Tag Archives: Vonage Holdings Corp.

About 719 days ago Blogging and Social Media

Social Media Conferences to Check Out

Now that the summer is upon us there are so great social media events I wanted to mention. There are few things more valuable than attending a great conference. I have made such incredible contacts by attending conferences and have learned so much. If you really want to know about what is going on in social media, I highly recommend you start attending as many of these events as you can. Here are three of my favorites: READ MORE »

About 1692 days ago Telecom and Wireless

Tech Talk: Marshmallow Maker Unifies Communications

To Your Heart’s Content, of Sherman Oaks, Calif., maker of Plush Puffs Gourmet Marshmallows, has been growing quickly in the four years since launching. Vice President Justin Leavens tells IncTechnology.com that unified communications helped the business better channel customer contacts and unify a company that is primarily staffed by part-timers who may need the flexibility to work from home. Elizabeth Wasserman: Tell us a little about how you started marketing gourmet marshmallows. Justin Leavens: We started four years ago making gourmet marshmallows. We did it first on a small scale and sold to local coffee shops and friends and family and then we started to expand, selling to specialty food stores and coffee shops all over the U.S. and some international locations. We have two full-time employees and four part-time office staff to do sales and office support. But we’ve been growing a lot in the past few years. Wasserman: How have your technology needs changed as the business has grown? Leavens: When we started, the volume of orders was low enough that we could almost be paper based and use QuickBooks for the accounting. We knew who our customers were and we were doing a lot of hand delivering so it was very straight forward. As we started to do some marketing and expand, we obviously had a lot more information to deal with — a lot more customers, a lot more leads to follow up on. We were doing trade shows. Just the volume of work increased. Being a small business with a small office, we had to find ways to make our business as flexible as possible in order to keep growing. One of the things we did was build customer business software that would work either from within our office or our employees’ homes. We also needed a phone system that would support that same kind of organization. Wasserman: What type of phone system did you choose? Leavens: We wanted a phone system that presented our customers with a unified look at our company. Because we had part time people we wanted to make sure that when a customer called up, they would always be able to get in touch with somebody, whether it was the person they originally called or not. The people who answered the phones may not be the ones working in the office that day. We thought about going the route of using cell phones and individual numbers. But it didn’t make sense to us in terms of making sure the customer got the assistance they needed. I did a little research on phone services. I had used a Vonage line in the past. I knew that VoIP was a realistic technology to use. But I wanted something more. I wanted a system that could help us manage our inbound calls to multiple locations. I found RingCentral and gave them a try. They had a 30-day test at the time. I really liked the way that I was able to set up our organization fairly quickly and easily online. I was able to add extensions for various functions, add informational mailboxes that had our company address, fax number, instructions — things our customers could get even if they called us off hours. Wasserman: Many small businesses want to appear bigger than they are, is that what you were trying to do? Leavens: What we wanted to look like was professional because we’re a business. We’re a small business but we want to work with big businesses. Big businesses are not going to tolerate not being able to get in touch with someone. Wasserman: How does it work? Leavens: You can do the recording online or over the phone. Essentially what it let me do was set up individual extensions and voice mail boxes for the people we wanted to have separate voice mails. Most importantly, it less us set up the incoming call behavior so that during the work day, someone who needs to get in touch with somebody as soon as possible was most likely to get their call answered. Someone who hits a voice tree and hits zero can have that call ring simultaneously at multiple locations so that anybody who might be available to answer that call could grab it and make sure that call got answered. Customer service is important to growth and it’s important to us.

About 1906 days ago Telecom and Wireless

When it Comes to VoIP, It’s Still Buyer Beware

our beautiful site

If a local telephone company runs into trouble, they’re required to give customers 30 days’ notice before they shut down. If an Internet-based phone company shuts down? Nothing. The boom in voice over Internet protocol phone (VoIP) service occurred so quickly that government regulations haven’t had a chance to keep up. As a result, businesses that use VoIP carriers don’t have the same types of protections should the provider run into trouble or go under as they would if they used a traditional phone company. State and federal regulators are working to close the gap. Meanwhile, companies using VoIP for any or all of their phone service are on their own to craft back-up plans. VoIP started out as a software-based method for making phone calls through a microphone and headset connected to a personal computer. Since then, the technology has evolved so that it can be used on PCs and laptops or traditional telephone handsets, and soon, cell phones. Companies such as Skype, which offers free software for computer-based VoIP service, have caused Internet phone service to grow to millions of users. Reasons for concern There are legitimate reasons for VoIP users to think they might need contingency plans. Despite its popularity, some VoIP carriers remain on rocky financial footing. Vonage Holdings Corp., the country’s biggest VoIP phone service, has 2.5 million customers and is signing up thousands more a month. But it is losing thousands of others every month due to service problems, and in recent months has paid more than $239 million to settle patent infringement lawsuits, adding to its short-term debts and causing auditors to question the company’s ability to stay in business. SunRocket, another largeVoIPcarrier, abruptly closed its doors in July 2007 due to financial difficulties, leaving 200,000 customers in the lurch. When that happened, SunRocket competitors stepped in to pick up the company’s customers, and some even honored annual subscription fees some users had already prepaid. State and federal regulators are slowly moving to bring VoIP regulations in line with rules governing other phone carriers. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission now requires that VoIP carriers offer 911 emergency calling services and pay into a universal service fund that subsidizes phone service for low-income families. The FCC recently passed a number portability regulation, so after March 24, 2008 customers who want to change carriers can take their numbers with them, according to Mark Wigfield, an FCC spokesman in Washington D.C. “The commission started with a blank slate in terms of what needed to be regulated and is going after issues in order of priority,” Wigfield says. What you should do If a company goes out of business, being able to take your phone number to a different VoIP carrier is a step in the right direction, Wigfield says. Other steps that small businesses can take: Know what you’re getting. Use resources like The VoIP Mechanic or the FCC’s Consumer Fact Sheet on VoIP to find out more about services, plans and providers. VoIP Action, a VoIP industry news website lists information on terminology and plans, and has a checklist of things to consider when choosing a carrier. Check out carriers before signing a contract. After SunRocket folded, former customers used public message boards to share their experiences of scrambling to find new phone service. In their posted comments, they suggested checking out a potential provider with the Better Business Bureau, reading customer comments on public forums and blogs to find out what kind of service history a provider has, and even switching back to land-line phone service. Read contracts so you understand what remedies may or may not be available should something happen to the carrier. If you have a complaint, file it with your state public utility commission or consumer protection agency, a directory of which can be found at the website of theNational Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Some state agencies have created VoIP fact sheets, such as this VoIP consumer alert from the Vermont Department of Public Service. Or use this form to register a complaint with the FCC, says Wigfield, the FCC representative. The issue of carrier stability could abate as more regulations take effect and more established players get into the VoIP business. T-Mobile, for example, recently introduced a $10 a monthly unlimited local and domestic long-distance VoIP plan for its wireless subscribers. Comcast, better known as a cable TV and Internet provider, has a similar VoIP phone service.

About 2150 days ago Telecom and Wireless

VoIP: What Are You Waiting For?

It may just be time for small and mid-sized businesses to get over their fears when it comes to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Early concerns kept many businesses from dropping traditional landline telephone service and signing up for Internet telephony in droves. A survey in January of 350 businesses with fewer than 500 employees found that only half trust the security offered today by Internet telephony providers, according to the Computing Technology Industry Association, a technology industry association. Small business concerns with VoIP involve quality of calls, reliability of service, and access to 911-emergency services from VoIP telephones. The issue concerning 911 calling exists because VoIP calls provide no geographic location information to emergency responders since they use an Internet connection, making the caller’s whereabouts hard to pinpoint in the event of a crime, fire, or other emergency. But the marketplace has responded with a wide range of business-grade VoIP and hosted-IP telephony products. Today’s offerings promise better sound quality with more functionality, flexibility, and cost savings. Why is it the right time for your business to consider VoIP? Here are a few reasons: 1. Mobility and flexibility “VoIP has great mobility features,” notes Ward Ross, principal with Hinsdale, Ill-based telecommunications consultant Thompson, Ross and Associates.  Because VoIP phone service uses Internet lines, “You can take your phone anywhere in the world, have the same phone number, and be able to access your calls.” Small businesses with multiple offices “can appear as one office and have system transparency,” he notes. In addition to this mobility, VoIP has the flexibility to integrate with other Internet-based services in ways a traditional telephone cannot. These include telephony during video/Web conferencing presentations, calendaring, or data file exchange. 2. Saves money Beyond its superior flexibility, VoIP saves businesses money. Depending on the service you choose, you may be able to avoid paying for both broadband and telephone services — or significantly scale back your telephone bills. Some providers allow you to buy broadband service and then calls over that broadband line are free. VoIP long-distance or international calls carry minimal charges, ranging from none to low. In addition, many VoIP providers, unlike the local phone company, offer three-way calling, call forwarding, auto redial, and caller ID without any additional charges. Services run the gamut from free computer-based calling — such as Skype — to services that better simulate the telephone experience, such as Vonage, which offers small business service for as low as $39.99 per month. While IP telephony systems can involve a major investment in hardware and IT staffing, there are also new hosted-IP telephony options available for small businesses. These include Aptela, costing $19.50 per user, MailStreet Voice at $39.95 per month, or the Asterisk business edition (using Asterisk open-source IP telephony), which is sold by Digium at $995. 3. Quality problems addressed While open-source or lower-priced VoIP services still may fall prey to poor sound quality, such as “jitters,” echoes, or out-of-order voice transmission, an entire range of business-quality services has emerged. Providers such as Avaya and Cisco use Ethernet devices called IP-PBX systems to improve sound and data-transmission quality of VoIP service. These can also safeguard against the effects of power outages, which can knock out VoIP service but not necessarily traditional phone service. 4. Security issues are being tackled Initial fears about the security of VoIP are waning, as more product lines offer ways to secure the lines. Companies like Avaya, Cisco, and Nortel all offer products with heightened security. John Gray of Nortel’s enterprise strategy marketing group, says that Nortel has taken a “layered approach” to security in its products, offering VoIP solutions that include firewalls, intrusion detection, and virtual LANs to protect multimedia VoIP uses. In addition to selling its solutions to VoIP carriers, Nortel offers its own line of small business options, notes Gray, including a new IP-PBX product with IBM. But Ross believes the security issue just might be overrated. “Is your present telephone system encrypted? I don’t think so,” he says.  Eavesdropping and wire-tapping of traditional telephones is actually much easier than to do than with VoIP, he says. “I don’t think this is as big a deal as people make it out to be,” he says. 5. Emergency calling options With regard to 911 services, Ross says that most VoIP providers have worked through the problem of failing to offer emergency responders location information about VoIP calls by registering the location of its users when they subscribe. The biggest problem remaining, he says, is the use of Softphones, a specific phone designed to carry VoIP calls that remains difficult to detect. “This is something they’ll need to deal with,” he says. Nonetheless, most small and mid-size businesses need to consider these developments in the marketplace in quelling their fears of VoIP so that they can finally take the plunge.

About 2180 days ago Telecom and Wireless

The Future of Small Business Telephony Is Here: And It’s VoIP

our beautiful site

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — It is 8:30 a.m. The phone in my hotel room is ringing. Not the one connecting to room service or the bell desk, but the other one. The one I brought from the U.S.; the one that follows me wherever I go, ringing anywhere in the world to my old faithful ten-digit California number. Yes, my normal office phone is now sitting on my desk in my hotel room, ringing for me to answer an incoming U.S. domestic call. Voice over Internet Protocol service (VoIP) simply and effectively allows me to bring my phone service with me everywhere I go at no extra charge. VoIP is a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular phone line. VoIP services allow you to call anyone who has a telephone number — including local, long distance, mobile, and international numbers — either over your computer, using a special VoIP phone, or using a traditional phone connected to a VoIP adapter. The newest generation of VoIP phones can even connect directly to any wireless access point (WiFi) router you may have access to, eliminating the need for external adapters and allowing for use through public wireless access points. While things may be poised to change, the telephone is still the most relevant tool in business today, and our dependency on voice communications is clear. During the last couple of years VoIP has moved from being a complex, unreliable, low quality service to a mature, competitive, simple to manage and high quality offering. VoIP service affords a number of advantages over traditional telephony providers that make it an overall better choice for small businesses and particularly for the millions of people that travel or work away from their office for a substantial portion of their time: Your phone number travels with you; Anywhere you can connect to the Internet you can have your phone for incoming and outgoing calls; If you obtain a U.S. phone number and travel abroad you can bring the phone or IP adapter with you and make/receive calls at U.S. domestic rates; Overall rates are quite lower that traditional telephony services; And high-end services such as voice mail to e-mail and multi-party conferencing are often bundled in at no extra cost. The competition is heating up and a roster of VoIP service providers is blooming. Some of the ones with small-business friendly offerings are Lingo, Vonage, Vonics, Skype and Packet 8. While each service provides different options and plans, the basic features are all the same, and all offer the lower cost and higher flexibility advantages of VoIP. If your company’s telephony needs are more complex than what can be provided by single-line services and require multiple lines, extensions and attendant features, you should consider hosting your own company VoIP telephony server. Either via a custom-built solution, or a pre-configured appliance, your small business can host its multi-line, telephony server for a very limited budget. Features like multiple extensions, call transfers, conferencing, auto-attendant (IVR), voice mail to e-mail, operator panel, music-on-hold, call forwarding and name directory are all included in preconfigured systems that sell between $1,000 and $3,000. IP phones that cost from $30 to $150 each. Quality, affordable VoIP servers are made by various companies, including Fonality and Zultys. At the higher end, top products are available from Cisco and Avaya. In-house, server-based solutions take as input regular phone lines and distribute the service to extensions via Internet protocol (IP) and data wires instead of phone wires. This allows for incredible flexibility of internal communications, allowing for extraordinary things such as having your phone attendant seamlessly work at home, or speaking with your manufacturing office in Vietnam at no cost at all and by just dialing its extension number. These solutions also allow for PCs, such as your salesperson’s laptop, to act as virtual handsets by using software that mimics the behavior of a regular phone. A number of “soft phones” are available on the market from vendors such as Cisco, Avaya, and Nortel, or you can download a very popular and effective free one at SJ Labs. The benefits of VoIP are incredible for small business. Switching to VoIP, in most cases, provides a quick return on investment. Old fashion telephony is on its way out and business voice communications are quickly shifting towards the VoIP paradigm worldwide. Empower your small business to take advantage of this first mature wave of benefits and write “Switch to VoIP” on top of your to-do list. Andrea Peiro is president and CEO of the Small Business Technology Institute, a non-profit organization created to foster the adoption of information technologies among small businesses.

About 2331 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Staying Connected

For better or worse, most of us are now hostage to a constant stream of data, images, and conversations beamed at us via cell phone and Wi-Fi networks. To remain tuned in, you probably have a quiver of fancy gadgets, like a smart phone with a slide-out keyboard, Skype or Vonage boxes in your home for making phone calls over the Internet, and a Wi-Fi detector in your hand to let you know which cafés let you fire up the laptop and burrow into the corporate network. Indeed, it’s taken for granted now that in an always-on economy, being connected is key to business success. But if that’s the case, if connectivity confers competitive advantage, then what really counts is how connected you are compared with the next guy. In other words, by limiting yourself to standard communications technologies and applications, you’re just keeping up. If you want to get ahead, you’ve got to take your connectedness to the next level. Fortunately, that’s doable–thanks to a handful of new, slightly exotic products that haven’t yet achieved much awareness. One way of boosting connectivity is to increase the amount of time the network is available to you. For all the talk of being constantly wired, even your Batman utility belt’s worth of gadgets probably leaves you stranded offline from time to time. That’s not just an issue when you’re entertaining clients on the catamaran or inspecting drainage at a backwoods site. Researchers have found that one-third of all cell phone calls suffer from quality problems. And outside urban areas, Wi-Fi hot spots are the exception, not the rule. You no longer have to put up with that sort of detachment. For starters, there are now cell phone range extenders, which typically enlist a book-size antenna that can be stuck on a wall or a car roof to snag faint signals. A small box then amplifies and broadcasts the signal to the immediate area so you–and your employees or family–can use a cell phone in a spot that’s normally a dead zone. One example of a range extender: the $399.99 zBoost, from Atlanta-based Wi-Ex, which rebroadcasts signals across an area of about 2,500 square feet. The company has been shipping extenders since 2005, but it’s been gaining more attention for more recent models that are compatible with a wider range of cell phone networks. As for your wireless network, once you’re out of range–meaning as soon as you step out the door, and possibly well before you get there–you’re dependent on Wi-Fi hot spots. But your network can cover a wider range than you might think, thanks to new technology that can push a wireless network signal not just across your office or house but across an entire town or beyond. The most impressive claims for distance, up to 40 miles, come from MaxStream’s $299 9Xtend. You won’t get a broadband connection at those distances, but it’s fine for e-mail and transferring small files. If you demand full-on multimedia all the time, you need a satellite phone. As recently as a few years ago, medium-speed satellite data links were the privilege of those willing to lug a suitcase full of electronics, take a course in how to use the device, and pay hundreds of dollars for a few minutes of connection. But new satellites put in orbit in 2005 by a company called Inmarsat have led to a new service called BGAN that brings a high-speed connection to a $1,000 laptop-computer-size device for $9 per megabyte of transferred data–enough for about 100 e-mails or webpages, if you skip attachments and photos. One downside: You may have to stand by a window to snag a satellite. But that’s a small price to pay for the ability to flame your sales manager from a spa in Tibet. Will being able to get that e-mail sent or return that call when your counterpart at Acme is temporarily stuck in radio silence make a difference in how you fare? There’s no way of knowing for certain, but if you’re absolutely sure the answer is no, then you’re leading a far more relaxed life than most of us. Another way to gain strategic connectivity advantage is to put your current communications capabilities to better use. Take Web conferencing. We finally have the bandwidth to enable a roving manager to get a good video fix on life back at the office, but hardly anyone takes advantage of it. I suspect one reason is that standard webcams provide a fixed, fishbowl image akin to what you’d see above the counter in a 7-Eleven; it feels more like peeping through a porthole than standing in a room and looking around. But some new webcams allow you to control the view remotely, to spin the camera around and zoom in for a sharp view of a new design, or even of someone’s face to see how he or she really feels about what you’re saying. Sure, you could spy on your employees with it, too, but that’s a fool’s opportunity. If you’re torn between needing to travel more for business and not wanting to spend time away from the kids, consider putting one in your kitchen at home and ask your kids to show you their homework when you’re on the road. A good option is the D-Link DCS-6620G, about $755 at Amazon.com. Okay, now you’re truly connected, available 24-7, no matter where you are. What about your rivals? Can you increase your edge by lowering their ability to connect with you? One option is to short-circuit anyone’s attempt to violate your privacy over the network. It’s now easy to hide a tiny camera that wirelessly transmits images for posting on the Web. And if you think that violating people’s privacy hasn’t become routine, then you haven’t looked at YouTube lately or, for that matter, read The Wall Street Journal. (And you certainly haven’t held a position on the board of HP.) But technology is stepping up to offer some protection. Surreptitious transmissions, for example, can be stopped with a portable video camera and wireless network blocker. It’s simply a small box that can be placed anywhere in a room, where it will jam camera, network, and Bluetooth signals up to a 30-foot radius. The Spy Store sells one online called the VJM-1 for $599. The more paranoid among us might also want to block cell phone calls, and there are jamming devices available–though you won’t yet find them in the United States, where they are illegal. Such devices are available in Europe and Japan, and for obvious reasons, the U.S. movie-theater industry has been lobbying to get permission to use them, which could open the door to other exceptions. Two U.S. companies, Cell Block Technologies and CellAntenna, claim to have developed versions that might be deemed legal, though neither is offering products to the consumer market yet. For now, those seeking to block cell phone transmissions might consider this low-tech but effective option: slapping metallic paint or sticking wire mesh on the walls, either of which will block cell phone and other signals. Stick-on mylar film will take care of the windows. Then there’s what I like to think of as “meta-connectivity”–that is, using other peoples’ communication networks as a business resource in their own right. For example, it’s already easy to track the location of employees and others through the use of cell phones. But what about tracking the public at large? Think about it: Since nearly everyone carries a cell phone these days, knowing where the cell phones are is the same as knowing where the people are. Figuring out how crowds form, move, and disperse throughout the day could be valuable information for a range of businesses. One of the most immediate implications is for advertising, where the price of placement on an electronic billboard could fluctuate based on how many people are within viewing distance. This technology is still emerging. But two U.S. companies, IntelliOne and AirSage, are planning to market cell phone-based vehicle traffic monitoring services nationwide. Once these sorts of traffic-related services get the public used to the idea of being tracked anonymously, new kinds of data services should become widely available. Of course, today’s exotic communications gizmo is tomorrow’s de rigueur, which means your reward for establishing a connectivity edge is getting to do it all over again when your weird gadgets start turning up everywhere else. Contributing editor David H. Freedman (whatsnext@inc.com) is a Boston-based author of several books about business and technology.

About 2392 days ago Telecom and Wireless

A Wealth of Telecom Choices

The choices for business telephone services have exploded in the past few years.  What’s more, some of these choices represent completely new product categories that did not even exist until recently.  If you are baffled by all the choices, trust me, you’re not alone. I am going to attempt to cut through the confusion and give you a quick reference guide explaining the differences in some of the most common telephony choices and when and how to use them in your business. Let’s take a look: Landline telephones — Traditional landline telephones once were the only choice we had. Today, landline phone service is just the starting point. My take:  Traditional landline service is still the basic telephony service of choice for most businesses, due to its reliability, sound quality and relative ease of getting started.  Competition from new telephony alternatives like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is driving down the cost of business landlines in many parts of the country. Shop around. Look especially at providers such as AT&T that also offer wireless services. They can bundle wireless and landline services into one cost-effective package, along with convenience features such as unified messaging (the ability to check voicemails from landline and wireless phones in one place). Skype — Skype, which is owned by eBay, is a service that lets you make calls for free over the Internet to someone who also has downloaded the Skype software. But it’s even more versatile: For 2.1 cents per minute (currently free within the U.S. and Canada), you can call individuals who do not have Skype but who use landlines or wireless phones (called SkypeOut). And you can receive calls from individuals who call you from their landline or wireless phones (called SkypeIn).  My take:  Skype is a dirt-cheap long distance substitute, especially well-suited for staying in touch with friends and family internationally. Business use of Skype is also increasing, especially among Web-savvy solo entrepreneurs and microbusinesses on tight budgets.  However, Skype is not a complete replacement for traditional telephone service because it does not support emergency 911 calling. Best use for Skype: Use it selectively to hold down long distance costs. VoIP — VoIP lets you make calls over a broadband Internet connection instead of over traditional telephone lines. Options range from low-cost packaged solutions such as Vonage, which currently offers a small business package with unlimited local and long distance calling for under $50 per month, all the way up to sophisticated IP phone systems that require pricey hardware.  Even traditional phone companies, pressured by the competition, are offering VOIP packages. My take: VOIP gives you a large degree of control over your phone system, letting you reconfigure it quickly and easily to accommodate new hires or changes. VOIP also can coordinate employees in multiple locations under a single phone system. Low-end packages run off the same broadband connection you use for Internet access, and can lead to sound quality issues. Mid-range and higher solutions use private IP connections. Wireless phones – Will the need to count wireless minutes become a thing of the past? Today’s wireless offerings, with unlimited night and weekend plans, calling circles, and rollover policies are inching us closer to that day.   My take:  An increasing number of solo entrepreneurs are going 100 percent wireless. They are eliminating landlines altogether in favor of wireless as their primary phone. Most likely, though, this is not a practical alternative unless you are a consultant or other sole proprietor. For businesses larger than one person, wireless phones are a supplement to the main telephone system, albeit an important, even indispensable one.  PDAs –  Personal digital assistants, palmtops and the latest term-du-jour, smartphones, let you make phone calls like standard wireless phones. Compared with standard wireless phones, these devices add many more functions and features, including larger screens and sometimes typewriter-like keypads. Blackberry and Treo are well-known brands.  My take:  These devices are the tool of choice if you regularly need access to e-mails, documents, or calendars while out of the office. Remember, while it may be possible to send and receive e-mails on a standard wireless phone, it’s agonizingly cumbersome — and who wants to peer at e-mail on a tiny one-inch screen? A PDA or smartphone is a far better choice. Plus, on business trips, a PDA that slips into your pocket or purse can even replace a laptop-that-feels-like-100-pounds-by-the-time-you-get-to-the-airport-gate. Just don’t become addicted to checking messages on your Crackberry, er, Blackberry, and commit a business faux pas, like checking your e-mail in an important meeting with a customer.    Virtual switchboard and voicemail services – In the past few years a whole new category of telephony service has entered the picture. These new software-based services provide a menu of options to beef up your existing phone system: central automated attendant, advanced voicemail features, conference calling, toll-free numbers, fax-to-e-mail, voice-to-e-mail, customized on-hold messages, and more. These new services are layered on top off — not in place of — basic phone connectivity. They work with landlines, wireless, and/or VOIP phones and require no extra hardware. GotVMail,  RingCentral, and Freedom800 are three brands in this space. My take:  For a low monthly fee (as little as $10) these services can make your small business sound bigger and more professional. The services are excellent for businesses with employees and offices in multiple locales, giving the ability to seamlessly transfer calls and forward messages among them. And it’s all invisible to the caller, who does not know what location employees may be speaking from.    With all the choices available today, you can have a more robust telephone presence at a lower cost than most of us would have dreamed possible a decade ago. These alternatives can keep the cost of doing business down and make telecommunications services available to employees throughout your company, no matter where they are, but it is a decision that you, as a small business owner, must make on a case-by-case basis. I think the overall benefits outweigh the risks. Don’t be afraid to go for it. Anita Campbell is a writer, speaker and radio talk show host who closely follows trends in the small business market at her site, Small Business Trends.

About 2453 days ago Printers, Copiers, and Peripherals

USB Drives: A Guide

our beautiful site

They go by different names: thumb-drives, thumb-sticks, flash drives or USB drives. But regardless of what you call them, they’re one of the handiest inventions for computer users. These tiny devices are ideal for those who want to transport documents, spreadsheets, presentations, photos or music from one PC to another. About the size of an iPod Nano, the thumb-length flash drives consist of a minuscule printed circuit board inside a metal casing. Simply plug one into a computer’s USB (Universal Serial Bus) port and a new drive letter appears on your computer’s menu, such as F: or G:. No software is necessary to begin dragging and dropping files onto the removable memory. “My USB flash drive is like the automobile to my business,” explains Joel Brodie, the San Francisco-based founder and editor of the Gamezebo (www.gamezebo.com (http://www.gamezebo.com) ) online magazine. “It gives me the personal freedom to transfer and backup files everywhere — from my laptop in the coffee shop or my desktop at the home office to the print shop where I get my presentations and brochures professionally created.” For entrepreneurs on the go, these portable flash drives have a number of advantages over other removable storage devices, such as the CD or floppy disk. Here’s what it means for your business: Faster copying. Copying files to the USB drive is much faster than it takes to burn a CD or copy files onto a floppy disk. This is especially true with the newer USB drives that work with a computer’s USB 2.0 port, offering roughly 40 times faster speeds than USB 1.1. Platform versatility. USB drives work with both Windows and Mac PCs. They’re cheap and hold more data. A 2-Gigabyte (2GB) drive can be found for under $30. Did we say portable? Fast-moving entrepreneurs can keep a USB drive on their keychain, on a lanyard around their neck or stuffed into their jeans’ pocket and will always have their important files with them wherever they go. See something you want on a client’s PC? Pull out a USB drive and copy the program or files in seconds. Easy to back up data. Working on a laptop? In case something happens to the computer – such as a power surge, theft, nasty virus, fire or if accidentally dropped – a USB drive can be used to quickly and easily back up data. Back in the office, just plug that USB stick into a desktop PC and copy the contents over to a new computer to continue working. Let’s recap: USB drives are fast, inexpensive and tiny. They work with virtually any PC with a USB port and require no software to be recognized. What’s not to love? According to Semico Research (www.semico.com), 174.6 million USB drives are expected to ship worldwide in 2006, netting an estimated $5.5 billion dollars in revenue. By 2008, that number is predicted to grow to 220 million units sold, yielding nearly $9.1 billion dollars. What more, USB drives come in all shapes and sizes for the entrepreneur who wants to express their individuality. Cool (and wacky) USB devices * The SanDisk (www.sandisk.com) Cruzer Micro USB flash drives also include preloaded software such as the CruzerLock 2, a data encryption solution that password-protects selected files and folders. The SanDisk Cruzer Titanium USB flash drive includes Skype software to make calls over the Net. * Similarly, the Vonage V-Phone (www.vonage.com) is a 256MB USB flash drive and phone in one; Vonage customers simply plug the orange drive into a computer’s USB port and, with the aid of a little earpiece microphone (included), can use the PC to place (or receive) calls. * Some USB flash drives also double as MP3 players. Creative’s MuVo TX FM is a flash drive that also lets you plug in headphones (included) to hear your favorite digital audio or FM radio. A small battery pack snaps onto the unit in order to play the music. * And now for something completely different: from Tokyo comes the Sushi Disk (www.dynamism.com), flash memory drives hand-crafted to look like pieces of sushi. Take your pick between Ebi (shrimp), Maguro (tuna), Uni (Sea Urchin) and more. A delicious idea!

About 2484 days ago Telecom and Wireless

Time to Switch Your Business to VOIP?

Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, uses a company’s broadband Internet connection to place phone calls over the global computer network instead of via traditional wire-line phones. The key appeal of VoIP for small and medium-sized businesses is that the technology has the potential to save money, but you have to weigh those savings against the risks. “This is one more way to get additional value out of that Internet connection,” says Mike Wagner, director of World Wide Marketing at Linksys. “Initially users got broadband to browse the Web, but now you can use it to make unlimited calls in the U.S. and Canada for $29.95 a month, and international rates start around four cents a minute.” There are different ways to use VoIP: either download software and use your computer with a headset, contract for a monthly service and connect using your regular phone with an adapter, or use special small business VoIP hosting services. Deciding which technology is right for your business will depend on the size of your organization, the phone features that you want, and whether the firm has numerous satellite offices that run up large phone bills through internal calls alone. Free VoIP Services A home-based business or one with only a few employees could conceivably switch to VoIP by downloading free software from the Internet from such services as Skype and making calls using a computer and a headset. Skype software is free. Calls costing only the price of your Internet connection to other Skype users, or run a few pennies a minute for domestic calls to people with traditional phones. Radio Shack’s VoSKY Exchange offers Skype software for the business office for $800. The potential business risks include having your company’s phone service down in the event of an electrical outage, a computer crash, virus or worm. In addition, the free services have no provisions for connecting emergency 911 calls. Telephone Replacement Service For a small office, the best option may be a for-pay VoIP service that enables your workers to use a traditional telephone. In order to use VoIP with a dial phone, you need an analog telephone adapter, or ATA. This device converts the analog signal (your voice) to a digital one. Most VoIP service providers — such as Vonage or AT&T’s CallVantage — offer the adapter for free with their packages. If bought separately they cost between $50 and $100. The benefit of going with a service is that is easier to reach non-VoIP members, emergency 911 calls go through and packages tend to offer bulk usage for one monthly price, similar to cellular phone plans. They also provide integration with desktop computer applications, including your address book, Web browser or Microsoft Outlook, enabling such features as quick lookup and click-to-call dialing. Caution: some adapters won’t work with every VoIP, so check with the provider. VoIP Hosting Medium-sized companies with several offices spread over a geographic region have other VoIP needs that eliminate fees for calls between locations and thus reduce overall phone bills. For these firms, VoIP hosting services, such as those offered by Covad or Packet8 and other companies, may be best. Many hosted services deploy VoIP over PBX (Private Branch Exchange) systems — telephone systems owned by a private business instead of a common telephone carrier. These features allow small and mid-sized companies to use an unlimited number of extensions in geographically diverse locations. Some of the hosting services are appealing because they eliminate high telephone bills for intra-company calls between branch offices, but they can cost between $10-80 per line per month and also come with startup fees. At the same time, they provide more reliability and guaranteed levels of service. Here are some popular VoIP service plans: AT&T CallVantage – $30 unlimited calling U.S. and Canada Offers call logs, voicemail, speed dial, call waiting/forwarding, caller ID, fax support, directory assistance, three-way calling, and do not disturb. Not all CallVantage subscribers have E911 service (works like 911), so check before you leap. Vonage – $25 unlimited calling U.S. and Canada Call waiting, caller ID and conference calling. Vonage offers basic 911 service to all subscribers, but you must provide them a physical address. 500 minutes: $14.99 per month. Vonage provides the best overall reliability. BroadVoice – $20 per month for unlimited calling No 911, but unlimited calls to Europe, China, Chile, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia over broadband Internet. The $25 plan includes 14 more countries. Voice quality is average.

About 2545 days ago Telecom and Wireless

VoIP Comes Calling

If you haven’t yet heard of VoIP–voice over Internet protocol–you’re probably still using a rotary phone. The phenomenon of running phone calls over an Internet connection, through upstart telecom providers such as Vonage, Skype, and Packet8, is growing like mad. There were more than 4.5 million VoIP users in the U.S. last year, and that number will double this year, according to International Data Corp. But while VoIP is a lot less expensive than old-fashioned phone calls, the service hasn’t always been so good, and there’s been a paucity of features designed specifically for small businesses. Fortunately, VoIP is growing up. Many long-standing concerns–having to do with reliability, sound quality, convenience–have finally been addressed. And scores of new products now make Internet phone systems more powerful than landlines. Here are the six we like best. Best for… The paranoid Zfone Cool features: VoIP calls are routed over the Internet, which means they can be hacked just like e-mails. That’s not a huge problem yet, but such mischief is inevitable, says e-mail encryption pioneer Phil Zimmermann, creator of Zfone. The software, which is available for free download, encrypts and secures your VoIP communications; the only catch is that the person you’re calling also has to have it. In action: Dan Kohn runs FlyDash.com, a website for frequent fliers, without a regular phone, opting instead for his cell phone and a VoIP service on his laptop. Kohn says he’s not paranoid, but he hates the idea of some hacker being able to eavesdrop on his conversations. So when he heard about Zfone, he knew he had to have it. He got it up and running in 10 minutes and has convinced a number of business associates to download it so that his conversations with them will be unhackable. Price: Free Best for… Road warriors BroadSoft Cool features: With BroadSoft, the office is never far away. The system can ring up to 10 numbers simultaneously; in other words, if someone calls your office and you’re not there, the system will ring your home, cell, car, and any other number you have. It also enables your cell phone to work like an office phone–you can transfer calls to colleagues and connect to co-workers just by dialing their extensions. In action: Business trips were always a hassle for Cash Doye, mostly because Doye, the CEO of Denver-based NewPrime Home Loans, hates being out of the loop. Checking voice mail a few times an hour was a pain, as was ensuring that everyone knew to call his mobile rather than his office phone. He recently ditched his traditional office phone system for BroadSoft’s Mobile PBX. He felt the difference immediately. He was on a business trip in Florida, for example, when a potential investor rang his office; instead of putting the call into voice mail, the system rang his other numbers. Doye took the call and answered the investor’s questions on the spot. “He was operating with me as if I was still in the office,” Doye says. Price: About $40 per user per month (includes local and long-distance calls) Best for… Replacing the receptionist Iotum Cool features: Iotum’s software lets your phone know which calls you want to take and which you don’t. It also takes the pain out of setting up conference calls by ringing all participants automatically. In action: Ray Vilis was in a sales meeting when his cell phone started ringing. Damn, he thought to himself, as he mumbled an embarrassed apology. Vilis, vice president of product management and business development for Versatel Networks, doesn’t have that problem anymore. Vilis uses Iotum to manage his calls. It monitors his calendar and automatically knows not to ring any of his six phone numbers if he’s in a meeting–except for callers he specifies. “Iotum gives me back the switchboard operator, only it costs a lot less,” he says. Price: $5 to $10 per user per month Best for… Toll-free numbers RingCentral Online Cool features: RingCentral provides toll-free numbers that can easily be tied into your VoIP, cell phone, and fax line. The easy-to-use service, which is hosted on the Web, also provides a range of call-management features. In action: Charlie Ruddy is CEO of TennisConnect.org, which provides Web-based marketing services to the Tennis Industry Association. Ruddy wanted a toll-free number to better serve his clients. But he was dismayed to learn that an 800 line from an old-school telecom provider wouldn’t work with his company’s VoIP system. With RingCentral, he got a toll-free number that can be set to ring his office or cell phones and all missed calls go into a single mailbox. He also gets a host of other services, like multiple lines for different departments. The price? “Less than $100 a month, for both VoIP and RingCentral,” Ruddy says. Price: Starts at $9.99 per user per month Best for… Boosting sales eStara Cool features: eStara uses VoIP to offer “click-to-call” services. Businesses put a phone number on their online advertising or websites; when potential customers click on the ad, they are connected directly to the company via VoIP. EStara also provides the same feature to customer support centers. Plus, it keeps a record of all incoming calls, creating a database of sales leads. In action: Todd Walrath, executive vice president of Leads.com, specializes in using the Web to generate business leads for clients. He uses eStara’s call-tracking service to track calls generated from clients’ ads on sites such as Yahoo and Google. Not only is it cheaper than purchasing a new toll-free number for each promotion, but customers can also check their logs in real time to see who has called in and from where–and not just the calls they got but the calls they missed. “What’s really cool is that we can use the Internet to drive consumer demand through the existing phone network, which everyone has,” says Walrath. Price: $2,500 to $10,000 a month, depending on call volume and sales conversion rates Best for… Growing businesses Linksys Voice System 9000 Cool features: It’s a fully functioning VoIP system designed specifically for small companies. And it comes in one easy-to-use package–with VoIP phones plus all the back-end networking equipment. In action: Michael DenBlaker’s outsourcing consulting firm, Graypeak Partners, had grown to more than 10 employees, one VoIP phone line at a time. But while routing calls over the Web was cheap, it was increasingly inconvenient. Not only did the firm lack a main number, but employees weren’t connected to one another and transferring calls was impossible. “We looked like a schlock organization,” DenBlaker says. So when Linksys introduced the System 9000 in March, DenBlaker jumped. Now he has his main line, people can transfer calls or forward them to their cell phones, and it’s easy to add numbers as he adds employees. “It makes us seem like a bigger organization than we are, and it’s easy to manage,” he says. Price: $580 to $3,700, depending on the number of lines and phones