magazine
10
Therehavebeen somemajor changes
takingplace in the telecomsmarket
whichare changing thewaybusinesses
manageandpay for phone calls.Themajor
benefitsof these changes are to reduce
the telecoms administrativeburdenand to
significantly cut costs.
One of the key changes is the shift away
from a conventional phone systemhoused
on business premises to a telephony service
hosted in the ‘cloud’. Insteadof buying a phone system and paying an
annualmaintenance charge, hosted telephony is provided as amonthly
service charge.There’s little in theway of upfront costs and there are no
charges for amending the service. Should the business customer need
tomove premises they simply reconnect at the new location, avoiding
engineering charges. Because the service is hosted in the cloud, the
software is always up to datewithout any need for onsite upgrades.
Hosted telephony is ideal for businesseswithhomeworkers orworkers
in different locations as staff can call eachother free of public network
charges and incoming calls can be routed to any location. It has all the
usual phone system features of holding and transferring calls, but has
a number of additional benefits.The system can be configured via the
internet, allowing change of feature set-ups as required,without incurring
any engineering charges.
Spitfire’s hosted telephony service is called SIPCommunicator™ and
can be set-up inminutes.The SIP compatible handsets usedwith the
service are available from a range ofmanufacturers so they are relatively
inexpensive. SIPCommunicator™ recentlywon the SMEHosted Solution
category of the prestigious CommsNationalAwards.
Another big change is the shift from ISDN phone lines to SIP
trunks. Simply put, a SIP trunk is a broadband circuit enabled for voice
communication. Spitfire canoffer SIP trunks as a cost-effective alternative
tousing conventional ISDN phone lines.This is now a proven technology
that businesses can adoptwith full confidence. Spitfire’s SIP trunks offer
business quality secure telephony at typically up to50 per cent less
than themonthly rental cost of an equivalent ISDN service, a saving no
company can afford to ignore. Spitfire haswon a
Business Info
Editor’s
ChoiceAward for its SIP trunk service.
An additional benefit of SIP trunks is that they allow geographic phone
numbers to be routed to any IP address in theworld, unlike the traditional
telephone networkwhere numbers are tied to a local telephone exchange.
This gives businesses the ability to advertisewhat customerswill recognise
as ‘local numbers’ and allows them to keep their existing numberswhen
moving premises.
SIP trunks are also ideal as aDisaster Recovery (DR) solution.Any
number on the SIP network can be forwarded to any other location –
as long as it is connected via a SIP trunk or a normal telephone line.
In the event of a failure of themain site, calls can be forwarded tohome
telephone numbers,mobile or other sites –or a combinationof locations/
numbers. Spitfire has produced a ‘white paper’ explaining SIP trunk
technology inmore depth.
Visit
to read thewhitepaper in full.
byTom Fellowes, SalesDirector of
SpitfireNetworkServices
All change
The SpitfireCommunications Column
agenda
Flexibleworkplacepractices suchas remoteworkingand
co-working canhelp foster innovationwithinanorganisation,
according tonew researchbyflexibleworkspaceprovider Regus.
It asked2,200 seniormanagers and business owners to
pinpoint themost effectiveways of nurturing employeeswith
entrepreneurial flair, otherwise known as intrapreneurs.
Half recommendedmixing staff fromdifferent functions and two
fifths citedflexibleworking (in location andworking hours).Other
drivers of innovation cited by respondents include programmes to
update skills and improved access to seniormanagement. Fourteen
per cent of respondents from large companies suggested placing
staff on assignment in SMEs.
Business awarddeadlineextended
Thedeadline for entries to
theNectar Business Small
BusinessAwards Prizehas been
extendedby threeweeks to
May25,2014.
There are six award
categories – Small Business of
theYear, Innovationof theYear,
HomeGrownBusiness of the
Year, Entrepreneur of theYear,
Tradespersonof theYear and
Contribution to theCommunity.
Businesses can enter asmany
categories as they like.
Successful entrantswill
receive £2,000 cash, 50,000
Nectar points and the chance towin tailored business advice from
KarrenBrady, star of BBC1’s
TheApprentice
.
Formore details and to download an entry form, please visit
.
Disruptive technologies explained
3D printing is on the verge of becoming a significant force in the
businessworld, BCS,TheChartered Institute for IT claims in the
fourth andfinal whitepaper in its
Riding theNextWave
series
exploring potentially disruptive technologies thatwill affect CIOs
and board-level executives.The other instalments are
Ubiquitous
Computing
,which also includes the series overview, released in
January 2014;
CognitiveComputing
, released in February 2014; and
AugmentedReality
, released inMarch2014.All can be downloaded
from
Beflexible to innovate
Win business advice from
KarrenBrady
