Telephone and interactions systems for the business world are coming into their very own, as linked interactions (UC) merchants have actually started offering richer features and mobile accessibility to their cloud platforms. Still others are beginning to look toward incorporating their interactions systems straight within business software application for better efficiency gains. If your Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin company is using a legacy phone system, now is an excellent time to consider updating. Not just can you appreciate cost as well as efficiency perks, however you will also be well positioned to make use of future development chances later on. Here are 4 needs to upgrade your older phone system for present innovation.

Mobility and Remote Access

If you’re utilizing a legacy system, it’s most likely that your options for mobile accessibility are limited. If your staff should access their workplace phone line while traveling, they may need to dial in and get in a cumbersome series of commands to access voicemail functions. UC flexibility applications permit customers to send out as well as obtain calls from their workplace line on their mobile device of selection, and also they likewise supply practical accessibility to voicemail as well as other basic voice over IP (VoIP) features.

You may likewise locate that your alternatives for offering remote access to telecommuting employees are instead limited and lacking in adaptability or that they require added initiative from the IT group to run the way you would like. A lot of today’s UC and VoIP systems are made by default to supply complete gain access to no matter place as well as gadget. Anyone functioning from home or logging in from the flight terminal could sign up with a conference by means of video clip chat or dash off a quick immediate message as if they were in the office, which enhances their productivity and also makes their working life much easier, too.

Price Flexibility for Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin 54235 companies

Tradition phone systems are unknowned for being spending plan friendly, and also they are especially vulnerable to causing sticker label shock when the time involves upgrade or significantly broaden your systems. Cloud UC and also VoIP systems are valued based on user licenses, with the carrier consisting of and managing upkeep as well as system upgrades instantly, so it’s less complicated to prepare for and also plan for your costs without coming across any sort of unwelcome shocks. The licensing model is likewise scalable, enabling you to dial your implementation up or down baseding on your requirements. This versatility can be particularly beneficial to businesses experiencing swift development.

Business Continuity in case of a Catastrophe

A lot of today’s UC remedies include a cloud alternative, meanings that of the telephone as well as message maintains work on the company’s servers rather than pricey hardware situated in your firm’s data center. The cloud version supplies some distinct company continuity benefits where emergency situation and disaster circumstances are worried. Instead of needing to implement costly calamity healing options that call for considerable management overhead to administer, your staff can still access the core communications systems– phones, immediate messaging, video clip chat, and also screen sharing– that they have to do their operate in the event of a failure or an unexpected emergency event.

If a disaster develops, quick communication between personnel, and after that to essential stakeholders will certainly be at the leading of your concern list. You could save on your own some headaches by ensuring that your interaction systems, by being hosted in the cloud, will still be ready for you when you require them. In addition, this ability is included in the general licensing cost. No extra fee is linked with it due to the fact that it comes criterion in all hosted UC strategies.

Opportunities for Future Sturgeon Bay Business Integration

Not only are UC systems ending up being much more innovative with mobile as well as cloud accessibility, they are also at the point of coming to be much more integrated as well as meshed within business applications themselves. Some UC merchants are beginning to companion with enterprise software application platforms– the current RingCentral– Google for Work assimilation is yet one instance– enabling individuals to access their phones and also messaging systems from directly within the web browser tab where they are working. If your company is planning ahead to future performance gains and also advancement it want to offer the work environment, you may likewise would like to take into consideration updating to a UC maintain for this reason.
If you are still using a legacy phone system at your Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin firm? You should be thinking about updating absolutely free? Contact Randercom today to learn about what a new telephone system can do for you call (920) 731-3944.

Just as with any technology that runs its course, you can always find parts and support from the dark corners of the internet and gray marketplace to keep things running like MacGyver, but after a while, this type of patchwork planning will become more trouble for a business than is actually worth, the bottom line is that sometimes sticking with the status quo, due to a reluctance to change can be the right decision, but not with VoIP.

The vendors may not be accustomed to change, but there’s too much at stake to stick with the status quo, and now they can’t move fast enough to IP, this is a great example, where when you look outside your specific world, it can tell you a lot about what needs to happen inside your business world.
For example, when it comes to legacy/traditional phone systems, you don’t really think about change very much. You probably don’t even remember how long ago, you purchased your current system, or it could have been there before your time.

Legacy telephone systems were built to last, and only a total breakdown would give you reason to buy a replacement.

In today’s world Small-to-mid businesses are typically cash-strapped, and to give consideration to upgrading a system any further, they really need a compelling business reason. Legacy telecom vendors have little incentive to transition you to VoIP, and as long as the phone system is working, you’ll need to discover those reasons yourself.

That is where this post is drawn from. We carefully compiled research about how SMB owners and managers think about their phone systems and the trigger points that lead to making a change.

From this research, we have identified five such reasons that can signal the time is right for a VoIP phone system.

Any one of these reasons can provide a strong rationale, and however much thought you’ve given this, we believe it’s not likely that all five of these have come to your mind, so, If that’s the case, then this information will provide a new perspective along with a deeper understanding on two fronts.

First, it is important to see how much your old system is holding back the business, and flipping the coin, to then see just how much that can change once you decide to invest in a VoIP phone system. A first principal with VoIP is that like all things IP, these technologies are designed to be self-managed. This means the onus is on you to initiate change, and once that happens, you’ll be moving into a new world. This may seem daunting, but these guides have been researched and written to help you navigate your transition to VoIP. Unless your legacy phone system simply breaks down, you need to be on the alert for signs that a VoIP phone system will be a better choice.

This section highlights five such signs, and any one of them could be reason enough to make the move. Before VoIP can come to you, you have to know what to look for. This means getting a good grounding in the basics of VoIP, especially in terms of how they can be drivers to support your decisions for telephony. Not only that, but your legacy phone vendors will not likely be steering
you this way, so don’t count on them for the best advice. In short, you need to be proactive, and to do that, you need to know what to look out

The First Sign is Cost

Cost will most likely be the prime driver for any decision your business makes around telephone service and systems, but it’s not the only clue that a change to VoIP is in order. When looked at face value, if the math adds up, and all else is relatively equal, this can be an easy decision to make. However, “adding up” can actually be quite complex, and needs further consideration.

Putting the IP telephony aside for a moment, let’s say, if your old system is paid up, it would be a mistake for you to assume that there are no costs beyond the service from your telecom carrier. Not only are there on-going maintenance costs, but your telecom vendor may be in no rush to steer you over to IP.

As your legacy system ages, maintenance and support costs will only rise, and this represents good revenue for the vendor. You don’t want to get into a situation where your phone system becomes more of a liability to the business than an asset, so without even looking at the cost of VoIP, there may be enough issues here to shape your thinking towards an upgrade.

Another consideration is the notion that legacy phone systems are expensive, and cash-strapped SMBs will keep them going for as long as possible If you’re thinking about this high cost extends to VoIP phone systems, that will inhibit you from moving to IP. In other words, if the new technology is viewed as costly, there is less incentive to make a change from legacy, especially if you are not confident that VoIP is up to the task.

The reality is a bit different, and you may be pleased to learn that VoIP phone systems are affordable, certainly compared to a legacy PBX, and quite frankly, we have options to get your business new, Voip equipment for FREE.

This is a nice surprise that should change how you view the relationship between cost and a new VOIP phone system. It’s important to have a realistic sense about the costs associated with a VoIP phone system. There is little question that VoIP phone service is cheaper than Traditional Telecom service and your legacy system can support both types of technology. That being said, you can reduce that piece of your overall telephony spend without changing your current phone system.  IP phone systems bring in less revenue for vendors, and require less support so old school vendors try and down play the technology and its benefits the constantly changing technology related to VoIP The main message here is that cost may well be the best indicator for making a change, but make sure to get the whole story, Cost trends are not uniform for all modes of telephony, and the drivers for legacy are not the same as for VoIP.

In most cases, the final tally should favor VoIP, but the spread could also end up being too close to call. When the latter does occur, you should by no means discount the other clues in this section as drivers for a change, and we can help determine all the factors.
The Second Sign is Nobody is using the desk phones

Employee use and behavior may be the best indicator of the need to change, but only if you’re paying attention. Human nature is infinitely varied, and there is a tendency for technology-centric people to see everything through a technology-centric lens. For businesses that think and act this way, the most obvious clues will elude them, simply because they’re not looking in the right places there’s a big difference between seeing and observing, and the path to knowledge begins with identifying a problem.

This is the “what”, in the process, a thoughtful discovery process will lead to the more important “how” and “why”. When it comes to your phone system, you may pay little attention, especially if it’s paid off. So long as the related ongoing monthly costs stay on par, there is probably no cause for concern. This can be misleading, since those costs won’t change if usage declines, even a lot Furthermore, if business performance is good, and if whatever productivity metrics you use are holding up, you may have no idea what’s actually going on with your phone system.

Let’s look at the “what” to the “how” and the “why”. You’ll have a hard time gathering these types of metrics, but doing simple observational research about everyday activity will tell you enough regarding your phone system.  Employees may be on phone calls as much as ever, but less is happening at their desks and on their desk phones. This activity is shifting more to PC screens, tablets and personal mobile devices, even when working at their desks.  Also, you may have noticed that employees are using a lot of chat, video and texting, in place of having a voice conversation. Seeing things like this says a lot about how employees behaviors are changing, and this begs the question of why. Before we had all these productivity tools, almost everything had to be done via the phone system.

Today, Legacy phone systems work just as well as they did in the past, but in the world of IP-based communications, Legacy systems lack the ability of integration with everything else and reduces their utility to employees.  Employees, will use the desk phone when they’re absolutely sure the other person can take their call, but that’s more the exception than the rule. Simply put, other methods and applications serve their needs better. Employees spend less time at their desk, as well as in the office, and that’s where mobile devices provide greater value that older legacy phone systems just can’t deliver. Furthermore, these traditional systems provide no intelligence. Being IP-based, VoIP phone systems can utilize the presence feature to get real-time status of everyone in the company directory. Just think about how well that improves the efficiency of communications. It’s not a big jump to understand why employees are using text-based messaging to communicate. Not only is it faster than having a phone conversation, it is also near real-time instead of real-time but with presence, they only engage when all parties are available.

No longer are they wasting time and energy leaving messages and getting lost in a game of phone tag. These are just a few examples that can tie how communications can effect productivity, and when you look at how and why employees are using these particular tools, the limitations of your legacy phone system become more apparent.

You may have several other reasons for keeping it in place, but if driving productivity is a higher priority, then this is a pretty strong sign that you need a VoIP phone system.

The third Sign – Legacy telephone System is hurting productivity
As we discussed above, the factor is a bigger picture issue that management is keenly interested in. The more productive an employee is, the better the overall business can perform, and when connected to communications, the conversation becomes more strategic.

As mentioned earlier, today we have way more communication options, and a telecom centric model is actually quite problematic. VoIP has become a powerful force for businesses in bringing down costs of telephony, and rising productivity, and while this raises valid concerns about the business case for maintaining a dedicated network and infrastructure just for this service. IP-based options that are readily available.

Aside from just the financial aspect of VOIP, there is also the upside to consider that comes from converging voice and data on to a single network. This delivers a host of new cost savings, and operational efficiencies that any IT department would welcome. Since VoIP service is simply just another data application, it can easily be added to the LAN, and thus streamlining every aspect of telephony.

While email is quasi real-time, and chat/IM is near real-time, voice is the essence of real-time, and will always be the next best thing to speaking in person the immediacy of voice communications makes it an ideal medium for conveying information to get things done NOW, but when that includes reviewing documents, sharing files, or engaging with other people on the go or remotely, the use of legacy telephony is clearly a holdback for productivity.

When getting a phone call at the desk is all you need, it’s a great tool, but by observing how employees get things done, you’ll likely find that this only applies to a handful of situations.

Think about how productive an employee can be if they can use all the tools in the same environment. Not only can they collaborate more effectively, but the process of communicating will be more seamless. This is a key reason why the use of desk phones is declining is because employees aren’t there very much, and other applications do a better job of reaching people when you need them.

This is a key problem with legacy phone systems, in that their isolation from everything else requires employees to often duplicate effort when their quest to reach others starts out on a desk phone.  Nobody likes to waste time, and keeping your legacy system in place does nothing to eradicate that problem.

Number 4 – Voice has more value as data

A key reason why your phone system may be hurting productivity is that its value is declining relative to other communications options.

Overall, the important takeaway here is that employees are communicating more, thanks in a large part to the Internet. It not only provided more accessible, easy-to-use applications, but they are often free. A difficult combination to resist, with the net impact being more communication.

So long as that remains the norm for making phone calls, you’re limited vision for the value of voice brings to the business. You don’t need to sell your employees on the value of voice, so that’s not the problem, you’ll likely find that employees are talking as much as ever before, and may even be talking more. We certainly know that they’re using other modes more, especially text and chat, but this doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a substitution effect at work.  When you remove cost out of the equation, adoption of these tools is quick, and as long as that translates into business gains, everyone is happy.  This is where the paths diverge for VoIP and legacy telephony.

Despite all these new options, voice remains the method of choice for all kinds sorts of reasons. Employees will seek it out and use the offering that has the most utility for them. Both technologies can deliver voice effectively, but they do so in very different ways. Legacy telephony runs over its own network, and while it’s great for voice, it isn’t good for much else. VoIP, on the other hand, is a form of data that runs over a network that seamlessly supports all communications modes.

The Final Sign is Vendor landscape

While there has always been lots phone vendors to choose from, the landscape has become more crowded with VoIP suppliers. Everywhere you look, a vendor has a line of IP-based phones and phone systems. Legacy vendors however, still generate the majority of their revenues from Traditional phones, but most all the new business is coming from VoIP. From companies like Avaya, Nortel, Mitel, Aastra, ShoreTel, NEC, Panasonic, Polycom, snom. With many other Next generation players around, and offer only IP-based phones, with Cisco being the best-known example.

When it comes to telephony, businesses usually have long term relationship with some vendor, and that poses the challenge.  The last time you were in the market for a new phone system, most of these VOIP options did not exist, so the landscape has definitely changed. Many of the same companies remain, but the offerings are different.

You may be happy to keep your existing system going, and if it’s fully paid off, that can be an easy position to defend. Today’s Small businesses remain budget-conscious, and if the phone system is in good shape, there appears to be little incentive to change, but it’s hard to ignore what’s happening with the vendors and technology. Just as VoIP brings lower telephony costs to your business, it lowers the barriers to entry for new vendors. These vendors can compete successfully on price against legacy systems, leaving incumbent vendors with no choice but to offer IP-based phones.

Sometimes sticking with the status quo due to a reluctance to change can be the right decision, but not with VoIP. The vendors may not be accustomed to change, but there’s too much at stake to stick with the status quo, and now  they can’t move fast enough to IP. This is a great example whereby looking outside your world can tell you a lot about what needs to happen inside your world.

For a complete review of your needs and options contact Randercom today for a free consultation call us at (920)731-3944.

The small business voice over IP (VoIP) trend-o-meter for 2015 is weighted heavily towards the cloud and mobility markets as more companies try and seek cost-effective and economical Telecom infrastructure to support the changing landscape of their workplace. Below are a few Business VoIP trends you need to to watch in 2015.

Mobile Devices will become Primary VoIP Handsets
Rapidly traditional business desk phones are going to be eliminated and sold off as surplus equipment in 2015. Company-owned personal enabled or Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) mobile devices are going to take over and replace a business user’s primary telephone handset. This changing landscape of today’s mobile workforce, and the increasing numbers of remote workers, is growing at leaps and bounds and this trend will continue well beyond next year.
A Further Convergence of VoIP and Unified Communication
Throughout 2015 we are going to see a further convergence of business VoIP and UC solutions, because this convergence has already begun and even now it is starting to accommodate today’s changing needs for mobile-first, Bring your own device, and geographically dispersed employees, locations and teams that need to communication and collaboration freely.
Hosted PBX and the Cloud
Hosted or Cloud Based PBX systems are growing at a rapid rate with over 30% of businesses looking to make a change to this new modern day technology, the popularity of a hosted PBX product of businesses moving to a cloud-based solution frees businesses from many of the maintenance and repair costs that in office, on-premises telephone systems are known to have. It’s a cost effective economical move in today’s marketplace.
Added Features
Hosted PBXs also bring with them a lot of features that business users can enjoy to be more productive, these features a cloud VoIP provider can turn on for their customers with extremely flexible pricing models customized to a business’s specific needs. The economics and features sets of a hosted PBX will remain a dominant VoIP trend throughout 2015 and beyond.
Greater Integration with Cloud Platforms and Productivity Applications Customer relationship management (CRM) is an exciting trend of VoIP integration because just like other cloud platforms like CRM, office productivity, and other back-office business applications. A small to medium-sized business or any company wanting to test VoIP or unified communications (UC) technologies may also get its first exposure through Microsoft Office 365 or Google Apps for Work. These cloud platforms may serve as an introduction to VoIP and UC think Microsoft Lync and Google Hangouts as gateways to full-scale VoIP solutions.
Lots more Back-End Analytics
Another of the 2015 VoIP trends is more back-end analytics. VoIP solutions that move to the cloud make it possible for the ability to support a range of back-end performance management analytic. Back-end analytics that can give a customer another tool to compete better in their marketplace because they have optimal control over VoIP communications, instant customer metrics and connectivity to their prospects via all aspects of communications, Phone, Email, Chat and Video.
At Randercom, we work with a host of top end providers in the VOIP industry and can assist your company in making the move to VOIP for your business click here are call us at (920) 731- 3944 to see what we can do for you.

Is your current Phone system capabilities a compliment are hindrance to the growth of your business

Nowadays, nobody can question that a phone system is critical to any business. Business leaders often say, “Our phone system does not generate sales, but without one there would be no revenues”.

Given that a telephone system is so critical to a business and its success, you have to asks, is it necessary that your phone system always be a cutting edge system with all the latest capabilities and features that it can give to a business?

Say it another way, is it important that you must always be on the lookout to keep your phone upgraded and modernized?

Well the answer to this question is obviously ‘No’. While your phone system is married to your business needs. The frequency of an upgrade or replacement will depend what type of business you are in. We can expect a call center to have a more modern and updated system as compared to a manufacturing company, but there can be no doubts about the criticality of phone systems to either of these types of businesses

Business Telecom Systems Have Gone Multimedia

Any business owner knows that business communications are no longer just about voice calls alone. A Customer can use any type of communication method they are comfortable with, like email, online chat, text, telephone call, and the businesses communication system has to be capable of handling and processing the message.

Also, employees internally can use multimedia methods of communication to make a major impact on productivity and efficiencies of work load. As an example, a repair person in the field can send back images of a failed component and discuss the issue with an expert rather than bring the part back. Repair manuals can be made available online and can be accessed from anywhere, at any time minimizing the potential and downtime.

Users create content and information that can easily be shared with others ensuring that a knowledge transfer and greater efficiencies take place.

The business telephone system basically creates the backbone of these and many other messaging applications.

Businesses look for unified communication (UC) solutions, not just phone systems. Modern phone systems need to be able to handle most aspects of UC. If your phone system is still providing the more basic services, it is time that you considered an upgrade or a replacement.

The Warning Signs

Businesses make and receive hundreds of phone calls a day. How can a business manager be sure that these calls are being handled as efficiently as possible to fulfill the business goals?

Here are some signs that tell if things could be better.

• Your company can only handle voice calls and faxes: Not only are you losing out on other methods of conversation with clients, associates, remote workers and vendors, a phone system like this gives out an impression of a business that is behind time.

• Caller trends are not known: once again this boils down to the interfacing between the phone system and your CRM software. Unless such an interface exists, how will the management know of customers that call more frequently and resolve issues that trouble them?

• Calls can only be taken on the employee’s desk; it takes major effort to track down a person who is not at their desk.

• Customers call you, but you seldom call them creating a reactive type business where you respond to customer messages. A proactive business can approach customers and prospects to resolve issues earlier, create opportunities for cross and up-sells and maintain constant contact. In order to do this, the business needs a system that can interface with the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and maintain a continuity of conversation with the customer. Older phone systems are unable to do this.

It’s important to note that this list does not mention anything about system uptime. We are assuming that your current phone system is still somewhat reliable, and that it’s not yet obsolete technology, and that service and repair parts are still available if it needs repair. The older system simply lacks many of the features that modern systems provide.

The big question is:

Should a business upgrade its older system or replace it completely with Modern technology?

Upgrading Your Phone System

When a company starts to think of upgrading their current phone system, the major requirement is to evaluate whether the upgraded system will provide all of the services that their business needs to grow.

It is also very important to consider how long a upgraded telephone system will stay Up to date and how the costs of the upgrade will compare with the cost of a new system.

Here are a few questions to ask to help make a better decision:

Key Questions to Ask…

1. How old is the present system and what business needs are behind the requirement to upgrade?
2. Is the phone system a legacy PBX or is it a more modern IP PBX?
3. Will the upgrade require changes to the existing infrastructure? Does the upgrade simply consist of a software change?
4. What has been the quality of support from the existing vendor?
5. Is there an option of adding third party solutions to increase the capability of the phone system?
6. What would these cost and how much of an administrative overhead be added due to this?
7. Will the upgrade meet all requirements of the business for (at least) the next five years?
8. How robust will the new system be?
9. What up times can be expected?
10. Will spares and service support be available for the upgraded system for (at least) the next five years?

We at Randercom can help guide you through this process when considering your options call us at (920) 731-3944 of click here