Auto-Attendant (AA): Simply put, an auto-attendant routes calls within your hotel in an automated fashion. Cloud5’s Hosted Auto-attendant gives your hotel access to sophisticated programming, allowing for customized queueing and call routing based on your hotel’s needs, at a fraction of the cost of traditional systems. This enables you and your staff to answer as many calls as possible personally, while ensuring that all callers get to the right place when you can’t answer. Cloud5’s Hosted Auto-attendant includes features that make your guest’s first interaction with your hotel completely branded and unique with professional recordings and music-on-hold. And best of all, yup, it’s in the cloud. Changes are fast and easy, and you never pay for system replacement or upgrades. And we’ll provide loads of eye-opening data.

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD): Call centers and large teams need robust queueing, monitoring and reporting. We’ve got you covered no matter what your current needs and growth plans entail with Cloud5’s ACD options: Hosted ACD for in-house call centers under 50 seats, seats on our Hosted Enterprise ACD for large call centers and a complete outsourced option with VoiceAgent – agents and technology in North America-based centers that specialize in hospitality.

Central Reservations System (CRS): A central reservation system, often referred to as the CRS, “Rez” or “Central Rez” system, is a system that stores and distributes information for a hotel, resort, or other lodging facilities. It’s also a tool to reach the global distribution systems (GDS) for hotel room inventory. The CRS assists hotels with managing their online marketing and sales, allowing them to upload rates and availabilities to be seen by sales channels that are using the CRS, such as Call Centers and OTAs (online travel agencies). Cloud5’s VoiceAgent has expertise with all of the major CRS systems, and books millions of dollars of revenue per day on behalf of our clients.

Customer Service Record (CSR): A CSR is a record of all of your telephone records and how they appear in the telephone company’s database. CSR is the most commonly used term for the internal record of your account but can also be called a “2733″ or “PBX/Key/Multiline” record. Some LECS use the term “Service Record” or “Billing Services Record” while others have no record at all. These would include the Mom and Pop telephone companies and CLECS but they can type them manually with the information you request. Cloud5 will help you obtain your CSR(s) – yes you may have multiple ones – and get your telecommunications web untangled.

Direct Inward Dialing (DID): DIDs, often purchased in blocks many, many years ago for your hotel, enable telephone numbers for calling into a business utilizing a PBX system. Using DIDs, a company can have individual phone numbers for each person or workstation within the company without requiring a physical line into the PBX for each possible connection. With Cloud5’s Voice solutions, you’ll keep any DIDs that you’d like and eliminate extraneous ones – reducing costs and modernizing at the same time.

High-Speed Internet Access (HSIA): HSIA, also known as Broadband Internet access and often shortened to just broadband, are services that provide bit-rates considerably higher than that available using 56 kbit/s modems. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defined broadband access as “Internet access that is always on and faster than the traditional dial-up access”. Cloud5 Internet services ensure that you have fast, secure HSIA with the appropriate access for your staff and guests, wired and wireless.

Internet Service Provider (ISP): ISPs provide your hotel and guests with Internet access. We’re experts at provisioning and managing their services, making sure that our hotel customers get the very best at an excellent value. Cloud5 provides services over Internet connections provided by companies that started as telecommunications/telephone carriers and offer ISP services, such as AT&T, Verizon and Windstream, in addition to companies you’ve always known as ISPs like Comcast and Cox. Level3, the carriers carrier, is one of our partners too. Cloud5 voice and data solutions are carrier-neutral, and we’ve got you covered no matter where you are and which ISP you prefer.

Local Area Network (LAN): A local area network is the computer network that interconnects computers within your hotel. Cloud5 solutions are designed with knowledge of hotel networks and we specialize in ensuring that your IT ecosystem is operating optimally at all times.

Letter of Authorization/Agency (LOA): A Letter of Authorization or Agency is a document authorizing a third party to act on your behalf. This is generally required in the United States when transferring services from one provider to another.

Move/Add/Change/Delete (MACD): Programming of changes to your telephone systems like adding or deleting an extension, updates to voicemail recordings or any other changes to your IT are MACDs. Cloud5 Support provides our customers with fast, expert MACDs 24/7/365 remotely or onsite.

Network Convergence: Network convergence refers to the coexistence of three networks within a single network: video transmission, a telephone network and data communication. In response to rapidly accelerating consumer and business demands, network convergence has become the backbone of any digital Internet activity, and is mission-critical to operate a great hotel with satisfied guests. It’s imperative that hotel experts design your network, appropriate devices and hardware are installed and managed, and that your network is configured in the best way possible for your hotel. Sound like a challenge for you? Call us – Cloud5 designs, installs/upgrades and manages thousands of hotel networks and keeps them operating smoothly 24×7.

Private Branch Exchange (PBX): A private branch exchange (PBX) is a telephone switching system for a business, aggregated phone lines or trunks and provides intercommunication between all of your telephones in the hotel. It also connects your hotel to the PSTN (public switched telephone network). It’s a sophisticated system, and it’s critical that it operates effectively at all times. But you’re running a hotel, not an IT business; let Cloud5 manage your telephony environment so you can focus on guests and revenue. Whether you need support for your existing PBX with expertise from Cloud5 Support or replacement of components such as voicemail or auto-attendant – or it’s time to replace the whole system – Cloud5 Voice has got a CAPEX and OPEX friendly solution for your hotel.

Property Management System (PMS): Property Management Systems are a critical part of your infrastructure that automates guest bookings, guest information and other amenities and interface with your PBX, central reservation systems and many more systems at your hotel. Cloud5 has certified interfaces with all the major PMS providers in the industry and the brand proprietary PMS.

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP): Session Initiation Protocol is a signaling communications protocol, widely used for controlling multimedia communication sessions such as voice and video calls over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Cloud5 SIP Trunking is designed specifically for hoteliers and how their staff and guest utilize hotel phone systems – and enables your property to easily transition to upgraded solutions for PBX, Voicemail and as well as receive important data with Cloud5 Auto-attendant.

Virtual Private Network (VPN): A virtual private network extends a private network across a public network, such as the Internet. It enables sending and receiving data across shared or public networks as if it were directly connected to the private network, while benefiting from the functionality, security and management policies of the private network. Many hotel brands require the use of their virtual private networks for back-office data, PMS and other mission-critical systems. Cloud5 is one of very few providers certified to utilize these networks, and this translates into significant savings for you. Cloud5 solutions are carrier-neutral, and we can utilize any circuits that meet our standards that you have in place at your hotel today.

Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN): A VLAN is a logical group of workstations, servers and network devices that appear to be on the same LAN despite their geographical distribution. A VLAN allows a network of computers and users to communicate in a simulated environment as if they exist in a single LAN and are sharing a single broadcast and multicast domain. VLANs are used to achieve scalability, security, ease of network management and can quickly adapt to change in network requirements and relocation of workstations and server nodes.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP): Voice-over-Internet Protocol is a methodology and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. It’s also a method to leverage a low-cost channel to deliver high-quality voice services, and Cloud5 has been delivering CAPEX and OPEX reductions to its customers for years utilizing this now ubiquitous service.