Like it or not, even good equipment breaks. Your servers are full of complex chips, spinning disks, fans and power supplies made thousands of miles away by people you don’t know.  

There are lots of ways to improve your odds. For example uninteruptible power supplies, RAID arrays, backup software all help.  But unexpected things happen and as well as doing these things it’s good to have an an insurance policy. We think virtualisation is that insurance policy.

Here are three important ways that virtualisation can save your business from pain:

• If your server breaks, the virtual server can be moved to another while it’s being repaired or replaced.
• If you lose everything in a fire, your network can be quickly re-created on different hardware in a different location.
• If your server becomes overloaded, you just move the virtual server to faster, bettter hardware.

So what is it? Virtualisation software is an environment where the servers “think” that they are running on an actual physical machine, when in fact they are in a “virtual reality”  that has been optimised to keep them comfortable, much like humans in the film The Matrix but more benign!  This way several servers can be run at the same time on the same hardware, where previously each server would need it’s own hardware. As you can imagine this can save cost in terms of hardware outlay and power as well.

Technology-wise there are a several solutions available such as Microsoft’s Hyper-v, Citrix’s XenServer and VMware VSphere. All have their good points but right now we’re finding Hyper-v to be an excellent fit for many of our customers.

If you’d like to realise the benefits of virtualisation in your organisation, or if you just have some questions let us know!

Make Sure The Next Server You Buy is Virtualised is a post from: Technology Box Home

At Technology Box we have the know-how to migrate your systems with minimal fuss and help your staff to get the best out of this exciting new technology, leaving you free to focus on your core business.

On the server side, Office 365 gives you cloud based versions of Exchange, Lync, SharePoint and Project. These can either work alongside your existing servers or completely replace them for a 100% cloud solution.

• No new servers to maintain.
• Get the latest Office 2013 applications with no upfront cost.
• Easy to scale up – works for 1 user or 1000.

Call us now if you’d like to talk to one of our experts about setting up or supporting Office 365 for your organisation.

Office 365 – Technology Box Support is a post from: Technology Box Home

• Disaster recovery. Because calls are routed through the Internet, they can be delivered to a different location at a moment’s notice. Fail-over can also be automated with our advanced Inbound cloud based call routing.
• Flexible numbering. You can have as many telephone numbers as you wish, from any dialing code.
• Scales easily. Additional lines and numbers can be added at a moment’s notice.
• You can present any number, allowing you to show your preferred number when you call customers.

Converged Services

For sites currently using ISDN30 there is a very good case for combining SIP with one of our fast Ethernet leased line services.  This allows you to make use of line rental savings on your ISDN30 to upgrade to high-bandwidth reliable internet.

• 99.9% or greater service level guarantee. Such guarantees are not available with existing xDSL based connections
• All of the advantages of VOIP above.
• Simpler management and administration.
• Faster connection offers many savings and new options for IT, such as cloud based services and offsite backup.

Managed ADSL and Fibre Broadband

For smaller organisations, branch offices and home workers, we offer a managed ADSL and FTTC services. This allows us to control Internet traffic to maintain call quality for up to 20 simultaneous calls. Web and email traffic operates as normal, but the voice packets are prioritised to prevent loss of sound quality.

SIP – VoIP Telephone Lines for Business is a post from: Technology Box Home

If you already have an onsite Exchange server, there are lots of advantages to upgrading to Google Apps

• Reduced IT maintenance costs
• Easy to administer yourself
• Reduced downtime
• Storage. No more archiving or deleting emails to free up space
• Access from anywhere on PC, Mac, mobile or tablet.

If you would like to help with migration and call us on 0333 2407590 to speak to experts on how to migrate to Google Apps and get the most out of this exciting new technology.

Mail

Its Gmail, only better. Get custom email (@your_company.com), more storage, and access from anywhere – on the web, on your phone, and even offline. Technology Box helps organisations migrate their email and get their users acquainted with the powerful features.

Calendar

Google Calendar centralises schedules in one company-wide calendar that’s accessible from anywhere. Overlay calendars to allow you to see when people are available, send invites, and plan events. Technology Box will move your existing Outlook calendars and help make best use of the new way of working.

Google Apps Vault

Google Apps Vault captures email and then provides e-discovery, archiving and information governance. Technology Box helps companies make use Google Apps Vault, reducing risk and costs associated with litigation and compliance audits.

Documents and spreadsheets

Share and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms with Google Docs. Employees always have access to the most up-to-date versions of their work files from anywhere. Technology Box impliments Google Docs and then helps users to to make best use of the innovative colaboration features.

Google Drive

Google Drive lets you store, sync and access your files anywhere – on the web, on your hardrive or on your mobile device.

Google Apps – Cloud Based Business IT is a post from: Technology Box Home

• Guaranteed consistent speed with 1:1 contention
• Choice of speeds 10Mbps, 25Mbps, 100Mbps and right up to 1Gbps.
• Great reliability, backed by SLA
• Faster download and upload speeds than ADSL
• Cost effective – both fibre and EFM versions available.

Ethernet is ideal for businesses who want to take the next step with a high capacity, reliable service at a competitive price. To further justify the investment, you can combine Ethernet with SIP and cloud services, so that you reduce line rental and IT costs at the same time as getting a speed boost.

Technology Box uses the UK’s largest established Ethernet Access Network, and if you  have any questions, you’ll find you’re backed up by our usual fantastic levels of support.

Availablilty:

• 1000+ fibre nodes across the UK
• 720+ EFM nodes across the UK
• 90% of UK businesses within 5km of a node

Service Levels:

• Personalised support from Technology Box engineers
• Latency – <15ms
• Jitter – <5ms
• Packet Loss – <0.2%
• 99.9% availability (IA)
• 5 hours fix (fibre)
• 7 hours fix (EFM)
• 24/7 monitoring

We are confident that we are offering great connectivity that more UK businesses should be investing in. Call us on 0333 240 7590 for more information.

Ethernet – Fibre Optic and EFM Internet for Business is a post from: Technology Box Home

Scalability

What is the pricing  Structure?

Simple – you pay £15 per PC or Mac per month or £50 per server.

Is there a limit to the data backed up?

There is no practical limit. You get 500GB of backup space for each machine and you can back up as many PCs and servers as you wish.

Can the 500GB allocation be shared?

Yes. If you backup 4 PCs  they will have 2TB to share between them

Is there a limit on individual file sizes?

No limit.

Security and Confidentiality

Is data backed up off-site?

Yes, in our secure data centre, which has card access security, fire suppression and backup power supplies.

Is all backed up data encrypted?

Yes, using strong 448bit blowfish encryption.

Can you control who has access to backed up data?

Yes. Only a small team of Technology Box engineers  have access to the passwords that allow decryption.

Backup

Is more than one version of a file backed up?

Yes, we maintain up to 3 versions of each file so if you make an accidental change you can revert to an earlier version.

How up to date is the backup?

The backup is in real time.  As you create new files they are continuously backed up.

Where are the backups stored?

Dual destinations:  on our private cloud servers, and also on your local network.

I have a lot of files and a slow internet connection. Won’t this take a long time to get started?

No, because we only backup new and changed files.  To give you a head start, we often copy files to a USB disk and then send it to the data centre for the first backup. We call this process “seeding” the backup.

Restore

Who can perform a restore?

Your choice.  Anybody who has your backup password can access our secure website and restore files.

What if I’m not sure how to do it?

Call our engineers on 0333 2407590 and they’ll do it for you.

How fast can data be restored?

Much quicker than traditional technologies in this field. Your backups are stored locally so you can start restoring immediately if you delete a file.  If the local files are not available, then  files are restored at the speed of your internet connection.

Won’t this take a long time if I have a huge amount of data?

Our largest customer has 9TB of data. If they had a disaster such as flood or fire, we would not try to restore this across the internet. Instead we would copy the data to USB disks and send it via courier from our datacentre.

Other

Will the uploads cause problems with our internet connection?

No. We can limit the sending rate during the day to avoid this problem, and increase to full speed at off-peak times (typically evenings and weekends)

Crashplan Hosted Backups FAQ is a post from: Technology Box Home

I’ve listed 7 reasons below, although to be frank reasons 1 and 2 are probably good enough by themselves….

1. Avaya will not support versions older than 8.0.  This is a risk to your business because if we discover a bug that affects your phone system we can’t go back to Avaya and ask for a fix. They will only fix bugs in their latest version (8.1 at present) and the last-but-one (8.0).

2. Evolution vs shock therapy. It is much better to make small incremental improvements rather than leaving it until there is a bug and then taking a huge step up. The smaller upgrades are lower risk, and allow users time to adjust to new features.

3. British Summer Time and Bank Holidays. This may sound like a small thing but this will help you give better customer service and save last minute troubles 10 days a year. Systems later than version 7.0 automatically adjust for BST and can be programmed with all Bank Holidays for the next 3 years.

3. Better handsets. Depending how far back you are currently, an  upgrade to 8.1 will allow you to add the excellent 1600 and 9600 series handsets  to your system.

4. Mobile devices. Integration of mobile devices has come a long way since the IP500 was released.  It is now possible to use your mobile as an extension on the phone system, controlling and transferring calls as if you are in the office.

5. Improved SIP support. SIP trunks are the modern successor to ISDN lines, allowing more flexibilty and lower communication costs. The latest firmware versions allow you to adopt this new technology without risking compatibilty problems.

6. Subtle call handling improvements. There a lots of small tweaks to voicemail, user settings and call routings that are too detailed to list.  The net effect is improved experience for customers who call you.

7. Version 8.1 is easier to maintain. This might sound like a selfish reason, but the improvement helps us help you. The latest version gives us better tools to monitor and configure your system. Also, keeping the majority of our customers at the same level allows us to standardise our procedures and adopt consistent best practices.

* Note: some firmware updates are available for the IP400 series units,  but they cannot be upgraded to 8.1. However it is very likely that the CPU can be upgraded, retaining much of your investment in handsets and expansion units.  Avaya also offers a 10% rebate promotion for such upgrades.

7 Good Reasons to Upgrade Avaya IP Office to 8.1 is a post from: Technology Box Home

My first upbeat observation is that is that your files can be copied in real time to a secure location. There is no need to remember to change tapes or USB drives, with all of the scope for human error that goes with that.  It’s a “set and forget” system so that when the fire/flood/riot/whatever takes out your computers, you can go straight to a backup portal and any files you need will be waiting for you. One thing that we’ve learned over the years is that nobody wants to wait for a bulk of files to be copied back – you need to grab the files you were working on yesterday and carry on where you left off.  The rest of the data can catch up when the engineers have rebuilt your machine/building/city.

Depending on the type of disaster, you have to consider the possibility that your Mac or PC has been destroyed as well. My second upbeat observation is that your mobile phones and tablets will be the lifesaver here – you can use the Crashplan App to get to individual files and folders. Combined with with our resilient Inbound Service, a few motivated people with a scattering of iPhones, iPads and Android phones could probably run your business from a  smoking crater.

Once the rebuild is underway, you’ll discover that the “rest of the data” is a huge amount. Our basic service allows you to store 500GB of files. In some places this would take weeks to get back, so our solution is to copy the files onto a USB hard drive and deliver it directly to you.  Just for fun we calculated the equivalent bandwidth of a motorbike carrying a  hard drive over 50 miles. The result was a whopping 2.93Gbps – over double the speed of  the fastest lines we can offer.  The same thing works in reverse. If you’ve got a lot of files to back up we can send them to the datacentre on a disk, and only new or updated ones will need to be uploaded across the Internet.

Over the years we have gained a lot of experience helping our customers to use a variety backup products, and we’ve used these products when things go wrong. Generally the traditional software is unreliable day-to-day and really stressful to use when you need to recover from a problem.  About two years ago we built CrashPlan server for our own backups, we liked it a lot and last year we began investing in high capacity servers so that we could offer the CrashPlan service to our customers. We use Dell servers with the latest high-availability features, hosted in a secure datacentre operated by our partner Node4.

Some key points about our serice are:

• We encrypt your backups using 448 bit Blowfish encryption.
• You get personal service – not a call centre in an anonymous corporation. Our engineers get to know you, and will take care of your data. If the worst happens, we are reasurring, speedy and professional.
• Multi destination backups. Crashplan will back up to a local destination as well as our servers. We recommend doing this as an extra layer of protection and also to speed up day-to-day file restoration.

Service starts at £15 per month for a single PC or Mac or £50 per month for server contact us to start backing up straight away.

Survival Skills for Your Business is a post from: Technology Box Home

Our Inbound Service automatically detected the problem and started forwarding calls to our mobiles, helpfully sending us an email to alert us to the problem.  It soon became clear that the power wasn’t coming back on so we all headed home and to connected to Wifi. The support calls from our customers kept on coming, so we logged into the Inbound site to adjust the routings so that we could balance our engineers’  workload.

During the five hours that the power was down, other organisations that share the same building were dead in the water. Customers calling them were getting engaged tone, they couldn’t dial out and there was no way to divert the calls anywhere else. They just had to hope that they wouldn’t lose any business opportunities, and their customers would call back tomorrow.

We recommend the Inbound service to almost anyone because you don’t need to upgrade your phone system to use it. This is especially good news if you are using a clunky old system in  a serviced office and can’t change anything. Incoming calls go to our  intelligent system and if for some reason the call won’t connect (busy, no answer, network failure) it will divert to other numbers until your caller gets a response. It all happens in seconds. You can literally walk up to your phone system and switch it off. The next incoming call in will go to your mobile. Plug it back in and calls will return to the phone system. I should add that Inbound is not just a mobile service (although there is a cool app for controlling diverts available for iOS and Android) We can design a call routing to go to different offices, home phones or even menu systems.

Also Inbound is not just about resilience. As calls pass through our intelligent platform, we can collect statistics, send alerts or  record calls. If you have more complex needs, we can even create custom menu systems, queues and out of hours messages without changing anything on your existing phone system.

Prices start at £6 per month, making this a very cost effective way to increase the resilience of your business and improve your customer service.

Make your Phone System More Resilient Without Upgrading is a post from: Technology Box Home

11 years ago today, on October 25 2001, Windows XP was released for retail sale, bridging the gap between the predominantly business orientated Windows NT and home user Windows 98/ME systems. Initially a slow starter, Windows XP has been the most successful operating system ever with over 400 million activated copies in circulation in over 25 different languages at its peak in 2006. It didn’t start out well however, XP introduced a change to the start menu and was considered slow to boot and buggy when first released. This is something we have come to expect in the post XP years, even recent Mac OSX and iOS releases have been guilty of this.

At the time public opinion was also turning against Microsoft. In 1998 Microsoft was nearly broken up into two separate companies in the United States vs. Microsoft court case. Thought of as a bully, Microsoft were investigated by the US courts due to Internet Explorer being part of, and exclusive to windows. IE was a monopoly resulting in the untimely death of its competitor Netscape. The court case eventually led to Internet Explorer becoming available for other formats including the Mac OS, this may seem odd now but at the time internet browser choice was far less diverse than it is today.

XP’s success

XP’s success has been due to its longevity and diversification, building on and improving the interface envisioned back with Windows 95, along with Microsoft’s Direct X v8.1 further improving on Windows’ hardware control, including for the first time, built in wireless network management and native CD authoring. Now in Service Pack 3 Windows XP is as stable as they come.

Further adding to its success Microsoft released versions of Windows XP for mobile devices and even automotive applications, Windows XP was also the first Windows to be available as a 64 bit OS. Because of this, software vendors embraced XP.  It is rare to find a program that fails to work with XP, machine specs aside. Not something that can be said about Windows Vista or even 7, currently.

Early this year the Windows 7 market share overtook Windows XP but Windows XP is still a major part of many of the companies we support.  This is in part due to the horror that was Windows Vista and partly due to the economic recession.  But last year, Microsoft announced support for the much loved OS (along with Microsoft Office 2003) will come to an end on 8th April 2014. So 2013 is the year to plan your OS upgrades to Windows 7 or 8.

But why should you upgrade?

What’s the big deal about support? The main reason is compatibility. Software vendors will no longer invest time or expense in a format on the decline and subsequently stop. We have already seen this on the internet with website designers no longer catering for IE 7 and below. There has been a noticeable decline in programs catering for XP, for example IE 8 is the last version available for XP. IE9 was released on 14th March 2011 and IE 10 is bundled with Windows 8, currently there is no news of an IE10 release date for Windows 7 but Microsoft has said it is coming.

So an HTML5 Internet Explorer is not available for Windows XP. Not a problem for most with Firefox and Chrome but this could cause issues for those with a more strict software policy. I find it slightly ironic that XP led to the decline of the Netscape browser and now Firefox (which was initially a spinoff from Netscape) is one of the only ways to have a modern browser experience on XP.

Hardware upgrades are another good reason to move from Windows XP. Chances are that with an XP machine you have older architecture. Modern multi core processors and DDR3 RAM (memory) have come a long way in the last 11 years. More mainstream adoption of 64 bit architecture has allowed PC users to close the gap with Mac users by processing more data at once and have far larger RAM pools. PCI and AGP ports have been replaced with PCIe and since Windows 7 users have been able to use Solid State hard drives which dramatically reduce boot times. Whilst SSDs are expensive, the price has been decreasing steadily and we anticipate a shift to this technology in the near future.

Imminent Release

Windows 8′s imminent release (Tomorrow, 26th October 2012) shows a shift in attitudes by Microsoft. Windows has been slimmed down and also boots ridiculously quickly. The start menu is gone, replaced by the (previously known as) Metro interface. This may unnerve a lot of current windows users, but programs are available to reinstate users’ start menu. Users should like the cloud integration of Windows 8, on installation you have the option of using your live id (Hotmail/Outlook or Office365 login) as your account, which in turn is linked to the Skydrive (a digital locker similar to the iCloud or Google Drive) where users can store or back up their files. The Windows store has been reworked and integrated into Windows 8. Here programs can be purchased and downloaded across any of your account linked machines which will include desktops, laptops, a tablet such as the Microsoft surface tablet, XBox360 or even a Windows 8 Phone  – no more lost installation disks, activation keys or files!

Enough about Windows 8, today is about Windows XP. Happy Birthday old girl…

Now GO AWAY!

Happy 11th Birthday Windows XP, we’ve thrown you a party and made you a cake! is a post from: Technology Box Home

As a Microsoft Partner we’ve had our “Release to Manufacturer” copies of Windows 8 for a few days, and we’ve decided to put the new Microsoft operating system to work straight away. Here are some thoughts from the team about their experiences:

James:

I installed Windows 8 on a four year old laptop that I’d almost given up on and it’s fast – really fast. At first I was dubious of the Metro* interface but soon became accustomed to it. Most people have their desktops littered with icons so what is the real difference except that this has live content? Users with an Xbox or Lumia phone will feel at home straight away.

On installation you provide your Microsoft live account and this gives you access to the Store. It’s not as full as the Apple or Android store, but its fast and there’s plenty to play with, keeping a locker of purchased programs that can be accessed from any of your linked Windows 8 devices. Games are also connected to your live account so that means achievements for Xbox livers (lifers?).

The control panel and all the usual shortcuts are available by just typing – no need to press the Start button or go to the “run” command. Those who need the comfort blanket of a desktop can get there with the windows key or Metro icon, but you will soon find yourself using keyboard shortcuts as they’re so fast.

There’s no Start button on the desktop and I feel this is a bit of a “swing and a miss” from Microsoft. Previous releases have had a switchable “traditional mode” available for users who preferred the old way of doing things, but not this time, which some users will initially find daunting. Instead we are to use Hot Corners, which will soon become second nature. Move the mouse cursor to one of the four screen corners of the desktop for a view of the open program windows (a la task manager) or a search/start bar.

In this version of Windows programs are left open in the background, again program switching is fast and I haven’t felt the need to close programs because the machine is struggling, merely my computer best practice OCD forcing me to try to close what I’m not using.

Overall I am impressed with my first look at Windows 8, especially how it has sped up an old laptop (average boot time now 8 seconds). Unifying the experience across devices can only be a good thing too, although actually I’ll reserve judgement until Windows 8 mobile and surface tablets are released but I am feeling very optimistic.

Chris

Windows 8 loads fast and works fast. When there are some decent Metro apps available it will be a very good operating system, ideal for the casual user. Attempting to use it in a production environment I find myself constantly using the “Desktop” app, which makes it all look like Windows 7 and does away with the Metro interface all together.

The bundled apps are just not up to scratch for a business user. It’s small but important things that just aren’t supported on the Metro Mail app, or the Calendar app. When these issues are fixed, the Metro interface looks good, works well, is easy to use and the app store is great. It will work very well on a tablet, but offers less functionality than you may be used to on a desktop machine.

What’s important to note is that if you ignore Metro for the time being and just use the “Desktop” app, your existing applications should run fine and you benefit from fast boot times and improved applications for file management, Task Manager etc. As a replacement for Windows 7 or Vista it seems like a pretty good bet at this point, and the Metro side will only get better.

Ian

We’ve taken a full-on approach here, immediately trying to use Windows 8 for production and it’s stood up well to the abuse. The boot speed is the most impressive thing from the start, followed by the search function. No need to press a start button – you just start typing and search results appear.

I’ve got mixed feelings about the way that Microsoft accounts are used to store Windows 8 settings in the cloud. Home users and organisations that have made the switch to Office 365 will love it, because they can have users logging into multiple computers taking their settings with them between machines.  For smaller organisations, this will provide them with a way to get rid of their last on-site server and go completely cloud based.

However the same functionality will be a headache for larger organisations. Here they will authenticate users using Active Directory but then have a completely different login to a Microsoft account to manage the Store and linked devices. Some organisations will be fine with their staff using their own Hotmail and Live accounts to do this, but anyone who wants more control will be stuck administering two separate identities – one active directory and one Microsoft.

This will apparently be solved with Server 2012 which will allow administrators to control Store and other settings centrally, but right now it looks like a problem for administrators.

Not wanting to finish on a negative: Windows 8 is very good. It’s fast and will be really useful for those who’ve already adopted Office 365.

* We know the Windows 8 interface is not called Metro any more but “The Interface Formerly Known as Metro” was too wordy. We’re going to call it Metro for now.

Windows 8 – First 24 hours is a post from: Technology Box Home

As well as being some of the fastest firewalls on the market, Fortigate devices integrate powerful security technologies such as intrusion prevention, application control, web content filtering, and VPN, as well as antispyware, WAN optimization, two factor authentication, antispam, and much more. For more information see the Fortinet website.

At present Fortnet have two offers focused on their expanding Wi-Fi portfolio.

• FortiWifi for the same price as the equivalent Fortigate. This adds a 300 M/Bits Wireless Coverage, Wireless intrusion prevention and a wireless firewall at no extra cost, as well as centralizing control of your wired and wireless security.
• Three FortiAP access points for the price of two. If you’re planning a bigger secure WiFi deployment then this is a good saving.

Technology Box specialises in the installation and support of the Fortgate devices – call us if you want to improve and simplify your network security!

Fortigate UTM Devices is a post from: Technology Box Home

Here at Technology Box we’ve been using Google Apps for several years (our six year anniversary came around earlier this month) and it’s one of the best products we use.   For us the stand-out benefits are ease of maintenance and reliability.  In the six years we’ve only had about half an hour of down time, no updates to perform and no drive space issues.

In 2009, we became a Google Apps Partner and since then we’ve been helping businesses in the UK move from traditional email systems to the cloud. We’ve built up a lot of know-how, so if you’d like to make the switch, or would just like to talk through the options call or email today!

Business Email

Its Gmail, only better. Get custom email (@your_company.com), more storage, and access from anywhere – on the web, on your phone, and even offline. Technology Box helps organisations migrate their email and get their users acquainted with the powerful features.

Calendar

Google Calendar centralises schedules in one company-wide calendar that’s accessible from anywhere. Overlay calendars to allow you to see when people are available, send invites, and plan events. Technology Box will move your existing Outlook calendars and help make best use of the new way of working.

Google Apps Vault

Google Apps Vault captures email and then provides e-discovery, archiving and information governance. Technology Box helps companies make use Google Apps Vault, reducing risk and costs associated with litigation and compliance audits.

Documents and spreadsheets

Share and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms with Google Docs. Employees always have access to the most up-to-date versions of their work files from anywhere. Technology Box impliments Google Docs and then helps users to to make best use of the innovative colaboration features.

Google Drive

Google Drive lets you store, sync and access your files anywhere – on the web, on your hardrive or on your mobile device.

The Google Apps Trend is a post from: Technology Box Home

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

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 5 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

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

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

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

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

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.

Technology Box has a new website! is a post from: Technology Box Home

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

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

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.

IP Office Trial Software is a post from: Technology Box Home

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

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