Warning – Never Accept 'five 9S' As A Reliability Standard From A Hosted Voip Provider Again!
Posted by Ben
What’s your uptime? This is a question I often hear from clients when they’re evaluating hosted VoIP providers. The question sounds simple enough, but I like to pay close attention to how a vendor answers. Uptime is loosely defined as a measure of the time a particular system has been “up” and running. Most providers boast the famous “Five 9’s” (99.999% uptime) as the gold standard for reliability-but what does that really mean?
After doing a little digging, I discovered three ways of measuring uptime:
When the system is running,
When the system and network are running, or
When the system, network and applications are running.
In most cases, the five-nines a hosted VoIP provider refers to only deals with the first measurement-system uptime at their data center. Regardless of what their standard measurement is, your main concern is #3. At a minimum, a provider should be able to provide metrics for both #1 & #2. Here’s an example of why the answer is so important: Let’s say you connect to your provider via a point-to-point Internet connection, and your line gets cut because someone’s doing construction across the street. Is this an outage? Not so from the service provider’s perspective, if they’re using the first definition. But what does it mean for you?
While system uptime seems to be the universal telecom industry standard, hosted VoIP providers who truly value their clients typically measure all aspects of uptime and make that information readily available. Any successful business relationship must be built on trust, and trust begins with transparency. Before getting into bed with a provider ask to see the following information to get a sense of how they’ll treat you once you become a client:
Live and historical system performance data-you not only want to see the last 90 days, but also how their system has performed over time (at least 1-2 years).
Planned maintenance schedule-first off, you want to see that they’ve planned ahead and actually have a schedule. Secondly, you want to see what systems they have in place for you to access real-time information.
Information on how your data is safeguarded-since you will be relinquishing a fair amount of control with a hosted solution, you should be clear on security practices.
Customer support metrics-average hold time for support calls, % of service tickets resolved the same days, availability and metrics for weekend and off-hours support.
So, the next time a vendor proudly declares Five-9s of reliability, remember to dig a little bit deeper using the points in this article. The process will give you greater confidence during your selection process and hopefully lead you to a vendor you can trust.
Kendra Webb-Scott is an SMB Technology Specialist and technology writer. She has 7 years experience with hosted VoIP solutions, managed IT services, and CRM systems. Her mission is to help business owners meet and exceed their goals and focus on their core competencies using technology as the foundation of success. She is a graduate of Columbia University and holds a B.A. in Psychology and American Studies. Kendra enjoys working with IT professionals and savvy business owners looking to upgrade their telecommunications and data solutions to help take their businesses to the next level.
For more information or to contact Kendra, please visit: www.smbtechnologytoolkit.com, or follow her on Twitter at: twitter.com/KendraWebbScott.
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Toktumi Phone Adapter
Posted by Ben
Business phone service in five minutes! Whether you need 1 line or 10, you can set up Toktumi lines instantly, creating dedicated phone numbers for your employees and linking them together through a single main number, even if they work in different locations. Big company features include visual voicemail, auto receptionist, call forwarding, call transfer, call waiting, caller id, search dialing, and instant conferencing for up to 20 people. All phone services are hosted at Toktumi’s secure telecom center, so you never have to worry about missing a call or losing important messages. Calls forward to your cell phone, voicemail or an auto receptionist whenever you are offline. Try Toktumi today and make your small office look like a big office in minutes.
Voip – Start Saving A Fortune On Your Phone Bill
Posted by Ben
Is your phone bill eating you alive each month? Are your kids costing you an arm and a leg? If you cringe when you see the bill, I know what you mean, phone calls aren’t cheap and they add up.
At one point I was spending anywhere from $250 – 300 each month on long distance phone calls. I know what you’re thinking, yikes. Some of you may have even higher bills, it wouldn’t surprised me.
It’s funny that the phone companies can still survive in this day and age, when there is unlimited Internet connection and many other ways to stay in touch. My only guess is there isn’t anything like hearing someone’s you love voice. And very few people are willing to give up their telephone.
Well, as you can imagine I wasn’t happy with my bill, and I am always on the lookout for a better offer. Over the years I stumbled across VoIP. And that is what I am currently using.
What is VoIP? It stands for Voice over IP, and basically it allows you to call through your DSL connection. Does this mean you’re going to have a horrible telephone conversation? No, not in the slightest. Actually the quality of my connection got better. I was also apprehensive if there would be lag when somebody was using the Internet. Again nothing of the sort.
Once you sign up with a VoIP provider you simply plug your telephone into your router, the company I switched to sent me one free of charger, and you’re all set. You can either choose to keep your phone number or get a new one. I kept my old one.
And the best part, at least to me, is that I now have free unlimited calling nationwide for one small monthly fee. Where was this ten years ago!
VoIP has many more features, some of which include free calls to Canada, advanced voice mail and a whole host of others I have never used.
If you’re wondering how you can free yourself from the monthly phone bills, the VoIP service from VoIPo can help.
You can get it for less than $10 a month and you will never have to pay your phone company another dime. That is a great feeling!
Click here and save, it is never too late. For more information about VoIP visit my website: http://iqbanq.com/voip/
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Syspine VoIP Phone System to be distributed in Canada by Williams Telecommunications.(BUSINESS): An article from: VoIP Monthly (Voice over Internet Protocol) [Digital, HTML]
Posted by Ben
This digital document is an article from VoIP Monthly (Voice over Internet Protocol), published by Information Gatekeepers, Inc. on August 1, 2008. The length of the article is 347 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Citation DetailsTitle: Syspine VoIP Phone System to be distributed in Canada by Williams Telecommunications.(BUSINESS)Author: Gale Reference TeamPublication: VoIP Monthly (Voice over Internet Protocol) (Magazine/Journal)Date: August 1, 2008Publisher: Information Gatekeepers, Inc.Volume: 5 Issue: 8 Page: 4Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Quanta Computer announced that Williams Telecommunications Corp. will now be serving as a master distributor of the Syspine(R) Digital Operator Phone System throughout Ca (more…)