How Hosted PBX Simplified Company Stress during the Holiday Season

Many businesses quickly realized exactly how hosted PBX phone systems simplified the stress of doing business, during the holiday season. The hosted PBX system provided the company the opportunity to use a single phone number that could be easily answered at a variety of locations, unbeknownst to their customers and clients.

During the holiday season, companies often experience a lack of employee resources, as many take additional time off to be with their loved ones. Using a hosted PBX system, their communication lines were simply rerouted to available employees on their landline phones, cell phones, smartphones or nearly any remote location.

Having the ability to offer a single point of contact, with one single phone number to represent the entire organization, was the easiest way for the businesses to operate their communication systems. It allowed each business to function completely without the need of a traditional main office. This could happen because the hosted PBX telephone system instantly linked employee personnel to the business, with complete functionality of all of the communication system’s features.

Relieving Holiday Business Stress

Offering an extensive multi-modal contact, each employee quickly gained access to the entire company network through a whole host of telecommunication devices including landlines, ISDN, cell phone and VoIP. The hosted PBX telephony system instantly provided phone extension ringing to a single location in succession, or to multiple locations at the same time. This allowed instant 24-hour phone support seven days a week, and relieved stress on the company by always providing an employee or employees to handle any situation, even during hectic seasonal times.

Lowering Costs

Because there is no need to purchase PBX equipment when using a hosted PBX service, these companies were provided an effective call routing service at no additional cost. All unanswered incoming calls for the business were managed automatically by the PBX system by providing numerous features including voicemail, call records, faxing, automated messages, and conference calls, along with call routing touchtone menus.

Without the need of any excess additional cost for expensive software or hardware, and no cost for upgrades to change existing phone hardware, hosted PBX telephone systems offer viable solutions for many small, medium, large businesses.

These companies saw the advantage of using a hosted PBX system through the holiday season as their business increased. It gave them the ability to expand lines, without additional phone numbers. With the added flexibility and reduced cost of 24-hour client phone support along with never missing a call throughout the holidays, the hosted PBX systems offer each a viable telephony alternative.

Visit us at Avaya Evolutions Toronto, November 20, 2012 for a chance to win two tickets to the already sold-out Grey Cup Championship game!

Avaya Evolutions, a unique one-day event taking place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, provides you an opportunity to engage, interact and collaborate with telecommunications executives, peers and industry leaders. Visit us any time on November 20^th at Booth 8 to learn more about what real-time advanced business communications can do for your enterprise. Attend our breakout session from 9:00 – 10:00 am for a chance to win two Grey Cup championship game tickets.
Breakout Session:

“VoPI™ vs VoIP: Two Letters Make All of the Difference”

Session Abstract:

As data connectivity becomes increasingly cost effective for reliable dedicated speeds, learn how BroadConnect’s VoPI™ (Voice over Private Internet) model allows you to leverage bandwidth to support Voice and Video on existing and future deployments. We will explore the gains of stabilizing your SIP rollouts by having greater control over the first and last mile of service thus making deployments both predictable and seamless. Join us and discover how SIP Trunking & Radvision’s Video Conferencing solutions, using BroadConnect’s VoPI™ can help your current and future Voice, Data and Video Conferencing requirements.

Ask us about VoPI™! 

Simply post a question below with your name, company name, and job title, and we will answer them at our session on November 20.

OR

Post a tweet with the hashtag #BCTevolutions.

Contest Details:

The Contest « Win a Pair (2) of 2012 Grey Cup Tickets» will start on October 23rd, 2012 at 12:00 AM (EST) and will end on November 20th, 2012 at 11:59:59 PM (EST). (Here after the «Contest»).
Eligibility
The Contest is open to everyone who has reached the legal age of its respective province at the time of entering the contest. Employees of BroadConnect Telecom or their immediate family members and people living with them cannot enter the contest.
How to enter:
No purchase necessary. Contestants simply have to respect the eligibility requirements. The start of the Contest will be announced Via Email and Social Media outlets (Google+, Twitter, Facebook) and winner will be showcased on the BroadConnect Telecom website and BroadConnect Social Media Networks. All existing and non-existing BroadConnect Telecom customers will be invited to ask questions regarding “Ask us about VoPI™!”  for entry to the contest. Contestants simply have to post a question on blog.broadconnect.ca, facebook.com/broadconnect or twitter.com/broad_connect with your name, company name, and job title. Only one ballot per person will be allowed. Further terms and conditions of this specific contest will be posted on BroadConnect Telecom’s website.
Winner:
The winners will be picked from all the valid formatted questions received on BroadConnect Telecom servers during the Contest valid time frame. The winner will be picked on November 20^th , 2012 at 11:59:59 PM (EST) at 11:01 PM (EST), in BroadConnect Telecom offices. Prize will be given to the winner if all mentioned rules and regulation are fulfilled.
Prizes Description:
A Pair (2) of 2012 Grey Cup Tickets: Section 109B Row 7 (Double Blue)
Everything not mentioned as included in the prize will be to the charge of the winner. BroadConnect Telecom has the right to replace the Prize for another one of the same value or to give the same value in money for any given reason as mentioned in the general rules section.

VoPI™ vs. VoIP: (Yeah, It’s a real acronym)

Some competitors (You know who you are) are trying to discredit VoPI as unreliable, unsecure and not suitable for mobile workers. They also want you to believe that due to the dedicated private lines, it FORCES our customers to be locked in to lengthy contracts. This is simply NOT the case and couldn’t be further from the truth!

Let me break it down for you:

All VoPI is VoIP but not all VoIP is VoPI. Why does this matter, you ask? It matters because VoPI isn’t just one specific product or technology; in fact, it has been conceived and achieved over a multitude of different criteria.
When we use the term VoPI, we refer to Voice over IP service that meets certain standards:

• A connection that is not shared with other subscribers
• Provided by an ISP (internet service provider) who controls the voice service, as well as the internet backbone upon which the service rests
• A process which employs multiple SBC’s (Session Based Controllers)

Privacy implies security (which is abundantly important) but what VoPI really does is provide great stability. It’s a platform you can actually have faith in; as it rarely goes down.  Most importantly, it’s fully managed by us, the provider. Why does it matter if it’s fully managed? Well, because that means, in the event of a service outage (on the network side) we can take full responsibility. We can actually pin point and fix virtually any problems you may incur because it’s happening on our network!

**WE GUARANTEE 99.9% UPTIME! Who else has the “you know what” to offer that???**

Here are some excerpts from the competitor’s blog (I’ll let our web-savvy readers find the source):

“Recently we’ve come across competitors using the term “VOPI”, or Voice over Private Internet. It’s their way of trying to confuse and complicate, [...] to convince you that their technology is superior. Dive into the details and you’ll see that VOPI is actually a Hosted Voice providers’ way of selling you inferior connectivity in the guise of increased security.”
By no means does our voice solution operate over “inferior connectivity”! IT’S JUST AS GOOD as any other connectivity! What we do to deploy VoPI is first determine the best type of internet connection for our customers, and then create private connections to ensure that voice quality is never compromised.

Another excerpt:

“Companies will tell you that a private connection is more secure because your telephone calls do not traverse the public internet. [...] If you are in an industry where security is paramount to you or eavesdropping is a common occurrence, then absolutely you should investigate the private option.
If that is the case, I’m sure you are quite familiar with this device, the STU-III, which is an analog telephone encryption device that you *must have* used up to this point to secure your calls. What? You mean you were using analog lines without them being private [...] or without encryption in any form?”

The writer then goes on to suggest that distributed workforces, operating over the public internet somehow negates any perceived benefits of a private enterprise platform, VoPI™. South Park fans may be familiar with the term “Chewbacca Defence”, that is: making an argument soooo nonsensical that the reader’s brain shuts down and is forced into a receptive position. The fact of the matter is, unless you work for the US Military or National Security Agency, you will have never heard of the STU-III. It is proprietary and expensive technology that never experienced mainstream use.  The attractiveness of VoPI™ is that it does not cost more; it just requires that you pair with a thoughtful provider that operates a privately-owned and managed broadband network. Similarly, off-net users who connect to your office phone system via the public internet are not damaging, or defeating the purpose of your private connection. They’re just the public extensions of a very strong private network.

I don’t only say this because I work for BCT and they pay my bills. I say this because day in and day out I hear the horror stories of disgruntled end users YEARNING TO BE RELEASED FROM THEIR CONTRACTS and switch to our far superior service. It’s no fluke that Bradconnect Telecom has become one of the largest hosted providers in Canada. We revolutionized the industry back in 2005 as Canada’s first hosted provider and strive to be the pinnacle hosted provider across North America! (Btw, did I happen to mention we opened up shop in the States? Here’s the link, www.broadconnectusa.com , check it out.) None of our Canadian counter parts can say that… #JustSayin!

Tips for choosing the best office telephone system

Most of the businesses rely on an office telephone system nowadays, in order to execute their day to day office work smoothly and effectively. In the past, only large companies required feature rich telephone systems. They were so expensive that small businesses could not afford to even consider them. Small and medium businesses relied on the conventional phone systems to send and receive communication. However, the trend has changed recently. Many phone system options are available to small and medium businesses, which help them, improve their business communication and productivity. You may be overwhelmed with the phone system options available. It is however important to choose the best system that suits your business needs and budget.

Small businesses look for cost effective office telephone systems that offers myriad of features and flexibility. Before choosing a phone system, consider the exact needs of your business. You need to consider some important things like the number of employees in your organization, the number of locations in your office that would require phone service, your current broadband connection type, lines and bandwidth, your current network load, your existing phone system details and what your budget is. Getting as much information about your current situation as possible can help you choose the right phone system.

Before choosing an office telephone system, determine whether you need or want to keep the existing lines. If you need those lines, you can go for a phone system that allows you to use your existing lines and equipment. You need to look for the important features you need in a phone system to manage your business communication effectually. For instance, if you do not have a receptionist or operator to attend phone calls, you can consider choosing a phone system that offers the auto attendant feature. You also need to decide whether you need features like caller ID, call routing, call forwarding, voice mail, live call recording and other associated features. These features are becoming more essential for all modern offices, so you can go for a phone system that helps you get most of the features at a fair price.

Office telephone system is a crucial investment decision, so you need to consider your future expansion plans before spending your money in it. Consider how fast you will grow the system and how frequently you will be making changes to the office infrastructure to accommodate the growth. You can opt for a system that is easily scalable, so that you can avoid many hassles in the future. As a small business owner, you may not be able to afford high capital expenditure. Sometimes, installing a new system unintentionally require you to purchase new equipment for maintaining compatibility. Hence, it would be in your best interests to check whether the phone system you want to choose is compatible with your existing equipment.

The best office telephone system is the one that offers great value for your money. It comes with the features that suit your unique needs. You can save a lot of time, build better customer relationship and increase your business productivity with the help of beneficial features offered by the best phone system.

For more information on Office telephone packages offered by Broadconnect, please visit our website.

What is the best performing phone system for business?

Effective communication is the most integral aspect of any successful business, so choosing the best phone system for business can help you gain a variety of benefits. With an effective phone system, you can offer better service to your customers, increase the productivity of your employees and enhance the way you carry out your business operations. There is no single best communication solution for all businesses. A phone system that works great for one company may not be suitable for another. Therefore, you need to first determine your communication needs and the projected budget. Doing a little bit research on the popular commercial phone systems on the market can help you make an informed decision.

While looking for a phone system for business, you need to consider the volume of business that your company handles. The total number of external phone lines used by your company and extensions required for every piece of equipment within your company connecting to the phone system are the major factors to be considered. A phone system may handle your current business communication traffic effectively. However, you need to make sure whether it can accommodate the consequences of your growth in future as well. The best system is one that can be easily updated or modified in a very cost effective manner. It scales well, no matter whether you are a small, medium or large business. It does not even require the help of professionals to expand the lines. You can simply do it by following the instructions provided by the service provider.

You need to opt for a secure and reliable phone system for business, which provide you with all the essential features. Auto attendant is an important feature, especially for small businesses that cannot afford to hire a receptionist or office attendant just to attend calls. This feature is crucial in a phone system, even if you have higher volume of calls. Conferencing is another important feature to look for. Phone systems like VoIP offer teleconferencing, video conferencing and three way conferencing at extremely affordable charges. The phone system that comes with rich features helps increase your business productivity dramatically. If these features are not included in a phone system, you may need to pay separately to avail them, which makes it an unnecessarily expensive option.

Before selecting a phone system for business, ensure whether it is compatible with your existing communication equipment. Also ensure that it is easy to access. Choosing some phone systems may require you to give complete training to operate and maintain. Many employees are not willing to devote time to learn how to use a phone system, so you need to ensure that the phone system you choose is user friendly and its functions are uncomplicated and intuitive.

If your business needs to use the phone system extensively, you need to look for some advanced features like automatic call forwarding and call convergence. The phone system for business that offers these features at affordable rates is worth considering. If your business involves handling high volume of calls, choosing the right phone system that handles them effectively can help enhance your efficiency in day to day operations. It is also important to choose a business phone system dealer that offers reliable services to meet your business needs as and when they arise.

For more information please visit Broadconnect Telecoms business phone system section.

What makes the best, VoIP Provider?

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a great alternative to traditional phone systems for businesses, both small and large. A lower operational cost is one of the most important benefits of VoIP. You can gain access to many useful features like low charges for long distance and local calls, ability to get connected with your employees from any place and much more. With more and more people turning to options for VoIP technology, many VoIP providers have come up with an extensive range of services. Choosing the best VoIP provider can help improve your business productivity and reduce your operating costs significantly.

If you have decided to switch to VoIP, you need to do some research and find out the right VoIP provider who offers the features that meet your exact business needs and falls within your budget. The quality of business communication is crucial for the effective functioning of any business model. Hence, it is important to check whether the service provider takes care of delivering crystal clear voice quality. Some VoIP providers offer a trial period of service. You can make use of this offer to check the efficacy of hardware and service provided. You can also confirm that the service provider allows you to keep your existing phone numbers, so that your business communication process remains unaffected.

Cost is an important aspect to consider while choosing a VoIP provider. Compare the charges and features offered by the service provider and determine whether their charges are affordable. Ensure that you compare the same type of VoIP service and cost between various VoIP providers. Taking a decision based only on the cost may not be wise. Shop around and choose a provider who offers the most reliable service at the most affordable rates. You also need to confirm whether the service provider will offer prompt service, so that you can carry on your business operations without any interruption.

If you have branches or clients in foreign countries, you need to choose the VoIP provider who allows you to make unlimited international calls at a reasonable charge. Also check whether the calling plan you want to choose comes with emergency services, so that you can avoid many complications in business communication in future. If you are new to VoIP technology, you can go for a service provider who requires you to download nothing. You can check whether the service provider offers the right guidance to build your business communication infrastructure quickly and easily.

An established VoIP provider would offer a lot of add-on features for free, such as call waiting, call forwarding, teleconferencing, three-way calling and video conferencing. The service provider that offers impeccable customer service and technical support would need to be sought out before making a decision. They help simplify your business communication network and deliver powerful solutions that are easy to use. They also offer various scalable options, so you can increase your calling capabilities easily. Choosing a service provider who has experience and expertise in providing VoIP technology can help you get the best out of your communication system. You can also save hundreds of dollars in your phone bill.

For more information on our Hosted Services please visit BroadConnect’s Website for more information on our VoIP Services.

IP Phones and why you should use VoIP Phone for Business

IP Phone and VoIP phone for business help you enjoy the benefits of voice and data network convergence, while offering more convenience and user friendliness. They can help improve your productivity by meeting the exact needs of your organization. You can save a lot of money by choosing the right IP and VoIP phone solution. IP and VoIP phone system is easier to install and maintain. It is far more effective, when compared to traditional PBX systems that can be installed and managed only by professionals. You can avail of many useful features that can help boost your workforce productivity and enhance customer service.

You can go for IP phone and VoIP phone for business, if you want to avoid the hassles in managing the traditional phone systems. The web based configuration interface in VoIP phones make it effortless to manage and fine tune your phone system. It is relatively easy and extremely cost effective to make calls between your branch offices at various locations. In other words, you can connect your offices and make them act as one large office, regardless of their locations. This brings down the cost of making long distance calls significantly. You can connect your offices on your own private network as well, so that you can get functionality advantages.

If you are running a home based business or have numerous work-from-home employees, choosing IP Phone and VoIP phone for business can offer you plenty of benefits. It enables you to connect your home based employee to your office phone system via internet cable or DSL easily. IP and VoIP phone also makes it easy and cost effective to connect employees who are constantly on the go. You can connect with your employee, no matter where he/she is. IP and VoIP phone system helps you carry out your business without any interruption.

IP phone and VoIP phone for business allows you to use one cabling infrastructure to transfer voice and data simultaneously. You can therefore save a lot of money in installing separate cabling infrastructure for each network. You can also get cut costs significantly when you are setting up a new office or moving to another office. Scalability is yet another reason for why you need to choose this system for your business. Traditional PBX phone systems need additional hardware to add a new phone to the system, whereas IP phone system is easily scalable. You can add as many extensions as you need at any time you want with amazing ease.

IP phone and VoIP phone for business let you avail more features, such as auto attendant, call queuing, call forwarding and voice mail. Traditional phone systems require you to pay separately for these features. IP and VoIP phone allows you to check the current system status and calls through a web browser effortlessly. It also enables you to divert calls from anywhere in the world. Easy roaming is one of the most attractive features of IP phones that help business outfits doing international businesses save a lot of time and money. For more information on VoIP for Business, please visit http://www.broadconnect.ca/solutions/industry-solutions/

A Great Option for Businesses, SIP Trunking

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone is the optimal choice for organizations that are in the market for a flexible and cost effective way to change over to IP based telephony solutions. SIP trunking by large, has to be one of the most important progressions in telecommunications since it’s inception. SIP helps you revel in the benefits of VoIP, while relieving you from the hassles and high cost of replacing your current phone system. You can use SIP trunking with traditional PBX systems by simply introducing an Integrated Access Device to connect SIP trunks seamlessly with your legacy PBX system. SIP trunking device functions as a converter amid a traditional phone system and internet connection, so it can transmit voice traffic over the data network.

The cost related benefits available by SIP phone make it a perfect choice among countless small businesses. It minimizes or eliminates the cost of purchasing expensive hardware media gateways. It also releases you from the cost of sustaining hardware gateways. Hence, you need not house a technical team in your office or hire professionals from outside. You just require a broadband connection and SIP phone adapter and to use this phone. A SIP trunking device helps reduce administrative and overhead expenses involved in handling the media gateways. It decreases recurring costs for circuits dedicated to data and voice separately. The rental charges for SIP trunks are much lower than the traditional phone line rental charges. This helps you save hundreds of dollars every month.

SIP Phone provides the most flexible and fastest way to alter your traditional phone lines to IP based solutions. It helps meet your precise business requirements by allowing you to choose voice channels. Using SIP phones help you save a great deal of money in long distance and international calls. It also frees up your valuable resources for other important business functions by reducing telecommunication overhead costs. The IP network has more fault tolerant capacity than fixed line systems. This enables you get faster and more efficient recovery, in case any disaster occurs. SIP trunk enhances your call quality, helping you to get a good image among your clients and customers.

SIP phone is a fantastic route for small businesses that have plans to grow in future. It is very easy to develop your business communications without disturbing your business continuity. You can add extra voice channels or port your existing numbers effortlessly and quickly. You can also port your fax numbers over to SIP and send all your faxes to any email address you wish. Hence, you don’t need to keep a big bulky fax machine in your office anymore. With SIP trunking, creating a virtual presence for your business is a straightforward task. SIP trunking allows you to handle the services through a simple web based management system. This helps increase the effectiveness of your business operations.

For more information on SIP Trunking, feel free to call us at 1-877-228-6616 or visit us online at http://www.broadconnect.ca/ip-telephone/sip-trunking/