Phones Made For Sales People

In the last few years, softphones – essentially virtual telephones that reside on your PC - have become very popular with the road warrior set. Using a softphone means those workers don’t need to pack extra equipment when they travel, and because they work over the Internet, it can help save a lot of money on the long distance charges that traveling employees often incur.

There are cons of course. In order to receive calls your PC needs to be powered on, and in the event of a system crash your softphone won’t function. There is also the issue of network traffic that can degrade call quality. For those, and other reasons, a physical phone handset is still the best option in an office setting. If you do a lot of traveling or remote working though, a softphone is a nice option.

We get a lot of questions from customers asking about which softphone they should use with their TalkSwitch system, and we’re always happy to point them in the direction of the Counterpath Eyebeam v1.5. It’s an easy to use product that integrates nicely with the TalkSwitch feature set.

You can find more information on the Counterpath Eyebeam by visiting the website at: http://www.counterpath.com/eyebeam-overview.html

Source: Chris Brennan, Talkswitch

Small Business Telecom 2008

2007 was an interesting year for telephony in the SMB space. We saw the ongoing marriage of Voice over IP services with customer premises equipment, which I attribute to reliability and quality having finally passed a tipping point. Small Business owners are always looking to reduce costs, and are often willing to take risks on new technology faster than their larger brethren. We all know that VoIP still isn’t a completely mature technology, but the ROI is so compelling that it is hard to resist deploying it in some capacity.

The tipping point is best represented by one solution – the hybrid.

Hybrid analog/VoIP PBXs are in demand. Why? Because not everyone is ready to give up their connections to the traditional telephone system. For some businesses, VoIP doesn’t offer a significant enough cost saving to make it worth the risk to completely switch. Others see it as complex and don’t feel confident in their ability to use this new technology. A hybrid solution lets those businesses experiment with VoIP, while keeping a traditional phone network safety net.

VoIP is about more than just transporting voice. We’re seeing the natural evolution that involves the integration of voice with applications. Social networking, conference collaboration, presence and routing applications, voice networking while gaming and click-to-dial from a web page are all examples of applications that make effective use of VoIP.

As we move further into 2008, I, and many others, expect analog trunking will continue to decline. Most of this can be attributed to the incumbent phone companies not offering any new “bang for your buck” features in their existing service packages. New competitors are entering the market every day with very competitive long distance and local service packages that come with all the necessary features included. Eventually, the incumbent providers are going to reach a point where they have to drop prices in order to compete and survive. When that happens, it will be interesting to see how that ripples across the industry. Will it lead to the demise of some of the newer VoIP service providers, or will it simply put the two technologies on a level playing field when it comes to price? I expect the answer to that question to reveal itself as this year rolls on.

I believe we’ll see a continued evolution as 2008 rolls along, one that will see both traditional and VoIP service providers strive to meet the changing demands of the market. I also believe that it is the hybrid systems, especially those that are designed to be owner-friendly enough that a small business-person can set up and maintain them, that are best suited to take advantage of this evolution. They provide maximum flexibility, and give businesses the ability to take advantage of all the benefits inherent in each technology.

source: Eric Ramsden of TalkSwitch

Phone System Horror Story

So, you’re in the market for a new phone system. You’re doing your due diligence, sifting through the vast features and benefits, and all the while, looking at your budget, hoping to get this done so you can get back to your real job.

You get started where most everyone does these days, on Google, typing in some key words that may lead you to a good deal. There, among the usual information, you see it right there, off to the side,“reconditioned phone systems” (or something equal to that) and you think “hey!, now we’re talking!”

You may have just stumbled on to someone else's problem at a great price. Our advice, whether its through our company or not, is to BUY A NEW PHONE SYSTEM.

We’ve had to add more storage space in our back room just to hold all of the letters
and testimonials from people that have found out the hard way how costly it can be to purchase a reconditioned, refurbished, or used phone system.

See, the problem is, the company selling you this system may also have no clue it’s bad, because they bought it used too. Here’s something else to consider, you may not find out it’s bad right away, which makes matters even worse.

Here’s an example; The Smith company purchased a new phone system for their office of about 15 people, and felt good about life. They learned how to use it, and became fond of it. The only problem was, they would get complaints now and then from people in the field saying “we must have a bad connection” or “speak up!” To which they replied “I am” or “Is that any better?”

One and ½ years go by, and they have all finally been part of enough poor quality calls and had the boss upset that they give us a call and ask us to put in a new phone system. We listen as they explain they’ve only had it that year and a half, so we ask what’s wrong, and you know the rest.

At some point, prior to them buying the system, something bad happened, and they bought a bad system. So take our advice, save yourself a lot of money and time, and buy a new phone system. Preferably from us at NextPhoneSystem.com.

Message From The CEO

In today’s economy, it’s more important than ever to have the type of quality network support that will allow you to stay focused on your business, not having to chase after today’s dilemma, or be putting out fires. We see it all too often where the business owner is trying to be all things to all people, and therefore becomes the “Jack of all trades, and master of none”.

Even companies that have “an IT guy” are often turning this talented person toward solving and monitoring issues that are internally focused, instead of on client issues that actually result in generating revenue.

We have a client that employs a workforce that designs and builds robots. So these are not your run of the mill tech guys, and would blow most out of the water in regards to technical acumen. They hired us because they realized that when the company computer system is down for any reason they cannot connect to the server locally or remotely, perform tasks as mundane as loading software, or de-fragment or troubleshoot a printer or computer issue. Besides these issues, it’s costing them MONEY!

They were intrigued by our ability to handle these issues at a very reasonable rate and that we were not focused on charging an hourly rate for our time; but rather that we were able to focus on solving a mission critical problem...remotely.

And so it is with you, our future and current customers, to consider the advantages for your small business, and get back to work that pays!

Scott MacMartin
CEO

TalkSwitch Top Channel Program

TalkSwitch Makes PHONE+ Magazine’s List of Top 50 Channel Programs

TalkSwitch is proud to announce that it has been recognized by PHONE+ magazine as a Top 50 Channel Program for 2008. The Top 50 Channel Program Awards are given out to the best manufacturers, vendors and resellers who go above and beyond to provide their channel partners with extra attention, rapid quotes, sales training and special promotions.

The Top 50 was decided entirely by reader and reseller votes, unlike many other industry awards. Votes were collected over the past month, with the results published today.

Source: TalkSwitch
Posted by Michael Doyon