Tag Archives: Hosted PBX

Improve Performance While Lowering Costs

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Expertly meshed information technology and voice technology services are the perfect combination of near term problem solving and long term competitive opportunities for organizations today.  Delivered across a redundant and highly performing mesh infrastructure, mesh services have proven to lower or completely eliminate technology ownership problems, while improving the customer experience and productivity gains.  Industry leading technologies and technology talent are available in any fraction or combination to fit your exact operational and budgetary expectations.



Intellectual Property On Demand – meshIP

Make good decisions or bad decisions.  There are more advancing and powerful technologies available in the market than most organizations or executives stay keep abreast of – let alone effectively leverage or turn into a strategy.  The meshIP service offers technology seasoned experts to validate or map your technology strategy, address and achieve operational excellence, execute a winning financial strategy, or sales and marketing counseling to leverage the most advanced strategies and technologies.  Compare this service to a CEO, CFO, CIO, or CMO on demand.

Consumable Desktop, Servers, and Cloud Applications – meshDESK

Spend too much to own, or only pay as you go.  Every day a host of advanced technologies and services improve in environments owned and operated by technology companies.  If you are not a technology company, chances are you are wasting money.  The meshDESK service takes responsibility for cost, compliance, and spending risk so you do not have to.  Leverage simple to access hardware, storage, applications, and security controls that can grow or shrink month-to-month.  Compare this service to your utility company relationship.  You only pay when you turn on the lights.

Highly Agile Voice Communications On Demand – meshPBX

If you are not communicating how your customers want your competitors will.  Aging systems and limited agility are proving to drive unnecessary reinvestment and long term capital risk.  Today, customers demand predictable voice and messaging access. Advanced voice technologies make this simple and possible.  The meshPBX service combines enterprise system functions with low cost network utilization, while incorporating voice to email and other messaging opportunities.  Compare this to 911.  When they need you, you are there.

Our mesh services are uniquely architected for sole proprietors and global enterprise utilization alike.  Desktop applications, storage, business continuation and security are offered at $99 per month per user.  meshPBX features and voice network utilization including long distance start at $29 per month per user.  Simply add or remove users as needed.   Please contact us today for a tailored evaluation and quotation.  The savings can start immediately and your competitive technology position is guaranteed to be future proofed.

www.meshIP.com

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meshIP Launches Two New Services!

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meshIP, LLC is please to announce the launch of two new services! meshIP was formed five years ago and has specialized in company formation, business plan development, funding and growth strategies. We are adding to our capabilities to assist small and mid-sized firms in their growth by offering hosted computing and telecommunications services. These offerings allow our clients to get out of the IT business and focus on their business.

Our meshDESK service offering  allows businesses to end the cycle of information technology overspending and support frustration by moving your users to on demand access of our global application and infrastructure cloud.

Cloud computing is enabling customers to access IT services without any infrastructure investment or any services deployed in-house. meshDESK is an integrated service that takes complex services and makes them simply consumable to businesses and agencies.

Our meshPBX service offering is an advanced telephone system platform that is owned and operated within the best data centers in the world – so you can safely transfer your operational needs and risk to us, while enjoying exceptional pricing.

Most importantly, meshPBX is highly configurable to demanding and unusual collaboration environments, while providing a long list of standard elements to meet your expectations of high mobility, messaging integration, security, and audit.

We are excited to be offering these two new services. Please check out www.meshIP.com to learn more about our capabilities

The Small Business Guide to VoIP

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If you’ve heard people talk about VoIP (Voice over IP) but you are not entirely clear what it is, or you’ve heard people say you can save money with VoIP but you are a little suspicious, this is the guide for you. Read on for a simple, quick explanation of what VoIP is and how a VoIP phone system can help you save money.

So here’s the basic idea: You are a small business and you have a broadband connection – VoIP allows you to run your phone systems over your broadband connection.

In other words, you are running your Voice system over your Internet Protocol connection. Think about it; you can watch video and listen to the radio over the internet and the audio quality is fine – so why can’t you use your internet connection for your telephone? Well the answer is, you can!

But I want to keep my telephone number

OK, this sounds good so far but you but you are running a business and the big question is – can you keep your current telephone number? Again, the answers is: Yes.

How it works

You sign up with a VoIP company, they will talk to BT (or whoever you use) so that your numbers are transferred to them. Now all incoming calls are directed to your VoIP company. Your VoIP company sends all incoming calls down your broadband connection.

You’ll buy a VoIP router to plug into your broadband connection. You plug your VoIP phones and your computers into your router and that’s it. All outgoing calls are sent up your broadband connection and are connected to the phone network by your VoIP company.

Sounds a little too easy…

Well, that’s the basic idea. In reality it is a little more complicated, but only because you will probably want to buy a phone system that has features such as voice mail, call waiting, call divert etc.

So there are two options: you can buy a “VoIP ready” phone system to stick in your office. Or you can rent an online service from your VoIP company and they will host a virtual phone system for you.

Having a system in your office gives you more control but means a bit more hassle. Going to an online service means you just need to buy handsets and then plug them in. But both ways, you’ll be routing your incoming and outgoing calls up your broadband connection.

Phones shmones! What does this mean to you?

So what does this mean to you? Firstly, you stop renting a landline. You only need one connection, that’s your broadband connection … so no more landline rental. Your outgoing calls are typically cheaper than traditional telephone providers – especially if you make overseas calls. When you add it all together you would expect to save about 40% on your telephone costs if you switch to VoIP.

Also, VoIP gives you added flexibility. As VoIP just uses the internet you can usually add or remove lines almost instantly. You can also move office or work-from-home simply by plugging handsets into the new location. It could not be more simple.

What are the downsides?

You will have to sign a contract with a VoIP company. The VoIP company can use your current broadband connection but some VoIP companies offer broadband as well. You also have to buy some VoIP handsets and maybe a VoIP router.

Back of the envelope costs

With traditional telephony, the costs mount up – let’s take an average small business – you might have four phone lines – each could be costing £150 per year. If you have a phone system on the wall you could be paying £300 a year maintenance. So that’s annual bill of £900.

A VoIP system in contrast could cost you £250 – £500 to provide all four staff with all the bells and whistles.

With traditional telephony, your call costs may not be the most competitive and it is likely you are being caught by gotchas like “setup costs” – a minimum call fee. VoIP providers tend to be more aggressive on pricing (it’s a tough old world out there in VoIP land) and you could save around 10-25% on your calls.

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Are More SMEs Choosing Hosted VoIP Solutions?

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Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are beginning to use hosted Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solutions as an inexpensive substitute to in-house applications, a technical services provider believes.

This is because hosted VoIP solutions remove hardware and in-house maintenance costs, a representative from PlanetMagpie has said.

As a result, businesses are able to instead spend their money on other areas of their operations, which could be particularly important in the current economic climate.

VoIP can enable companies to engage in communication more efficiently, with video capabilities allowing workers to offer visual demonstrations of particular tasks rather than relying on instructions through a standard phone line.

PlanetMagpie also recently revealed that IT consultants are reporting rising demand for VoIP and cloud services during 2011 and many of these may now be exploring hosted VoIP options.

Robert Douglas, president of the technical services provider, said: “Most small to mid-market companies realise that the VoIP environment requires additional hardware, communication line costs, software and phones, not to mention the manpower to run the systems.

“For those reasons many of the small to mid-market companies are looking at hosted VoIP as an alternative to operating the environment in-house.”

In hosted VoIP packages, experts from a third-party run the connection and assist with any potential problems, which could be particularly beneficial for firms that are unfamiliar with the technology.

Mr Douglas’ comments come after Frost and Sullivan released new research, entitled European Hosted IP Telephony and Unified Communications Services Market.

The study found that the hosted internet protocol market in Europe generated revenues of €0.9 billion (£0.8 billion) last year.

Frost and Sullivan also predicted that this figure could rise to €4.9 billion (£4.3 billion) in 2016.

The firm’s industry analyst Dorota Oviedo said that many companies turned to VoIP and other alternative communication methods due to a limited capital availability of investments.

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Survey: SMBs Crave VoIP Switch

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The SMB market for VoIP services is about to explode and service providers unprepared to meet that demand risk losing a hefty chunk of that key customer base, a new survey commissioned by Metaswitch Networks reports.

The 2011 version of a regular survey of U.S. SMBs conducted by market research firm Inzenka showed that 27 percent of the 700 companies surveyed are already using VoIP and another 50 percent are planning to deploy it in the next two years.

What’s more telling for service providers, however, is that three quarters of the companies that adopted VoIP did so with a new service provider, and over-the-top vendors of VoIP have the highest recognition factor among the SMBs surveyed.

When all the survey numbers are crunched, Metaswitch found that almost half (48 percent) of any given incumbent’s SMB customer base is at risk, states Marketing Director Chris Carabello.

“We are using this as a call-to-arms among our service provider customers,” Carabello says. “Businesses are aware that there are better answers out there and they are not waiting for the service provider to come knocking on the door.”

Of course, as a vendor of softswitches and other gear designed to enable service providers to offer IP services and make the transition to an all-IP world, Metaswitch has good reason to sound an alarm that will push incumbents faster in that direction.

But comparing this year’s data to a similar 2007 study shows major momentum behind VoIP adoption as SMBs face some of the pain points familiar to larger corporations and see a much higher number of their employees go mobile. Aging voice systems are expensive to maintain and ineffective in bridging mobile devices, such as smartphones or laptop soft clients, with existing fixed-line services.

“We used to think of mobile employees as top execs or road warriors, but now everyone is mobile,” Carabello says.

Sixty-two percent of those surveyed have employees who work at home and 70 percent have mobile workers, with 95 percent of that group using smartphones. That’s why features such as portal access and softphone features rank second and third in popularity in the survey, and are rising rapidly.

Other key findings include:

* VoIP interest increases with the number of business locations and number of employees.
* Lowering monthly expenses and easier system management were the top two purchase criteria.
* Almost 90 percent of SMBs are interested in fixed-mobile convergence and 70 percent are willing to pay for it.
* Two-thirds of SMBs surveyed want their VoIP gear deployed on-premises, even if they outsource management of it, because of their need for control.
* The one-third who opted for hosted services are much more interested in add-on offerings such as hosted storage and security.

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Top Ten Reasons to Choose Hosted VoIP Services

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Hosted voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services can level the playing field for small and mid-sized businesses, making enterprise-grade communications available for a monthly subscription fee. At the same time, the flexibility of hosted business telephony offers unparalleled value for larger players as well.

Here’s a look at ten reasons hosted VoIP services could be the right choice for your business:

1. Lower upfront cost: VoIP services maintain a system infrastructure on behalf of the subscriber. That means there’s no need for your business to purchase costly equipment such as an IP private branch exchange (PBX) or to upgrade the data network to support VoIP communications.
2. Maintenance benefits: Maintenance is the hosted provider’s responsibility. You can count on the service provider to maintain and upgrade the network infrastructure as needed. In addition, the hosted VoIP company takes care of moves, adds, and changes. Your company reaps the benefits of hassle-free communications and lower IT costs.
3. More advanced features: Hosted VoIP services offer on-demand access to advanced features. With the costs shared among the community of subscribers, even smaller businesses can enjoy enterprise-grade features such as unified communications and contact center functionality.
4. Customized feature packages: A la carte pricing enables you to pay only for the features you use. Build a customized feature package that suits your business’ requirements and add or remove features as needed.
5. Greater flexibility: Hosted VoIP services offer an ideal choice for businesses whose workers are mobile and/or dispersed across multiple locations. In this scenario, a centralized premises system puts unnecessary demands on the company’s network. A hosted service is easy to deploy to multiple changing locations, and offers service benefits for end users.
6. Scalability: Businesses managing rapid growth, seasonal shifts, or other dynamic changes are best served with a hosted service. Hosted plans allow clients to adjust their capacity and number of seats to reflect their current needs. Depending on the plan, you may be able to adjust your scale monthly.
7. No integration issues: Premises systems often rely on integration between legacy and new VoIP equipment, which can produce session initiation protocol (SIP)-compatibility issues and service disruptions. Hosted VoIP services maintain a seamless infrastructure offsite, avoiding the complications of patchwork technology.
8. State-of-the-art network infrastructure: Hosted services upgrade their network regularly, affording clients access to next-generation network technology.
9. Ease of use: Hosted VoIP is easy on the user. Training requirements are minimal and users can adjust their preferences directly using a Web dashboard.
10. Productivity: Access to advanced functionality, easy maintenance from remote locations, and a user-friendly system add up to advantages in worker productivity. Low maintenance demands also free up internal IT staff to focus on more high-value pursuits.

Together, these ten benefits present a solid case for choosing hosted VoIP services. For smaller companies looking for enterprise-grade communications and larger companies seeking flexibility, hosted services offer an unbeatable value.

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Botnets, Cloud Computing Power May Be Fueling Attacks Against VoIP

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A spike in attacks against IP PBXs that started last fall shows no signs of abating, spawning speculation that those responsible have tapped into botnets and cloud computing resources to carry out their illegal activities.

According to separate security reports from Cisco and Sipera’s Viper Lab research arm, the exploits are carried out using techniques that lend themselves to the interpretation that the attackers are tapping into broad resources that make their work more effective.

The criminals are using brute force attacks to crack passwords, indicating they may be bringing cheap, easily available cloud computing power to bear, says Adam Boone, Sipera’s vice president of marketing and product management. The scale of attacks at any given moment indicates that botnets might be in play, but there is no hard evidence that either they or cloud resources are involved, he says.

The most common exploit against compromised PBXs is toll fraud – using someone else’s phone system to make long-distance calls. The second is forcing the PBX to call premium numbers controlled by the attackers that charge by the minute. Businesses whose PBXs have been attacked are billed. “In both types of fraud, enterprises are frequently unable to dispute the charges because they are unable to provide evidence that the charges are in error,” the Sipera Viper Labs report says.

Cisco also noted the prevalence of vishing – telephone-based phishing – where callers pretend to be from banks, the government or other institutions and seek to get victims to relinquish valuable personal data such as Social Security and credit card numbers.

Cisco’s report, which is about IT security in general, says, “VoIP abuse has been on the upswing and appears poised for further growth.” A graph categorizing different classes of attack puts VoIP among those with potential but near to the group Cisco calls “rising stars” that includes Web exploits, money laundering and data theft Trojans.

The increase in VoIP attacks was first noted just before Halloween last year when the peak percentage of attacks against VoIP routinely rose to a high of about 30%. In previous research, Sipera found that attacks directed against VoIP topped out at about 10%, Boone says. Since last fall the percentage of total attacks that are directed at VoIP has continued to peak at about 30%.

He offers three possible reasons for the attention VoIP is drawing. First, by and large VoIP systems are unprotected from outside attacks, he says. Second, VoIP is becoming more popular and reaching a critical mass that draws attackers. “It’s common, and it gets the attention of hackers,” he says. And third, there’s money in it to be had easily.

Sipera has set up honeypots that are exposed to the Internet that appear to be unprotected VoIP systems. Once attackers have successfully broken in, the honeypots monitor what they try to do. They also locate the source of the attacks by country. The top three attack-launching locations are China, Russia and the U.S., followed by South Korea, Vietnam, Turkey and India, Viper Labs says.

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An IP PBX Can Save You Money and Grow With Your Business

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IP-based phone systems offer better convenience and expandability versus traditional PBX

Small businesses have so many more options now when it comes to business technologies, many of which have evolved to meet the specific needs of smaller companies. Even Voice over IP (VoIP) phone systems are now well within reach for companies that are looking for enterprise features on a small business budget. An IP-based voice system provides a business-class phone solution that is more affordable, convenient, and expandable than a traditional PBX phone system.

According to research from AMI Partners, small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. will step up their adoption of VoIP solutions in 2011, including IP PBX systems. AMI states, ”Over 30 percent of small businesses (1 – 99 employees) and 50 percent of medium businesses (100-999 employees) say that VoIP will become critical to their business operations.” AMI also found that smaller companies are choosing VoIP systems for advanced IP features as well as for cost savings.

Traditional PBX vs. IP PBX

You’re familiar with a traditional PBX, or private branch exchange. It’s the system that connects all of the telephones within a company and then connects them to the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

An IP PBX is a private phone system that delivers calls over your IP network. The IP-based voice system also connects to the PSTN or an IP telephony provider’s network and allows you to place and receive calls to any phone number anywhere in the world. When an IP PBX includes VoIP technology, you can make long-distance calls over the Internet.

Big business features on a small business budget

A small business IP PBX gives companies like yours big-class features that would typically cost many times more in a traditional PBX solution. Plus, IP-based voice systems designed for small businesses tend to be much easier to set up than traditional PBX systems.

Some of the high-end business features available with an IP voice system include:

* Multiple voicemail accounts
* Call forwarding and call transfer
* Three-way conferencing
* Music-on-hold for incoming calls
* Automated attendant
* Voicemail to email notification
* Company directory

In addition to being less expensive to install than a traditional PBX solution, the other significant cost-saving benefit of an IP-based voice system is the essentially free long-distance service. With VoIP, your data and phone networks are combined, allowing your employees to make long-distance calls over your Internet connection. Just make sure your network and your Internet connection can handle the increased traffic.

Room to grow

An IP-based phone system offers other benefits for small businesses. In general, they’re easier to install. When considering an IP phone system, another convenient and cost-saving feature to look for is the ability to integrate analog lines. IP-based phone systems are also more easily expandable than traditional PBX systems. Instead of installing additional landlines in your office, you can add phones as needed, though a switch may be required to support them.

Apart from the cost savings and convenience, and IP-based voice system offers another key benefit to smaller companies—improved customer service through a professional interface. The auto attendant can greet customers with a recorded message and route incoming calls to the correct extension, making a good first impression with your customers.

Are you considering replacing your traditional phone system and with an IP-based voice system? What business benefits are you looking to achieve?

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VoIP Could Replace Traditional Telephony

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Traditional telephony may be replaced by newer technology due to an increase in the use of voice over IP (VoIP) in businesses.

Sales of VoIP phones are mainly to businesses, according to In-Stat.

Norm Bogen, vice-president of digital entertainment research at the firm, says the technology allows telephone systems to be used for “more advanced communications.”

However consumers IP phones have yet to reach the consumer market. Apart from technology roll-outs from service providers and the use of Skype, adoption of VoIP technology has been minimal.

He said: “The vast majority of IP phones are sold to businesses.

Consumer VoIP is still mostly ATAs [analogue telephone adapters] or residential gateways [home networking devices] connected to traditional TDM [time-division multiplexing – method by which multiple analogue message signals or digital data streams are combined into one signal, but physically take turns on the channel] phones.”

Mobile VoIP, however is growing rapidly, allowing VoIP communication over Wi-Fi, he added.

Recent research from In-Stat forecasts that IP phone shipments to both businesses and consumers will exceed 40 million units in four year’s time.

PlanetMagpie is also seeing growing demand for VoIP services in 2011, alongside cloud computing.

The IT consulting and web services provider says 43 per cent of organisations plan to utilise cloud computing and virtualisation in the coming year.

In addition, software-as-a-service, cloud servers and VoIP can help businesses to save costs and be more flexible with IT spending and planning.

Facebook has recently launched an app that utilises VoIP technology.

The Messenger app allows Apple Mac users to chat to their friends on the social networking site for free.

Currently, only available for customers using Apple operating systems, a Windows-friendly version is expected to arrive soon.

The app includes features that allow multi-tasking, photo handling and chat sessions management.

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Businesses Adopt Cloud Computing To Control Costs

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A report has found that many businesses are turning to cloud computing in an effort to control costs

Companies are increasingly turning cloud computing to enhance productivity and increase their return on investment (ROI), according to a report from Fonality.

The “2011 Small and Medium-Sized Business Communications Plans and Priorities” state-of-the-market report polled professionals considered to be on the “leading edge” of technology adoption.

Respondents emphasised that cloud-based business applications or AaaS (Anything as a Service) will be increasingly embraced to control costs, and ROI is a key factor in their decision-making.

Cost Control

The survey, conducted by Webtorials, focused on the communications needs of midmarket companies and found ROI of increased productivity from office communications is the most compelling factor in technology adoption, with 88 percent citing “maximising working capital and/or cash flow” as a major factor in SMB technology decisions.

“Based on the results of this survey, it’s clear that SMBs see the value of cloud-based solutions and are eager to benefit from a productivity and ROI perspective,” said Fonality president and CEO Dean Mansfield. “Cloud-based communications tools in particular can be leveraged by companies to drive competitive differentiation while maximizing working capital.”

Minimizing total cost of ownership is the “ultimate goal” of adopting service-based offerings, according to survey results, while mobility and UC were recognised by a strong majority of those surveyed as key technologies to increase efficiency and profitability. Most respondents saw their current communications solutions as being “good,” but 78 percent also seek to improve their capabilities. There was a very high amount of interest in cloud-based solutions and an “excellent prognosis” for cloud-based AaaS (Anything as a Service), with market opportunities still emerging

“The needs of small and mid-size businesses differ significantly from large enterprises,” said Steve Taylor, editor-in-chief and publisher for Webtorials, “This study shows that SMBs have a notable disposition to leveraging cloud-based technology to enhance their operations and their communications capabilities in particular.”

Balancing Point

With responses collected in December 2010 and January 2011, the database used for the survey was highly selective, Mansfield said.

While there seemed to be broad consensus on most points regardless of company size, the results presented were limited to respondents indicating that their company employed 11 to 500 people. At the larger end of the scale, the company typically starts to leave the SMB category. The very small companies – those with one to ten employees – were excluded because their communications solutions tend to mirror consumer-based solutions.

“SMBs are clearly caught between minimising and controlling their cost of operations and improving their technological advantage within their companies as well as for their customers,” the report concluded “They are aware of cloud-based technologies and know that they can improve their operations through enhancement of their technology. They know they need improvement in their internal and external communication methods.”

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