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‘Cloud Computing’ is one of the many buzz words that has gained momentum during 2009. In the past, many references have been made to ‘desktop hosting’ or ‘distributed computing’ and all three terms have similar meanings.

So what is it, and what can it do for your business?
Historically, the use of the ‘cloud’ has always represented the Internet in technical diagrams. Cloud computing extends this concept, allowing users to access their regular business applications and documentation securely using a web browser on their local computer. The applications and documentation are stored remotely on servers; that is, off-site usually hosted by a third party. These servers typically have 24/7 backup and automatic failover. File transfers between the cloud and the local PC rarely take place; it’s just key clicks and mouse movements sent, with screen refreshes received.

What are the Benefits?
Primarily, cloud computing is a cost saver: the various cost savings are listed and explained below:

Licensing Costs: No need for costly software licenses, updates or patches. Software licences are included with any patches or updates taking place behind the scenes and included in the service cost; the cost model tends to be ‘per user per month’ negating the need for a large capital expenditure budget and catering well for expansion or contraction.

Reduced Staffing Costs: There is a reduced requirement for skilled IT staff to ensure all computing applications are up to date with the latest updates and patches and so on. The level of experience required for this support is not as great or as highly skilled as is required in traditional models.

Reduced Computer Hardware Costs: Now that the applications and documentation are sited remotely, the desktop computer needs to be no more than an inexpensive dumb terminal. There is no need for large amounts of memory, no need for large amounts of processing power – just the requirement to run an internet browser.

Reduced Bandwidth: When editing or producing documentation using cloud computing, the document itself remains on the server; it is not downloaded locally for editing. Instead, the changes to the document are small bytes of information as words or letters change within the document. Typically, on average, this is only 40-50Kb of information, peaking (for example when printing) at approximately 80-90Kb. This is turn means that there is no longer a business need for large bandwidth on the network as the data traffic is greatly reduced.

Reduced Server Costs: With all documentation held remotely on managed servers, there is a no requirement for server hardware on site. This means no need for additional floor space or expensive to run comm.s rooms with racks of power-sapping servers. In turn this leads to reduced energy costs and makes for a ‘greener’ business model.

Increased Flexible Working: It is easy to see how cloud computing leads to flexible working, including home working for employees. It is well documented that a flexible workers are a more motivated, with less staff turnover and less absenteeism. An increase in home working leads to office hot-desking, which in turn leads to a reduced need for large office space and associated rents and rates.

Business Continuity: Many small businesses make no meaningful provision for Business Continuity, or Disaster Recovery. The use of cloud computing offers this by default; if a primary office site were to suffer a ‘Bunsfield Oil Depot’ type of disaster, all company data and applications can be accessed in full via any internet connection without any down time.

Quality of Service (QoS): All reputable cloud computing providers operate 24/7 support; rarely are there any service degradations or service breaks and reputable service providers offer robust service level agreements.

Security: An architectural shift to the cloud is considered by many to be inevitable but this often leads to concerns regarding security, trust and control: giving up control to the cloud provider and trusting that provider with the crucial business’ information. Many businesses are wary that possible sensitive information and valuable company data is held centrally in the cloud but reputable providers ensure that security is paramount and certainly more secure than if the data or service remained in-house with the use of biometric entry systems, mirrored data centres and security cleared staff.

The Future….
Cloud computing is here, is established and is increasing it’s market share primarily due to the average saving of between 25-45% when compared to traditional IT models.

It is extremely appealing for small and medium sized businesses, especially start-ups, as it lets them to concentrate on their core business not their IT infrastructure. This is especially important where resources are finite and budgets are scrutinised.

Cloud computing services allow business not only to keep their feet on the ground but also to hit the desks running…

Should you wish to discuss cloud computing and find out how 500 can help you with our Hosted Desktop service then please call us on 0845 0000 500, or alternatively fill in our Contact Form.

No Catch-up Fees!

From today, until 31st December 2009, 500 is waiving ALL catch-up fees for out of date warranties.

Eliminating the warranty catch-up fees makes it easier for you to gain access to Release 5.2 with all of its new features and benefits, such as MXmobile* for BlackBerry (and iPhone in 2010) and the MXconference* feature that gives your IP PBXs a built-in audio conferencing service.

*note these features require additional licensing.

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

Zultys, our technology partner for 500 Premises has announced the launch of their Zultys ONE SIP bundles. These bundles provide everything a customer needs to have a full Unified Communications suite of applications running over SIP trunks. Customers can also leverage this deployment as a means of failover or to obtain numbers from different markets.

SIP, being the leading standard for VoIP Communications, is now the choice of all customers who want high availability, increased productivity and reduced costs. To accelerate and launch this deployment, Zultys is working with multiple premier ITSPs. To that end, Zultys has developed solution packages that include the ability to deploy 60 SIP trunks with each of its MX250 SIP Packages called: SIP/20, SIP/50, SIP/100, SIP/200, and pre-licensed with all the software and hardware needed to rapidly deploy a pure SIP solution – just add phones!

“Our objective was to enable the activation of SIP connectivity and trunking in a simple, elegant and cost efficient manner,” said Neil Lichtman, Zultys CEO. “Zultys delivers a standard interface to activate the service with multiple ITSP providers in a matter of minutes not hours”. Making communications cost effective, Zultys offers compelling bundled SIP trunk pricing that leverages the 60 free SIP licenses included with every bundle.

All the power of SIP in the elegant simplicity of a single purpose built server with no additional licenses or hardware to purchase: The Zultys difference!

Should you require any further information then please call us on 0845 0000 500, or alternatively fill in our Contact Form.

Traditionally, telephone systems have been connected to the outside world via standing PSTN telephone lines or via an ISDN service, typically ISDN2 or ISDN30. However this traditional picture has been changing for some time. With the true emergence of VoIP there is now an increased uptake of SIP (Session Internet Protocol) Trunking – and with good reason.

SIP Trunks allow a business to replace expensive traditional fixed lines with an internet-based SIP Trunking service. This means reduced fixed line costs and, in addition, reduced call tariffs.

Most modern PBX systems support SIP ‘out of the box’ and PBX systems pre-2007/8 can function with SIP Trunks (requiring an additional SIP-ISDN Gateway conversion device).

Why does a business need SIP trunking?

If your business currently uses ISDN2 or ISDN30 circuits, has a high call spend or has internet connectivity through a leased line or dedicated SDSL service, then it is certainly worth considering SIP Trunking as a replacement. SIP Trunks can offer a significant cost savings by:

• Only paying for the capacity a business needs. ISDN2 provides 2 channels capacity. ISDN30 allows a minimum of 8 channels and a maximum of 30. Should a business require, say, 31 channels then the business would need to rent two ISDN30 services: one with a capacity of 30 channels and the second with a capacity of 8 – therefore paying for 7 additional channels that the business does not necessarily require. SIP Trunking, on the other hand, allows single channel increments with the maximum number of channels is only dictated by bandwidth.
• Eliminating the need for ISDN lines and therefore rental charges. SIP Trunking replaces the need for ISDN lines, instead requiring more cost effective internet connectivity.
• Cheaper rental charges. In recent years, internet connectivity charges have dramatically reduced and continue to fall in a competitive market. Within the same time-frame this is has not been true of ISDN rental charges.
• Cheaper call charges. SIP Trunk calls are nearly always cheaper than ISDN calls, even with reputable least cost routing in place. Compared to BT Standard Business rates, it is not uncommon for calls to be between 40%-90% cheaper.
• Less hardware costs. Traditionally, additional ISDN channels have meant the need for additional cards for the PBX. As well as the cost of the extra card there is an associated license fee, installation cost and annual maintenance charges (which are typically based upon a percentage of the overall equipment list price). SIP Trunks do not require any further hardware.
• Increased resilience with built-in disaster recovery. Although a robust business grade internet service should be every bit as reliable as traditional telephone lines, having the ability to route calls over alternative paths is provided by reputable SIP Trunk providers with automatic mobile phone inbound call failover.
• Increased connectivity capacity. In the past, businesses have rented the number of ISDN lines depending on how many concurrent calls they expect to make during a peak time. SIP Trunks allow a data type network to carry voice calls. Often by combining voice and data networks (ensuring that QoS is in place such that voice has priority over data) businesses are able to increase the number of potential concurrent calls.

Should your business be without SIP Trunking?

Still not sure? Some businesses start with a hybrid solution: this means continuing to place incoming calls on the existing traditional ISDN lines whilst concurrently reducing, but not eliminating, the number of ISDN channels. This removes the need to port the telephone numbers from ISDN to SIP at this stage and all outgoing calls can be routed through the new SIP Trunk. This then gives immediate line and call charge savings. Though this model does not remove all ISDN rental charges it is a quick and simple way to test and have confidence in SIP Trunks.

How do I get a SIP trunk for my business?

Changing to a SIP Trunk service is a straightforward task: if your existing data network has the capacity to carry calls and can offer QoS then it could be used, otherwise we can provide a range of delivery networks ranging from high quality business grade dual DSL services to leased lines. As we also offer SIP Trunking and telephony services, we act as a single port of call.

Please call us on 0845 0000 500, or alternatively fill in our Contact Form. We can discuss your options and potentially activate a SIP Trunk service within days so that your business can benefit from reduced costs as soon as possible.

Zultys Inc., our Premises-based technology partner for 500 Premises, have just announced that Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) has named their family of advanced IP PBX products (MX 250 and MX30) and Unified Communications solutions as the recipient of the 2009 INTERNET TELEPHONY Excellence Award, presented by Internet Telephony magazine.

‘We’re honored to be recognized by TMC for our innovative family of IP PBXs, SIP phones and Unified Communications products and the high quality service they provide every day to thousands of companies worldwide.’ said Steve Rothenberg, CEO of Zultys.

“Not only are our solutions cost effective, but our all-in-one design approach provides a highly energy efficient system that lets companies do more with one IP PBX than any other system on the market. Zultys’ distributed architecture also helps companies maintain 99.999% reliability, while being simple to install, manage and scale. We continue to innovate, adding new features such as MXmobile, a Unified Communications client for BlackBerry devices, video, and new conferencing options to provide the maximum value and ROI for any company’s telecom investment.”

Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC stated ‘We are very pleased to present Zultys with a 2009 INTERNET TELEPHONY Excellence Award. Zultys has made an incredible contribution to IP Communications and has also delivered great solutions for its clients.’

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

THUS, a business ISP, has announced that it would cease its Pipecall VoIP product at the end of September.

THUS, was acquired by Cable & Wireless last year, informing its customers that Pipecall would cease as ‘the platform has reached the end of its serviceable life.’

THUS stated ‘There will not be a directly comparable Voice Over Broadband service available from THUS.’

They recommend ‘Customers wishing to port their numbers should contact BT. If they select an appropriate product from them, BT will port the numbers over themselves when the service goes live.’

500 can help you…
We are working with Pipecall customers currently. We specialise in the delivery of business-grade VoIP telephony with technical partners that are ITSPA regulated.

If you are a business with over 10 users, we will be happy to port your SIP trunks free of charge. Note: Immediate action is required as complex number ports can take up to 6 weeks, 10 to 20 days is more common.

If you have any questions then please call us on 0845 0000 500, or alternatively fill in our Contact Form.

This article continues our introduction to basic and advanced features of IP PBX systems and shows how our products and services build upon them to provide ever greater client benefit.

Thank you for calling 500…
While one might assume that confronted with a computerised auto-attendant greeting would result in quick desertion of a potential client, businesses report that being able to quickly screen and route calls has led to an increase in customer satisfaction. The caller can be intelligently routed to the key individual or department they require, quickly.

Usually, your communications system is your potential client’s first impression of your business. The caller is likely to equate their experience of using your phone system as a measure of your business’ professionalism and well-handled calls can lead to greater business opportunities. The auto-attendant, acting like a ‘virtual switchboard operator’, identifies and greets callers, manages messages and faxes and routes calls to your present location, without the need of a human operator. For a smaller company, this could free up an individual for other important tasks.

Most VoIP PBX systems offer auto-attendant(s) as standard as do our systems.

Key features of an auto attendant include:

• Automated call answering with a personalised business greeting
• A customisable music on hold feature, will the caller waits
• Calls can be routed based on incoming caller-ids or requested extensions
• Calls can be forwarded to personal extensions, mobiles and home numbers

The 500 Premises offering…
Through our technology partner, Zultys, our IP PBX system can have up to 64 free auto attendants, servicing different applications or languages. Each can be set up individually.

A business may choose to publish 3 DDI numbers, for example, for Sales, for Marketing and for Support with each number having its own auto attendant routing calls to groups or individuals.

An alternate business may choose to offer a single DDI number, asking a caller to ‘Press 1 for Sales, 2 for Marketing and 3 for Support’. On pressing ‘1’ the caller could enter a second auto attendant, ‘Press 1 for Handsets, 2 for PBX equipment, 3 for Networking’ and so on. It does not matter if these departments are satellite offices, at different ends of the country or are making use of homeworkers. The impression is of a large corporate enterprise. This is great for the more modestly sized company using the same group of individuals to service several departments.

The schedules for each auto attendant can be set up individually. For example, Sales and Marketing calls might only be taken during normal office hours, routing to voicemail out of hours. However, it may be that Support calls would be routed to a mobile phone after hours. In combination with other functionality, a set of mobile numbers could be set in order of priority.

An auto-attendant can also be used to automatically retrieve information from other business applications or databases, such as call minutes remaining for a mobile phone provider.

Finally, the good news…
500 can differentiate itself from others by pricing, functionality and expertise. The cost of auto attendant is, by default, inclusive of the PBX license.

Auto attendant is not just good news for you, it’s good news for your clients too as they are much more likely to be routed to the right individual or department.

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

Zultys announced its new MXmobile™ Unified Communications (UC) client for BlackBerry devices at the ITEXPO West 2009 show in Los Angeles, last week.

“Demand for UC mobility is on the rise, especially as mobile devices become more ubiquitous and companies across the spectrum grapple with the strict demands placed on them in the current business climate. The Zultys MXmobile client, initially available for BlackBerry devices, is a cost effective way for companies to go mobile, especially for SMB firms,” said Steve Morrison, VP product management and marketing for Zultys. “We take our motto ‘Collaboration in Action’ seriously, and we continue to innovate and add new features to our solution set. This product introduction makes users’ mobile device an equal benefactor of the increased productivity and reduced cost provided by Unified Communications.”

This new client delivers a complete UC experience to mobile workers ensuring they stay fully connected to all other employees, including office, home and other mobile workers. It also provides critical productivity-enhancing benefits like:

• Presence (to see the current state of employees, be they on a call, at lunch on in a meeting)
• Displayed voice mail
• Internal extension dialing
• Corporate directory access
• Call alerts
• Access to call handling rules

MXmobile can also intelligently route calls, providing Least Cost Routing for mobile handsets, which can significantly cuts costs. For example, the customary implementation of this new feature will mean that the office PBX initiates the mobile call not the mobile handset, therefore saving in outgoing mobile phone charges.

This ‘anytime, anywhere connectivity’ philosophy will make it faster and easier for a mobile worker to stay in contact with colleagues and customers, boosting productivity, cutting costs and increasing competitiveness.

MXmobile for Blackberry devices will be available in the fourth quarter of 2009. MXmobile for iPhone devices is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2010.

The full article, Zultys Announces MXmobile™ Unified Communications Client for Mobile Phones (.pdf) is available for download.

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

‘Find Me, Follow Me’. How did you manage without it…?

Most modern VoIP telephone systems offer a plethora of advanced features which in turn have direct business benefits. Over the coming weeks we will peel back the layers on such advanced features and demonstrate how useful they can be.

What is ‘Find Me, Follow Me’…?
‘Find Me, Follow Me’ is more than a sophisticated call forwarding function, it is an intelligent service that ensures you are in contact when you need to be, no matter where you are, no matter what phones you have access to. Our 500 Premises product from Zultys implements sophisticated ‘Find Me, Follow Me’ rules via the personal unified communications client, ‘MXIE’. Each phone system user can use MXIE – at company site or remotely – to manage communications in a quick and simple manner. Rising above similar products, MXIE is extremely intuitive and is independent of computer operating system.

Flexibility…
The ‘Find Me, Follow Me’ functionality provides additional flexibility to an existing set of very advanced call handling rules already available within MXIE. It allows you to receive calls at up to sixteen different contact points – no other phone system is capable of doing this – through a set of a pre-defined numbers including internal, external numbers such as home and mobile numbers. The rules allow these numbers to be rung simultaneously or sequentially; if the latter then the order in which they are rung can also be determined, as can how long they ring for.

Our intelligent systems call the appropriate contact numbers to find you when an incoming call is received. Callers may be optionally advised that the system is trying to find you – or may be totally unaware that over the course of, say, five rings, several different phones have been called. Calls may be connected immediately upon answer or alternatively you may explicitly accept or reject the offered call if you wish, again, unbeknown to your caller.

An example: it takes just a minute to set up a rule to try your desk phone for three rings, then your mobile, then try a colleague or hunt group, then to your switchboard operator or voicemail. Alternatively, you way wish your home office phone to ring at the same time as your work office phone or you may wish your mobile phone to ring as soon as you are away from your desk for more than five minutes but only during working hours and when you’re not on holiday. The rules are simple or as granular as you wish.

Power…
‘Find Me, Follow Me’ rules also allow you to direct calls based on a time schedule or presence status. For example, any incoming call during a lunch break – determined by time or by a status – could be directed to a mobile number or a hunt group. The ‘Find Me, Follow Me’ functionality is extremely flexible, it can be set up by event – for example on ‘no answer’ or ‘any incoming call’ – or by certain conditions such as ‘time of the day’ or ‘holidays’ or ‘call from…’ a particular client or a combination of all of these.

Another example to illustrate: if a user is in a business meeting off site, they may have set up their call handling rules so that their calls will be directed to their colleagues in the marketing team. However, the user knows that they are due an important call from the Director / CEO and so has specifically set up the rule (or amended an existing rule) so that this call will be routed through to their mobile number. This type of functionality is also often used to recognise overdue accounts. The benefits of such functionality are clear.

“I’m sorry, I can’t take your call right now”…
‘Find Me, Follow Me’ is not just good news for you, it’s good news for your clients too as they are much more likely to be able to find you and so much less likely to end up leaving a voicemail or worse, simply hanging up or calling elsewhere.

Below is a screen shot of MXIE showing how easy it is to set up a sophisticated ‘Find Me, Follow Me’ call handling rule.

You truly will wonder how you coped without it – and so will your profit margins.

If you have any questions or would like to find out more about 500 Premises, 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