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BroadSoft®, our technology partner for our 500 Hosted VoIP product was recently named the winner in the Telecommunications Category for TechAmerica Foundation American Technology Awards.

BroadSoft, the leading global provider of IP-based communications services to the telecommunications industry, announced that it has been named the winner in the Telecommunications category for the American Technology Awards, which bestows the only “Best Of” awards that recognize all technology products and services for the technology industry. The award was attributed to BroadSoft’s Consumer Experience, a service that provides telecommunications subscribers with new capabilities and functionality, allowing them to communicate anytime, anywhere and from any device. Nominations for The American Technology Awards, “The Termans,” were vetted by industry experts and technology companies. These awards have been named after Frederick Terman, who is widely credited as being the father of Silicon Valley.

“BroadSoft is proud to be named winner of the Terman Award in the Telecommunications category,” said Michael Tessler, BroadSoft president and CEO. “We have been providing innovative business and consumer communications solutions for more than 12 years, transforming the ways people connect, communicate, and collaborate, and it’s an honor for everyone at BroadSoft to have our achievements recognized by TechAmerica Foundation.”

“We had many nominations for these prestigious awards, and we congratulate BroadSoft for their winning achievement,” said Phil Bond, chairman, TechAmerica Foundation. “TechAmerica Foundation is excited to highlight BroadSoft as it continues to influence technology development in telecommunications throughout the rest of the world.”

The winners were announced on June 16 at TechAmerica Foundation’s Eighth Annual Technology and Government Dinner which has been a premier Washington, D.C. networking event bringing hundreds of industry, congressional and government leaders together at one venue to celebrate the partnership between industry and government.

The full press release is available from the BroadSoft website.

If you have any questions or would like to find out more about 500 Hosted, then call us on 0845 0000 500, or alternatively fill in our Contact Form.

Supply and Demand…

Demand for VoIP continues to grow, especially in today’s increasingly tough climate. In addition to cost benefits, one of the drivers in uptake has been the flexibility of hosted VoIP in terms of a small businesses paying per user per month without the need for any large capital expenditure. According to Diana Myers, directing analyst at Infonetics: “Managed IP PBX, hosted IP PBX and hosted UC services accounted for three-fourths of the business VoIP total. We expect hosted UC services to take off, with worldwide revenue doubling between 2009 and 2013.”

However, no matter how good a technology is or how high its adoption rate, how do you go about ensuring you get the VoIP solution you want, not just the one you are told you need? Consider asking the follow questions before you sign on the dotted line:

Think Local…

Where is your prospective VoIP reseller located?
When thinking of entering the VoIP arena, SME’s would do well to ‘think local’ – especially true when considering premises-based VoIP. Review the packages offered by local resellers with a proven track record. Flexible service solutions – for example fully or locally managed services – will ensure quick response times. It stands to reason that if local resellers are offering VoIP-only systems and are not prepared to tailor their services to suit your needs (for example, you might require a hybrid of traditional and VoIP, or a mixture of connectivity to the outside world, and this may not be on offer) then you might be forced to look further afield to avoid being tied into a solution that does not meet requirements.

Good Groundwork…

Is the VoIP reseller prepared to conduct a thorough analysis of your existing network before recommending the best solution, or are they focused on ‘box shifting’?

Any reseller worth their salt will not sell you a VoIP solution without first suggesting and conducting a thorough network analysis. Providing a solution without analysing a network – both LAN and WAN – could mean that the existing network is not able to support the voice traffic you are aiming to carry on it. Ensuring that voice traffic and data traffic are treated appropriately is also an important factor to consider. Alongside these fundamental capacity issues, a reputable VoIP provider should also be asking questions such as what features you might want in the future and what your day to day requirements are at present to ensure that you get the best possible service. (For more information, look at the list ‘Questions for your provider‘).

Value for Money…

Is the solution they are offering actually value for money in the long run?
Value for money is not just about the cheapest price solution. Over the long run, there are key factors that will influence the quality and performance of your VoIP service. Regarding a businesses delivery network (internet / telephony connectivity) it is essential for any small business to check particulars, especially when using broadband services: local loop unbundling platforms, contention ratios, maintenance contracts and service level agreements are all important factors to consider before deciding if the overall contract demonstrates ‘value’ to them.

Delivery Network…

Is the right broadband service available and being recommended?
As a part of BT’s deregulation, a process known as local loop unbundling (LLU) was put in place to provide competition and help drive down connectivity costs. This means that a wide range of telecommunication operators are now able to use and ‘take control’ of lines within the BT network. The subsequent DSL services that they offer (which are overlaid on the physical BT line) are generally cheaper but this price competitiveness has to be offset against service issues. Be aware that cheaper services can mean a lower grade service provision, due to more traffic being run over the line. The key question to ask your reseller here is do you know ‘what the contention ratio on this package is’? Although BT are tending to move away from the term, a supplier should be able to quote the contention ratio of the service – the lower the better. A 50:1 contention ratio is no better than what is offered on a residential broadband connection for example – not good for a business grade service! The contention ratio quoted needs to be guaranteed from the business premises through the network, at exchange level. One gets what one pays for so it pays to be wary of providers offering 1:1 contention services at very cheap rates.

What broadband maintenance contract is your VoIP reseller offering you?
Many new VoIP providers are now looking to provide maintenance contracts, similar to those available with leased lines. For any business, large or small, it is worth taking time to find out what exactly is included in the price within the contract you are about to sign? For instance, what type of maintenance package is in place? Is pre-configuring of hardware inclusive? What IP addressing is included? What is the length of contract? What do the termination clauses state?

A business must consider maintenance contracts when thinking of ‘value’. In the past this was not such an important question, as most SME’s were on BT lines, with business calling plans and clear service level agreements on a year or two year contract. However your service level will now depend on the LLU service that your selected reseller has chosen. It does not matter how good the supplier might be: if the maintenance at the exchange is weak then the service is likely to fail. Over 95% of DSL line related faults occur at exchange level or within the ‘first mile’ from a business site. Your reseller will know which LLU providers are available in your area, what the expected quality of service should be in your area and which of these providers traditionally offer the best service levels.

What is a good service level agreement?
Have you ever read the small print… after you bought the product? Well, the same is true of making a decision on selecting your VoIP reseller to work with and agreeing the type of service level you expect. Whether this be 24/7 fault monitoring, a 2 to 4 hour response time or a 24 hour fix time you need to decide what level of service you require from your supplier. Clarifying this from the outset ensures that you get the service level you require, avoiding later problems.

Come on in, the water’s fine…!

Here at 500, we have found that our customers value the high quality of consultancy advice we are able to offer them. One of our strengths and a key differentiator is that we provide solutions that are scalable, offer full resilience and are value for money. With our VoIP expertise and our knowledge-base we can also guarantee 100% up time by routing calls over our diverse networks. We concentrate on your telephony allowing you to concentrate on your core business.

If you require any further information, then call us on 0845 0000 500

500 Hosted is built on BroadWorks’ SIP based soft switch platform, called BroadSoft.

BroadSoft, Inc., the worldwide leader in VoIP applications, recently announced that Technology Marketing Corporation’s (TMC®) Unified Communications magazine has named the company’s Hosted Unified Communications solution a recipient of its 2008 Product of the Year Award.

“UC is quickly becoming the holy grail of enterprise communications for its ability to transform business processes and increase workforce productivity. Unfortunately, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are unable to realize its power due to the high cost and complexity of deploying an on-premise solution,” said Alex Doyle, senior director of solutions at BroadSoft. “BroadSoft’s hosted solutions eliminate this burden, thus enabling companies of any size to reap the benefits of advanced communications solutions. UC is not just for large enterprises anymore.”

The full press release is available to read at Broadsoft receives UC Magazine Award

An Insurance Age lead story this week was ‘Brokers warned of telecoms firms mis-selling call-recording devices’.

Insurance brokers are being urged not to fall victim to telecoms firms pitching call-recording equipment on the grounds of regulatory compliance.

Sean Ryan, a director of 500, was asked to comment.  He claimed they were exploiting the vague wording of the regulations, saying: “The FSA had to take a broad-brush approach to ensure it covers businesses that may offer cross-over services.

“However, it is not surprising to hear that some telecommunications companies may be mis-selling call-recording products and services following the FSA’s policy statement. Ignorance of the applicability of the policy may be used as an opportunity for pushing call-recording technology to companies that do not require it.”

Here at 500 you can be assured not only of our knowledge and expertise but also of our integrity and honesty.

The full article can be read at:
insuranceage.com - ‘Brokers warned of telecoms firms mis-selling call-recording devices’.

The Financial Times Advisor’s lead story ‘IFAs Falsely Targeted over FSA Telephone Recording Rules’ stated that IFA firms are being warned to ignore demands from telecommunication firms insisting that new telephone systems costing up to £30,000 must be bought to comply with new Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulation. Owing to our extensive research in this area, Séan Ryan, a director at 500 Limited, was asked to comment, saying “It’s not so surprising to hear that some telecommunications companies may be miss-selling call recording products and services following the FSA’s policy statement. Ignorance regarding the applicability of the policy may be being used as an opportunity to push call recording to companies who do not require it.” Here at 500 you can be assured not only of our knowledge and expertise but also of our integrity and honesty.

The full FT article can be read at:
FT Advisor.com: ‘IFAs falsely targeted over FSA telephone recording rules’

Hosted IP PBX phone solutions are revolutionizing how SMBs serve their customers, grow their business and support their employees.

A hosted IP PBX system delivers enterprise-level phone system functionality, currently in use by some of the largest organisations – but at a fraction of the price. Here at 500, we pride ourselves in ‘bringing the big to the small’ – our best of breed hosted IP service provides enterprise grade functionality and benefits to the smaller sized business. Our hosted system will allow a business to save money whilst improving customer service, customer responsiveness, business image, employee productivity and employee efficiencies.

So how does it work? 500 Hosted is a hosted telephony and application suite delivered over fixed data circuits such as a suitable internet connection. It bypasses the need for on-premises IP PBX ownership, saving on installation and maintenance costs. Instead, a business is able to make use of a top-end fully featured enterprise-grade phone system on a ‘per user per month’ basis with de minimus capital expenditure. Employees and departments can be set up within minutes and businesses can have different dialling codes for a single office regardless of geographic location. Furthermore existing numbers can be easily ported; as the business grows and relocates almost no reconfiguration is required (existing numbers being retained).

The functionality offered by such a top-end system is near limitless. Two functions in particular that small businesses are finding useful are ‘find me, follow me’ and ‘hunt groups’. The ‘find me, follow me’ functionality means that a call can be routed to two or more phones in succession. For example, if the call comes into your office and isn’t answered it can be re-routed to a mobile number; if that is not answered either then the call can be re-routed to an answer phone. Perhaps most useful of all, both your office phone and your mobile phone can be configured to ring simultaneously – a benefit that once tried is found to be indispensible.

Hunt groups work in a similar way but the re-routing of calls is dependent on the status of a user’s phone – available or busy – and groups of employees who are best able to handle the incoming call. For example, a call to the sales department is received but the primary sales department contact is busy on a call so specified secondary contact’s number(s) are called instead.

The benefit of this type of functionality is to ensure that no important business call is missed or lost in a voicemail system or auto attendant. With 500 Hosted, such functionality is easy to set up and configure via our dedicated web portal – and it is extremely cost effective.

500 Hosted can support small businesses with as few as five end-users to larger enterprises with thousand users in multiple locations. For further information simply call us on 0845 0000 500.