BUSINESS PHONE NEWS

A Cheap Cloud Phone Solution for Small Professional Office Locations? Panasonic says "Yes" but we say "Maybe"

By Dan Baldwin, Editor
951-251-5155 email 

For over 10-years, hosted VoIP providers (initially Vonage & 8x8) have been telling small businesses that "the cloud" (their broadband DSL or cable Internet connection) can host their phone service so they can abandon their expensive local phone company lines and save money.

The idea was fine when it was first proclaimed, but the actual phone equipment that small offices needed to work "with the cloud" did not have all the features required like intercom, music on hold, cordless handsets, etc.

 

Panasonic's "Office Cloud Phones" to the Rescue?

For years Panasonic has been a phone equipment champion for small businesses. The phones are pretty inexpensive, fairly easy to install and easy to

How Seasonal and Burstable Phone Systems Lower Phone Bills Up to 25% for Businesses with Uneven Phone Usage

By Dan Baldwin, Editor
951-251-5155 email 

Owners of businesses with uneven phone usage are often forced to buy a business phone system that's bigger than they really need AND buy more phone lines then they will consistently use.

Some businesses like amusement parks or ski resorts are only really busy for half a year at a time. Other "swing-shift" type businesses like restaurants are only busy for a couple hours a day.

In the past, uneven usage businesses like these had no choice but to "phone up" for their busiest peaks and then simply pay for equipment and services they were not using during the off times.

Well no more. 

Modern phone systems that are "powered by"

Looking for a service provider to integrate voice and data into a single customized solution? Well, look no further!

By Max Caponegro, TouchTone Communications
1-800-900-3668 or mcaponegro@touchtone.net

Today's increasingly demanding customers require service providers to devote unprecedented attention to providing exceptional quality and service into a single customized solution (and why shouldn't they). This allows customers to save both time and money. Sometimes even the smallest businesses require an involved and personalized telecom solution that integrates network services from different voice and data carriers.

Sometimes using multiple carriers is the only way to achieve true redundancy that will ensure the solution is working even if the primary carrier goes down. Managing competing carriers in a single solution can be a nightmare for a customer, and that is why oftentimes they work with several different network service "resellers"/service providers.

Well, I have good news for you! There are “resellers” (like TouchTone Communications) and account  managers out there (like myself) that will take the time to sit down with customers and their agents to discuss their needs and requirements in detail to create a custom telecom solution. We hope that this ‘non-cookie cutter approach’  will help the customer feel comfortable from the start that they have chosen the right telecom provider to furnish them with their voice and data service needs.

With help from the customer's

Need to Separate Your Phone Numbers From Your Phone Lines & Answer Calls Anywhere? SIP Does That

Posted By Dan Baldwin
Editor, 951-251-5155 email

Would your sales increase if your best employees could be put on the phone with your best prospects regardless of where your employee was or where the prospect was calling from?

Now you can do this!

Thanks to "SIP trunking" technology which can go on practically any existing business office phone system, you can literally separate your phone numbers from their physical phone lines so your inbound calls can be answered anywhere by your best employees regardless of geography.

 

It's Like the Best "Call Forwarding" of All Time (Without the High Cost)

In past years you could use "remote call forwarding" or RCF services to get one phone number to ring in a different location but it was terribly expensive.

Businesses have also employed byzantine networks of

Giving Up on VoIP Phone Service Because of Outages? Try the Provider That Never Goes Down

Posted By Dan Baldwin
Editor, 951-251-5155 email

Our business phone system customers often refer other business owners they know to us who are having the worse time with their phone service because their VoIP phone carrier has a service outage every other month for an hour or even a day which brings their business to a complete stand still.

When we ask about which carrier they use that keeps going down we learn it's either a "no name" provider that's just getting into the VoIP and SIP phone service business or it's one of the big incumbent carriers that are in the process of converting their old "TDM" (time division multiplex AKA old copper phone line) customers over to VoIP and SIP.

 

How Can VoIP Phone Outages be Eliminated?  Ask These 5 Questions...

Start by interviewing IP phone service providers that have never experienced an outage - like BandTel.

During the interview of all prospective business VoIP/SIP/IP phone service providers, ask the following five questions:

Why the Toughest IT Directors Like BandTel for Business Phone System SIP Trunking Solutions

Posted By Dan Baldwin
Editor, 951-251-5155 email

Many of our business customers ask us how they can get the upgraded "VoIP features" in their old PBX business phone systems like "voice mail in my email", "simultaneous ring", "work-at-home", etc. without having to "fork lift out" all the old phone systems in their multiple locations and buying all new IP-PBX phone systems.

For a couple of years now the answer to this inquiry has been "SIP Trunks". As many business end-user IT directors have learned, SIP trunking is an IP (Internet protocol) solution that uses a "black box" to connect an older analogue PBX business phone system to a broadband public or private business Internet connection.

"But who's SIP trunk black box to use and why?" is the main question asked by discerning IT directors. Just saying that a SIP trunk provider has a black box doesn't mean the solution works. Inside every IT director is the critic who says, "I think you should be more explicit here..." quoting the famous cartoonist Sydney Harris.

(Very few IT directors keep their jobs by accepting "and then a miracle occurs".)

This is why we introduce IT directors shopping for SIP trunking solutions to

Looking to Eliminate Phone Lines by Plugging Your Cable Internet Into Your Old PBX Phone System? Call Us!

Posted By Dan Baldwin
Editor, 951-251-5155 email

In today's economy, many business owners and decision makers find themselves either trying to expand without a lot of cash or trying to downsize to save more cash. Whether due to expansion of contraction though, every monthly overhead item gets a thorough "scrubbing" especially nettlesome invoices like business phone line bills, broadband cable Internet bills and the like.

When looking at separate phone line & Internet bills, many business owners ask, "What happened to making phone calls over the Internet? Why am I paying separately for business phone lines and business Internet service? Can't I get rid of my phone lines?"

 

You Can Cancel Your Business Phone Lines to Save Money ...

If you look at your normal business phone service bill from the telephone company you'll see that you're paying for three separate services:

1. Phone calls,   2. Phone numbers, and 3. Phone lines.

Those of you who have already tried