XFER Blog

 

 

 One of the most frustrating technologies for most small to medium-size businesses  is cloud  connectivity.

 Connectivity is getting faster and faster every day. As speeds increase, prices are decreasing,  resulting in a virtual race to zero dollars in the marketplace. Of course, prices will never reach the  zero level but they are decreasing on a rapid basis. This means that more bandwidth is available at lower cost for all companies in the market. The problem is that faster Internet speeds do not necessarily translate into better performance for the end-user. This typically occurs because the local area network (LAN) is not properly configured to the usage patterns of the company. It also can occur if your provider is not delivering the speed the contracted for, and numerous other reasons that are not so easy to identify.

If you have no strategy in place for a) determining if you need a cloud-based phone system and b) how you will migrate towards one if you do, you should prepare your company for a long and pricy road to failure.

Your phone system is a critical component to the success of your business and the productivity of your employees, but taking advantage of its capabilities requires incorporating your phone system platform into your overall IT strategy.

We are experiencing a technological “revolution” of sorts when it comes to mobile devices.  The use of mobile technology for internet connectivity has rapidly begun to replace PCs, laptops and tablets in both our personal and professional lives.  Our ability to carry this device wherever, whenever has created a convenience to which we’ve become quite accustomed. The ease-of-use and functionality of personal Smartphones has now become a major player in many industries for field workers, remote employees and other job functions; enabling us to reduce costs, improve customer service and increase employee productivity.

With email being such a prevalent tool used in the modern office, it might seem silly to think that in just a few short years, email might not be as relevant as it used to be. However, many professionals believe that email is limping along on its last leg, waiting to be put out of its misery by a new solution. Will email be around for much longer? Should the average business prepare for a world without it?

Proper communication is an imperative part of doing business, and nothing improves this aspect of your company better than a telecommunication system of some sort. Some businesses rely on their legacy telephone system for interoffice communication, but this can be both difficult and expensive to maintain.

We live in an age where everything we do is auto-corrected through our word processor or email client. This makes it particularly easy to make grammar errors, especially when you’re in a pinch and you need to send out a reminder or an email within moments. If your business isn’t careful to avoid these mistakes, you could potentially be seen as unprofessional in your industry.

Today’s technology has transformed the business world into a land chock-full of emails and text messages, where the spoken word is a nearly-lost practice. This makes phone calls even more special than they used to be, and can make or break the satisfactory customer experience. As your business grows, the costs of a legacy telephone system grow along with it. VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a desirable solution to decrease communication costs both in and out of the office.

More businesses are switching to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in order to consolidate their communication tools and save money on their phone bill. Before you make the switch, you will first want to understand your different VoIP options so that you will have a plan that fits your company's communication needs. Here are some tips to get you started with VoIP.

The world is growing ever more mobile. We used to rely on landline telephones for communication, but portable cell phones have revolutionized the way that we communicate with each other. The fact that they can now connect to the Internet completely changes everything once again. While some people tend to use them for random games such as Candy Crush Saga and Words with Friends, the smartphone is particularly valuable for a small business owner.

As technology grows more and more complex, the usefulness of your business's landline is declining. There are just plain better ways of communicating - cell phones are much more portable, and the Internet allows people to communicate with others while taking care of other work. One of the best ways to communicate over the Internet is by using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which provides the best of both worlds for those stuck in the landline age.

Simplifying a complicated procedure is a sure way to get ahead. An enterprise's communication system can be extremely complicated with everything a business needs out of it. Voice over Internet Protocol, aka VoIP, is a solution that can simplify your entire communications system. Simplifying something major like communication will benefit your business in many ways.

As technology keeps leading us into the future, it can be easy to lose sight of traditional leadership methods. Since the newest gadgets are so appealing, it's tempting to have technology automate our decision making as a crutch. Can technology really replace the old school business leadership practices?

As commonplace as cellphones are today, it's hard to imagine that there was a time in the 1980's when this technology was first introduced and the benefits had to be explained. Here's an old cellphone commercial from Motorola about "the booming industry of cellular radio telephones." Times sure have changed!

 

You've seen them around everywhere. Every time you watch TV, look at a poster, listen to the news, or have a conversation with a teenager, you'll be exposed to the term "hashtag". What are hashtags exactly? What do they do? Why should you care about them? How can they help your business? #readmoretofindout