Tech Minutes

Communication is one of the cornerstones on which your business functions, and without it, you will find that going about your daily duties is considerably more difficult. Communication is one of the many ways your organization accomplishes both major and minor tasks, so you want to pay especially close attention to how your business handles phone calls, email, and even mobile devices--both in and out of the office.

Telephone solutions have long been a major pain point for businesses. Smaller organizations attempt to get the most bang for their buck, especially for something as important as communications, but it’s not always so simple. How can you get the greatest return on investment from your business’ telephone solution? You can start by implementing Voice over Internet Protocol.

Traditional telephone lines were once extremely important for your business’s success. You had to have dedicated phone lines in your office running to each and every desk so that each of your employees had access to a phone when they needed it. Nowadays, however, virtual telephone systems have become popular with businesses of all size. How does this new way of handling your business’s communications hold up compared to the more traditional model?

In the course of doing business your organization needs to lean on its communications investments. Efficient discourse between vendors, clients, and employees allows for productive action to be made quickly. If you have recently decided to deploy a feature-rich hosted VoIP business phone platform because of its ubiquity, you have to be cognizant of how to best secure your solution. Here are three variables that help you get the most out of your hosted VoIP solution.

Set Up and Utilize Private VLANsA Private VLAN (virtual LAN) gives your organization’s IT administrator more control over your hosted VoIP solution. It acts as a single access and uplink point to connect a device to a network or server. By partitioning your network, you present your administrators with the ability to secure specific devices, essentially creating separate networks. By being able to single out devices, it makes it easier to group devices together, even if they don’t share the same network switch. A private VLAN gives your organization's another layer of security while allowing access to the same feature-rich phone system; and, it helps mitigate risk, something every business is looking for in their security solutions.

Track Your UsageNo matter what platform VoIP solution you use, there is a chance it may get hacked. Most of the hacks that businesses see are ATO attacks, or traffic pumps, which aim to utilize the target organization's phone system for calls that will cost them capital. To be sure to avoid this type of interference, tracking your organization’s call usage is a solid practice. Having an up-front conversation with your VoIP vendor about what they are doing to protect your business can be a good strategy to secure it from taking on parasitic users that drain your company’s resources.

Enable Strong Authentication ProceduresYou can’t talk about security today without mentioning access control. To ensure that only your users are able to access your hosted VoIP solution, there are several practices you can implement. You can go ahead and implement a two-factor authentication strategy, or go for the gusto and deploy a powerful identity management solution. Whatever you decide, securing your solution through all applicable manners of entry is important. This includes the physical phones on your desk, mobile applications, and anywhere access can be granted.

A hosted VoIP solution is a great service to implement for the growing business. It allows you to save money while receiving all the dynamic features you are looking for in a business communications solution. For more information about hosted VoIP, communications, or how to better secure your company from threats, call Directive today at 607.433.2200.

Businesses have always relied on telephone communication systems to stay in touch with external and internal contacts. However, the traditional method of telecommunication has fallen behind the times, giving way to more flexible solutions that are designed to save businesses money and improve efficiency. In particular, Voice over Internet Protocol can be a valuable asset for small businesses that are experiencing growth.

Rather than using telephone lines to transfer and receive calls, VoIP uses the Internet to send your voice to the recipient. Considering how most businesses need an Internet connection in the first place, using VoIP is simply utilizing a technology that’s necessary in order to eliminate an unnecessary expense.

Differences Between VoIP and Traditional Phone SystemsDoes your business utilize VoIP? If not, you should consider doing so as soon as possible. It’s a great way to cut down on your operational costs and improve workflow. Here are some of the main differences and advantages that your organization can experience from using VoIP as a part of your communications infrastructure.

Additional features: While your traditional phone system might support services like caller ID, user blocking, call forwarding, conference calling, etc, VoIP offers all of these services, plus some. Unlike the traditional phone system, which you need to be close to the receiver to use, VoIP works right from your desktop PC, laptop, or smartphone. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can use your work number from anywhere, allowing for flexibility that the traditional phone system envies. Plus, VoIP offers several other features, including video conferencing, which can be very helpful for bridging the gap between employees while working remotely.Decreased costs: If you’re paying for both a landline and an Internet connection for your office, you’re essentially paying for one too many services. Considering that landlines are often bundled with other services that you may not necessarily want, it’s more affordable and efficient to simply use VoIP as your preferred communications solution. Add in the fact that you can say goodbye to long distance, and you have a convenient and cost-effective package.Flexibility: Traditional phone systems require an immense amount of work to add new lines to an infrastructure. Depending on your office’s setup, new phone lines need to be installed, and you might even need to remodel your office. Both can be expensive, but with VoIP, you don’t need to waste time or money on improving your infrastructure. As long as your Internet connection and internal network can sustain the traffic and strain, VoIP will work as intended.

If your organization is ready to implement a solid new communications infrastructure, a VoIP solution can go a long way towards improving operations. To learn more, give us a call at 607.433.2200.

Traditional phone systems were once the only mode of communication for businesses and their clients. In-house workers would make outbound calls on a limited number of lines. The Internet changed this part of doing business for the better. Now, by taking advantage of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems, your team can eliminate the cost of traditional phone systems, while investing in flexible solutions designed to improve productivity and communications.

Many businesses see the value in allowing their team to work remotely, which sounds great on paper. Workers don’t have to be at the office to get work done, so long as they have an Internet connection. Most important of all, though, is how much money a business can save by allowing its workers to work remotely. Thus, the primary objective should be to make it as easy as possible for remote workers to perform their jobs.

Conference calls are a staple in the modern office environment. As a business owner, you’re probably drawn into more conference calls daily than you’d care for. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) offers a significantly better way to go about your daily conference call duties.

Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP for short, is an increasingly-common communications protocol in a small business’s tech repertoire. It aids with providing reliable communication solutions to all users within an organization, without the need for extensive telephone cabling. However, if your VoIP experiences hiccups from time to time, here are a few troubleshooting tips.

Take a good, hard look at your desk telephone. How often do you use it for day-to-day operations? With the advent of technologies like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and the smartphone, it seems silly to be reliant on the telephone that’s tethered to your desk. However, some people still aren’t ready to leave the office telephone behind in favor of these new technologies. But… why?

Staying on top of your company’s budget is a key component to increasing your revenue. By failing to do so, major expenses will blindside you and cancel out any progress that might have otherwise been made from increased sales. For many companies, one of the worst budget busters comes from their IT.

One major technology pain point businesses have revolves around communication. If your clients and prospects can’t effectively reach your staff, customer support and productivity is weakened. Customers need more out of your phone system, and VoIP solutions offer more features with less expenses.

Communications solutions are vital to the functionality of your business. Amongst several other necessities, your telephony solution stands head and shoulders above the rest as one of the most important. Are you still using a legacy phone system? If so, you should consider switching to a VoIP system.

Are your employees trained to answer the phones in a helpful and professional manner? If you're not intentional about this, calls made to your company will be fumbled, notes will be scribbled on paper, and clients will lose confidence in your business. One way to really impress callers is to equip your staff with phone features allowing them to know pertinent information about a client before they answer the phone.

Modern businesses prioritize in improving communications because they understand it will lead to more coherent operations and greater profits. Therefore, your business needs a communication solution that’s customizable to meet your unique needs. The one-size-fits-all approach just doesn’t work for business-to-business telecommunications, and your company should not be subjected to this outdated approach.

When it comes to business communications technology, you don’t want to be caught using technology that’s outdated. Thanks to the innovations afforded to your company by Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), you can have access to lots of game-changing telephone features that blow traditional phone systems out of the water. Has your business switched to the VoIP advantage?

As technology grows more and more complex, the usefulness of your business's landline is declining. There are just plain better ways of communicating - cell phones are much more portable, and the Internet allows people to communicate with others while taking care of other work. One of the best ways to communicate over the Internet is by using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which provides the best of both worlds for those stuck in the landline age.

Efficiency. As a business leader, this word has probably become a favorite of yours. An efficiently run business results in lowered costs and increased productivity. Who doesn't want that? As you know, efficiency requires intentionality. A great place to start is with your technology. Here are three solutions that will intentionally increase your technology's (and in turn, your business') efficiency.

This statistic comes from California-based market research firm In-Stat, and it highlights the growth of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. To give you an idea of how far VoIP has come in recent years, this figure was at 42% just five years ago. Is your business taking advantage of the VoIP revolution?

Simplifying a complicated procedure is a sure way to get ahead. An enterprise's communication system can be extremely complicated with everything a business needs out of it. Voice over Internet Protocol, aka VoIP, is a solution that can simplify your entire communications system. Simplifying something major like communication will benefit your business in many ways.

Wired telephone service, also known as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), is seemingly nearing their extinction. This is thanks to the more economical and convenient Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone option. Until recently, nearly every American home was connected to the PSTN, but by 2015, this option will see a 75% decrease. What does this mean for your business?

Remember when a family's home had only one phone line and someone else would pick up the phone in the middle of a call? There would be a click, a pause, the caller would then ask, "Is someone on the other line?" A hasty hang-up click would then follow. With VoIP, you can listen in on phone calls without being detected!

As a busy person, you're constantly on the move. The downside of being busy is that you sometimes miss important phone calls, even if you there are a dozen different ways to reach you. VoIP provides you with a solution to help you never again miss a call with a feature called Presence.

When a major storm slams into your business and knocks out power, who are you going to call for help? If your communication system is hosted on your in-house IT infrastructure, then you won't be able to call anybody because your phones will be down. This also means your customers won't be able to call you for help.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a communication tool designed for business. VoIP takes advantage of your Internet connection to dramatically reduce your phone bill, sometimes by as much as 80% compared to traditional long distance plans. VoIP also comes with unique features to that will assist your company in customer service and employee training.

Do you feel tied down by your phone system? Traditional phone plans can be expensive and your phone bill will grow if you try to do more, like add lines and use extra features. One of the ways that the Internet can help your business save money and grow is by replacing expensive phone plans with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Many small businesses are switching their phone systems to Voice over Internet Protocol and seeing dramatic savings over traditional phone plans, especially when it comes to long distance charges. Once the switch to VoIP is made, small businesses are discovering there are more benefits to VoIP that make their business appear bigger and more professional!

There are many advantages that come with switching your company's traditional phone system to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP uses the Internet to handle all of your communication needs; this can streamline your communications and save you 50-70% compared to a traditional phone plan. Not only can VoIP save your business operating costs, it can also make your company more efficient.

Since the dawn of technical support, it has been a running cliche that when you need to call customer service, especially technical support, you are going to wait. And wait. It starts with a clunky automated phone system that sends you in circles, followed by a triathlon of phone hand offs where you answer a bunch of basic questions repetitively. Pretty annoying, right?

In business, you will gladly take every advantage that you can in regards to communications. This is because better communications will positively impact everything you do. Switching your phones system from a traditional carrier to a Voice over IP (VoIP) internet solution will not only give your business a communications edge, but also save you 50-70% on your phone bill.

If you are reading this, then you obviously have an internet connection. Most internet users browse websites, check emails, and perhaps play a game or two, but if these activities are the extent of your internet usage, then you are missing out on a powerful, cost-effective tool called VoIP that uses the internet to entirely replace your old phone system.

Voice over IP phone systems revolutionize voice communications for small businesses by providing plenty of big benefits. VoIP uses the Internet to send signals as opposed to standard telco phone lines. Let's go over a few major benefits that businesses see when they switch to VoIP.

There has been a growing trend where businesses are allowing more employees to work from home or other remote locations. Technology makes this possibly by letting users remote into their work environment securely as if they were sitting at their desk at the office. VoIP phone solutions can even bring the worker's office phone to them, no matter where they are.

Voice Over IP phone systems add a lot of great features that businesses can take advantage of, and are improving the way companies are using their voice communication. Besides the fact that supporting older analogue phone systems is becoming increasingly harder as technology carries us forward, here are 7 reasons why Upstate New York businesses should switch over to voice over IP.

Who isn't looking to spend a little less or get more out of their current investments? The costs of day to day business for small businesses need to be within budget, but you still need to give your staff the tools they need to get the job done. Here are some tips for cutting costs without making big sacrifices.

Telecommuting (also known as working remotely) is where some or all of your staff have the flexibility to work in the location of their choosing (and in some cases, the hours that they choose). Not to be confused with freelancing, telecommuters are dedicated employees who work under a management style geared towards the final results (as opposed to how the work gets done). While telecommuting isn't for everybody, it is often practiced. Microsoft is well known for having certain positions where the employee spends most of their day in a coffee shop working remotely, and that trend certainly doesn't stop with the big M.

Believe it or not, IT companies like DirectiveSHORT work a lot like other businesses.  We have many of the same needs in our business; from accounting to organizing data to marketing ourselves.  As an IT company, yes, we can manage your workstations, servers, and network, but there are other solutions we have up our sleeves that our clients can take advantage of, that just make sense for an IT company to provide, no matter what.