely there. He is often working out of his home, or is on the road meeting with legislators, coalition members or the media.

Still, because the Telework Coalition is a small organization with a large set of responsibilities, each employee needs to be reachable and productive, regardless of their location.

It was about eight years ago that Wilsker started using the Aptela product – which combines web services and traditional telephony with proprietary software – allowing them to deliver features that many large companies envy.

Aptela (News - Alert) makes sure that every incoming call appears as if it was answered from the same office.

If there are any low-priority calls, they are transparently routed to voice mail.

“We want to give the appearance … of a large company,” Wilsker said. “Being a small organization … a big impression, that’s important to us.”

His phone rings in three places: at his house, at the Washington, D.C. office and on his BlackBerry (News - Alert).

He says that when using Aptela, “Your call is going to find you.”

In the past too, fax documents, could have sat in the fax machine for days until he returned from a business trip. But now there is instant access to documents that have been faxed over to him, thanks to Aptela.

“I travel a lot,” he added. “People call my business number and they get me.”

He lets the calls ring on each of his phones, simultaneously.

“It lets me have my office at home,”  Wilsker added. “It’s simple and it works.”

It makes sense for a range of organizations, whatever their size – from three, four or five people in an office up to a large enterprise, he says.

“It doesn’t matter what size you are,” Wilsker said. “You can get this going without a large, capital outlay.”

It also allows for business continuity. For instance, if there is a power outage, employees can switch over to battery-operated laptops and then get onto the Aptela network.

“It doesn’t cost a lot. It’s not equipment dependant. It’s reliable. .. The reliability is fantastic,” he says.

The Aptela product shows how the growing popularity of VoIP Phone Service offers small businesses and mobile professionals a powerful communications and collaboration solution. Sophisticated telecommunications systems aren't just for Fortune 500 companies anymore, according to TMCnet.

Given the increasing interest in telecommuting or telework by employers and employees alike, Aptela’s products are a good first step for many organizations and/or businesses, Wilsker said.

“People still want to get their toe in the water before they jump in,” he said. “It’s a really good, inexpensive way to get a program started.”

Looking back, telecommuting and telework options really became practical in 1998-99, after DSL became available for residential use. Once there was broadband, remote employees could access a company’s network.

But much of the emphasis back then was about access to data for remote workers.

“No one addressed voice,” Wilsker said. “Aptela was one of the first organizations actually to enable the voice piece of this whole thing. It is a very significant piece.”