Cyber Monday is For Business Buyers Too

By: John Shepler

Cyber Monday is the new tradition for shopping online to get deals that you couldn’t in the rough and tumble of brick and mortar Black Friday sales. You’ll see numerous offers for special deals targeted at consumers today. But what about businesses? Is there such a thing as Cyber Monday for business?

There should be. Business purchases are a huge part of the economy. What’s more, what businesses have to pay for products and services reflects in the price consumers have to pay. If your business can get a bargain on Cyber Monday, it’s a win all the way around.

Let’s have a look at some things that you might not think are ripe for savings, yet actually are. While prices for these services might not be specific to this particular day, there’s still a huge incentive for you to take a closer look. You’ll likely find savings that you didn’t know were available. Whatever you save will pay off for months and years into the future.

1. T1 Lines
Just about every company has leased a T1 line at some point in its growth. Many still do, and new T1 lines are being provisioned every day. Why has this decades old telecom service retained its popularity in the face of technological advancement?

It’s hard to beat a winner. T1 lines have a long history of reliability and versatility. You can use a T1 line as a point to point private line, dedicated Internet access, MPLS network connection, or as a T1 or ISDN PRI telephone trunk for your telephone system. They offer the same bandwidth in both directions and are inherently low in latency.

What T1 lines have that many other telecom services don’t have is near universal availability. They come in on ordinary twisted pair telephone cable that is available to just about every business building. The one gripe has been cost. Ten years ago, T1 lines were pricey. You had to swallow hard and sign the contract if you needed connectivity. Today, prices are a fraction of what they used to be and are attractive to even very small businesses.

If you are unhappy with “consumer grade” broadband or have a T1 contract that is a few years old or more, you should get an instant price quote for T1 line services now.

2. Ethernet over Copper
Ethernet over Copper, also called EoC, is the direct competitor to T1 lines. EoC is a newer technology and uses the same twisted pair copper wires that provision T1. It’s also symmetrical in bandwidth, highly reliable and low in latency, jitter and packet loss.

What Ethernet over Copper offers is higher bandwidth and… Ethernet! While your phone system may still be a traditional Key Telephone System or PBX using analog POTS lines or ISDN PRI, your computer network is almost certainly based on Ethernet. EoC lets you connect to other locations or the Internet while keeping your packets in the Ethernet protocol all the way. This opens the door to services like E-LAN that let you set up a bridged LAN that includes locations across town or nationwide.

Unlike T1 that has a fixed bandwidth of 1.5 Mbps no matter the distance, EoC technology trades off speed for distance. If you are close to the central office you can get very high speeds, perhaps 50 Mbps or more. Farther away, available line speed drops off as the line length increases. Even so, most business locations can get 3 Mbps up to 10 or 20 Mbps using Ethernet over Copper. Even better, the cost per Mbps is usually lower than what you pay for T1… perhaps half as much.

If you are running out of bandwidth on your T1 line or want to see if you can get the same or higher bandwidth at a better price, you’ll want to check out Ethernet over Copper bandwidth speeds and prices for your locations.

3. Metro Ethernet over Fiber
If Ethernet over Copper is a good idea, Ethernet over Fiber is a even better one. Fiber optic networks have multiplied in recent years, with tentacles reaching into nearly every city around the globe. The other revolution is the rise of independent private carriers to compete with the traditional telephone companies. This competitive environment has expanded service availability and reduced prices.

If you’ve had fiber optic services for years, chances are that you have one of the legacy SONET telco fiber lines. These include OC3 at 155 Mbps, OC12 at 622 Mbps and OC48 at 2.4 Mbps. SONET is highly reliable and low in latency, jitter and packet loss. It traditionally has suffered from lack of availability, few fixed bandwidth levels, and high prices per Mbps compared to what is available now.

Yes, SONET is still a good fiber service to have. Prices have come down dramatically over the years. But Ethernet over Fiber is an even better deal. Like EoC, EoF keeps your traffic in the Ethernet protocol for easy interfacing, and the ability to get LAN-type connectivity among multiple locations.

it’s also highly scalable. You can get just about any bandwidth level you want between 10 Mbps and 10 Gbps. In some major business centers, speeds as high as 100 Gbps are available to businesses as well as carriers. What’s more, you can generally get your service upgraded quickly with just a phone call to your provider. Quickly means anything from a few hours to a week or so. Compare that with weeks or months if you need a SONET upgrade.

If you need bandwidth of 10 Mbps or higher for your business (not residential) location, it is well worth your while to take a few minutes this Cyber Monday (or any other day) and check out the fiber optic bandwidth and pricing options available right now.

4. Hosted PBX
Everybody knows what a business telephone is. It’s that box with a handset and dial pad that sits on your desk and has its own wiring to the phone company or an in-house phone system. Business phones are essential for business. The traditional phone systems aren’t so essential anymore. In fact, you are likely missing out on both features and cost savings if you aren’t looking at the new cloud hosted VoIP or cloud PBX phone services. So, let’s take a Cyber Monday shopping trip.

There are numerous companies offering “hosted” phone services. These range of single line VoIP telephone services all the way up to call centers in the cloud. They’re all based on the idea that if telephones can connect to the computer network, then the switching equipment can be located anywhere. Today, the best deals are cloud service providers who operate massive data centers dedicated to IP telephony.

Don’t confuse enterprise VoIP services with the low-end Internet VoIP services. They may use similar technology, but the trick to consistently high voice quality is a dedicated network connection between you and the provider. This is known as a SIP trunk. The bandwidth of the trunk determines how many simultaneous calls it will support. You can have a few lines or thousands. Only the speed of the connection changes.

What Hosted PBX does is change the way you pay for your phone service. Instead of making a major capital investment in equipment and ongoing maintenance expenses, you pay per phone per month to a service firm. That firm bears the cost and responsibility of running a highly reliable and easily scalable phone system for your company. All you have in-house are the IP phones plugged into your computer network and a specialized router to prioritize the voice traffic.

Is your phone system too small or getting a little “creaky”? Before you go out and drop a bundle on a shiny new in-house equipment rack, see how competitive and feature-filled a Cloud Hosted PBX service can be.

Now you see how Cyber Monday can be as asset to businesses beyond what you sell to consumers on this single day of the year. Use Cyber Monday as an incentive to shop for your business as well as yourself and get deals that will pay off handsomely for years.

BlackBerry Picking On Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is the new traditional time to find great online special offers, much the same as Black Friday has become that tradition for bricks and mortar stores. With that in mind, let’s have a look a one very special product line this year. It’s the BlackBerry device from Research in Motion.

BlackBerry has long been the choice of business users for mobile voice and data connectivity. RIM has made it their mission to support corporate IT services with the performance and security needed for serious business use in the field. But, how affordable are the popular BlackBerry models?

Make no mistake about it, BlackBerry devices are expensive technology. That doesn’t mean you have to pay a bundle for the model of your choice. In fact, shop now and you can get 19 different BlackBerry phones free when you order them with new wireless service. The others range in price from $9.99 to $149.99. Not bad for devices that retail for up to $600.

Just what is available at no charge for as long as these special offers last? How about the new BlackBerry Torch? Yes, it’s free when you order it with AT&T wireless service. The Torch offers the BlackBerry OS6 operating system on a combination touchscreen interface plus a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard. You also get an impressive 5 Megapixel digital camera with flash, continuous auto-focus, digital zoom, face detection integrated GPS location tagging and video capture. The full touch screen features a full HTML Web browser with pinch-to-soom and tabbed browsing. By the way, the BlackBerry Torch is available in black, red or white.

The BlackBerry Tour is a popular smartphone for Verizon Wireless users. it’s an international 3G phone with 3.2 Megapixel digital camera, GPS support for VZ Navigator Global navigation services. Yes, this phone runs on both the 800 & 1900 CDMA bands for Verizon and GSM 850, 900, 1800, and 1900 for overseas. Your worldwide tour will be more enjoyable with the BlackBerry Tour, especially since you got it free.

The BlackBerry Curve has been so popular that it is available on most cellular networks. That includes AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and NEXTEL. There are various models, so check out the details to make sure you get the features you want in a Curve phone. Some have WiFi and/or 3G for fast downloads. Color choices include the classic black, graphite gray, violet/purple, red, white, titanium and fuchsia.

The BlackBerry Storm2 is available free on the Verizon Wireless network. It has a brilliant 3.25 inch display, WiFi, 3G in 150 countries, a full HTML Web browser and a 3.2 Megapixel digital camera. Yes, that’s right. It’s free while you can get it.

Are you a bold person? By that I mean a fan of the BlackBerry Bold. It’s another free BlackBerry model for the AT&T wireless network. You’ll get free access to more than 20,000 AT&T WiFi hotspots nationwide with this very smartphone. It also features international connectivity for data in 185 countries and voice roaming in over 215 countries.

Which BlackBerry you pick is a personal matter. What’s important is that you get your choice at the best deal... preferably free of charge. That means you need to do your shopping now while the best deals are online. Check out the complete selection of BlackBerry phone models right now and get free shipping along with your free phone.

Cash In Old Gadgets To Buy New Gadgets

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are almost upon us. Just look at all the new smartphones and other electronic gadgets that are going on sale, if they aren’t already. Exciting, isn’t it? Yet we know that times are uncertain and that we should really think about how we are going to pay for those shiny new things. Here’s an idea: Get your old stuff to pay for your new stuff!

Sounds a bit fanciful, but it can work. How? It’s because we all collect... make that hoard... electronics and photography gear of all types. Never mind that we aren’t using this gear anymore. We just have it around. It’s too good to throw away and too much hassle to sell, so there it sits. What we don’t consider is that there is a veritable savings account worth of value in all that unused equipment. There’s your cash source to buy the new, new gadgets this holiday season. Now, if there was only a way to tap it.

You’re in luck! There is a fast and easy way to convert your unwanted gadgets to cash. It’s an online service provided by Gazelle, a leader in recycling high technology gear. What they do is make you an offer based on the current market value of your items. If you elect to sell, you get a free postage paid mailer that you pack up and drop off at the shipper. At the other end, Gazelle will evaluate each item for operation and condition. Once checked out, they send you a check. Now when you get that bill for the new flat screen HDTV or video game, you’ve got the funds to cover it. It’s recycling at its best.

This process actually works all year long, but it’s particularly valuable right now. That’s because we tend to buy big time for ourselves and others through December 24, with the heartburn of credit card bills coming due in January or February. There’s no time to waste.

Start scouring the house and even those desk drawers at work. Look in the bottom drawers, especially. That’s where unused gadgets go to hibernate indefinitely. Get a big bag or box and start filling it with cell phones, video games, laptop computers, movies, MP3 players, digital cameras, PDAs, gaming consoles, GPS devices, camcorders, desktop computers, LCD monitors, calculators, camera lenses, satellite radios, external drives, streaming media, home audio equipment, projectors and Blu-Ray players. I’ll bet you’ve got anywhere between a modest box to half-a-room full.

The next step is to get price offers for each item. Consider it a game that pays. Perhaps you can engage family members or co-workers to help evaluate a massive tech collection, especially if they think they might benefit from the proceeds. Find your item through a search on the Gazelle site. Find the exact model you have and then check the radio buttons for functionality, condition and available accessories. Click the “Calculate” button and you’ll see how much they’ll pay you. I just tried a Nikon camera lens and saw I could sell it for $90. If you think that price is fair and want to cash-in, click the orange “Add to Box” button to lock in the offer. Then move on to the next item.

Procrastination is not to your advantage. Technology, like milk and most everything else, loses value over time. Chances are that you’ll get a better offer today than you will in a week or a month from now as your unused gear just gets more and more obsolete. Word to the wise!

Once you have evaluated your collection and see the now substantial total offer, all you need is that pre-paid shipping box. You get that by clicking on the “Checkout” button. When your container arrives, pack each item carefully using recycled newspaper or other soft packing material and sent it in. Congratulations, the hard work is done! Now it’s just a matter of waiting for the moola.

Can it get any easier? Not unless someone came over, ransacked your place while you watched TV, and peeled off a roll of bills on their way out. This is the next best thing. It takes minimal effort compared to running ads, dealing with people at the door or dragging everything through the auction process. When you’re done, you have cash in hand, the satisfaction of recycling things you don’t need anymore, plus all that extra shelf and drawer space you’ll need for your new acquisitions.

Are you motivated to start the process? Gather your gear and get recycling offers for your gadgets now. Those big sales are about to start!

Cyber Monday Cell Phone Deals

Where’s the best place to find special offers on cell phones? Online, of course. If you are searching for Cyber Monday deals or just generally in the market for a new cell phone, you’ll save a bundle with these free and discounted cell phone specials. Take note that the offers I’m quoting are only good for the Black Friday weekend sale that ends at Midnight, today, Monday.

How about a free cell phone after an instant online discount? You have your choice of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 in black for AT&T. It’s not only one hot smartphone, it comes with a special bonus of free activation on up to five new or upgrade lines. Wow, you could order a family plan and get free BlackBerry Bolds for everyone. That’s one bill per month and you all share one bucket of minutes.

You like BlackBerry devices, but want a different model? How about the BlackBerry Curve in Titanium or silver? Or treat yourself to the advanced technology BlackBerry Storm2 Black for Verizon Wireless. I know, this phone comes with the hefty price of almost $600. But you’re not going to pay that. No way. Your price for this sale is just $9.99. You also get free standard shipping via FedEx and a bonus of no activation fee on the lines you order.

That’s right, a BlackBerry Storm2 for under ten bucks. Can you believe it? Well, don’t rub your eyes too long or this offer will disappear. Order the phone and plan you want now while this incredible sale is still in progress. By the way, the BlackBerry Storm 9530 Black is also available and it’s free after instant discount.

Wow! Are there any other good deals through Cyber Monday? You bet there are. On the Sprint PCS network you can get the Samsung Exclaim M550 Berry, the Sanyo SCP-2700 Blue, The BlackBerry Curve 8330 Red or the LG Rumor 2 Black in titanium, all for free after the instant online discount. You’ve seen these phones and priced them in the stores. You have your choice of the same service plans at the same prices as you would get in a cellular store or a big box retailer. But are they offering these phones to you for free? I’ll bet not. But shop for cell phones online and they are, indeed, free.

We just ran a review of the Samsung Solstice for AT&T. It’s one great smartphone. For you - free. How about a Samsung Highlight Blue for the T-Mobile wireless network? You guessed it - free.

Are you considering a netbook for work or personal use? You have your choice of netbooks with connectivity on the Verizon Wireless or AT&T networks. They’re under $200 when you order them online. These are serious computers with 1GB of RAM and large capacity hard drives. They’re just a bit smaller and lighter than your standard laptop computer. With both WiFi and 3G wireless connectivity, you’ll have Internet connectivity wherever you happen to be.

This is a terrific opportunity to get what you and your family really want for holiday gifts. It’s the good stuff. And now it’s well within your budget at these huge discounts and even free smartphones. Shop by carrier or just check out all the today’s special deals through Cell Phone Plans Finder. Even if you find this too late to catch the Black Friday Weekend through Cyber Monday sale, you may still be delighted by the variety of free and low cost wireless devices available.

MegaPath’s Black Friday Strategy

Black Friday will soon be upon us. This is the day after Thanksgiving that marks the traditional start to the Christmas shopping season. It’s a day that retailers brace for and depend on. For as Black Friday goes, so goes the profitability of the year.

The name Black Friday is generally attributed to the accounting practice of using red ink to show losses and black ink to show profits. Many retailers struggle all year long just to pay the bills and keep the lights on. Black Friday represents, at least symbolically, the change of the company’s fortunes from red ink to black ink. That’s how important the holiday shopping season is every year. It can be the difference between profit and loss, survival of the business or bankruptcy.

Since Black Friday and its online equivalent called Cyber Monday (The Monday after Black Friday) kickoff the most stressful and highest sales volume month of the year, it behooves retail businesses to have robust processes in place ahead of time. That includes the ability to process credit card transactions rapidly and securely. Lose your connection to the credit card processing companies, even for an hour, and you risk a stampede of irate customers out your front door and directly to your competitor. It’s even worse online. If your site is down or slow or you can’t accept credit card payments, your competitors are just a click away.

With this in mind, MegaPath is asking retailers, “Are You Prepared For Black Friday?” Even with predictions that consumers will be spending slightly less this year than last, there will still be a torrent of sales activity this shopping season. In fact, it might be argued that with less spending each customer becomes more valuable. Anything you can do to give that customer a pleasant shopping experience will work to your advantage.

MegaPath is a major competitive telecommunications carrier and leader in managed IP services. They serve the retail sector with high speed network connections specifically designed to support secure payment transactions. They call their service a “Payment Processor Extranet.” As the name implies, this is a specialized form of connectivity unlike simple Internet broadband. MegaPath’s Payment Processor Extranet connects to your retail site-to-site MPLS VPN service to securely carry credit card and other payment information from your point of sale locations to credit, debit gift and private label card payment and check payment processors. You choose which processors you work with and can and or change them at any time. MegaPath provides a fully redundant proactively monitored communications network to the processors to ensure that your transactions will get through.

For gas stations, convenience stores and other retailers not connected in a MPLS network, MegaPath offers “StoreConnect,” an IPSec encrypted service that works over a wide variety of broadband connections including DSL, cable, wireless and T1 lines. Like the Payment Processor Extranet, this service gives smaller retailers access to the leading payment processors for fast, secure and reliable transactions.

One of the most important processes involved in payment transactions is PCI or Payment Card Industry security. This standard involves a firewalled secure network protected by encryption and strong access control. MegaPath’s retail solutions are designed from the ground up to be PCI compliant.

So, what’s it going to be this year? Will you depend on slow dial-up access from your POS terminals that will likely keep your customers waiting and irritated as they stand in line? Or will you make the transaction process as transparent to your customers as possible with fast and reliable broadband connectivity? If you choose to make your transactions fast, efficient, reliable and secure, there’s no time to waste. Get more information about MegaPath and other retail connectivity solutions and be ready to make the most from the Black Friday weekend and the entire holiday shopping season.