Ottspott – Best Slack Business Phone App

Team communication is extremely important in various business scenarios. Every alternate day, new team collaboration tools are entering into the global market. Despite the presence of numerous players, Slack, the reputed team collaboration tool continues to dominate the market.

Slack comes with a host of benefits such as private channels, dedicated channels for a project, a separate channel for every team etc. Slack allows you to manage and share your files as well. But Slack comes with some inherent problems as well. You cannot make a phone call through the browser by using Slack. Ottspott, a promising venture based out from Paris, France address this pain problem.

About Ottspott :

Ottspot is a software tool that plugs into Slack. This lets your team members to make phone calls through the browser. This is a boon to all Slack addicts. Whenever Ottspott is integrated with Slack, it creates a local phone number thereby enabling its registered users to call clients or receive phone calls from clients. Ottspott is part of Apidaze, the real-time communication API. The best thing about Ottspott is that it allows any number of team members to avail its amazing services. If you are busy, you can forward the calls to your team members.

Ottspott Services :

Ottspott offers a host of services such as the following:

• You will receive instant notifications when someone is calling.
• You will receive voicemail messages. As a consequence, the chances of you missing a phone call are greatly minimized.
• You can analyze call metrics. In addition, you can measure your team’s phone performance.
• You can set your team’s working hours.
• You can attach a label to an incoming call to send a direct notification to any of your team members.
• You have to just ‘Click’ to call. To return a call from your browser, just launch a call directly from a missed call, outgoing call, or voicemail. You need not dial their phone number each and every time.

Modus Operandi :

Let me detail out its modus operandi by explaining a business scenario. Let us assume that Business A is based out of United States of America (USA). Let Business B be A’s client. Let us also assume that Business B is based out of Russia. Business A uses Ottspott to set up a phone number in Russia where their client Business B is based out of.

Whenever Business B calls that number, the entire team members of Business A are alerted. Ottspott sends alert notifications via Slack channel. As all the details are solicited from Slack profile, Business B can do away with redundant tasks such as invitations, passwords, etc.

The team manager can attend the call or forward it to the project lead. The project lead can either attend the call or forward it to any other concerned member. As Ottspott is equipped with built-in statistics feature, the team’s phone performance can be analyzed.

Business B being the client can contact Business A without any hassles.

Why Ottspott?

International phone calls are undoubtedly expensive. When you have clients all over the globe, international phone calls are a necessary evil. To reduce communication overhead, register for Ottspott’s Beta here. Here are some benefits of free Beta trial:

• 1 local phone number
• Unlimited inbound calls
• Unlimited team members
• 1 hour call forwarding or outgoing calls (monthly)

All Ottspott features :

Email support with a 4-hour response time.

To integrate this software with Slack, you do not require any complex coding. You can do away with manual user management and expensive phone sets. Moreover, you do not require any app switching between Slack and your smart phone.

Revenue Model :

Ottspott has an interesting revenue model. Its BETA access is free. Corporates and startups who are interested in Ottspott’s Start-up plan should pay $49.00/MO. But why would corporate prefer Start-up plan over BETA Free plan?

The reason is fairly simple. The response time in case of BETA FREE version is well within 4 hours. In the case of Start-up plan, the response time is less than 1 hr. Also, the Start-up plan features 4 hours of call forwarding or outgoing calls. In BETA Free plan, it is only one hour.

When you are in talks with clients all over the globe, it is better to have 4 hours of call forwarding and minimum response time. Competitors Competition is ubiquitous in any niche. Some of its competitors include:

• Notify
• Statsbot
• Slack App Directory
• SlackStack.
• Slack List
• Meekan for Slack
• App Review Monitor
• Talkus
• Slack Chats
• Slack Overflow etc

About Founder and key team members :

Luis Borges Quina is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ottspott. He graduated from European Business School.

Philippe Sultan is the Chief Technical Officer. He graduated from Institut National des Telecoms. He is the author of best-selling open source books.

You can visit the website here.

You can follow their twitter handle here.

Key Takeaway :

The most important thing for an entrepreneur is to identify industry problems and arrive at meaningful solutions. Luis Borges Quina, the founder of this amazing venture has mastered the same. Let us all remember the wise words of Socrates- “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” Entrepreneurship is about building the new with sagacity.

StartupWhale wishes Ottspott the very best for the tough road ahead. May Ottspott stand as the epitome of fame and success!