MPD Telesolutions' blog and email newsletter is for business end-users in the greater New York metropolitan area. We report on business phone systems, wide area data networks, IT managed network services and unified communication business applications delivered from phone companies, data carriers, resellers and other network service providers through independent telecom agents, equipment VARs, IT consultants and other channel sales partners like MPD.
In the 20+ years I've been helping business customers choose telecom and technology solutions I've never had a customer call and say, "I need some cloud" or "Connect me to the cloud" or simply, "Cloud me, baby!"
When I have suggested to clients that their next technology solution can be provided to them from "the cloud" though some have asked, "What the heck are you talking about!"
Following is the simplest answer that I've ever come up with for the question "what's the cloud?"
"The cloud is actually a windowless building someplace that's built for the comfort of computers instead of people. One of the comfortable computers in the cloud is the computer that makes the 'call waiting' feature on your phone work. The cloud can accommodate almost any business computer that can help your business do almost anything."
What Parts of Your Business Benefit from a "Cloud Connection"?
Maybe some, maybe none, maybe all. The decision really boils down to your your thoughts as a business owner around "convenience, cost and security".
Convenience - Can you conveniently access your business email account from any computer or
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
When your best customers don't have any problems they don't want to talk to any salesperson.
When they do have a problem they want to talk to the very next sales person they think might be able to solve their problem.
And that's a BIG problem -- for you!
Web Conferencing Keeps Your Best Salespeople in Front of Your Best Customers
Your main and ongoing advantage over your competitors when it comes to your customer's limited attention span for "sales pitches" on new solutions or solution upgrades is that your best customers have already purchased from you and probably even like you.
While your "after sale margins" on one customer or another may not afford you the ability to have your best salespeople physically visit "sold customers" after the sale, you can achieve almost the same effect with a monthly "lunch and learn" webinar that you can invite all your best customers to dial-into via their computers or phones.
In the comfort of their own offices, your clients and prospects can see
As a telecom consultant and "VAR" (value added reseller), I'm always on the lookout for new technology solutions I can offer my business customers.
By examining everything that comes along, I'm also in a position to consult with my customers when they get an offer from someone else that seems way too good to be true -- like what appears to be an almost unlimited amount of cloud backup storage for next to nothing.
Who Does the Backup & How It's Tested is More Important than Price
I recently ran across an interesting opportunity to resell "unlimited" cloud backup storage to my business customers for just $59 per month. Now this seems like a pretty killer deal at face value. For just $59 per month I could give all my telecom consulting business clients "free data backup".
Or could I?
Hardrives "in the cloud" must be pretty cheap. I know this because big companies like Google sell extra 20 Gigs of storage a year for Google Apps email storage for just $5 per year.
Most Google users can feel pretty secure storing years of old searchable with Google because Google's a pretty big company that knows how to build and manage a data server farm. (And on top of that, backing up one user's email is fairly simple.)
But what about backing up "all the data" for "all your users"?
The biggest expense in cloud backup is not the cost of the actual hardrive sitting in a cloud somewhere. The biggest expense is making sure a human that knows what they're doing is backing up your critical business data properly (and not overwriting good backups with bad backups) so that when you need to restore your data, your backup data set is not corrupted.
So Who Are You Going to Trust?
While it appears that I can do it for you for practically free as we learned above, I'm thinking that
Keeping your feet on the ground, your network in the clouds, your business in a more secure environment is what it’s about. Utilizing a Cloud Based solution, your productivity can increase, less equipment to manage your network onsite and future savings in the event of unpredictable outages are just a few of the advantages.
What does it look like for your company? A brief consult to review your existing processes and infrastructure could change the life line of your business in the future. Let us know if we can help.
But we caught Verizon doing -- and admitting to -- something else.
Two staffers who are Verizon customers recently were notified only after they went over their allotment, at which time the company tried to upsell them to a pricier plan. When contacted by our reporter, a company spokesman acknowledged that its voluntary alert system isn't always reliable.
But it now looks like better protection from 'bill shock' is on its way. Under a mid-October deal with the FCC, members of CTIA - The Wireless Association, a trade group representing 97 percent of wireless carriers, agreed to begin issuing alerts of impending overages.
Full implementation of the alert system could take until April 2013."
What Can Business Owners Do Now?
The FCC has written a 6-page white paper that details what consumers and business owners can do in advance of the wireless operators getting truly serious about giving their users advance notice about possible monthly overages.
Click here or the white paper image to the right to read the FCC's recommendations for minimizing or avoiding cell phone bill shock.
How Can "WEM" Help?
Let us at MPD Telesolutions introduce you to "Wireless Expense Management" or WEM for your New York City metro business.
MPD can help your business conduct an audit of all your cell phone invoices from all your carriers and then help implement a WEM solution that consolidates all your cell phone minute packages.
Properly configured, WEM can prevent cell phone "bill shock" overages inspite of what Verizon Wireless or the other mobile operators like AT&T, Sprint, etc. ever end up doing or "forgetting" to do.
Posted 11/11 by Matt DeGennaro, MPD President, 732-236-6161
I've been helping small and medium sized New York City metro business customers choose business phone equipment and business phone services for over twenty years and I've never once had a customer or prospect with a office phone system problem call and ask me for a quote for "unified communications". What they do ask for is some sort of "magic telecom bullet" to make what they've already paid for work "better, longer and cheaper" - especially in today's economy.
Business customers that have heard of unified communications are the ones that have previously had some telephone experience with an "enterprise business" (a business with 1,000 or more employees) where an employee's office desk phone interfaces with their mobile smart phone which interfaces with their office computer. In other words, small business customers equate unified communications or "UC" as a pretty fancy phone system with a very high price tag that only very large companies can afford.
Does "UC" for SMB Exist - and What Does it Look Like?
Unified communications does exist for the small business that needs between 15 and 100 phones, and thanks to Steve Jobs, small business owners already kind of understand UC and are ready to buy it - from UC vendors that can properly explain it - like the four that follow.
Steve Jobs has been indispensable to the UC sales process because all a UC/hosted VoIP/cloud phone system salesperson now has to say is, "You know how your iPhone does phone calls, text messages, video and all kinds of cool apps, right? UC connects all that to your office phone and computer! Is that what you want?"
For every small business owner that owns a smart phone or an iPad the answer is always, "Yes!"
Unfortunately, wanting UC for small business and being able to buy UC for small business (that actually works) can be a daunting task for small business owners, their independent telecom consultants and IT equipment VARs because it does not always work perfectly when operating on top of the public Internet.
How Do You "Buy Right" When Buying UC for Offices Under 100 Phones?
Fortunately, "buying UC right" in the "under 100 phones" sector is a fairly low risk endevour because most smaller businesses will want to have the UC phone solution operate off of their existing Internet connection and computer network.
Unfortunately, without the proper precautions, haphazardly trying different UC phone solutions without an experienced UC "sherpa" showing the way (an independent telecom partner experienced with UC for SMB) can be quite painful due to disruptions in the customer's computer network and phone calls that simply don't work.
MegaPath had primarily been seen as one the the nation's largest data network providers after they merged with Covad that dabbled in "hosted VoIP" but that changed in a big way when they merged with Speakeasy. Speakeasy was one of the most successful hosted VoIP business phone service providers in the US for businesses with under 100 phones.
With Speakeasy's low-end hosted VoIP/UC expertise and Covad's nationwide network (not to mention Megapath's managed network security services) MegaPath is propably the only "must consider" vendor in the under 100 phone office looking at UC options because Megapath can start a small customer's phone/UC solution on the customer's own network and then migrate the customer's UC solution up to MegaPath's private MPLS network if and when the need arises.
Broadview Networks
Broadview Networks is on this list because they are a modern "phone company" that does "phone equipment" and phone services really well. By contrast, many of Broadview's competitors are network services companies that "also do phones". The distinction may seem small but it is in fact very big when it comes to the after-sale installation experience. Broadview has installed over 70,000 UC phones across the country. They know how to make small businesses happy with their phone system after the sale.
Broadview is different from their competitors in another way in that they really pretty much lead with "this is a great office phone system". While their solution has unified communications features they know that their customers are really just trying to buy phone - modern phones with all the cool features - but at the end of the day, they're phone. Broadview also has a great way of putting the phones, the installation and everything you need in one tight bundle which makes a Broadview phone solution very easy to understand and buy.
SimpleSignal
SimpleSignal is another "gotta see" UC 4 SMB vendor to look at because they are the "best of breed" high-end hosted VoIP vendor for business customers that has never abandoned the under 100 phone class of customers. While similar uc/hosted phone system vendors have all but abandoned business customers that want to use their public Internet connection to make their UC phone system work, SimpleSignal continues to bring the Broadsoft platform to the under 100 phone market.
SimpleSignal also stands above their competitors in that they "lead with the app" for the small guy. While the largest phone system vendors are knocking themselves out designing communications applications for customers with 1,000 or mor phones, SimpleSignal recognizes the small business customers want integrated conferencing, call recording and video too. SimpleSignal engineers their apps to give small businesses the UC phone solution freedoms that enterprise businesses enjoy.
8x8
A year ago I would never have considered 8x8 as a viable option for any business customer as I was pretty sure they were kin to magicJack, Vonage and other "two-tin-cans-and-a-string" phone vendors. Over the last year though I've had several independent telecom sales partners say, "No, 8x8 is great! I've got many of my small business customers cut over to 8x8 and they're pretty happy."
When I tried to dig deeper with the consultants that recommeded 8x8 as to their presales inquiry and customer phone requirements the consultants said, "Dude, the customer wanted something cheap and fast. I said, '8x8 will drop ship the phones to you and they'll either work or they won't - no guarantees.' If the customer likes how it works they keep the phones. If they don't they send the phones back. What's not to like?"
How to Try UC for Your Small Business?
Please contact me, MPD President Matt DeGennaro directly, for a complimentary consultation for your New York City metro business by calling 212.810.2487 or emailing me at mdegennaro@mpdtel.com.
Maybe it will be MegaPath, Broadview Networks, SimpleSignal or 8x8, maybe it will be another vendor. Before moving forward trying one or another we'll need to discuss your businesses unique voice and data requirements.
Please keep your expectation in check though. Unified communications, hosted VoIP, my-phone-and-office-in-a-cloud, whatever you want to call it is a lot different from a copper phone line from Ma Bell connected to an old bomb-proof bakelite phone.
Use the "BYOB" (bring your own broadband) feature of these low end solutions to your advantage by trying them out in your office or offices before you commit. If the sales person wants to map out all your past phone pain and document all your desired apps - that's good, but don't commit to anything until you see the phones working with temporary phone numbers on your existing network.
It would not be unreasonable to ask for a one or two week trail. but make sure that during the trial that all your biggest phone users do everything on the UC phone that they currently do on the "phones you hate". (It's funny how customers suddenly long for their old office phones after they switch to a new office phone system.)
To get a feel for the UC sales mentality of MegaPath, SimpleSignal and 8x8, click the three videos that follow. They offer a pretty decent representation of what you should expect.
Then call your local independent telecom sales partner to see what he or she recommends and then have your local person take you into a carefully managed unified communications trial.
MegaPath
Ross Anderson of MegaPath at recent trade show shares how Megapath shares the strength of their network that their UC/hosted VoIP customers enjoy. Ross is one of MegaPath's managers that support their independent channel sales partners. I shot this video myself at a trade show this past year.
Broadview Networks
Broadview Product Manager Rob Marschall describes how their OfficeSuite hosted VoIP solution solves a variety of SMB problems. This video is from the Broadview website.
SimpleSignal
Dave Gilbert, founder of SimpleSignal gives his famous, "this-is-unified-communications-on-a-napkin" explaination of how hosted VoIP works for small business customers. I shot this video myself in SimpleSignal's California office. It's one of a series that explains the benefits of unified communications and hosted VoIP to small businesses.
8x8
Debbie Jo Severin, 8x8 chief marketing Officer shares their latest unified communications phone systems applications that they're bringing to businesses that need under 100 phones. This video was produced not by me but TMCnet.
Owners of New York City metro 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" hosted VoIP and/or SIP trunk technology are able to ramp capacity up and down on fairly short notice. This enables seasonal businesses like amusement parks and ski resorts to put unused phones into virtual hibernation during the off season.
Other bursty businesses like restaurants with peak call times several times a day can buy fewer phone lines than the really need if their phone service provider will allow them to "burst up" and give them extra phone line capacity during their busy hours.
GLOBALINX to the Rescue!
One modern phone company that is helping uneven usage businesses is GLOBALINX.
Click here or the image below to view a short webinar about how GLOBALINX's seasonal and burstable phone solutions are custom designed to save uneven usage businesses up to 25% on their annual phone charges.
GLOBALINX's seasonal hosted VoIP service allows seasonal businesses to "turn down" phones for up to seven months a year when the business is idle. GLOBALINX's burstable phone trunk service allows businesses to "borrow" or "burst up" to 25% more phone line capacity than they are subscribed to.
Implementing a GLOBALINX seasonal or burstable phone solution is not complicated but since each uneven usage business has different requirements, it's best for business owners to consult their independent telecom agent or channel sales partner to confirm the right system design.
Seasonal & Burstable Phone Solutions for New York City Businesses
Do you need to design and implement a business phone system that accomodates your business locations in the greater New York City metro and beyond?
What's preventing Blackberry customers from moving to the iPhone or the Android platform?
Does Blackberry have a monopoly on enterprise-class mobile security?
What does a migration strategy away from Blackberry look like?
To help answer these questions, and understand the related issues, I recently spoke with Moe Arnaiz, CEO of eMOBUS, a Telecom Association subject matter expert for enterprise mobility solutions.
To learn more about how your New York City metro business can effectively migrate away from Blackberry to iPhones, iPads or Android devices contact MPD President Matt DeGennaro directly for a complimentary consultation by calling 212.810.2487 or emailing mdegennaro@mpdtel.com.
Following are the questions I posed:
1. Please give us a history of Blackberry's perceived monopoly in the mobility space for enterprise businesses. What is Blackberry layering on top of an AT&T, Verizon or Sprint phone number that makes it "so secure" for enterprise customers?
2. What are some of the applications being used that requires such a high level of security by enterprise customers?
3. How is it that Apple's iOS mobile operating system and Google's Android mobile OS are so inferior to the Blackberry BES mobile operating system?
4. What's at the crux of Blackberry's recent outages?
5. Can enterprise mobility customers get sufficient security such that a migration away from Blackberry is conceivable?
6. How would a migration from BES to iOS, or Android, take place? Is it justifiable?
7. What is eMOBUS' role in the whole MDM arena and how do enterprise mobility customers use eMOBUS along with the wireless carriers and mobile equipment manufacturers?
Dan Baldwin: Blackberry outages have been well documented over the past several months, as has been the outcry of unhappy Blackberry enterprise business customers. The obvious questions begged by these headlines include:
What's preventing Blackberry customers from moving to the iPhone or the Android platform?
Does Blackberry have a monopoly on enterprise-class mobile security?
What does a migration strategy away from Blackberry look like?
Here to help us answer these questions and understand the related issues is Moe Arnaiz, CEO of eMOBUS, a mobility management company. eMOBUS is a carrier and device neutral mobility management company and solution provider for enterprise businesses. Moe, thanks for speaking with us today.
Moe Arnaiz: Thanks for having me, Dan.
DB: Question #1. Moe, our first question we will start out with, can you give us a history of Blackberry's perceived monopoly in the mobility space for enterprise businesses? What is blackberry layering on top of AT&T, Verizon or Sprint phone numbers that makes it so secure for enterprise customers?
MA: I'll start off with the first part of that question. I think what gave Blackberry its perceived monopoly early on in the enterprise mobility space is pretty simple. They were really the first mobile device manufacturer that was able to deliver secure e-mail on mobile devices that actually worked.
By Dan Baldwin, MPD Product Manager, New York City Office, 212.810.2487
When affordable cellular "aircards" first hit the New York City metro market many years ago, many IT directors with low-speed bandwidth needs said, "Cool! Now I've got a nice easy alternative to DSL or a T-1 to back up my data network."
Within a year or so cellular aircards stuck into a wireless data router were the standard data backup for many wide area networks (WANs) across the country for those businesses that could get by with 400k download & 150k upload.
Now, fast forward a half-dozen years, and IT directors have migrated from the 400k/150k speeds of the "2G" cellular networks to the 3g/1.5g data speeds of today's 4G/LTE/WiMax cellular data networks from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.
While the wireless data speeds have increased though many IT directors are still relying on aircards in wireless routers to backup their networks.
Are Aircards Enough to Power a Business Grade Data Network?
I decided to pose the question to Mark Gianinni, CEO of Accel Networks, a business grade wireless data integration company that specializes in creating wireless data networks for multi-location companies across the company.
Click the audio player below to listen to the interview. Click here to download an MP3 recording of the podcast. Scroll lower to read the transcript.
Need to design a wireless "WAN" wide area network for your business locations in the greater New York City metro? Please contact MPD President Matt DeGennaro directly for a complimentary consultation by calling 212.810.2487 or emailing mdegennaro@mpdtel.com.
Dan Baldwin: Hello. This is Dan Baldwin, and today we are speaking with Mark Gianinni, the CEO of Accel Networks, who is also the co-founder. Mark, thanks for being with us today.
Mark Gianinni: Well, I appreciate the opportunity, Dan.
DB: The subject of our Podcast is: Are Aircards Enough? What constitutes a proper wireless LAN for business grade use. Mark, go ahead and start us off by answering this question.
Question #1: Can you give us the history of the business wireless LANs?
MG:Sure. Our historical perspective of business wireless LANs really began in the 2005-2006 time frame when we were developing our business plan, developing our business case, and developing our network platform.
It was in the third quarter of 2006 when we first deployed our first commercial customer. It was a chain, a quick-service restaurant chain, and at the time the prevailing technology was still 2G.
So data rates peaked out at about 100 kilobits/second, and latency was rather high, 500 - 600 milliseconds, and what that meant was that at the time cellular data was really appropriate for very thin route-type of applications like credit card authorizations or telemetry monitoring applications.
In 2007, the transition from 2G to 3G began, and it was at that point in our minds where cellular data really became cellular broadband.
It was also at the time when we first started testing applications, thicker route applications, heavier data intensive applications over 3G that we realized that we were going to have to substantially upgrade the quality of the RF link.
Otherwise, customers would not be able to enjoy the benefits of a 3G. And it was then in 2007 when we launched a development effort to design and implement our first generation proprietary indoor cellular broadband antennas.
2:40 The combination of 3G and our ability to fully optimize an RF link between the tower and the customer endpoint really launched our business, and we grew very rapidly from 2007 through today.
DB: Can you tell us what are the businesses that most often use wireless LANs, and can you tell us or describe some of these thicker applications that you hinted at?
MG: Sure. If you look across our install base, which now entails all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada, for the most part we have just about every industry represented from retail, through energy, through healthcare.
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