Located in a converted church in Hastings, The Source is Britain’s biggest BMX and skateboard shop and the only one in the country with its own indoor skate park. The company has been growing rapidly as an mail order retailer but its hodge-podge of ‘phone technologies was causing a headache – and losing sales. “It was making us inefficient and unprofessional”, founder and co-owner Rich Moore told us.

Technology Box has now installed a state-of-the-art Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) system which allows The Source to handle up to six calls at once during busy periods, transfer calls, keep people on hold, and retain voice mail messages more efficiently.

The VOIP technology means that the number of calls which they  handle can be scaled up very quickly and cheaply – so they can take many more calls during busy sales periods such as Christmas and January. As the load on the system increases, it’s smart enough to help them deal with that traffic.

The Source chose Technology Box after a bad experience with a larger company from outside the area. “The salesman didn’t really have any understanding of our needs or what we wanted to do”, explains Rich. “But as soon as we talked to Technology Box we could see immediately that they cared about what we wanted and we would get the system that we needed”.

The new VOIP system will now support The Source as they build their brand well beyond their current £1 million-plus turnover. “We’re getting busier and busier and I’m sure that the new system will pay for itself fairly rapidly”, adds Rich.

Improved Telecoms Boosts Bike Sales is a post from: Technology Box Home

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• Convergence of Voice and Data

First of all, Exchange is good if you like using Outlook. Don’t laugh. Lots of people spend a great deal of their working lives within Outlook and get on well with it.  And there are no real competitors to Outlook as a desktop email client for business. Thunderbird has some good points, but try sharing address books or organising appointments and you soon see serious limitations.

The other big deal with Exchange is privacy and responsibility. With your own server, you are not letting a third party look through every single email that you send or receive, and you also know exactly where the information is stored.  Cloud based providers could be keeping your information in another country’s jurisdiction, and you don’t know who has access.

You are responsible for the exchange server. This is a double-edged sword. It’s your server so you need spend money and effort to look after it, and Exchange servers really can take some looking after.  But on the flip side if there is a problem, you can get straight in there and fix it. Google Apps has been very reliable for us for the last 3 years, but in the event of a problem you would be dealing with a faceless help desk and you’re just one of millions of customers.

The last point I’d like to make about exchange is integration. It’s been a popular mail server for so long now that it’s practically an industry standard. This means that pretty much any Unified Communications or CRM system will work with it. For example, our Swyx systems are 100% designed for Outlook and Exchange integration.

So those are the plus points of exchange. But we still like Google Apps and help our customers migrate to the platform. Why?  Firstly, it’s very easy. You don’t need to buy or maintain a server. There are a lot of smaller companies out there who are starting to realise that you don’t need any servers. A combination of Apps, a NAS device and a fast internet connection is enough.

For larger companies there are also advantages. The Google Mail web client is brilliant. I think that it’s actually better than Outlook for day-to-day email productivity. My inbox typically only has about 10 items in it. The rest is archived, but I can easily get to it with the search bar which is so much better than the search in Outlook. Also, instead of folders I can tag emails individually for example “support requests” or “new inquiries”, using both tags if both apply.

The last advantage I’d like to mention concerns home users and branch offices. Using Google Apps just works much better in this environment. As soon as your office or home is connected to the web you can log on and get started. Granted, with exchange you could use Outlook Web Access or Outlook Anywhere. But OWA is not very nice to use, and Outlook Anywhere is a pain to set up.

So to summarise:

Good points about Exchange

• Privacy.
• Outlook.
• Integration with 3rd party software

Good points about Google Apps

• No need to buy or maintain a server.
• Google Apps web client – especially search.
• Multi-site and multi-device works better.

Google Apps vs Microsoft Exchange is a post from: Technology Box Home

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You are missing out if you and your colleagues don’t share presence information. Saving everyone small amounts of effort with every call soon adds up. It takes the brakes off your organisation, making it quicker to respond and easier to manage. Presence is often first thing that our customers talk about when we ask them how their system has improved their working day.

To start with something easy: it’s really good to know who is on or off the phone. You might want to transfer a call or maybe just talk to them.  A good handset will have speed dial buttons for your closest colleagues. The light next to the button tells you if they are on the phone, so you just need to wait for it to go out and push the button to talk. It’s really easy to underestimate how much easier this makes things, especially if the organisation is spread over multiple offices.

For further time savings, we need to move to your computer which can show more information on screen. This is called “rich presence”. For example you can see if a colleague has meetings booked in their Outlook calendar, if they have a lot of voicemail building up, or if they’ve diverted calls to their mobile.

Rich presence really pays off for fast moving organisations because nobody has to keep anything updated, you just sit down and log in, and everybody knows where you are and how to reach you.

The technology doesn’t have to be expensive. There’s a good chance that you already have the tools you need. For example Avaya provides a free presence application called Phone Manager Lite with all IP Office telephone systems, while Swyx includes all of these features by default. You’ve also go the option of using a separate service. We’ve successfully used Microsoft Live Messenger, Google Talk and iChat in conjunction with telephone systems to deliver these services at very low cost.

If you’re serious about communication, I strongly recommend you add some form presence to your systems.

Presence: why it’s important to businesses is a post from: Technology Box Home

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Control your Telephone from your PC

Every IP Office comes with a license for the “light” version of Phone Manager.  This allows you to control calls through your computer with only a few mouse clicks. A simple toolbar allows you to make calls and look up directory contacts.  For users who take a lot of inbound calls, the simple interface allows you to hold, swap and transfer calls and  see the status of your colleagues. A speed-dial icon shows if someone is busy on a call.

You can install as many copies of Phone Manager Light as you need. The version required depends on your system firmware. Contact us and we’ll send you a link for the latest version that will work with your unit.

Add your customers to a central directory

The IP Office can store hundreds of directory entries. Once added, their name is displayed on your phone whenever they call as well as in the Phone Manager window.  This saves time by allowing you to filter and prioritise calls.

If you want to call out using a directory entry, you can either use the “Dial” button in Phone Manager or a programmed button on your handset.

All you need to do this is create a spreadsheet with two columns – one for name, one for number – and import it into the phone system using the Manager software. Please contact us if you need help doing this.

Forward voicemails to your email address.

Forwarding voicemail to email can be very useful if you’re out of the office, because you can listen to the email on a mobile device such as Blackberry or iPhone. And you can keep a permanent record of important voicemails.

Voicemail to email is available on all versions of Voicemail Pro. If you have an embedded voicemail, you’ll need firmware version 4.2 or above and either an IP500 or IP406V2. Contact us if you’re not sure you have the required spec.

Log calls using Delta Server

The IP Office telephone system logs all calls that pass through it. There are a few good reasons to do this. The most obvious is checking for misuse of your telephone system or incorrect billing from your provider.

A more positive use is tracking the effectiveness of your marketing. Once the Delta Server is running you can publish different phone numbers in different adverts, and monitor their effectiveness by tracking the number of calls to each number.

Download Delta Server for free here onto a server or spare PC on your network.  If you haven’t got enough spare numbers for all your adverts, consider upgrading to VoIP telephone lines, which allow unlimited numbers and a choice of dialing codes on a single line.

Get the most out of your IP Office Phone System is a post from: Technology Box Home

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In the latest release there have been the following big changes:

• Enhancements to SIP trunking. This is a technology that replaces and improves upon ISDN.
• More logical licensing structure, allowing you to pay for just the licenses you need and then scale up in future.
• New 1400 and 9600 series handsets, and new telepone system hardware.

For those of you on earlier releases, there were many features added in firmware versions 4 and 5 that will be new to you too. Some of the most important additions are:

• New remote diagnostic application.
• Mobility features that allow you to integrate your mobile phone.
• Voicemail to email.
• Visual voicemail.
• Telecommuter mode.

Version 6 is supported on the  IP406V2, IP412, IP500 and IP500V2.  Please let us know if you need help finding the latest version for your hardware, or working out which items of hardware are holding you back from upgrading.

Avaya IP Office Version 6 is a post from: Technology Box Home

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There’s another advantage of VoIP. Rather than being limited to fixed groups of numbers in your local area code, you can add as many numbers as you like. These can be in any dialing area, including overseas numbers and non-geographic numbers such as 0845.

You’ll normally have existing numbers that you want to keep. These can be “ported” to your VoIP lines and added to any new numbers you need. Once you’ve done this, you’ve broken free of the constraints of where your telephone lines are physically located. Calls to your numbers can connect anywhere with an internet connection. This makes moving office extremely easy, and is good for disaster recovery: in the event of fire or flood calls can be instantly routed to your disaster recovery site.

We think there are considerable advantages to VoIP over ISDN, and recommend you look into whether your business can benefit. If you need any help, please give us a call.

Why replace ISDN with VoIP? is a post from: Technology Box Home

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We know the technology is just a tool and not an end in itself. However, used properly, we believe that technology can make the world a better place and should make it easier to communicate in a secure and reliable manner with the people who are important to you.  We are always pushing to see how new technologies work and we’re flexible enough to adapt to and incorporate those new technologies into what we do.

So do bookmark this blog or use it to ask any questions you might have about business telephone systems.  We’ll always respond to any comments and welcome your participation.

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Offer terms: If you recommend us to one of your contacts, and they then sign up for maintenance with  Technology Box, we will credit you with 25% of the value of your maintenance contract or theirs – whichever is the smaller amount. There is no limit to the number of referrals you can make in this way.

Refer us and get a 25% refund is a post from: Technology Box Home

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SIP connects calls via the internet, and is fast becoming the prefered way to reduce telephony charges. In many cases you can use your existing internet connection. If you are not sure whether this is possible, contact us for advice.

So why are SIP trunks better?  Firstly they are more flexible. You can move your existing numbers to a SIP line and then as many other numbers as you like, from any dialing code. Even international numbers can be added if you need an overseas presence. Secondly, SIP is not tied to the physical outlets meaning that if you move offices or suffer an unexpected disaster the lines can be switched to the new site at a moments notice.

So if you want to reduce your line rental, and benefit from this new technology, contact us today.

Save 60% line rental by replacing ISDN with SIP is a post from: Technology Box Home

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This offer is valid for upgrades to IP500 if you already have one of the following systems: IP403, IP406, IP406V2, or IP412 .

Offer Ends 30th April 2010.

IP400 to IP500 Migration Refund is a post from: Technology Box Home

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Trial licenses are available for: Receptionist Solution, Office Worker solution, Power User Solution, Teleworker solution,  Mobile Worker solution, SIP Trunking, Unified Messaging Service, Text-to-Speech, and VPN phone license.

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The Canadian Minister of Industry has approved Avaya’s proposed acquisition of Nortel Enterprise Solutions. The company has now passed regulatory reviews in the United States, Canada and the European Union, and expects to close the transaction this month. A few weeks ago, Avaya’s proposed purchase of Nortel’s Enterprise Solutions unit got approval from the European Commission. Earlier in November, Avaya secured approval for the deal under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act as well as from the Canadian Competition Bureau

Nortel Enterprise Solutions delivers communications capabilities that  support multimedia and business-critical applications. Nortel’s technologies are designed to help eliminate barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people to the information they need, when they need it.

Avaya gets Go-Ahead for Nortel Acquisition is a post from: Technology Box Home

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Public networks and fixed-line operators are steadily turning to VoIP to leverage the potential of Internet technology and businesses are able to converge their voice and data networks in a single structure. As well as the obvious cost efficiency implications, this also has significant impact in terms of the added functionality that IP telephony over data networks can provide.

Fixed line legacy telephone systems are closed, proprietary systems with limited intelligence. They can only enable one service (voice) and client devices (phones) are hardwired to the infrastructure. Making amendments, additions or other changes to the overall infrastructure, whether it’s new phones for new users or a change of numbers is often very difficult to achieve.

IP PBXs on the other hand are open systems (computer servers) that process telephony signals in the same way as data. IP PBXs and their client devices (IP phones, PCs or notebook PCs) connect to the network and calls can follow users around the network and other IP networks in the same way as email does. IP-based communication is essentially about building flexibility into all forms of communication, as well as unifying communications on a single platform that is pretty much future proofed.

Convergence of Voice and Data is a post from: Technology Box Home

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