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June 18, 2010

NEC Unified Communication for Business: A single server powerhouse!

Filed under: nec — Tags: , , , , — Administrator @ 4:19 am
Unified Communications for Business Diagram

Unified Communications for Business Diagram

A while back I went to a NEC Event in Connecticut. The showstopper in my opinion happened to be the NEC Unified for Business system, a one-server powerhouse! The Unified Communications for business places IM, Phone, Email, Call Queuing, and Call Recording all on the one single server. A perfect solution for any small to medium sized business; with a single server businesses can collaborate more effectively and in general improve productivity. The UC for Business offers functionality that drastically improves the way you handle your business communications.

General features include:

• Presence, which gives staff and operators valuable information regarding call recipients’ locations and availability
• Presence reporting that allows individual users and managers to monitor their own activity and the activity of others through comprehensive reporting functionality
• Softphone and Microsoft¨ Office¨ Outlook¨ integration to simplify call handling and give users the ability to manage all their communications from their desktops
• Click-to-Dial from within Microsoft documents for quick, easy access to the people you need to reach
• Contact center and operator tools to address the unique requirements of each function
• Third party integration to enable organizations to easily and effectively connect UC for Business with other business applications

Managing customer a positive customer experience is vital to a successful business. UC for Business has created an easy to use system for your employees and for your customers. Callback allows contact centers to differentiate themselves from their competitors by giving their callers a choice – offering them the option of an automated Callback, eliminating the frustration of waiting in a queue. When Callback is utilized it can reduce the cost associated with having a customer on hold. Console gives your employees empowerment by being able to see who is calling in and allowing them to prioritize top customers so they are never left waiting. Being a LAN based application, it can be accessed from any PC on the network, which means back up operators can pick up overflow calls if necessary. With Presence you can see the status of your colleagues are at all times and can make better judgments when transferring calls. With a simple click and drag of a mouse you can transfer a call with ease. All of you phone, fax, and email messages are stored all within your PC. Fax and Voicemails can be sent via email as attachments, so you can share your internal communications remotely. UC for Business is also a cost cutting investment. Executive Conference is audio conferencing takes the 3rd party out of the equation saving you money on your telephony cost.

Your agents become increasingly goal-oriented and require less supervision. With all your communications being on a PC you can create a not only a cost cutting paperless work flow but also a leaner work environment. Unified Communications for Business means less IT infrastructure, less complexity and less drain on resources. With UC for Business, an organization can meet all of their users’ needs, implement an enterprise-wide unified communications solution and minimize total cost of ownership.

To find out more about Unified Communications for Business please download the brochure or give us a call!

May 16, 2010

Photocopiers: A new Identity Theft Threat

Filed under: network security — Tags: , , , — Administrator @ 7:13 pm

Last month CBS News uncovered a warehouse full of copiers hiding personal information within the hard drives. Out of the four hard drives bought by CBS News Chief Corespondent Armen Keteyian, two were from the Buffalo NY Police Department (one had detailed information from the Sex Crimes Unit and the other from the Narcotics Unit in which a list of targets was found for a major drug raid.). Another machine featured A New York Construction Companies plans for a building near ground zero, pay stubs with employees names, addresses, and social security numbers; and $40,000 dollars in personal checks. The last one was the jackpot: a copier from Affinity Health Plan, a New York insurance company. In the hard drive had medical records-from drug prescriptions, to blood tests to highly personal diagnosis’s.

Since 2002 copiers have had a hard drive to store images of documents scanned into the machine. The hard drives can be filled with all sorts of information such as: tax information, birth certificates, death certificates, bank records, social security numbers – this makes them a hot spot for identity thieves.

In a study commissioned by Sharp in 2008 it was found that “54% of those polled had no clue that digital photocopiers store an image of what’s duplicated and that a majority believed running off returns on copiers or printers is a safe practice. When told of the security threat posed by unsecured hardware, however, two-thirds of the people surveyed said they were less likely to copy their financial information on a public digital photocopier.”

So what can we do this about this? Try to find out if your organizations (work, doctor, dentist, accountant) “scrubs” the hard drives of the copiers before they send to be returned at the end of their lease or when they are turned in to be recycled. Scrubbing refers to overriding the data on the hard drive making it unreadable. You have a right to know what they do with your personal information. Also try to use your own personal scanner and fax equipment if possible. Many home printers offer a copy fax option. Keep yourself protected and informed.

May 8, 2010

Small Business Solutions: Ten Tips to Help your Small Business make Big Business

Filed under: Cisco — Tags: , , , , , , — Administrator @ 9:35 pm

Businessman before a choiceWhen it comes to small business ownership-it’s the little things that make a big difference. Here are 10 tips for using network technology to help your business work more efficiently, cut costs, improve customer satisfaction, and stay ahead of the competition.

1. Give employees secure, consistent access to information. You have an advantage over larger competitors because you can react quickly to business changes. But you can quickly lose this edge if your company network is frequently down, sluggish, or unsecured. A secure, reliable network based on intelligent routers and switches lets your employees access the information and tools they need to keep ahead of competitors.
2. Deliver anytime, anywhere access to employees on the go. To stay productive on the move, your employees need to be able to reach the people and information they need—anywhere, anytime. With tools like virtual private networks (VPNs), your employees can work outside the office and still enjoy safe access to the business network.
3. Create effective business processes with partners. Some large companies make efficient, secure business processes a prerequisite for doing business with them. To meet the business needs of your partners, you need a secure, reliable network.
4. Make it easy to work together. Smooth collaboration between employees, partners, suppliers, and customers is a sure-fire way to boost efficiency while also reducing costs. An intelligent network lets your business take advantage of interactive calendaring, videoconferencing, unified communications, and other technologies for easy collaboration.
5. Enable employees to take their phone systems wherever they go. Missed calls create project delays, wasted opportunities, and lost revenues. With a networked voice and data solution, your employees can have one phone number that rings simultaneously on multiple devices, so customers reach the right person the first time. Your staff can access all their communications from anywhere, checking for e-mail, voicemail, and faxes from just one inbox.
6. Streamline customer communications. Delivering fast, knowledgeable service is the best way to keep customers satisfied. Linking your network phone system to a customer relationship management (CRM) solution is a great way to enhance customer communications. When a customer calls, a pop-up window with their records appears on an employee’s IP phone screen, computer screen, or both.
7. Reduce unproductive travel time. All too often, time spent on the road is time lost. A networked phone solution that offers video calls and Web conferencing can help reduce the time and expense of traveling to offsite meetings and training sessions. Instead of spending time traveling, you can use the time to get work done with technology.
8. Employ a managed service provider. Is managing a network the best use of your employees’ time? In some situations, it is advantageous to hire a managed service provider for network administration. Working with a managed service provider can free your IT staff to focus on other IT tasks and use their time more effectively.
9. Improve employee satisfaction. Aging phone systems and slow networks can frustrate your employees and annoy your customers. In some cases, an employee might become burned out and decide to move on. To help ensure that employees are productive and satisfied, your business needs a secure, reliable, and fast network.
10. Develop a long-term technology plan. The process of replacing obsolete hardware can interrupt your employees and bring the office to a standstill. You can minimize such disruptions by carefully determining short- and long-term business objectives and working with your network vendor to deploy technology that matches them.

Cisco can help you with these tips with the powerful 500 series power driven for small businesses.  The ESW 500 Series are cost-effective, easy-to-use switches that provide the foundation of your small business network. It provides voice and data communications, voicemail, automated attendant, video, security, and wireless capabilities while integrating with existing desktop applications such as calendar, email, and customer relationship management (CRM) programs. This easy-to-use solution supports up to 32 users and provides flexible deployment options based on your needs, supporting a wide array of IP phones, public switched telephone network (PSTN) interfaces, and Internet connectivity.

As well as having a state of the art product line, Cisco also provides 0% on financing for 36 months enabling you to make a sound investment.  If you would like to know more about how Cisco can help you give us a call at (866) 441-7469.

April 14, 2010

Disaster Recovery Plan: When disaster strikes your ready!

Filed under: Prevention — Administrator @ 12:25 pm

Winters in New England are known for being brutal, but this Spring has brought in some serious showers and flooding-whereas you might be personally prepared-is your business?

Inclement weather can cause chaos on telephones or data services and many companies only realize the importance of Recovery planning AFTER an outage or disaster has occurred. Don’t let this happen to your company-advanced planning can minimize undesired effects on your technological solutions.

What you can do:

  • Write out a plan considering the utmost disaster-this will give you coverage for the lesser disasters at the same time!
  • BACK UP! BACK UP! BACK UP! Important daily output should be documented and backed up.
  • Make sure all your licensing code and passwords are stored in a safe place that can be recovered in the event of a disaster.
  • Create a document of your plan and let your employees be aware of emergency procedures.  Make sure this document has important contacts and clearly defines the roles of your employees in case of an emergency.
  • Have a number your incoming calls can be re-routed to in case phone services are out.
  • Have redundancy hardware and make sure you have two completely different circuits with absolutely no shared facilities and being fed by different central offices.
  • Have a battery-powered AM/FM radio on hand. In the event of a communications or electrical disruption some radio stations will be operating on back-up power.
  • In the event of an electrical storm, do not use a corded telephone. Also, unplug modems, faxes, and computers from the phone line. There is a possibility of an electrical charge running through the line.
  • Review your plan often to make sure it is up to date.

Disaster planning is one of the most important IT projects a company can take on-think about it-what if your company could not use phones for the day-how about computers?  Can your company afford the aftermath of a disaster? A well thought out Disaster Recovery Plan will protect your business and prevent total loss during an emergency, whether big or small.

April 7, 2010

Telecom Review: What you don’t know can cost you!

Filed under: phone systems — Tags: , , , — Administrator @ 1:09 pm

Dollar_signAn important and almost always overlooked strategy for a company to save money is for a telecom review. A telecom review is an audit of your telecommunications network billing and contracts, done by professionals who can find money saving errors. Telecom services account for one of the five largest expenses a business will face and with the many changes in the business and communications world what was good then may not be in your best interest now, so it is always imperative to stay on top of your telecom contract and here is why:

Telecom Bill contracts usually run 3 years and will typically go into automatic renewal. With confusing and complex billing-overcharges and outdated telecom fees can be easily overlooked. All too many times businesses are getting charged for services they no longer use or have cancelled. According to a study by Gartner Group, a leading information technology research and advisory company, “When it comes to telephone and data bills, an estimated $13 billion in overcharges will be generated in the next 12 months, and less than 2% of these telephone billing errors will ever be identified.”

All too often, businesses pay their telecom bill without a review of the actual charges or costs, which can lead to fraudulent and inaccurate billing. On average 85% of companies do not audit their bills which causes them to over spend by about 45%. Toll fraud hacking into corporate telecom networks is averaged to cost more that $1 billion dollars a year annually, how much of this 1 billion could be in your company?

Don’t let your company suffer from inaccurate billing and erroneous charges-by addressing cost issues and management issues you can cut costs and benefit instantly! Here at Spaulding Hill we offer a free telecom assessment. If you would like a FREE assessment please click here or call 866-441-7469.

March 17, 2010

Green Company Spotlight On: NEC

Filed under: Green Business — Tags: , , — Administrator @ 7:32 pm

leafNEC, a trusted brand used by Spaulding Hill Networks has been serious about excellent products and services as well as taking care of the environment. They have been environmentally conscious since the early 1970s when green was just a color.

A few facts about NEC’s initiative follow:

• NEC has publicly committed itself to reducing its net-impact CO2 footprint to zero by 2010.
• NEC has been developing bioplastics for years, replacing petrochemical plastics in product cases and internal parts.

• Plans call for bioplastic side panels (made from corn) to be introduced in the fall of 2008 as optional parts on new telephone terminals.
• By 2010, NEC plans to switch 10 percent of its petrochemical plastics to bioplastics.

• NEC’s Eco Symbol label program, initiated in 1998, now appears on 5,273 NEC products in 55 product categories. In order for an NEC product to carry the Eco Symbol, it must meet all environmental soundness standards established by NEC Corporation.
• NEC Unified Solutions’s new business communications products are in line with NEC’s stated goals of reducing the net-impact of its CO2 footprint to zero by 2010. Our Green Initiative is responsible for:

• Lowering the power consumption of these products
• Complying with RoHS manufacturing standards:

• Eliminating chemicals that drive up CO2 emissions
• Using chemicals that are environmentally safe
• Eliminating lead and mercury from circuit boards

• Since 2002, NEC has funded a tree-planting program on Kangaroo Island, Australia

• Since the program’s inception:

• NEC has planted 750 acres of forests each year. (Currently 5,250 acres).
• NEC will maintain the forests through 2020, reaching 1 million tons of CO2 absorbed with approximately 6,750 acres planted

NEC was Green long before it was “Cool to be Green”.

NEC has been environmentally conscious since the 1970s:

1971 – NEC issues Environmental Management Guidelines, directing NEC managers to pursue green policies.
1991 – NEC publishes an Environmental Charter, seven “action plans” to be followed by every NEC employee. Just one of the seven: “To produce energy- and resource-saving products, while giving careful thought to environmental safety issues in development and planning.”
1998 – NEC initiates an internal environmental labeling system to help promote the development of environmentally sound products. Only NEC products that meet or exceed NEC’s highest environmental soundness standards can display the NEC “Eco” Symbol.” Currently, 5,273 products in 55 product categories carry it. The numbers are continually increasing.
2002 – NEC launches its Forestation Program. It is committed to planting 6,750 acres of trees by 2010. NEC’s commitment to maintaining the forests runs through 2020 when the annual volume of CO2 absorbed by the trees could approach one million tons.
2007 – NEC releases its Environmental Management Vision 2010 which publicly commits NEC to reducing its net CO2 footprint to zero by 2010. Over the last decade, the company has made great strides in reducing its CO2 emissions.
2008 – NEC Unified Solutions introduces new products that are both power efficient and compliant with RoHS green manufacturing standards. NEC introduces optional side panels made of bioplastics on new terminals.

If you are interested in going with a quality product that is environmentally conscious please feel free to contact us at 1-866-441-7469.

March 10, 2010

Telecommuting: Providing Green for the environment and Green for your Wallet

Filed under: Green Business — Tags: , , , , — Administrator @ 3:51 pm

Green Thinking

The latest way to be a responsible and a profitable green company is to telecommuting. Most jobs involve an employee sitting in front of a computer instant messaging, emailing, or calling employees that are down the hall or in the next cubicle over, all of this can be done from home minus the employee distractions that slowly cost a company money. The investment on telecommuting is minimal but the returns are beneficial to an employer, an employee, and the environment.

As an employer you would like to attract and retain loyal talent. Employees with a telecommuting benefit have more family time which leads to less stress and better productivity which equals savings to the employer. In a 2008 survey by Computing Technology Industry Association (Comp TIA), 67 percent of respondents said their organizations were productive thanks to part-time and full-time telecommuting. You also have a chance to tap into hidden talent which may not have been available before (mothers with young children, handicapped, people living in remote areas).

In a survey taken by Treehugger.com, employees were still willing to take a 10% pay cut to work from home even through a tough economy. Just think, 10% of a $50,000 salary equals a company saving of $5,000, and this isn’t even including savings due to sick days, emergencies, weather related impairments, and electricity costs! Employees don’t feel the full brunt of the loss either, the average savings to the employee can be from $2,500 – $11,000 in transportation, lunch, daycare and other expenses. A happy employee is a profitable employee!

A profitable employee makes for a profitable business. Unscheduled absences due to weather, health, and family issues cost an employer $1,800 a year per employer and 25% of traffic accidents occur on a daily commute to work. Think of a small business with 10 employees-that is a loss of $18,000 per year.

Along with payroll savings, the office environment can be leaned down providing additional funds for other investments. Telecommuting reduces office-based consumption because the telecommuter is bearing the energy cost for remote office equipment. Telecommuting can also reduce the amount of actual office space needed and office supplies ordered.

Importantly, Telecommuting is green and Going Green is one of the hottest trends widespread, as it should be. If everyone who had the opportunity to telecommute could, we as a society could save 9.7 billion gallons of gas, which in turn would save 84 million tons of toxic greenhouse gases a year! Less traffic congestion equals fewer emissions to deteriorate the ozone. Both customers and employees are demanding a greener business lifestyle and telecommuting is an effective way to Go Green and benefit the employee, your business and Mother Nature.

Telecommuting is a minimal investment with high returns. Companies that incorporate Telecommuting have happier and loyal employees, which in turn have a higher productivity rate that also reduces overhead and maximizes profit. Most importantly you are making an impact on the environment-which might be the most enduring advantage of all.

Spaulding Hill Communications would like to help you Go Green by providing IP accessories for your employee’s virtual offices. Please contact us at 1-866-441-7469 to find out more.

February 25, 2010

Managing Services: A business that understands yours

Filed under: Managing Systems — Tags: , , — Administrator @ 8:00 pm

The growth of a company can lead to many rewards and challenges for a business owner.  A primary challenge that will be faced is IT solutions, whether to utilize  break fix systems or managed services. When it comes to the optimum return on investment the answer is simple, managed services.  Why wait for something to break to have it fixed, why not have affordable support that is preventing downtime and service requests by alleviating the problem the first time and concentrating on proactively monitoring company networks.

Managed Services, is a service provided by a network company that transfers daily IT management responsibility from the customer as a method to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of operations while saving money.  The cost cutting benefits of migrating to a Management Service include:

• 24-7 support and proactively monitoring
• One contact for all network issues
• One vendor for supplies as opposed to multiple vendors
• Lower Total Cost Ownership for clients
• Predictability of monthly expenses due to a fixed cost system
• Fewer technological problems which means all together savings for a business.

Since 1999, Spaulding Hill Network has been a provider of innovative and cost effective technology solutions.  We provide experienced and qualified staff with superior service plans to fit business needs including:

SafetyNet
Our SafetyNet plan ensures your voice and network infrastructure integrity.

• 24 x 7 Proactive Monitoring.
• Proactive System Upgrades
• Unlimited Help Desk Support
• Unlimited Remote Assistance

SafetyNet Plus
Our SafetyNet Plus plan extends the power of our SafetyNet progam down to your servers and desktop system.

• 24 x 7 Proactive Monitoring.
• Proactive System Patches
• Unlimited Help Desk Support
• Unlimited Remote Assistance

To find out more about how managing services is a smart decision for your company give Spaulding Hill Networks a call at 603-689-0111 or click here for a FREE Assessment.

February 7, 2010

Why SIP?

Filed under: phone systems — Tags: , , — Administrator @ 10:24 pm

Hello world

It has never been more important for businesses to stay current with technology, especially with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other cutting-edge communication networks on the market. The tricky part is identifying technologies that not only enhance communication, but also present opportunities to maximize profits.
One such option is to implement an SIP trunk service. An SIP trunk (Session Initiation Protocol) service not only allows a company to communicate over IP outside of its enterprise; it also provides in-house reliability, establishing a single corridor for multimedia components like voice, video, and data without the need for separate dedicated lines.
The result can be instant savings.
Services for SIP trunks are provided in a converged framework, which supports several forms of actual-time communication. Businesses are constantly keeping in touch with suppliers, distributers, consumers, partners, remote offices and the like in today’s world of fast-paced communications. Costs for these everyday tasks can become burdensome. An SIP trunk essentially eliminates these tasks, leaving you one reliable source for communication needs.
An SIP trunk service is an organized, reliable and cost-efficient option that provides numerous opportunities to boost profits. Here are some advantages to consider:
• Outdated communication networks, such as analog circuits, typically cost companies twice the amount as SIP trunks on a per-month basis. With these instant savings, an SIP trunk service can give businesses an essential immediate return on their investment.
• An SIP trunk allows you to access the true benefits of your VoIP, without letting prior investments to existing communication networks go to waste.
• An SIP trunk reduces, and sometimes eliminates, the costs of hardware media gateways, including general support and maintenance fees.
• Installation for an SIP trunk service can typically be done in a matter of hours, eliminating labor costs.
• SIP trunks allow you to extend your communication system over IP, ridding the need of purchasing local PSTN (public switched telephone network), BRIs (Basic Rate Interfaces) and PRIs (Primary Rate Interfaces). This lowers telephony costs, thus adding to your savings.
• An SIP trunk service allows companies to outsource their PSTN connectivity to a third party. This reduces long-distance charges, essentially turning all calls into local calls.
Another option to consider with SIP trunking is disaster recovery protection. SIP trunks are flexible. Not only do they provide support, they allow you to retain some TDM lines for extra protection, which salvages and maximizes the use of already-installed equipment. The benefits of SIP trunks can still be profitable, through a gateway, to companies with legacy CPE without being subjected to the cost of upgrading or adding new equipment.
In summary, an SIP trunk service will provide the level of VoIP communications your business needs.
Spaulding Hill Networks, LLC, which since 1999 has assisted New England based businesses with their communication needs, is one way to get started. Spaulding Hill provides its clients with such innovative technology solutions to meet networking and communication challenges. Give Spaulding Hill Networks a call at (603) 689-0111 to hear recommendations for your business needs.

January 27, 2010

Stop Spam before it Enters Your Network

Filed under: network security — Tags: , , , — Administrator @ 3:35 pm

Unsolicited e-mail to people on your network has become the modern day technological plague. It’s mainly a nuisance, but also a security risk that creates an entry point for viruses on your network. Not only does it consume bandwidth and server space, but it also decreases productivity due to required, daily user maintenance. The result: lost time and money.

computer spam protection

Controlling spam is a growing task for many organizations. To minimize man hours and lower your risk of a virus attack, spam should be blocked before it even hits your network.

What are your options to protect your network?

Hosted or managed services

Incoming e-mail is routed through the vendor’s network and filtered before being delivered to your network.

Pros: Eliminates the hassle of additional hardware or software installation on your network.

Cons: Privacy issues.

Dedicated security appliances

In this case, the appliance is deployed just behind your network firewall. Incoming e-mail is filtered before it reaches your mail server.

Pros: Provides virtually immediate protection with minimal setup on your network.

Cons: Support, redundancy and backup may be required, but not included in original cost.

Software.

There are several products available that filter spam at the mail server or client level. Filters are set by the network administrator or user.

Pros: May be more cost effective.

Cons: Spam has already entered the network before it is filtered.

Which option is best to protect the security of your network?

In the end, it is a matter of personal preference and deciding which solution best fits the needs of your organization.

If you are unsure what to do next, give Spaulding Hill Networks a call at 603-689-0111. We would be happy to provide recommendations based on your specific business needs.