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Our first topic is ‘Should I use Skype for my business? Sub-heading ‘What does it mean now that Microsoft owns Skype?

The answers are simply ‘yes’ and ‘the quality will eventually improve — after considerable user testing!’ (the last answer a little tongue-in-cheek having been born before Bill Gates and consistently reporting blue screen errors over the years!) But let’s look at those answers in more detail.

Skype — you get what you pay for

Although the days are long gone when Skype was the cheapest way to make calls, it’s still ‘yes’ to Skype because it’s mostly free and especially ‘yes’ if you are calling overseas. However Skype’s quality and reliability leave a lot to be desired – garbled phrases and temporary loss of audio could reflect badly on your company’s image.

Skype is best used when its poor grade of service won’t affect your business or your brand, so for example to colleagues who are travelling or when simply confirming receipt of written instructions. You want to avoid that World War 1 scenario when the generals were asked to send: “Three and four pence, we’re going to a dance!”

The challenge Skype presents is that it is only user-to-user (or ‘point to point’) and the quality is a long way off ‘business grade’. Limitations with Skype include echoes, background noise and clipped or missing words.

Skype also uses up your network resource. It’s a little known fact but external users might be using your resources for their calls! The simple answer is to use business-grade services; high quality phones and phone services that use your internet connection effectively and efficiently.

These ‘internet phones’ are designed for your business needs. They aren’t free but are considerably cheaper than traditional phone services. If you aren’t using them in your business you are missing a trick and paying over the odds. Please get in touch to find out how we can help you save both fixed and recurring costs.

Why did Microsoft buy Skype?

It was a lot of money ($8.5bn) for something Microsoft will give away for free, wasn’t it? However nothing’s free. Microsoft will use Skype as an advertising platform or a means to migrate some of their 405 million users to a paid service. You can see the obvious benefits of owning the service.

In the short term Microsoft are unlikely to improve Skype’s quality, particularly if they want users to migrate to their business grade services. It’s no secret that Microsoft are trying to break into and dominate telephony services, particularly as, increasingly, computers and telephony systems can integrate to provide significant business advantage.

Microsoft’s Lync unified voice and data services will be one of the norms in years to come as we increasingly see and use the benefits of integration. If this is new to you and you are unsure how computer telephony integration can benefit your business why not contact us? One of our advisors can talk you through the business advantages.

So should I use Skype?

The short answer is ‘yes’ but buyer beware. It isn’t suitable for – and is unlikely to be in the short term – business decision-making and it definitely won’t improve your business image.

If you still use analogue lines (probably rented from BT) you could save a significant annual or monthly sum on both fixed and recurring costs. We can provide an expert independent review of your telecommunications – if you’re interested please get in touch.

Join us in our jargon-free crusade!

If you’ve enjoyed this jargon-free article and would like to receive future emails please contact us and we will add you to our distribution list.

This was the headline presented by the BBC’s Newsbeat reporter Maddii Lown last week and it was also carried on the main evening television news. I trust it didn’t come as a surprise to you? Making sure you aren’t caught in this scam is something we have been advising our clients for months. Maddii reported that when you buy a bundled monthly service inevitably you waste as much as £ 200 a year for fear of incurring the penalty charges for excess use. The bundle provider is obviously making money hand over fist!

At 500 Limited we work with our customers to ensure little or no waste within their telecommunication spend, carefully investigating their business needs rather than selling the biggest bundle using the fear factor. It’s important to select the right call package and regularly review it to avoid waste.

And what is better is that we don’t charge for our initial consultative meeting — to get in touch, please call us on 0845 0000 500, or go to our web site, www.500.uk.com.

Why use 500 Limited?

At 500 Limited we are independent advisors, providing simple expert advice on how you should configure your business telecommunication systems to help your business grow. If that’s a “yes” then simply register here and one of our consultants will contact you, or alternately simply call us at 0845 0000 500.

Readers will be familiar with public telephone exchanges and private branch exchanges (PBXs), the latter sitting within a business’ premises, as they have been in everyday use almost since their invention by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. In fact we tend to take them for granted, don’t we?

This does however mean that a lot of businesses are missing a trick, because modern Internet Protocol PBXs (IP PBXs) provide a wealth of features and functions that can provide huge business benefits. So here are 7 great reasons why you should discuss your premises-based telephony requirements with 500 Limited:

1. Your first ‘cost of ownership’ consultation is free, simply register here
2. Even small modern IP PBXs are full of features, replicating those only previously available in huge corporate systems
3. These solutions can be tailored to suit your business profile, so for example if you provide a service desk you can configure the software so that customer calls are efficiently handled and are directed to the service department immediately
4. You can integrate your phone system with your desktop applications, a simple example is with your Outlook Directory to provide single click to dial from your PC; however increasingly you can connect to your customer management systems, for example solicitors might link to their case management tools
5. You can include mobile workers, home workers, and remote workers seamlessly and cost-effectively into your office systems
6. You can provide resilient systems and networks to protect mission critical telephony into your business
7. Last but not least, for this section because there is a lot more to be told, you can save significant cost by using the Internet to carry your call traffic.

Who are 500 Limited?

At 500 Limited we are independent advisors, providing simple expert advice on how you should configure your business telephony systems to help you grow. If that’s a “yes” then simply register here and one of our consultants will contact you.

Are you still paying for expensive ISDN circuits?

Before you confine this to trash, please consider how your business might be wasting valuable resources, especially money, on paying for services that your competitors aren’t! If you aren’t responsible for what your business spends on communications then you might wish to share this little secret with the person who is:

Using Internet broadband circuits to make your business phone calls is no longer restricted to entrepreneurs with nerves of steel: it’s for everyone!

How can you trust what we say?

There are three key elements to using the Internet for voice:

• Firstly, get good advice on the choices you have, ensuring proven quality, proven reliability and of course proven cost reductions.
• The second step is to profile your existing calls, checking how many concurrent inbound and outbound calls you have in busy periods and therefore to determine which type of broadband service you need
• The final step is to get free impartial advice from an expert on how to integrate voice over internet into your business

If you say “yes” to more than 3 of these, call 500 Limited:

• Are you still using analogue lines?
• Are you tied into your phone provider?
• Is your phone system more than 4 years old?
• Are your call costs out of control?
• Do you want to save at least 40% on your call charges

For a complimentary copy of our white paper on “7 key business benefits Voice over IP will provide to your business”, simply register via our website www.500.uk.com.

If that’s a ‘yes’, talk to an expert

Simply call us on 0845 0000 500 or go to our web site www.500.uk.com and contact us.

Who are 500 Limited?

500 Limited are specialist providers of telecommunications systems, focused on helping businesses use their systems to increase their profitability. Our portfolio includes: telephony systems, particularly hosted and premises-based voice over IP systems; network communications, particularly broadband, ethernet in the final mile and leased lines; mobility, particularly least cost routing and mobile working and computer telephony integration.

Contact us on 0845 0000 500 for full details or fill up our contact form.

…simply by changing your phone system.

Have a look at your phone! Do you see it as just a means of talking or is it an essential business tool which is helping your business grow? A survey of successful businesses identified that they used their phones as powerful tools to help grow their businesses, both inbound as they ensured they never missed the ‘important’ calls, and outbound as they integrated their phone systems into their sales, marketing and support activities.

We have taken the results of the survey and we have created a half day seminar entitled: “7 powerful ways you can use your phone system to generate more business.” Importantly it’s not about the technology, it’s about their use. The seminar will unlock the business secrets and will give you a competitive edge.

Who are 500 Limited?

500 Limited are specialist providers of telecommunications systems, focused on helping businesses use their systems to increase their profitability. Our portfolio includes: telephony systems, particularly hosted and premises-based voice over IP systems; network communications, particularly broadband, ethernet in the final mile and leased lines; mobility, particularly least cost routing and mobile working and computer telephony integration.

Contact us on 0845 0000 500 for full details.