Many Australian businesses are gearing themselves up to move their employees to work         from  home due to the coronavirus outbreak.

 While this does seem an awfully appealing prospect (no peak hour, no make up, use of our   own bathroom & company from our four legged friends) there are certainly challenges.

 One such challenge is how we stay in touch with our colleges and customers. We can't just   call across the office or have a catch up perched on our workmates desk. We need to keep   working, because the bills will keep coming (disappointing but there it is), so how can we   keep the wheels turning?

 Never before have we been so connected. Now granted, at times, we wish we weren't   (weekend emails, seeing other peoples Facebook holiday posts while we are at work), but   had you suggested 20 years ago you could run your whole office with any number of   employees from their own homes, or from wherever they choose, it would have seemed like   the stuff of fiction. But that is exactly where we are now. With VoIP (Voice Over Internet   Protocol) and phone systems that are hosted in the cloud, we don't need to rely on traditional   onsite phone systems.

With your PABX hosted in the cloud, you can have all your employees work from home and run your office as you would if you were all together in a brick and mortar location. That means your calls come to the reception phone as usual. The calls are transferred to the relevant employee as usual and all the usual phone system features you use can still be deployed.

Pretty great huh? What's better is that you can be up and running in around 60 minutes, with a system customised for you.

Super versatile, scalable, flexible and feature rich, now is the perfect time to upgrade your business phone system to a hosted platform.

Things are certainly a bit tricky at the moment, but I guess for me, if I can keep paying the bills, then that is a big concern off my mind. To keep you working and paying your bills, contact us to see if we can help you.

My sincerest hope is the resolution to this crisis is sooner rather than later. Until then stay well, look out for our vulnerable, enjoy Netflix and remember, this too shall pass.

Robyn

Why use an NBN accredited Business adviser?

Telco Businesses providing NBN services and NBN advice should have gone through the NBNco's Training modules to attain their acreditation. By using an acredited adviser you know you are talking to someone who understands all the different delivery methods, processes and Tiers that NBN and their Retailers can provide you. Also covering off all the services your Business needs to upgrade or retrofit when moving to the new technology.

If you need a hand migrating your Business, get in touch now!

Perhaps your business is still running on an old traditional PABX phone system hanging on the office wall. However as your business expands, adding more phones and hardware can be costly. There will also come a time when your old phone system won’t be as efficient as it used to be. You might eventually have to upgrade your old PABX system to a new one to better support your business and ultimately your customers.

It’s a good thing that there are now more advanced systems that you can take advantage of, especially if your business is expanding. Switching from a traditional PABX system to a hosted PABX provides more features, scalability and affordability.

Hosted PABX systems are feature rich Enterprise grade, yet flexible enough to be customised to meet the specific needs of a business. Here are just a few of the many advanced features of a hosted PABX:

Dedicated phone number for each phone (Direct Inward Dialing)

Web portal

Pay-As-You-Go

Disaster recovery

Redundancy

Personalised on hold recording

Voice mail to email

Automated attendant

call recording

Extensions on your mobile device

dialling from the desktop

The “Pay-As-You-Go” pricing of a hosted PABX allows you to avoid the high upfront costs associated with replacing your entire system. In the long run, this affordability and scalability can save you money on features that all modern growing businesses should have.

You will no longer need to worry about certain maintenance costs when you outsource your telecommunications. More businesses are outsourcing functions that are not central to their core business. With a Hosted PBX it's always upgraded with the latest features and security patches.

NBNco is rolling out services across the country but this year in particular is exciting for the many suburbs in the Sutherland Shire that have been starving for decent internet.

Places like Caringbah, Taren Point, Sutherland, Miranda, Sylvania Waters and Kirrawee are all flagged to get NBN broadband in the first half of 2018.

So what's in it for my Business?

You’ll gain business efficiencies, drive productivity and ultimately increase customer satisfaction.

How does that sound?

The NBN can also deliver a higher capacity than ADSL with more consistent bandwidth speeds which is perfect for voice workloads, ultimately providing a better overall communications experience.

With this in mind you get the benefit of replacing your old Telstra Lines with new modern VoIP Lines which we call SIP trunks. SIP trunks are Virtual lines and it's the Technology used to run voice and video over an internet connection.

NBN Q&A

What about my Dial up alarm panel and my lift and EFTpos machine?

Alternatives are available for these services. Best thing is to have your services audited and advise on the best solution. We are happy to offer advice for free.

Alternatives are available for these services. Best thing is to have your services audited and advise on the best solution. We are happy to offer advice for free.

You have the choice of many different providers, some that are pure resellers of other companies services, some may be small communications guys that supply new PABX's and sign you with a Partner.

Bottom line is you don't need to go with the big Telco's anymore. Their monopoly is now over!

Not sure who or how to chose? Maybe ask for referrals is the best way if you are concerned.

Cost-efficient

In this fast-paced world, businesses must be ready to adapt quickly Take your phone number anywhere and it's easier than ever to travel and still be able to use a company phone number. VoIP utilises internet connections to execute the calls, you do not need a phone number with a specific line. You can simply carry your IP phone or device, connect to the Internet, and begin making calls. Not only that, with mobile VoIP, you can easily send messages or have video calls as needed.

Businesses are also switching to VoIP mainly because of the cost savings. Using the traditional phone line to make long-distance calls can be expensive especially if done on a regular basis. With mobile VoIP, you can cut costs, let us show you how!

Make the most out of the Mobile phone you carry round and the internet access it already has. Mobile VoIP allows the company to take their business beyond the office as needed. This will allow employees to stay in touch with each other and bring the benefits of VoIP beyond their work space.

Samsung for example created the application for Android and IOS called WE-Voip. This is a proprietary application used with the Samsung Officeserv range PBX as well as the Samsung SCM range. The advantage of this app over the rest is its ability to seamlessly move calls from the wifi network to the 3g or 4g network with no call drop.

There are many apps on both Google play and Apple's app store that are free or have a free version you can download. Free usually gives you a good soft phone app but also come with limited features and advertising.