How would your business change and benefit if you could seamlessly enable home working?

• Smart working has been proven to increase employee productivity by 15 to 20%
• 57% of employees who use smart working are more satisfied with their job than those who work only in the office
• 78% of managers consider flexible working to be the most effective non-economic incentive to retain talent in their company
• Mobile working is also the easiest way to balance family life and work
• Allowing flexibility in your workplace can drastically reduce business downtime caused by illness, self-isolation or in case of parental leave

You can get all of these benefits and more with a system that lets your people work from home as if they were still in the office – while providing total security.

Our Wildix package lets you:

• Make internal and external calls
• Group chat
• Video conference
• Screen and file share for easy collaboration
• See real-time presence monitoring for colleague’s active status
• Set up unlimited user licences
• Have 100% flexibility to add and remove users as needed
• Even manage a call centre environment with remote workers

Why this is so good, especially at the moment, is because you can use our Wildix smart working solution without the need for any new hardware or software.

It also works on tablets and smart phones. All with 100% total security.

Now if the perfect time to mobilise your business with our cost free and easy to set up trial.

We can get you live remotely in no time at all using your own equipment. The free trial is for any number of users.

This really is a great offer to test if a flexible solution could work for your business, without any upfront costs. 

You only have until 31^st March 2020 to sign up to the free trial

Get in touch now to get set up

0203 700 8585

support@communitec.uk

Our aim in this blog post is to fill you in the facts and let you understand your options.

What are we used to working with?

For over 20 years we have been using the traditional telephone network for our home and business calls, and more recently our internet. This network uses copper wires to transmit analogue and digital signals.

For this set up the user has a traditional phone line (PSTN), and then to get internet access either an analogue ADSL line (mainly for home and small business use) or a digital ISDN line (mainly for business use).

What is PSTN?

PSTN is short for Public Switched Telephone Network. It is basically a traditional telephone line using copper wire to transmit voice communications. It is the simplest phone set up and what a lot of people have at home or in a small business. A PTSN phone number is equivalent to one phone line. This is now considered to be old technology as it is inflexible and serves only one purpose.

What is ADSL?

ADSL stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. It currently accounts for approximately 50% of the UK’s broadband lines. Using your PSTN, it uses standard copper wire telephone lines. But, with the addition of a microfilter on the line, it allows users to make a phone call and surf the internet at the same time. This is an analogue solution and the speed of the connection is based on how far the line is from the telephone exchange. It is also considered to be old technology because of the speed issues and lack of reliability.

What is ISDN?

ISDN is short for Integrated Services Digital Network. It came about in the late ’80s and has been a good choice for businesses because it supports voice and data communications. It also uses traditional copper wire telephone lines but sends a digital transmission instead of an analogue one. This makes it a quicker solution than ADSL. It was a step forward and allowed video conferencing to take off. But now, there are much quicker alternatives using fibre lines and cloud communications instead of copper lines.

What is changing?

BT Openreach has announced that by 2026 they will have started the shutdown of the ageing copper wire telephone line network. Current copper wire networks using ADSL or ISDN are being replaced by fibre optic networks.

The download speeds users experience with ADSL or ISDN vary depending on how far their premises is from the phone exchange. And, reliability also varies, with connections dropping out very easily.

In 2000, we saw the start of the fibre optic broadband rollout. This network uses underground fibre optic cables to transmit data much, much quicker and with fewer reliability issues than copper wires.

Fibre also gives users much more flexibility because of their breadth and speed. Meaning you can do more; cloud computing, video conferencing, internet phone calls etc.

Where are we at with the switch to fibre?

Some users currently have fibre cables to the exchange cabinet and then copper wires from the exchange to their premises, this is called FTTC (Fibre to the cabinet). Some have fibre cables to their front door, this is called FTTP (Fibre to the premises). And some don’t have fibre at all yet, relying on the copper network.

The rollout of fibre across the UK has taken longer than anticipated but now BT Openreach has announced that 2026 is when they will start to close the copper network; they are going to have to work very hard to complete the implementation.

Copper will be being phased out altogether from 2026. So even if you have an FTTC set up, this won’t be enough. All homes and businesses will need to have FTTP.

Margot James, UK Minister for Digital until July 2019, commented that “We’re building a Britain that’s fit for the future, and our plans for a national full-fibre broadband network underpin our modern Industrial Strategy. Upgrading to gigabit-capable connections will benefit homes and businesses all across the UK”.

What do you need to do?

This is such a huge undertaking for BT Openreach and with a large knock-on effect for businesses, and this is why BT Openreach has made the announcement with a six-year lead-time, to allow you to prepare for the switchover.

When the deadline arrives in 2026, nothing will just get turned off. You won’t be left with nothing. There will be a phased approach and interim solutions to keep you working.

However, because of the positives in moving to web-based technology, it might be best for you to start doing your research now.

What to think about:

You need to understand your current set up, what you’ll potentially need to change and what you might be able to change now. Plus, if you are thinking of changing anything anyway or you have contract end dates coming up, now would be a great time to explore future-proofing your business.

1. Check your current phone system; what have you got and how does it work?
2. If you are not already using a VoIP telephone system, check if your current internet connection is able to support VoIP? A VoIP provider like ourselves will be able to advise you on this
3. Is your current phone system fairly new and you’d like to keep using it but it isn’t s VoIP system? A SIP solution might be able to work your business. Read more on this below

What is VoIP?

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. It is basically a way of running and managing your phone system, and making calls, over the internet. You don’t need an incoming phone line to use VoIP, you just need a good enough internet connection.

Having a VoIP phone system gives your business lower call costs and more business flexibility. Once set up, you can access the system, view data and make calls from your desktop PC, laptop, mobile and tablet.

Plus, you can be anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection. Meaning this is a great solution for workers who need to travel, work remotely, or for a growing business.

Using a management dashboard, you can centrally manage your team, call routing, availability and more. A VoIP system makes day to day business easier and gives your customers better user experience.

Some of the benefits of our VOIP packages from Communitec:

• Lower call costs
• Real-time user management
• Scalable solution for businesses of any size
• Spread the cost of your hardware
• Reduced call costs compared to a traditional phone system
• Your phone system isn’t anchored to a specific location
• Quick to set up

Some of the features of our VOIP packages from Communitec:

• Voicemail to email
• Fax to email
• Management reporting
• Outlook diary integration
• Call recording
• IVR for customer-led call routing
• User distribution groups for call management
• Instant messaging between teams
• File and desktop sharing
• SMS sending service
• Voice and video conferencing
• Plus, many more

At Communitec, we can help you decide if moving to a VoIP phone system is the right move for your business.

What is SIP?

If you are a small business and have a current phone system that works very well for your needs. And you don’t need all the features of a full VoIP system. There is a way to keep your existing set up with the use of SIP trunking.

A SIP set up is considered to be a hybrid, combining traditional technology with internet technology. The SIP trunking sits between your copper wire or fibre lines and converts the connection to work with your existing phone system.

This is a great solution if you have recently invested in hardware and are happy with your current set up but are looking to future-proof your business.

Get in touch with us to explore your options further.

What is Windows 7?

On a PC or laptop, you have an operating platform, Microsoft Windows. Then you have your user software, Microsoft Office.

Your machine will have had Windows installed on it when you first got it. There is no subscription or operating costs. But, you will receive periodic updates to the software and security. You also benefit from a support service if things go wrong and you need to contact Microsoft for help.

Then, you buy or subscribe to your chosen Office package. This is for your applications like Word, Excel PowerPoint etc.

What is happening?

On January 14th 2020, Microsoft will no longer support Windows 7. Any computers with Windows 7 will still function and you’ll be able to carry on working but Microsoft will no longer provide the following:

• Technical support for any issues
• Software updates
• Security updates or fixes

Do you have any computers using Windows 7 in your business?

This is something you will need to check on every desktop and laptop computer.

If you have Windows 8 or 10, check by:

• Pressing the Windows logo key + R, type winver in the Open box, and then select OK.

If you think you have Windows 7, check by:

• Select the Start button, type Computer in the search box, right-click on Computer, and then select Properties
• Under Windows edition, you’ll see the version and edition of Windows that your device is running.

Can you just keep using Windows 7?

You can continue to use your PC running Windows 7. However, without continued software and security updates, your business will be at greater risk of viruses, hacking and system integration issues.

If you run third-party software, like a CRM system, they might not support using a Windows 7 machine either.

Plus, if your business is certified as being part of Cyber Essentials, your certificate will not be valid two weeks after Window 7 becomes unsupported by Microsoft. This is because Cyber Essentials require security updates are run every 14 days and on Windows 7 this will no longer happen after 14th January 2020.

What are your options?

You have three main options to consider for your business:

1. Buy all new hardware with Windows 10 installed
   If you have not been planning for this, it could be ruled out as an option because of the expense. It will get you brand new kit and a bang up to date operating platform though.
2. Buy refurbished hardware with Windows 10 installed
   This could be a far more cost-effective way of upgrading your business hardware and it actually works out at only marginally more per unit than upgrading your current kit (option 3). It is definitely worth looking into as a option. You could rollout a mix of refurbished and new kit for your business all running Windows 10.
3. Upgrade your current hardware from Windows 7 to 10
   This could be an option for you. You’ll need to upgrade each desktop and laptop and it will depend on the age of the condition of your equipment as to whether this is a viable option. An aging desktop might not have the capacity needed to run Windows 10.

If you would like to explore your options, find out more about refurbished computers and laptops or look into upgrading, please get in touch with us.

Already, as fallout from this announcement, we have started to see a lot of telecoms companies trying to cash in.

Small businesses are being scare mongered into signing up for expensive VoIP telephone systems on long contracts with the promise of being bought out of their current telephony contracts.

We’ve been shocked at the level of fear these companies are instilling and the total costs they are charging over the full term of the seven-year contracts.

Our message to businesses is not to panic.

BT Openreach will be shutting down the existing copper wire PSTN/ADSL/ISDN lines, but it will be a phased approach from the end of 2025. Plus, there will be an interim solution being rolled out to ensure no businesses are left unable to work.

The UK’s fibre optic installation has been a massive undertaking and BT Openreach have made the announcement about the changes to allow businesses time to work out what they want to do.

There is no rush to get moved to a new system.

As a business not currently using a fibre connection, you have two main options to consider in the run-up to 2026:

1. Move to a VoIP telephone system
2. Use SIP Trunking to allow you to continue to use your existing phone system

Our recommendations

If you have a fairly new telephone system that you are happy with, you will be able to keep it with the addition of SIP Trunking. You don’t need to do this now, but you do need to have it on your radar ahead of the end of 2025.

Or, if your current phone system already needs upgrading or is going to reach the end of its life before 2026, have a look into VoIP phone system options.

Next steps

We can help you with your decision. We’ll also be very happy to look over any quotes you have already received for a new system. Please don’t sign up to anything without reading through the fine print.

We have recently worked with a company who had signed up for new VoIP software and hardware with a seven-year contract, that was going to cost them over £40k. They were able to cancel the contract in their cooling-off period and have now got a new solution from us, that better fits their needs, and for a fraction of the price.

When you don’t have an in-house IT team supporting your business, keeping you up to date and keeping everyone working, you need a reliable outsourced third-party to do this for you.

What is Communitec Support?

We provide a multifaceted service that works alongside your business as a reliable partner.

There are proactive elements to keep your business up to date and avoid any downtime. And recovery elements, when things stop working and need fixing quickly.

Our flexible service incorporates everything you need to keep you doing business:

• Servers
• Hardware – desktops/laptops/printers/phones/mobiles
• Phone systems
• Internet
• Email
• New users
• Updates
• Outages
• Cabling and infrastructure

If you experience an issue with your technology, it directly impacts your productivity. We help to prevent issues happening and work quickly to resolve anything that does cause you an issue.

How we’re different…

A lot of IT support providers use third party first line support teams. This often leads to businesses feeling unsupported with lack of issue ownership and understanding of their business.

We manage everything in-house.

You get to know our team and we take ownership of any issues because the buck stops with us. We will always set your expectations and keep you in the loop about what we’re doing.

Service options

Our support is tailored to your business. The level of support you need will depend on:

• Your current IT set up
• Your type of business
• Your number of employees

Everyone needs something different – if you have a team of five office-based people you will need something different to a call centre with 200 agents, or a field sales team of 15.

What are clients are saying about us

“We wanted to partner with an organisation who would understand exactly what we wanted and had excellent support and technical skills to back this up. Communitec ticked all these boxes.” Scott McKenzie, Operations Director at Headstock

“After we began using the Talari appliances with Communitec, our £50,000 annual network costs dropped immediately to £40,000. And over five years, we calculate a savings of £80,000 with Talari from Communitec.” Nick Fulford, IT Manager, Allparts

“We have been very impressed with the work and support from Communitec. Nothing has been too much trouble. The whole team is very friendly and helpful and are always on hand when we needed to ask anything.” Susanne Rees, Owner, Corby Climbing Centre

Next steps

Get in touch with us to arrange your free, no-obligation review of your current IT set up.

Whether you are running a ten-bedroom care home or multiple sites across the country, technology and communication plays a vital role in providing the high levels of care needed for residents.

Typically, the majority of care homes rely on a multitude of different systems and devices to support the day to day. Things like pull cord system systems for emergency response, buzz entry systems for main access doors and telephone systems for managing calls from carers or suppliers etc.

There are different setups, systems and pieces of software for managing everything individually. However, as technology has moved on there is now no longer any need to have all of these standalone systems that are costly and difficult to manage and maintain. A care home can join all of this together and have one system that does it all. That also allows for reporting, tracking and increased accountability.

So what does this actually mean for you managing a care or nursing home? How will new technology help with your current challenges? What new systems are available and what are the potential benefits for you?

Current challenges

If you currently have lots of systems all doing different things, the main drawback is that each system is just doing one thing for you, there is no integration.

For instance, a resident may pull the help cord if they fall over in the shower and this sends an alert to the nurse’s station or a pager, but often that is all it will do – that event, the time of it, if anyone responded to it, if the alert was cancelled, none of that information is recorded or stored anywhere.

Similarly, if a push-button alarm or a proximity sensor for a dementia patient is triggered, how are you keeping track of events like that; the frequency of it, times of day, response times etc? All of your systems are doing a single job to its minimum capacity.

The worse case ramifications of using these systems are the threat of emergency calls being left unanswered. And from a management point of view, you don’t have a robust way of tracking resident incidents to look for patterns that might help the person, or for tracking response times to ensure you are providing a great level of care.

This is on top of duplication of equipment and devices, as well as high annual maintenance costs.

Introducing a centralised approach

If you can get all your different systems talking to each other, you can then address these challenges as well introduce lots of other more efficient ways of working.

The good news is that you don’t need to rip out and replace what you already have. Instead, you could introduce some software to work on your current phone system. This would allow all your phone line based activity to be controlled and managed centrally.

What does that mean?

If you have a tablet, something like an iPad, you can link all your individual alarm type systems to it via some software.

You would visually see whats going on in your care home and have the ability to report on it as all the data would be stored. If a resident triggered an alarm, it would flash up on the tablet device. The person attending the call would accept the alarm and close the call when the situation was resolved.

You would also be able to report on which resident the alarm came from, at what time, in which location, who responded, response time and resolution time. This type of data is invaluable for both resident care and future resident attraction.

The tablet could also be used for making and receiving phone calls, keeping a log of dispensed medications and even viewing video via main door entry systems. It would also replace the need for carers to carry around mobiles, cordless phones, pages etc.

Here are some of the wider benefits:

Calls are always answered

Using modern software alongside your current warden call and phone systems, you can have a carer routing system set up. If an alarm call is made or triggered, the system will send the call to the first carer in the routing queue, if that person is busy, the call won’t go unanswered, it will route to the next carer in the queue, and so on and so on until someone accepts the call. This safeguards the resident and you by guaranteeing a quick response.

You can even set up rules on the system, things like if an alarm call is made between certain hours it goes to a specific person or group first. You can also view other phone line based system information on the tablet, such as fire alarms or power failures.  At the same time with caller ID you can see exactly what flat, apartment or room is calling, and there is even the possibility to link this to other resident information such as medication.

More accountability

The software has built-in call recording and call detail records so you can also introduce greater accountability and an audit trail for every incident/event.

Every voice call will be recorded and stored in an easily searchable format. Call recordings can be particularly valuable to prove what was said and when, after an event, as well as being used for internal training purposes.

From a billing perspective too, by having access to all call detail records it is easy to provide itemised billing to individual residents for their own personal phone use.  The system would also allow you to integrate individual phone call billing with your accounts system too, to make monthly invoicing easier.

Reduced costs and maintenance

Having a specific system to manage everything help you accurately track what is going on in your care home. This will help you manage costs and will also will vastly reduce your investment in equipment and annual maintenance costs by consolidating everything.

Also, using non-BT phone lines with this software will vastly reduce your monthly line rental costs. You can, of course, multiply these on-going savings by the number of sites you have.

The physical cabling around your premises will be reduced as everything will work on one network and you can also be more sustainable with lower copper content throughout your building.

Your tablets can all connect via a wi-fi network and that can also supply internet access for residents and visitors and even enable tracking services to notify a nurse or carer that a vulnerable patient has left the building unaccompanied.

Connecting with the future

The above are just some of the benefits that you can get by updating your current systems, but the real beauty of adopting an integrated system like this is that you have complete flexibility for the future.

If you are looking to grow, improve resident care, improve efficiencies and reduce costs, then putting a fully integrated system at the heart of your operation is paramount.

• Call centres
• Care homes
• New builds
• Office moves

Call centres

We have been heavily involved in IT and phone system projects across all types and sizes of call centres. We have helped clients become more efficient with their call reporting and call handling. Allowing them to improve their processes and provide better customer service.

Care homes

We have helped lots of care homes link their technology together. This has enabled them to improve their patient care and incident response times. This makes their business and their home a better proposition for new residents.

New builds

We have worked with architects, builders and construction companies to plan and cable new offices built from the ground up. Having one point of contact for the IT and telephony side of a project makes it easier for the project managers and site management teams.

Office moves

We’ve also set up hundreds of IT and phone systems for businesses moving to new premises or bigger offices. We can be the single point of contact to ensure a seamless moving experience and no loss of service. Just because you are moving doesn’t mean your customers need to be impacted.

If you have a project you’d like to discuss, please do get in touch.

If you have a project you’d like to discuss, please do get in touch. Contact us on 0203 700 8585 or email support@communitec.uk

In 2015, Susanne had a vision of creating a climbing centre that could be accessible for all, regardless of disability, socio-economic status, or mental health issues. A facility that would support the local community in Corby. In 2018, she was in a position to make the dream a reality.

After finding premises, drawing out what she had in mind, working with architects and planners, obtaining funding as well as a grant from the Horner Foundation and the European Regional Development Fund, she was ready to start putting everything into place.

At the very end of July 2018, they opened their doors and Corby Climbing Centre was born. Located on an industrial park just a stone’s throw from Corby town centre, their facility is home to over 400m2 of bouldering walls (climbing walls to the uninitiated), a coffee shop and a yoga and wellness studio.

The Problem:

From an IT and telephony point of view, Corby Climbing Centre needed everything setting up from scratch. This was a great opportunity for them to get everything right from the outset and not have to retrospectively fix existing issues or grapple with an old set up.

Susanne was adamant that she wanted to work with a local IT and telephony provider for the installation and on-going support, and this is how she found us at Communitec.

We were then involved from the very beginning of the development. We carried out a full site assessment when Susanne first took on the new premises. And we talked through the vision and what she wanted to achieve at the centre.

From doing this we were able to put together a proposal of all the elements they needed as well as an action plan of things that needed to be rectified prior to us starting to work.

The climbing centre needed a way for the public to contact them (phone and web), for the centre to keep people safe via multiple CCTV cameras, new hardware (phones and PCs etc), an internet solution that would provide the centre and visitors with a good WiFi service, computer set up to enable the centre to manage their documents and emails, and finally, a contact for the booking and waiver system third party supplier, to work with to get the systems set up and working.

The Solution:

In our proposal to Corby Climbing Centre there were some basics that needed to be sorted out before we could start work. During our site assessment we had noticed that the BT lines to the building had been cut, so BT would need to be booked in to reinstate those.

Next, we worked with the interior and exterior plans to create a cabling plan that would allow us to deliver all the required elements for the centre.

CCTV was a hugely important element to get right. Not only did they need exterior cameras from a security point of view, they also needed a lot of internal cameras monitoring the safety of climbers on all the walls. The system had two uses and the set up needed to reflect this.

The centre needed robust internet and WiFi access for their own use as well as providing a guest WiFi service. They also needed phones and a call management system, and PC’s with Microsoft 365 installed and running.

The Result:

This was a great project to be involved with, being able to work with a blank canvas and to help get their facility up and running was very rewarding for all of us.

Susanne commented that, “We have been very impressed with the work and support from Communitec. Nothing has been too much trouble. We received help with planning and organising what we needed and when things needed to happen. The whole team is very friendly and helpful and were always on hand when we needed to ask anything.”

We have installed everything the centre needed, and it all went without any major hitches along the way. We were slowed down initially waiting for BT to reinstate the centre’s phone lines, but we were able to catch up quickly and get back on track to hit the centre’s schedule.

The team at the climbing centre have all needed training on the CCTV system, as well as the phone management software and for using the new PC’s and Microsoft 365. This was all rolled out and Susanne was very happy with the results saying, “The team at Communitec are so passionate about what they do, it really makes a difference to the service they provide.”

Since Corby Climbing Centre opened, they have had very few teething issues. Susanne said that “Any small issues we have experienced have been very quickly dealt with by the team at Communitec. It really helps that they are not the usual stereotype of ‘techy people’. They explain things so we easily understand, and they are very approachable”.

The centre is still expanding and adding extra facilities, things like a bookable conference and meeting room. Susanne said “we would recommend Communitec to anyone looking for IT and telephony support. When we expand our facilities here, we will be using them again to help us without question.”

Communitec’s comments:

The team at Corby Climbing Centre have been great to work with and we have really enjoyed helping them get their facility off the ground. We look forward to assisting them with any expansion plans.

There is so much you can do to streamline and enhance your business using telephone line based technology. There are also lots of immediate cost benefits to be had by reviewing your current fixed line rental and call charges.

We can work with you to review what your business needs for now and in the future. Then we’ll advise what could work best in terms of performance, investment and spend.

Our solutions are not only saving our clients time and money, but they are also helping to make their processes and reporting much more efficient.

Here are some examples of how we could work with you:

Lines / Fixed Line Rental

We offer a range of solutions to help keep you working efficiently and save your business money.

If you need new phone lines installing or cabling changes, you don’t have to go direct to BT anymore, you now have options as a customer. We can install and service your phone lines, and there are lots of benefits to this:

• One contact for your telephony and IT services
• Reduced fixed line rental charges
• Reduced call charges
• Keep your existing phone numbers
• No disruption to your service
• Improved call routing, call reporting and call recording with our VoIP Phone Systems

Connectivity

This is a critical part of running your business and it falls into two main areas; telephone/data lines and your network. We can help you get your best connectivity set up.

Lines

Depending on the type of business you have and how you store and share your data, you will need a specific type of telephone/data lines. These are all different depending on the type and size of data you need to transfer at any time. We can work with you to see what is right for your business. Some of the main choices are:

• ADSL
• SDSL
• EFM
• Wimax
• Leased Line
• MPLS

You don’t need to know your requirements upfront, you don’t even need to know what you have currently; we can work all of that out for you.

If it’s a new set up you need, we can do that too. If you’re moving offices or have a new build project, we can cable it all for you.

Networks

Your telephone/data lines are coming into your business but to enable them to talk to your server, your cloud set up, your phones, PC’s, laptops etc you need a network.

We can set up your network, whether it needs to be cabled or wireless. We can make sure all your users and equipment are set up on the network so they can access and share data.

Equipment

Our packages can include the phones themselves. We have a wide range to choose from depending on what each phone will be used for and your budget. You can get anything from a basic phone for just making the odd outbound call, right up to a video conferencing phone with a built-in camera and screen.

VoIP / hosted telephony

Having a hosted phone set-up will give your business lots of flexibility and call handling features. It also works for businesses of any size.

If you want to centrally manage your users and report on your call traffic, whilst benefitting from set up and on going cost savings, this is for you.

VoIP stands for voice over internet protocol. It is basically a way of making and receiving phone calls using the internet. Because it’s web based you can do a lot more with it than a normal phone line.

Some of the features of our hosted telephony are:

• Control over your set up – you can centrally manage your users and phone numbers very easily so you can keep an eye on your business spend
• User interface – you will have a call dashboard on all your users PC’s/laptops. From there you can:
  • makes calls
  • answer calls
  • transfer calls
  • see who is on another call already
  • hear your voicemails
  • see your call history
  • set your status to cover meetings or holidays
  • load in your contacts

There is so much functionality that will make day to day business easier and quicker. It will also help to increase your customer satisfaction because it should cut down time spent on hold.

• Admin interface – there is an admin dashboard that allows you to report on your call activity. It will give you useful data on call volumes, times of calls, active users, 0845 numbers dialled, where calls are being routed to, time to pick up etc. This can be really powerful data that can be used to streamline your processes.
• Call recording – if you need to record your inbound and/or outbound calls for training, compliance or audit purposes, this is an optional feature that you can set to auto or switch off depending on your business type.
• Auto Attendant – if you need calls to a certain user routing to someone else, or calls out of business hours to be played a certain message or routed to a voicemail, you can do all of this from the dashboard.
• Voicemail to email – with each landline number an email address is assigned to it. This means that every time you get a voicemail message left for you on your landline, you will be able to hear the message as you usually would, but you will also receive an email with a sound file of the message.
  If you are anywhere in the world you can still listen to any voicemails on your landline.
  You can also save, delete or forward that email if you need someone else to action it.
• Fax to email – like with voicemail to email, our system can turn your faxes into an email so they are easier to work with and store

You will also realise significant costs benefits:

• The initial set up of our hosted platform is significantly cheaper than investing in a traditional exchange system
• Free calls – any calls made between your users, to other UK landlines or to UK mobiles are completely free

Mobiles

Helping you to get the most out of your business mobiles.
In using us for your business mobiles, you will get flexibility and choice over your provider, handsets and tariffs.

We work with all the main host providers (O2, Vodafone, EE and Three), so we will advise what might work best for your business based on your location, tariff requirements and data usage.

When you sign up with us for your business mobile, we will also pass on to you any host provider benefits that we receive. This means that you can reinvest some of your upfront costs into other parts of your business; buy additional telephony equipment, get money off IT support etc.

Benefits of using us for your business mobiles are:

• Choice of all the host providers
• Impartial advice
• Flexibility – choose more than one provider, have different tariffs

Video Conferencing

Save time, money and work more collaboratively with video conferencing

Depending on your business needs, video conferencing could mean something as simple as a basic Skype set up. Or it could be a full package including cabling, multiple TV screens, audio control units and remote controls.

If you need a meeting room style set up to connect lots of different sites or users, you will need something more than Skype to facilitate it.

We can set you up with quality video conferencing equipment with a central hub (or multiple hubs) and the ability for users to connect via laptops, mobiles and tablets.

You will be able to present data direct from your servers or your laptop. Switch between main speakers and work more collaboratively with people far and wide.

Some of the benefits of video conferencing are:

• Improve collaboration
• Share visual data as if people are in the room with you
• Save on travel expenses and downtime
• Reduce your business carbon footprint

CCTV / door entry systems

Improved control of your door entry systems and CCTV functionality.

Remotely control what is going on at the front end of your business by linking your door entry systems to your business PC’s, laptops, mobiles or tablets. See what is happening at any time from anywhere.

You might need your team to be able to ‘buzz people in’ when they visit you. Or it could be a system to help improve security or safety.

By using one of our systems you have total flexibility of your solution.

A great feature is being able to layer your set up to trigger events. If you have a CCTV camera pointing at the front of your premises, you can programme in event-based triggers. So, if something moves that isn’t meant to, something opens or if someone enters the frame; you can trigger optimum recording quality to kick in, security lights to turn on, the camera to zoom in or other cameras to start recording.

This can be really effective for:

• Security
• Safety
• Compliance
• Auditing

Get in touch to find out more about how we can support your business. Contact us on 0203 700 8585 or email support@communitec.uk

Your server was your business. It was important to look after it, back it up every day, make sure it was working properly at all times and make sure it had enough space for all your business data.

Now, the cloud is fast replacing physical servers located in people’s offices. All it really means is that you no longer need a physical server in your office. Your data, software, applications and documents can be saved and live in the Cloud – a remote server that you access via the internet.

Using a Cloud server instead of a physical server has many business benefits. Especially if your business has multiple locations, homeworkers, and a mix of laptops, desktops and tablets. Anyone is able to access any data at any time.

The risks of using a Cloud server is that if you don’t have an internet signal, you can’t access it. There are also security risks of having that need to be planned for

What is the ‘Cloud’?

The cloud is just a remote server without a physical location in your office. You store your data and documents on it just as you would an office-based physical server. You access it over the internet (often WiFi), rather than via a cable between your server and your desktop computer.

As long as you have an internet connection, you can access your data and systems via the cloud from anywhere and from any laptop, desktop, tablet or mobile.

Can you just keep using a physical server?

Yes, you can, servers can work very well. Especially if you have a small team working exclusively from one office who don’t ever need to access anything from anywhere else, or use anything other than their desktop computer.

However, if you have a team who need to access files and data on the go, or, are based at different sites and use a mix of desktop PC’s, laptops and tablets, a server can be restrictive and cumbersome.

Limitation of physical servers

Having a server in your office can pose certain limitations. You have to look after your server, back it up, make sure it has enough space on it for all your data, and everyone connecting to it has to do so in your office or via a very cumbersome remote access solution.

If anything happened to your server, there is always the risk of losing any data or work that has been done since the last data backup. You have to keep and store your backup files. You have to go through a whole set up process if you have a new team member.

Servers can also be expensive to buy, maintain and upgrade, plus, they take up valuable office space, get quite hot and can by noisy.

Benefits of the cloud

Using a remote server (the cloud) means you free up office space and budget. But more than that, it allows your business to stay up to date and work from anywhere in the world.

The cloud gives you access to your data, documents and systems from any of your laptops, desktops, tablets and smart phones. You don’t need to install an expensive network infrastructure; you just need internet access. If you’re in a meeting or a client’s office and need to access a file or document, you can do; it’s all at your fingertips.

You also don’t need to worry about backing up your data. It is done remotely in real-time. As soon as you have saved something that’s it, it’s there and accessible.

Working in this way also means it is easier to use online software packages like Microsoft Office 365. Gone are the days of buying and installing a specific version of the software on to your server and then being out of date when newer versions are launched. Using online software and a subscription service means you are always up to date with the latest version.

A lot of other business platforms like CRM systems and marketing software are also now all available as online versions. Some only have online versions. This is simple to set up and run as part of your cloud set up.

Why do I need the cloud?

If you have a small team of office only based people, all working exclusively on a desktop computer, maybe you don’t need to move to the cloud because your existing server is sufficient for your needs. But, if you need to be more flexible and agile than that, the cloud allows you to be.

You can grow your business effectively using the cloud, and you can do business anywhere in the world at any time of day or night using the cloud.

It is a flexible solution for evolving and flexible businesses.

What are the risks of using the cloud?

The main one is that if you don’t have internet access you won’t be able to access it. With technology now, there is often a solution even if your main internet connection is down.

There is a worry about data breaches and virus’. These are threats but working with a reputable cloud provider, the risk is minimal. For a SME business the risk is further reduced, as it is the very large data-driven businesses who hackers are most likely to target.

You could be worried about your data being leaked by your own team. There are things you can do to limit this, locking down USB ports and disabling CD drives. Whatever set up you have, server or cloud, there will always be a risk.

The benefits for your business of using the cloud, nearly always outweigh any associated risks.

How much does the cloud cost?

Using the cloud for your business will incur a monthly or annual subscription charge. The amount you pay is based on the amount of data you need. You can change your data needs as you need to, putting you in control of your spend.

Our cloud computing packages start at…

How do I move to the cloud?

If you have decided to move to the cloud for your business, get in touch with us at Communitec. We will arrange to come and meet with you and review your current server set up, access and storage needs. Then we will then be able to put together a full proposal specific to your business.

The move to the cloud is quite simple and there will be little that you need to do. We will manage the process and will train your team on how to work with the new system.

Next steps:

Get in touch to find out more about how we can support your business. Contact us on 0203 700 8585 or email support@communitec.uk

Further Reading:

10 reasons to move your business to the cloud

Already using cloud-based applications, storage and security, or you are just looking into making the move and what it means, we can help.

Read more »