March 18, 2010

UK Government to adopt VoIP

Filed under: VoIP in the Workplace — Tags: , — admin @ 3:00 pm

According to a new report by In-Stat, Governments are looking to adopt VoIP as a solution to communication issues.

It seems that 48% of those polled had used VoIP as a way of communicating at least once.

Within the Government the integration of VoIP is key – it has to be available for all and the different features and capabilities need to be explored. It is quite a mammoth task as far as integration and instruction are concerned. The savings to the Government are also important but more so within sectors like Education.

The relative cost effectiveness of VoIP and ease of integration makes the technology very attractive. The wide range of functions also means that any company can deploy the use of VoIP in the workplace.

With the UK Government looking to focus on IT as a way of making savings, we can expect large growth in VoIP popularity over the next few years.

March 3, 2010

Plantronics Announce New Group of UC Services

Filed under: VoIP — admin @ 2:51 pm

A recent press release from Plantronics’ Germanny office has announced that it’s existing portfolio of Unified Communications (UC) solutions is to be shaken up and split into a simpler grouping of products depending on the work environment.

The new groups cover such products as including Plantronics USB Desk phones, Plantronics Corded Headsets and Plantronics Wireless headsets.

The product families are now to be knowsn as: Blackwire (TM), Calisto (R), Savi (TM) and Plantronics Voyager (R) UC. The aim behind the portfolio restructure is to make decision making easier for company IT buyers.

With call control functions for compatible applications from Polycom partners such as Avaya and Alcatel-Lucent, the new UC families give IT departments a single point of contact for a wide range of audio solutions. With the new categorisation, executives, sales teams, and service staff can all benefit from the breadth of the product options available and the clear, reliable audio quality that proponents of Polycom have become used to.

All audio VoIP solutions  in the new families are easy to install, ensuring that IT departments do not become bogged down in lengthy installation processes.

Among the products available, as mentioned, as Corded USB Headsets – designed for in-office use and with handy in-line controls, USB Phones – for the stationary office work who primarily uses their PC for voice communications but desires a traditional phone set, Wireless USB Headsets – in both binaural and monaural style, and Bluetooth USB Headsets – such as the Voyager PRO models, allowing users to swithc between mobile phone and PC voice calls at the touch of a button.

The full portfolio and rollout of the new families is due this Spring so stay tuned.

Read the full press release here.

February 22, 2010

Polycom teams up with Microsoft

Filed under: IP Phones, IP System Phones, Unified Communications, VoIP — Tags: , — admin @ 2:49 pm

Polycom recently announced a potentially lucrative partnership that sees their video communications solutions teamed up with Microsoft’s unified communications (UC) solutions such as Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange.

As Polycom Senior Vice President put it, “Polycom and Microsoft are aligned in making people more productive and helping organisations become more efficient and competitive through improved communication and collaboration.”

“Polycom’s integrated solution for Microsoft unified communications environments puts [video conferencing] within the familiar Microsoft applications that millions of people use every day.”

Polycom and Microsoft are definitely leading names in the fields of video conferencing and desktop time and information management respectively and this deal could see both names be carried over into the others domain.

A complete line of Polycom VoIP phones, designed specifically to work with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, is to be launched later this year.

With Polycom Conferencing for Outlook, users can incorporate desktop video conferencing into their meetings and allow invited participants to join links inserted into the meeting invitation notification. A variety of video devices can be used including the Polycom HDX 4000, or room-based video conferencing systems like the Polycom HDX 8000 Series.

In addition, Polycom’s flexible platforms allow people to join video-enabled meetings by phone.

Polycom have stated that the enhanced solutions are planned to be launched in the second quarter of 2010.

Full press release here.

February 19, 2010

VoIP Report: 1 Billion Mobile Workers by the end of 2010

Filed under: Unified Communications, VoIP, VoIP in the Workplace — Tags: — admin @ 12:09 pm

A recent report by US technology analyst firm IDC, has highlighted the fact that due to the growth and accessibility of VoIP Communications, by the end of 2010 there will be 1 billion people working from mobile locations.

Actual predictions of the report state that by the end of 2013, the figure will rise to 1.2 billion – over than a third of the world’s current workforce. The majority of the growth will come from the Asian/Pacific economies where interest in VoIP and Unified Communications (UC) is particularly strong.

The report goes on to make some interesting predictions for the future including,

  • the U.S. while not having the the greatest growth or greatest volume of workers over the next 4 years, will have the highest concentration of mobile workers with 75% of the U.S. workforce being mobile by 2013.
  • Western Europe’s mobile workforce growing by 6% to surpass the U.S. workforce with 129.5 million mobile workers compared to the 119.7 milion in the US.
  • Japan will reach the sustainable limit of it’s ability make workers mobile by 2013 – 49.3 million workers will be mobile.

These figures are quite staggering when put into the context of the VoIP industry as it is now and is a healthy recommendation for any company looking to invest in VoIP telephone systems for their company.

The report has been put together as 5 year forecast of the mobile worker population covering office-based, non-office-based, and home-based workers.

To read the full press release and report, visit the IDC website here

February 10, 2010

iPhone 3G VoIP could be a Boon to Business

Filed under: VoIP, voip phones — Tags: , , , — admin @ 12:05 pm

Recently rumbling from across the pond at Skype have revealed that a new Skype iPhone 3G app is on the horizon.

The news was announced by Skype towards the end of January and recent updates on the Skype blog have filled in a few more blanks.

While issues have been raised as to phone companies, who generally charge the customers through multi-minute packages, teaming up with a company that offers free-to-no-much calling via IP connections, it can’t be ignored that this could potentially be a massive win for the business market.

There seems to be an upward trend in modern media companies to offer their staff company iPhones and with the benefit of low-cost, “cd-quality” communication being available, the trend can only continue upwards as companies see an opportunity to cut costs.

Hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg – here’s to modern smartphone culture linking up with the growing VoIP market.

Full article via DSLReports.com can be found here

January 27, 2010

Why businesses are switching to VoIP.

Filed under: Unified Communications — Tags: , — admin @ 12:13 pm

Nowadays VoIP is one of today’s fastest growing technologies and it is easy to see why. Communication is the key tool in the success of any business and whether it is Internet, customer service, online web applications, or E-mail, VoIP allow workers to handle all of their needs with just one single application.
Apart from that, VoIP reduces costs, allow more flexibility and improves productivity.

Cost reduction.

VoIP allow businesses to save thousands of pounds on the phone bill. Mobile employees usually use cell phones at the company’s expense to stay in touch. By utilizing VoIP, they can remain virtually connected with the company during the day, and the company saves money on fees. Also, companies are taking advantage of the opportunity to hire employees worldwide through VoIP services. They may work in different time zones, overseas, or in their own home. By outsourcing, businesses can hire employees for less, allowing them to save money.

Great flexibility.

Workers are able to take their telephone number with them. This allows them to conduct business at home, while travelling, or staying in hotels by using a standard VoIP Phone Adapter.
VoIP also allows global conferencing and training in real time, even if the people live in different parts of the world.

Productivity improvement.

When employees rely on cell phones, many times a customer will call the office, only to be told the worker’s cell phone number. By using VoIP, a call can be instantly routed to the mobile employee, saving time and increasing productivity.

Hosted IP platforms such as the popular Avalle, offers businesses of all sizes and employee numbers, the ability to link together multiple sites and individuals, using a single communications system. When employees can integrate their email and phone services in one single application not only they save a great amount of time, they can also conduct business on the go from their laptop, any place, and anytime.

December 11, 2009

Mitel chosen as the “IP PBX-Soft PBX vendor of the Year” at the CNA awards.

Filed under: IP System Phones — Tags: , , , — admin @ 12:24 pm

Celebrated at the prestigious London Hilton Hotel on Park Lane, and hosted by legendary comic Ronnie Corbett, the Comms National Awards brought together over 350 of the best companies in the industry.

The Chairman of Judges for this year’s award was Dave Sumner-Smith, Programme Director of the Daily Telegraph Business Club along with Keith Humphries, Director EuroLan Research and John Chapman, Business Development Director IT Europa.

UK resellers of hardware and software IP PBX equipment chose Mitel following an online vote where they were asked to spot the vendors that have helped them the most to grow their business through identifying market opportunities and helping them deliver the solution with proactive sales, marketing and technical support.

Mitel, whose global headquarters are in Canada and the UK office located at Caldicot, has received indeed several awards during the last years. Some of their most popular products such as the Mitel 5340 IP System Telephone show their commitment to ease of use while offering the most innovative features.

Mitel managing director Graham Bevington declared upon collecting the award: “Mitel is about identifying market opportunities and then developing mutually profitable relationships with our channel partners, and this award is a testament to this strategy. As the world of communications moves into a virtualised, software-centric environment, Mitel will continue to adopt a technology leadership position whilst supporting our channel partners every step of the way. It is Mitel’s channel focus that makes the difference.”

Their plans for the future are continuing offering the same quality service, spotting new opportunities, and winning the CNA award next year.

December 10, 2009

Sennheiser Communications Launches new PC headsets for VoIP

Filed under: VoIP Headsets — Tags: , — admin @ 6:21 pm

The two new VoIP headsets for internet telephony will make talking over the internet even easier.

The PC 11 and PC 100 combine the usual quality you would expect from Sennheiser and brilliant comfort.

Extremely light, the PC 11 is a single sided headset, designed for making calls wherever your laptop takes you. The PC11 is small enough to fit into a handbag or pocket and is easily adjusted with one hand.

The PC 100 is an in ear headsets with excellent sound quality. You can use this headset with your MP3 player, laptop or desktop PC for gaming, internet telephony and music.

Despite the size of the headsets the sound quality is outstanding and much more akin to the kind of superiority sound that you would expect from larger headsets.

What makes these two Sennheiser headsets even easier to use is the ‘plug and play’ set up. Really! Just take the headset out of the packaging and plug them straight into your laptop or PC to start making calls.

Watch this space to learn more about the new headsets from Sennheiser.

December 8, 2009

Making unified communications work

Filed under: Unified Communications — Tags: — admin @ 7:01 pm

It seems that unified communications is sitting a little on the back burner and struggling to meet its full potential.

In light of this, unified communications providers and now repositioning the technology as a service. In order to do this, companies like Cisco Systems Inc etc will have to work closely with companies like us, who provide hosted voice-over-ip services.

The chat surrounding unified communications is that there are several versions, offering different features depending upon the size of company. Medium sized businesses can expect a mix of customer owned equipment and hosted services, where as for large companies there will be fully hosted options.

Microsoft recognises Vodafone’s unified communications

Filed under: Unified Communications — Tags: — admin @ 6:43 pm

Microsoft have recognised Vodafone for providing unified communications.

The award handed to Vodafone is testament to their ability to integrate and deliver VoIP, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing as well as unified messaging services.

Cambridgeshire County Council recently implemented Vodafone’s revolutionary product and vastly improved communications for over 5,000 members of staff.

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