posted Oct 20, 2010 8:23 AM by Neal Gilbert
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updated Oct 20, 2010 8:25 AM
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Prior to the introduction of Voice over IP, businesses had few choices and were generally paying too much for business phone service. The only option was the local phone company.
Along came VoIP and suddenly businesses had another option. However, businesses soon learned this new VoIP technology was not quite as reliable as traditional phone service. That was 5-7 years ago when VoIP was in its infancy.
VoIP technology has matured to the point where the call quality and reliability is comparable to traditional phone service. The real benefit to the small businesses is the PBX Features that VoIP technology delivers. Most Hosted Business VoIP Phone systems offer a feature rich package of PBX functions that include Auto-Attendants, Hunt Groups, Voice Mail, Call Transfer, etc (see a full list of VoIP PBX Features) without requiring you to purchase expensive telecommunications hardware. Hosted VoIP makes it easy to incorporate a geographically distributed group of employees, even remote works that work out of a home office can be incorporated into your business phone system. With a Hosted VoIP Phone system the only hardware your business needs are the IP Phones and a VoIP router. A Business VoIP Phone System allows businesses to only pay for the PBX services actually used. Upgrading a Hosted VoIP Phone system is a simple process from a technical perspective and generally does not require additional telecommunications hardware.
Creating a multi-location system is no different then adding a phone to your current office system. Hosted VoIP Phone systems simplify adding additional geographic locations, including home based employees. New office locations can be added in any location that has a high speed internet connection.
If you would like a quote for a Business VoIP Phone System, Press Here. To learn more about AVAD Technologies Hosted VoIP system please call (800) 733-4136, or visit us on the web at AvadTechnologies.com |
posted Oct 7, 2010 1:10 PM by Neal Gilbert
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updated Oct 7, 2010 1:22 PM
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 Quite simply, AVAD Technologies Hosted VoIP phone service is a better, smarter way for small and medium sized companies to run their businesses, improve customer service, and level the playing field against larger companies that can afford expensive PBX phone systems. Today's small businesses need to focus on their Core Business - not their Chore Business.
Businesses can't afford to spend time managing their communications - managing communications is not their competitive advantage - they should outsource this function to a company like AVAD Technologies that specializes in Business VoIP. Businesses need to make sure they never miss an incoming call - a missed call is potentially missed revenue. Providing excellent customer service is a must in today's competitive business environment.
Should I buy or should I lease a VoIP system.
If you can't predict the future, why would you want to buy a system? If you don’t know how big or small your business will be in 12 or 24 or 36 months and if you are unsure as to how changes in your industry will affect they way you do business. Why would you purchase any system that could possibly limit your ability to adapt.
You Phone System Must Be Totally Reliable
Even if there's a natural disaster like a tornado or power outage you must be able to recreate your system in a very short period of time. A Hosted VoIP phone system, because it is Hosted in the Cloud, will actually not go down, even if your physical office has been destroyed. Your users will have access to the phone system as soon as they can get to an internet connection, even if that connection is in their homes. Read a VoIP Disaster Recovery Article here. AVAD Technologies Hosted VoIP phone service is what today's midmarket customers need.
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Better Customer Service: Customer Calls get routed quickly and efficiently to any employee, anywhere via Intelligent "Front Office" capabilities.
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Agile Productivity: Employees are productive on their desk phone or mobile phone - and can bring their productivity with them anywhere.
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A Better Experience: HD voice and video are game changers. Integrates into Outlook and Browsers - the tools you already use.
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More Reliable: Your business never goes down, and is always current and updated.
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Better Economics: Hosted VoIP allows you to pay only for what you need and use. Grow and Shrink as you need. And no CapEx.
To learn more about AVAD Technologies Hosted VoIP system please call (800) 733-4136, or visit us on the web at AvadTechnologies.com |
posted Jun 23, 2010 4:16 AM by Neal Gilbert
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updated Jun 23, 2010 4:18 AM
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Posted By AVAD Business VoIP Editor
There are 2 ways to implement a Voice over IP Phone System;
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Premise VoIP Installation: Own and manage on your location the telecommunications hardware and the software.
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From a technology perspective, there should not be a difference in voice quality and reliability between a Premise Based VoIP service and a Hosted VoIP service assuming the 2 alternatives have comparable hardware, software and internet connections. Generally, the cost associated with owning voice over IP equipment (Premise solution) is not economically justified until the number of users exceeds 250. This is because the cost of implementing a Premise based VoIP solution requires a significant amount of upfront capital and the commitment of at least 2 full-time IT staff to support the system.
The primary non-economic reason for Premise Based VoIP solution is if your company has specific applications such as a CRM application, that requires customization of the VoIP phone system. Generally, Hosted VoIP Solutions allow less customization than Premise Based VoIP solutions. Custom applications also require an additional commitment of staffing resources.
A Hosted VoIP Phone Service frees your company from the burden of managing the security of the locations that house your system. The hardware that runs a Hosted VoIP service should be housed in an ultra secure location located with redundant facilities. Among the many security features of such a location is a backup power supply that can keep the facility running for at least 15-days along with a team of technicians that monitor the systems 24/7. A Hosted VoIP Phone System also does not require the purchase or maintenance of VoIP hardware and software and is therefore easier and much less costly to implement. IP telephone sets, a specialized router are the only hardware that is required to install Hosted VoIP phone system.
Basic Parts of Business VoIP Telecommunications Service
There are 2 types of VoIP services; Group Services and User Services.
Group Services are VoIP PBX Features that allow you to control how calls are handled by your telephone system. Group Services gives you the ability to easily and with no additional hardware, customize how calls are routed to and from your organization.
The power of Group Services lies in its ability to unify your company’s telecommunication system under a single phone system regardless of the physical location of your offices. Home Offices can even be incorporated into your telephone system.
The Auto-Attendant is an example of a Group Service. With a Voice over IP Auto-Attendant, calls are automatically routed to any geographic location within your company. Calls can even be routed automatically to a home office or a cell phone. User Services are the VoIP Calling Plans of your phone system that your employees can customize to meet the unique requirements of their position within your organization. Examples of User Services include voice mail and call forwarding.
Pricing Considerations
Most organizations are initially drawn to VoIP because of the savings that a VoIP system offers. After using a VoIP phone system for a while, most companies realize they can gain an additional return on investment by taking advantage of the Advanced VoIP Features available with VoIP technology. Pricing Comparison
A cost comparison between Service Providers can be a little tricky because each Service Provider has a different way of pricing their product. Hosted VoIP Service providers generally charge a monthly fee for each “service” they provide. In addition to the monthly cost for services, some VoIP Service Providers charge for the initial installation as well as for moves, add’s and changes to your system.
One of the biggest benefits of VoIP is that with the exception of the IP phones, all repairs to AVAD Technologies system can be done remotely and with very little effort or expense. AVAD Technologies does not charge for installation, moves, add’s or changes to your VoIP system.
Conclusion
Unless you plan to write custom applications and are prepared to invest a significant amount of up front and ongoing capital necessary to create and secure a VoIP platform, a Hosted VoIP Service is the preferred solution.
To learn more about AVAD Technologies Hosted VoIP system please call (800) 733-4136, or visit us on the web at VoIP.AvadTechnologies.com |
posted Jun 23, 2010 4:12 AM by Neal Gilbert
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updated Jun 23, 2010 4:13 AM
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Posted By AVAD Business VoIP Editor
 Like any other product, Businesses considering VoIP should do the research first. More importantly, they should first determine what their own businesses needs are. If your goal is only to save money choosing the lowest price provider could end up costing you money. How? If your company is not prepared for VoIP i.e. you do not have a stable internet connection or a router that is capable of handling VoIP traffic, you could end up with a phone system that is totally unacceptable.
The bigger picture is the features that a VoIP service offers. There is a way that almost any company can implement a VoIP phone system that will allow them to either improve customer service or productivity. The problem is that it is difficult to put a dollar value on improved customer service or increased productivity.
How can VoIP increase productivity
For example, lets say that you find a great candidate for a position, but that candidate is geographically undesirable, with a VoIP phone system, you could easily incorporate that person into your company's telephone system. All that you would have to do is to mail them a $150.00 VoIP phone set which they could plug into any high speed internet connection. Obviously, increasing the quality of your staff will lead to an overall improvement in productivity.
Disaster recovery is another benefit of a VoIP phone system. If your company had a business VoIP Phone system and your offices were damaged by some natural disaster of fire, you phone system could be quickly and easily be reprogrammed to ring the cell phones of each of your employees. This is not a perfect solution, but it is better than nothing. If you were able to retrieve the VoIP phone sets from your office, each employee could take their phones home with them and your system would function as if nothing had happened.
Conclusion; this article is right on the money. Before deciding on a business VoIP Phone system, do an analysis of what your current needs are and then find a VoIP Provider that meets those needs. If you do this, I am pretty sure that price will not be your highest priority.
To learn more about AVAD Technologies Hosted VoIP system please call (800) 733-4136, or visit us on the web at VoIP.AvadTechnologies.com
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posted Jun 23, 2010 4:10 AM by Neal Gilbert
Posted By AVAD Business VoIP Editor
Open Source solutions are very prevalent in the VoIP industry, particularly surrounding the open-source telephony engine Asterisk.
 Open source telephony applications have opened many opportunities in the VoIP industry and many companies such as trixbox, elastix, freepbx, pbxinaflash, and rhino, which are just a few, have taken the asterisk source code (licensed under the GNU GPL) and rounded it to their own business applications. Since the topic is “open-source”, the source code of Asterisk is distributed freely among companies, users, administrators, developers, and integrators alike and together have produced the world’s most powerful telephony engine and what that means to you, the VoIP customer is, a freely distributed source code or compiled ISO of a feature rich IP Phone system better termed as the IP PBX.
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posted Jun 22, 2010 11:47 AM by Neal Gilbert
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updated Jul 1, 2010 10:50 AM
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It is hard to believe, but there are over 100 VoIP Service Providers. What are the most important factors to consider when choosing a Business VoIP Provider. It is a difficult thing to do because telephone service is not a physical item. You can't really touch it or see it, you can test it out, but it would not be under ideal circumstances so you really won’t be able to tell if the service does what you want it too. Making the task even more difficult is that most of the companies are not physically located in your area and even if a company was in your area, going to their offices to check out their system would not tell you very much about the their system. If you actually went to a VoIP Providers office, you will probably be taken to a room with a lot of equipment, wires, fans that had a couple of guys standing around that look like they know what they are doing. You also might see a bunch of nice offices with important looking people working in them, but again, that won't really tell you that much about the company.
So, exactly what is the best way to choose a Business VoIP Provider?
 Peter Radizeski ( On Rad's Radar) wrote a post the following post " 7.5 Things to Consider about VoIP Providers" that discusses some of the most important considerations when choosing a Business VoIP Provider. I think this blog post lists most of the key points businesses should consider when choosing a VoIP Provider. What I find to be most important is point 7.5 “Is the vendor a good fit for your needs?”. This is really what it comes down to assuming the vendor passes the first 7 tests. Will the VoIP Provider be able to help your company implement their system so that your company can actually take advantage of all the technology they have sold to you? This is no small matter. All the technology in the world won’t matter if you don’t know how to use it.
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posted Jun 2, 2010 1:30 PM by Neal Gilbert
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updated Jun 2, 2010 1:47 PM
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posted Jun 2, 2010 8:47 AM by Neal Gilbert
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updated Jun 2, 2010 2:43 PM
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posted Jun 2, 2010 4:52 AM by Neal Gilbert
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updated Jun 2, 2010 8:46 AM
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