Resilience is often talked about when you take out any contract with a provider, but you do notice when it’s not there and in that instance, it isn’t a sudden realisation but a heartbreaking shock that hundreds of thousands of pounds could be slipping away. Any good resilience plan will come into service automatically if they are ever required, so you don’t miss a moment of business no matter the hour.

It is a fact that at some point IT equipment will fail. Over the last 20 years we have seen “the unexpected” and the “statistically unlikely” many many times. Just look at the list of causes of random Internet failures we have seen:

Fires in government grade data centres; Cleaners unplugging the comms rack to vacuum; Rodents chewing through cables; Water ingress in manholes; Interference from fluorescent lights; Routers overheating when a desk lamp is switched on; Cars driving into the large green Openreach cabinets; Gardeners strimming through telecoms cables; Flash flooding with water 10 feet deep; Coffee in the server PC keyboard; thieves cutting and stealing copper cable. Mains trips going in areas that had been bricked over; Faulty comms cables that route indirectly via an abandoned property next door; Phone lines being wrongly terminated by another carrier transposing digits.

Yes, all of these events above have happened to our customers over the years and therefore the list of “the unexpected” is probably infinite.

Take a quick look at the four distinct layers of Cloud Telephony and all of the parts of the connectivity that make it work.

123Telecom offer resilience at the “Customer Premises”  and “UK Data Network” layers by installing multiple broadband data services with automatic failover.

123Telecom deliver resilience as standard at the “Telephony Exchange” and “Telephone Access” layers by deploying multiple Broadsoft exchange servers in different locations with multiple connections to the worldwide telephone carrier networks.

Multiple broadband connections are one of the key ways in which you can avoid being stranded far away from your clients. They enhance your voice phone resilience, your Internet resilience and aren’t limited to a certain type. Multiple Broadband Connections stem from Fibre Broadband, Leaded Lines, ADSL2+ Broadband, 4G Backup Sim Service (Subject to location) and Air Broadband which we offer in 6 major UK city centres.

In addition to all the resilience built into our Cloud Telephony solution, 123Telecom also offer a “back-stop” divert feature. If for any reason your desk phones cannot communicate with the 123Telephone Cloud Telephony exchange, they are marked as “offline” within 60 seconds. Any inbound calls are destined for an offline handset, they are automatically re-routed to another destination, such as mobile phones or an alternative extension/office.

Enough about resilience and failures. Let’s look at capacity and overflow routing…

Whilst our Cloud Telephony can infinitely stack inbound calls in a queue, most customers choose to define “Auto-Divert-On-Busy” rules. This may be as simple as a colleague or VoiceMail system taking your call, or it may be a complex route for all inbound calls to another UK or offshore team for “overflow” call handling.

The chosen overflow route can vary based on time-of-day or day-of-week, whilst smaller companies may choose to Overflow-Route to an external call answering service, thus ensuring the caller always reaches a professional human voice without waiting.

So, now all the overflow is being dealt with, clients are happy and the phones are singing!

The best part of the 123Telecom Cloud Telephony resilience strategy is that it is all done without the need for expensive hardware maintenance or support contracts.

It’s simply something we just do for our clients!

In summary, the 123Telecom Cloud Telephony platform is inherently built for resilience in multiple data centres. You can rest assured that any unexpected event or sharp increase of call volumes will be handled correctly and efficiently! These resilience plans work as a “Just in Case” scenario, but we all know Murphy’s law: If something can go wrong, it will go wrong!

If you would like to know more about Multiple Broadband Connections, Auto-Diverts and Busy-Overflows,  please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

I’m happy to discuss how 123Telecom can increase the resilience of your business.

The post Replacing Your Office Phone System to Increase Business Resilience appeared first on 123 Telecom.

When extensions rang him, the “dolls eyes” at the top rolled down with a line or extension number on them. He used handle at the side made internal phones ring by alternating the ring current before connect the calls with the switches.

Whilst I know you are not using a phone system as old as this, the current generation of Analogue and ISDN phone systems will ALL soon be redundant. Because this is such a significant event in the history of the UK telephone network, wholesale telephone suppliers including 123Telecom have already pre-warned about what is just around the corner. Openreach plan to declare a 5 year ”end of life” notice for ALL traditional phone lines in 2021.

Forewarned is forearmed; there is no point in investing in traditional telephony in 2019 when it will be redundant in an instant!

We’re living in a world that doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. It’s important to stay up to date and not get left behind. This is a big factor for startups and SMEs who have to compete with the industry giants. 

Lots of businesses are now global and find themselves dealing with international suppliers or clients. For example, ONS found that the total costs of UK export services rose from £162.1 billion to £142.7 billion in 2017. Therefore, staying connected with good technology is really important.

Now, whilst the Internet is great for quick, reliable or global communication – you can’t beat a good old-fashioned phone call for instant two way communication. Phone calls really allow you to have an in-depth, real time conversation that you just don’t get via an email, text or Social media. Whilst video phone calls will eventually become the norm, the majority of business people still prefer to communicate “speech only” for the moment.

You cannot afford to ignore the revolution that is going on in the UK telecoms industry! Whenever there are fast areas of change, there are always those people keen to exploit those less technical owners and managers who simply need to be running a business.

Set Up Costs

A high quality business phone solution doesn’t have to be costly anymore. If your company currently uses a traditional system then there’s a chance you’re going to be left behind. You could also be wasting time and money better spent on building your business.

Maintenance contracts? What maintenance contracts? The latest systems don’t need them.

Support Contracts? What support contracts? The latest systems all include no-charge support.

Installation Costs? What installation costs? The latest systems use your current office network wiring. You simply plug in the phones and your system is live.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. The new tech of Cloud Telephony no longer needs geeky engineers to install and setup. Everything is pre-configured prior to delivery and tweaked remotely. Your desk phones simply download their configuration over the Internet.

Nobody wants to go through the hassle of setting up a phone system. Out of the box solutions are so much easier. Time is crucial when you are a startup or a small business, not to mention all the initial costs that comes with traditional “on the wall” or “on premises” phone system. With Cloud Telephony there is no “on the wall” box to buy. It’s already out there waiting for you. It’s all in The Cloud! It’s already serving hundreds of other businesses just like yours. All you need is new modern handsets to enable you to take advantage of it.

I am always hearing about businesses who were sold systems on a 7 year lease – “to make it affordable” they were told. “To save you money” they were told. These are myths to lock you into a long term contract with the supplier! You typically pay more than double of the true value of the kit with this type of plan! I have seen business several lease plans that total over £10,000 for solutions we would have done for £750 with Cloud Telephony! It is inexpensive and you own the equipment from day 1, so there is no need for a rip-off finance agreement.

You will need an Internet connection and the handsets themselves, but that’s it! Furthermore,  you probably have the Internet already!

The total employment in SMEs was 16.3 million in the UK last year alone. That’s a lot of people that need to be migrated to the new technologies over the next 5 years.

Don’t leave the migration to the last minute; get ahead of your competitors.

Ongoing Costs

As mentioned earlier, the new Cloud Telephony services have no ongoing maintenance or support costs.

With your Internet connection already being paid form, there are only two ongoing monthly costs with Cloud Telephony.

1. Service charges – ie you are paying to use the service. These are fixed per month.
2. Call Charges. These will vary, however you can fix most of these charges with an inclusive calls bundle.

It’s easy to see how the cost of calls in the UK has been decreasing since I started 123Telecom 20 years ago.

Calls to UK mobiles has predominantly been the largest part of total call costs for most businesses for years, but with the underlying trend shown in the graph above, 123Telecom now offer most of their clients free calls to all UK Landlines, 03 and UK mobiles as part of the service charge. That way – you have no worries. You only pay a extra if you call premium numbers or International numbers.

So far so good.

So what exactly is a Cloud Telephony Service Charge?

To deliver these services, there are very expensive telephone exchanges located in resilient data centres, all interconnected to the worldwide telephone network. Everything is duplicated in multiple locations for resilience and services are monitored and managed 24/7/365. The system provides all the functionality for a professional business system. So the service charge is a “per user” or “per extension” charge to use this multi million pound tech. It’s that simple.

So, the old “line rental” costs are no longer required. Maintenance and support costs are no longer required, and most UK call costs are free. These are all savings.

On the reverse side of the coin is the Cloud Telephony service charge. But here is the good news. In the old way of the world, every simultaneous call your business had needed phone line and channel. Now – you only need ONE broadband to make any number of simultaneous calls. A single typical UK Fibre Broadband connection can handle up to 200 simultaneous calls, more than enough for most businesses!

The other bit of good news is the Service charge. This is typically HALF that of an old Analogue line rental. For example, a small business can make 6 simultaneous calls for the same cost that they used to pay to have 3 simultaneous calls.

Accessibility Issues

You’re not accessible all of the time. There are times when you will be away from your desk, out of the office or on a business trip. What does this mean? Well, it means you can’t take any office calls and may miss out on vital information. Your reach is severely limited by having an outdated telephone system that cannot be connected to a home office phone, for example.

What about if you find yourself expanding as a business? If you’re moving or setting up more offices, alas, you have to go through the whole ordeal of installing the phone system all over again.

Complications such as changing numbers and linking offices could mean missed calls. Missed calls equal a missed opportunity and time and money wasted!

What to do next

Hopefully, I have included a lot of thought provoking information in this article.

There really are more possibilities with Cloud Telephony.

You may be worried that your broadband may not be reliable enough to host these phones? We also offer an extremely efficient internet service with first class technical support.

You may wonder how Cloud Telephony seamlessly joins multiple locations?

It just works wherever there is reasonable Internet!

You may wonder how we can offer numbers from 70 countries?

We just can!

You may wonder why our call quality is better than traditional phone systems?

It just is!

You may wonder how we deliver resilience with multiple connections?

We just do!

You may wonder how calls automatically ring on your mobile if there is a problem with your Internet connection?

They just do!

If you have any questions about how 123Telecom can help to update your phone systems to save you lots of time and money, please feel free to contact me.

All quotes are to help you see the benefits and costs. We are not a pushy sales organisation. We are here to help you through the maze.

Thanks for reading.

Author

Eric Toll

Founder and Managing Director

123Telecom Limited

1.   0303 0300 123
2.  eric@123telecom.co.uk
3. www.123telecom.co.uk

The post The biggest change in the history of the UK telephone network appeared first on 123 Telecom.

Many studies have been done to monitor not only the number of people working from home, but also the benefits and drawbacks of not coming into the office. Positives such as less distractions, an increase in productivity and more flexible hours. Negative points included a test of trustworthiness, too much isolation and the sometimes unavoidable need for an in-person meeting.

Phil Flaxton, the Chief Executive of the organisation behind National Work From Home Day stated:

“The structure of our economy and consequently our workplaces has changed significantly…Such fundamental change towards home-working is recognised by increasing numbers of inspired, and more trusting employers”.

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) issued some statistics for UK homeworkers and discovered that:

• In 2017, 1.6 million employees regularly worked from home last year. This is 6.1% of the population.
• The proportions of homeworkers increased with age. 16-19 years olds were the least likely (2%) whilst over 60s were most likely (11%).
• Approximately 200,000 disabled people work from home regularly.

With a predicted increase in the amount of people working from home by 2020, this type of working environment is becoming increasingly sought after. With its benefits for disabled workers also, many companies should consider home working (or ‘remote working’) as an alternative to traditional working structures.

As much as working from home seems to be a growing trend, the drawbacks of the practice cannot be ignored, with the biggest adversary to the home working environment being the complication of the communication process.

How can both employer and employee ensure that the optimal working environment is being consistently achieved?

If a member of the team isn’t available via the telephone, efficiency could be stunted where time is spent sending and waiting for emails instead of working. This would be particularly disadvantageous in a job that requires being set multiple tasks in a day, with work that needs to be continuously reviewed or even with a job that requires managing a much larger team.

Ensuring that both employer and employee can be easily contacted requires the best technology to do so. Now somewhat overshadowed by the power of the internet, the telephone remains a vital piece of equipment in any business setting!

An Ofcom study revealed that between the years 2012 and 2017, the time spent on landline calls fell from 103 billion to just 54 billion minutes. This is more than half! In comparison, the same study also found that adjacent to this drop, mobile calls rose to 148.6 billion minutes.

Factors such as mobility and accessibility make it easy to understand why mobile telephone calls are increasing in popularity. However, alongside this you also have to consider certain drawbacks. With the freedom of the mobile phone comes a lack of accountability that you don’t get with a landline or Cloud Telephony deskphone.

It must be said that using Cloud Telephony to bring homeworkers on-board as extensions of the main office telephone system is simply more professional. Inbound calls can be answered at any location and then transferred or conferenced with any other member of staff, regardless of their physical location. Outbound calls display the main company phone number or the homeworkers extension telephone number called a DDI. This is far more professional than making calls from a mobile phone number.

Many people still think VoIP telephone calls are second rate and poor quality. Whilst that may have been true 10 years ago when Skype was done with a cheap plug in headsets for your PC over a slow broadband connection, quality is certainly is not an issue today. You may be surprised to know that the reverse is actually true! Our Cloud Telephony has better call quality than traditional telephone systems, plus our latest handsets remove background noise from the call if you are in a loud office or home environment.

By utilising a reliable deskphone connection, you can ensure that your colleague is where they need to be, when you need them to be. An offshoot of this is the renewed sense of confidence in certainty. Dates and times can begin to bleed into out-of-work hours when using a mobile phone. Using Office Extension for homeworkers ensures work and private life are kept separate and within a colleagues set working hours, although we also offer “dual account” handsets which can be an Office Extension and a Home Phone in one device, but operating with totally different telephone numbers on each account.

It is the responsibility of the employer to make sure the homeworker has both the adequate technology and Internet speeds to work effectively. “Busy-Lamps” on your phones let you visually see the status of the office telephones at the other location, i.e the homework knows about others in their team, and the team knows about the homeworker. Busy-Lamps can also allow a team of homeworkers can see the status of other homeworkers in their team.

Whilst homeworkers have the luxury of not needing to conform to typical workplace practices, an employee using only their smartphone for communication may find they get distracted by it. Offering a plethora of applications and games, an Ofcom study from 2018 found that people in the UK will check their phones every 12 minutes on average. Communication via a landline could lessen the chance of smartphone distraction and maintain productivity levels.

If we step away from a homeworker setting and head back to a traditional office work environment, an updated phone system is still in the interest of the employer. A report by Randstad has discovered that two thirds (65%) of UK employees still work from a traditional office setting. Therefore, this means connectivity within the office is just as important as it is for people working out of the office. A landline can save costs and streamline the communications process whether this be within different sectors or even inter-office locations.

Traditional depictions of the landline may discourage many from the idea as they imagine themselves tied to their desk. However, modern desk phones possess a great signal and some can even use a Wi-Fi walkabout system. This may come in handy if you operate over a large area. For example, an office complex, factory, school or even an educational campus would benefit from using a phone with Wi-Fi capabilities.

Connectivity and communication are always important in an office environment and therefore it is important to get it right. Keeping up to date and informed will benefit any business in the long run. Creating a stronger team, avoiding misunderstandings and streamlining your process are just some of the positive outcomes beneficial to a business.

Where 123Telecom are providing the underlying Internet connectivity for both the main office and also the homeworker, we can seamlessly link your technology together with a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN). This enables authorised homeworkers can access peripherals and storage/file servers at the main office just as if they were sitting at a desk in the office, as well as any cloud storage the company may be using.

Telephone extensions can be located in different places at no extra cost if you decide to use 123Telecom to replace your business’ phone system. The phones don’t have to be traditional, either. We can work with modern desk phones, DECT and Wi-Fi walkabout phones, smartphones and PC or Apple Mac softphones. We can also cater to your needs in different locations whether you’re in the UK or overseas.

If you currently have anybody who works from home or are a homeworker yourself, get in touch by dropping me a message and see how 123Telecom can bring your office and home securely together for voice telephony and computer networking.

Author

Eric Toll | Founder and Managing Director | 123Telecom Limited

t.  0303 0300 123

e. eric@123telecom.co.uk

w. www.123telecom.co.uk

The post How To: Link Office Locations and Homeworkers appeared first on 123 Telecom.