Business voice, Without the Noise

Calls and menus

• Call flow pictureShows the path a call takes right now, with today's route highlighted; click any step to change it.
• Menu (auto attendant)Press-1-for-sales menus with their own greeting; keys act instantly, callers can also dial an extension, and the menu plays 1 to 3 times.
• Ring before answeringA short ring first, so the greeting is never clipped.
• Opening hours and holidaysDifferent handling by day, time and holiday, per number or location.
• Day/night switchOne button (portal, code or lit phone key) flips the office to the answering system.
• Announcement message"Closed for snow" before the menu: type, upload or record it by phone, with a time to switch itself off.
• Ring groupsSeveral phones ring at once; when nobody answers, the call goes to voicemail or a menu.
• On-call rotationPress a key to make a tech on call; callers hear that tech's own message.
• Park and pageThe caller waits on park while the department is paged by name.
• Calls-at-once limitCaps how many calls a number takes, so the office isn't swamped.
• Blocked callersBlock any number, typed any way.
• Caller IDCallers see the business name and number; each person can call out as their own number.
• Caller namesIncoming calls show the caller's name from HBE's caller-name service.
• Spoken explanationsA failed call hears a clear sentence, never a mystery tone.
• Local 7-digit dialing423-6223 dials out as 1-870-423-6223.
• Talking clock*60 says the date and time, then beeps on the second.
• Old system codesA customer's familiar codes from their previous PBX keep working.

Multiple locations

• One building, many sitesEvery office, branch, home office and field site works as one system.
• 3-digit dialingCall anyone at any site by extension.
• Shared park and busy lightsPark a call at one site and pick it up at another; see who is busy everywhere.
• Each site its ownIts own number, opening hours and 911 address.

Voicemail

• Voicemail to emailEvery message arrives as an MP3 with the transcript in the body, with its own subject and sender name per mailbox.
• TranscriptsWritten out on HBE's own server, never sent to an outside service; custom words help it spell names and products.
• Shared mailboxesSales, Billing and Support boxes with lit keys and no PIN for staff.
• Helpdesk ticketsA department mailbox can email the ticket system, so each message becomes a ticket.
• Portal inboxRead the transcript, play, mark heard or new, delete; the phone's message light follows.
• GreetingsRecord by phone, upload, or type one that a natural voice reads; one-click audio clean-up.
• Familiar keysThe menu keys customers already know: replay, skip, save, delete.
• Date and caller announcementOn or off per mailbox.
• Full-box warningOwners get an email at 90% and when a box is full; nothing is ever deleted automatically.

Recording, security and 911

• Call recordingOff per account until switched on; records each side separately.
• Call transcriptsEvery recorded call written out within minutes, each line marked caller or staff and timed.
• Search every callType what was said, see every call and who said it; click a line to hear that moment.
• Keep and downloadChoose how long to keep recordings (a week to a year); download the audio or the words.
• Recording noticeAn optional "this call may be recorded" message.
• Encrypted callsDesk phones and the softphone encrypt the call audio; desk phones also use a private VPN.
• 911 with an addressEach 911 call carries the street address of that phone or account.
• Kari's Law emailAn email goes out the moment anyone dials 911.
• Lockout protectionPassword guessing on the portal or phones is blocked automatically, without locking out an office for long.
• Backups and monitoringNightly encrypted backups; servers watched around the clock with alerts.
• Two-step sign-inHBE engineers sign in with a password plus an authenticator code.

Sound, paging and conferencing

• Hold music libraryUpload your own tracks; volume is evened out automatically and old tracks are kept to swap back.
• Hold messagesShort messages about the business, mixed over the hold music.
• VoicesNatural Google voices plus on-server voices that work without internet; a custom or cloned voice can be installed per customer.
• Typed greetingsAny greeting or announcement can be typed and read in the chosen voice.
• Record by phone*737 plus a number records any greeting from a desk phone.
• Audio clean-upEvens the volume, removes hum and trims dead air.
• Paging zonesCeiling speakers (such as a Fanvil PA2S) or desk phones, with a soft chime.
• Typed announcements"Closing in 15 minutes" played over a zone from the portal or *71.
• Delayed page*70: say the page, press # to send it.
• Conference roomsA shared room plus one per person, with a host PIN and hold music until the host joins.

The portal

• One web portal for everythingOn a computer or a phone, in light or dark mode; customers make most changes themselves.
• OverviewHow calls are answered right now, and anything that needs a look.
• Quick controlsAnnouncement, day/night switch and on-call, one click each.
• Call historyEvery call, with export to a spreadsheet.
• Voicemail, greetings and soundVoicemail inbox, greetings and email settings; hold music, hold messages and voices.
• Staff loginsStaff get a login with only the simple buttons.
• Search boxType what you want and jump straight to that setting.
• Internet usageHBE internet customers see their usage graphs in the same portal.
• HBE sees everythingHBE staff see every customer and can add numbers, extensions and desk phones, manage keys and templates, and restart phones remotely.

Integrations

• Ticket system by emailDepartment voicemails arrive in the ticket system as tickets, with the recording and transcript.
• Caller-name lookupHBE's own caller-name server names every incoming call.
• Bring your numbersKeep the numbers you have from your current provider and still use every feature.