Saturday, May 16, 2015

Do you need a Network Engineer to maintain your phone system?

If you answered yes to that question, then you're doing it wrong.

The IP-PBX came onto the Telecom scene in a big way several years ago, and finally the IT Department was able to fully control Voice Communications over "their" network.

Watch out what you wish for.

So how has all this turned out? Well it turns out that running all this voice traffic over the existing network required some upgrades to the infrastructure. You just doubled the amount of endpoints you are dealing with. Real-time voice communications is not a very forgiving application either, and QoS capable routers are a must. Oh, and do you really want everything on the same media? Maybe new cable plant would be better. Then there was the question of power. We can't have all those clumsy power supply "bricks" cluttering up the desktop now can we? OK, upgrade all the switches to PoE.

But hey, at least you could move a phone from one office to another without getting the "phone guy" in to punch down some cross-connects right?

The benefits of the premised based IP-PBX have been greatly exaggerated. It is a bear to maintain. The desktop hardware itself is not cheap and has to be added to your network maintenance plan from the manufacturer. Have you ever tried to analyze your Smartnet contract? The "simple" guide to understanding your contract is 25 pages!! And that's just the guide! I'd rather stick pins in my eyes.

Why are you doing this?

Well you did after all, make the upgrades so your network is more robust than ever. As a matter of fact you probably have less internal data traffic on your network now than you did when the IP-PBX was first deployed. But how can this be in the age of "big data"? Because at least some of your data is now in the Cloud, and the rest is either virtualized in-house or some form of Hybrid Cloud. The result is a very efficient network infrastructure with optimized throughput. A valuable investment that will continue to serve the organization well for the next few years at least.

And that IP-phone sitting on the desktop? It's a relic. You're driving a jalopy on the Autobahn. But you can upgrade right? Yeah, try getting that one approved.

The time has come for ALL premise based systems to be put out of your misery. Cloud-based voice has come of age and it is sooo much better than anything else that it's not even a debatable topic. Think about it: You're interfacing 1980's T-1 technology (ISDN PRI, look it up!) to your gigabit network in order to talk (literally, talk) to the outside world. Not only is that an inferior technology platform but the cost goes away completely by connecting directly to the Cloud!

Moves Adds and Changes? All done through a web portal that any 12yo could manage. And they're part of the service.

I could go on and on, but the bottom line is this: You've built the infrastructure to efficiently handle voice traffic on your internal IP-network, why haven't you taken advantage of The Cloud. Think you have "too many" phones? Wrong. This stuff scales. Redundancy? Built-in. Flexible, responsive service, new feature deployment is a snap.

You really need to look into this. The war is already over.

Steve Melillo
LineSpeed LLC
201-596-4000, x103

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

The case for a hosted phone system

As a former "Authorized Dealer" for one of the top business telephone system manufacturers for many years, I have seen my fair share of systems that greatly exceeded the generally accepted life expectancy for a PBX. Seven to 10 years is fairly common, and I have even seen some of the larger systems approach 20 years.

Eventually the day does come when the system is just too much of a risk and has to be dealt with. In spite of the many ways there are to communicate these days, for most organizations a sustained outage of the telephone system is simply unacceptable. So what should you do?

You could continue to tempt fate, and hope that your vendor can put together the required hardware and software of your obsolete system when the inevitable failure occurs. Or you can do the prudent thing, and start the process of evaluating various systems and services, so you have at least some idea of what you will be up against in terms of dollars and implementation. How soon can you get systems and services provisioned and deployed? Two weeks? Two months? Reality is probably somewhere in between, IF you've already done your homework.

One option I suggest you consider is a Hosted IP phone system. There are a multitude of players in the space, so pricing is competitive, and there is no longer a significant gap in features. As a matter of fact, Hosted offers some real elasticity that is much more difficult to achieve in a purchased or leased on-premise hardware/software solution. Hosted systems can easily grow (or contract) with your organization.

Other advantages to the Hosted or "Cloud Phone" systems include easy deployment of remote or home users, low start-up costs and the virtual elimination of your outbound calling costs. Most providers in this space include domestic calls at no additional charge. International and 800 inbound calls are billed over and above your flat monthly fee. Very often, the amount you are paying currently for a combination of analog trunks and/or a PRI T1 is MORE than you might pay for the flat monthly fee of a Hosted System.

Contact me directly at LineSpeed: LineSpeed for more information: 201-596-4000, x103

smelillo@inclink.net







Monday, March 9, 2015

Time to reconsider Verizon?

Is it time to reconsider Verizon for land-based service?

The rumors of Verizon's demise in the land-based services space have been greatly exaggerated. There was a time when it seemed as though the mammoth carrier was headed towards a wire-less only future, but in recent years Verizon has made an aggressive push for wire-line products and services with promotions and a continued network build-out, bringing FiOS and IP-based services to commercial enterprises all over the northeast.

If you have some wireline services coming to term, now is a good time to re-visit what Verizon has to offer, even if you are currently a Verizon customer. Verizon seems to have this odd habit of neglecting to tell existing customers about their latest promotions. So, if you don't ask, they wont tell, and you could be leaving dollars on the table. Not to mention more bandwidth, storage and overall performance. Oh, and that Visa gift card promo for FiOS? They have one for business customers as well.

Contact LineSpeed for additional information and a cost comparison with other providers including Optimum and Comcast. We can tee up all of the pertinent information for you to make an intelligent decision. Not sure what your current term is? We can figure it out for you and submit a simple analysis revealing the true cost of options that make sense.

Steve Melillo
LineSpeed LLC
201-596-4000, x103