Unified Communications for the SMB

By: John Shepler

Large companies long ago latched onto the concept of unified communications to improve the efficiency of their business telephone systems and the productivity of their employees. UC, as it is called, may have started out in major enterprises, but it is working its way into the small and medium size businesses. Why? For the same benefits the big companies achieve.

Just what is unified communications? The idea behind UC is that electronic business communications has spread way beyond the corded desk phone. Oh, desk phones are still a staple of any office. But now we have cell phones, smart phones, tablets, laptops, notebooks and the desktop PC. You can treat these as complete separate devices or unify them so that they work as a single system.

Why not stick with separate devices for different uses? One big problem is that we don’t sit at our desks all day. We may be moving around in the office, taking meetings, making sales calls to clients, visiting job sites and collaborating with peers outside the company.

We always did those things, right? True. But how did you stay in touch? Decades ago, pay phones were an important business tool. If you had the option, you left a forwarding number with the secretary when you left the premises. Important clients had your home phone number as well as the office number printed on your business card. If nothing else worked, you could always depend on the answering machine or, later, voice mail.

Sure, this approach works even today. But why are you doing it the old school way when your competitors are embracing the latest technology. While a sales prospect or customer with a big problem sits frustrated after leaving you a voice message, the competition is taking their call while walking down the street. The five members of your committee grind to a halt because you had to leave the office and can’t vote on the issue needing resolution. That company across the street keeps humming along because every member of their team is always connected.

What unified communications does is tie together different communications devices so they work together. No need to list a half dozen phone numbers on your business card and hope a caller has the patience to call each number in order to see if you happen to answer. UC gives you a single phone number and your calls will always get to you no matter where you are.

Cbeyond, a major telecommunications and cloud services provider, is moving unified communications from major enterprises to small and mid-sized businesses. They’re doing this with a new suite of services called “Communications on the Go.” The emphasis is on including smartphones as part of the business communications system. Within that realm, Cbeyond is offering cloud based communications, managed network services, and integration of smartphones, desk phones and computing devices. What this means is that you have access to the same calling features regardless of where you are or what device you are using. You have one phone number and one business phone system to learn.

Cloud communications, also called hosted VoIP, is a real enabler for unified communications. Yes, you can accomplish many of the same things with your own in-house PBX. However, you have the grief of having to cough up a major capital investment to get the equipment and the ongoing maintenance expenses of keeping everything up to data and secure. By moving your communications to the cloud, you move to a cost model of paying for the features you need when you need them. It’s easy to add and subtract users or make changes when people move around. The service provider has ownership of the infrastructure and network connections needed to deliver all the capacity and functionality you need. From your perspective, your unified communications services are infinitely large and always up to date.

Are you looking for a more effective and less costly way to communicate within your business and to your customers? This is a good time to find out what cloud hosted unified communications has to offer for your business, large, medium or small.

T1 Line With Instant Wireless Backup

You know how it can get you nuts when your business broadband goes down right in the middle of something important. That’s why many companies opt for telecom-grade T1 line service instead of “best effort” information services like DSL and Cable broadband. While highly reliable, T1 lines aren’t immune to outages either. An equipment failure or careless backhoe operator can made your line go dead when you least expect it.

One way that companies build in redundancy against line losses is by ordering diverse T1 service. In other words, they order two lines from two different providers. The only problem with that is the bundle of twisted pair copper leaving their premises is owned by the Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC). All those wires travel together right into the same central office. Chances are that when one line is severed in a local mishap, they all are.

Cbeyond, an innovative company in IT and communications services, has a better idea. They offer T1 line service with a wireless backup option. The way it works is that your normal bandwidth is supplied through the T1 at 1.5 Mbps for both upload and download. If that connection is lost for any reason, your broadband service instantly transfers to a wireless broadband connection using a cellular provider aircard. While using that channel, you’ll have typically 600 Kbps to 1.1 Mbps download speed and 400 to 800 Kbps upload speed. That should keep you going for the few hours that it typically takes to repair a T1 connection.

You might rig up something like this yourself using a MiFi or wireless modem aircard that you can get from any of the cellular carriers. The difference with Cbeyond’s line backup service is that it offers an automatic failover. You don’t have to notice there is a problem and then bring on another service. Cbeyond keeps your same IP address for both the wired and wireless connection. They can do that because the switchover is accomplished in their network cloud. You also have unlimited data capability while on the wireless backup. Most wireless carriers won’t even sell you an unlimited plan anymore.

One more advantage of the T1 wireless line backup from Cbeyond is that it will cost you less to add this option than go out and contract for a separate wireless service to make your own backup.

Cbeyond is an Atlanta company that serves Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego, Detroit, San Francisco, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Seattle and Washington, DC. If you are within their service footprint, you can benefit from their extensive suite of business communications services. Those include local, long distance and international phone service, plus mobile phones. In addition to voice and broadband, Cbeyond offers messaging and collaboration, data backup and security, and virtual and dedicated cloud servers. Their Multinet MPLS service securely connects branch offices, customers, employees and suppliers on one virtual network.

Do you have a special situation that just doesn’t seem to be supported by your current telecom service provider? The advantage of working through a telecom broker, like Telarus, Inc., is that you have access to dozens of top rate providers with services that you may not even be aware of. Get complementary phone consultation along with competitive prices and service options to meet your specific requirements.