How does VoIP benefit your business?

How does VoIP benefit your business?

Oct 15, 2018 | Blog, News

Many companies are taking advantage of VoIP technology

 

There are a number of ways VoIP, or voice over IP, can benefit a business – from cost saving, efficiency and flexibility it makes sense to use VoIP over traditional landlines.

First and foremost is the dramatic cost saving – because you are calling through a computer network, or internet connection you don’t actually need to pay for using traditional land lines. Line rental is vastly reduced, or in some cases it can be zero. Usually all call charges are also dramatically reduced by around 75% compared to using traditional landlines.

VoIP enables staff to work from any location, making your business much more efficient. If staff can’t get into the office because of bad weather, or traffic issues, they can just seamlessly work from home instead. All you need for VoIP to work is a VoIP phone and an internet connection. Some VoIP phones are software phones which means they can run on your laptop or tablet as an app, rather than a physical device, enabling you to have an extension on your phone system which operates the same way as an extension in the office!

Another way a business can benefit is through flexibility – no longer are you tied to a geographical location so your number can always go with you, no matter where you are.  If you’ve ever moved premises, you may have experienced difficulty moving your telephone number in the past. For example, if you had a business in Birmingham with an 0121 number but wanted to move to Manchester that has an 0161 code, in the past you couldn’t keep that old 0121 number, but with VoIP that number can always go with you no matter where in the country you’re physically located and it means you don’t have to worry about making sure all your customers know about a new number!

Having VoIP in your business usually means you have access to a whole range of advanced features. Features such as voicemail, voicemail to email forwarding, call logging, queues and call recording can usually be accessed for very little capital outlay, making it ideal for small businesses who want to convey a big business professional image to their clients.

Finally, if you don’t have the budget for a large capital expenditure on a new phone system, then VoIP has the answer!  By using a hosted VoIP system you can eliminate all your upfront costs and just pay for a monthly subscription based on the number of extensions you use. Not only does this help with cashflow, it also means you don’t have to worry about depreciation either!

If you want to find out more about how VoIP can benefit your business, get in touch on 0161 711 1100 or email info@nxcoms.co.uk

4G for Business

4G for Business

Sep 3, 2018 | Blog, News

Many people just associate 4G with their mobile phone, but in actual fact 4G has many more uses for business users, especially when it comes to internet access.

 

The speed of 4G is comparable to a fibre optic broadband line, but unlike a physical line which has to be installed by a phone line company, using 4G means you can move in and out of locations very quickly. 4G routers are now available to share a 4G connection with computers, laptops, and tablets, just the same as if they were in an office or home environment.

This is fantastic for those types of businesses which have temporary sites and need to move quickly. For example, a construction site can benefit enormously because they can instantly get an internet connection without waiting for lines to be installed. When the construction project closes, the equipment can be moved to the next site with very little fuss and connect from a new location.

There are also many locations in the UK which simply can’t get decent broadband speeds through a standard telephone line. By using a 4G data connection for your business internet connection, you instantly have access to those faster speeds without any large upfront costs!

Even if your business already has fast broadband speeds, another great application for 4G is by using it as a backup to your normal broadband lines. So, if for any reason your main broadband line went offline, a 4G connection could kick in automatically to ensure that internet access is always maintained at all times. This is ideal for those businesses which need to have a guaranteed connection to the internet, but perhaps cost implications prevent them from obtaining a dedicated leased line which has a service level agreement. 4G as a fail-over backup line is a cost effective alternative.

 

Want to find out more about how you can use mobile data connections in your business?

Why not give us a call on 0161 711 1100 or contact us here!

Is your broadband line suitable for your business?

Is your broadband line suitable for your business?

Aug 20, 2018 | Blog, News

Last month, the UK slipped from 31st to 35th place in the global broadband league tables, behind 25 other European countries.

 

Unfortunately this has been a growing trend – in 2014 the Citizen’s advice bureau conducted a survey of small businesses and found that 30% experienced problems with their broadband which resulted in loss of service and incurring significant costs to the business, and it seems to be getting worse each year!

If you are using broadband at the moment, you need to ask yourself – how would your business cope if you lost internet access for a day, a week or more? Many business owners think this will never happen to them, but we have seen it time and time again where a broadband connection has been faulty and the company hasn’t been able to access the internet for several days.

If you are like the majority of companies, where many of your business is done via email or online, having no internet access can cost you thousands of pounds. Yet many businesses put their trust in a broadband connection costing less than £360 per year, and if it goes offline it can cause them a huge loss in revenue.

It seems crazy, but this is what many business owners do – you might be turning over £300,000 per year, yet they are relying on an internet connection costing less than £250 per year. If that connection goes down, then they could easily lose £1000, £2000, or more each day in lost sales!

 

So what can you do to prevent your business from grinding to a halt when you have no internet?

 

The most reliable way your business can connect to the internet is using a dedicated leased line connection. This type of connection comes with a guaranteed uptime, and usually has a service level agreement guaranteeing a same-day fix time if the line is faulty.

A dedicated leased line might cost significantly more than a broadband connection, however you should ask yourself what would be the cost to your business if you didn’t have a guaranteed internet connection? In most cases the potential loss in revenue in a business far outweighs any additional costs that this service might incur.  For example, would you think investing 1% of your annual revenue in a guaranteed internet connection would be a good choice? If it meant your business was never disrupted, of course you would!

Unfortunately, most business owners are still risking their £20,000+ revenue per month, on a £20 per month broadband which may fail at any time.  It seems like a false economy, especially if it goes wrong!

 

At nxcoms, we not only help businesses who struggle with poor unreliable broadband connections, but we help them get good quality internet access which is suitable for their business needs. There’s lots of alternative ways to connect to the internet and if you want to ensure your business doesn’t risk loosing revenue from faults and downtime, then why not contact us or call 0161 711 1100

 

Slow Broadband? What are the alternatives?

Slow Broadband? What are the alternatives?

Aug 6, 2018 | Blog, Data, News

There are several reasons why you may have slow broadband – first and foremost its usually down to the physical distance from the telephone exchange. Broadband is provided over a copper cable and the longer the cable, the slower the speed. If the copper cable is poor quality or is damaged then this will also affect your broadband speed.

The super-fast alternative to standard broadband is Fibre Optic Broadband. This is also known as FTTC or BT infinity. Unlike standard broadband, this type of service has a fibre optic cable from the local exchange to the green street cabinet. However. the last mile from the cabinet to your premises still remains copper cables though and so the distance restrictions may still affect your speed.

Unfortunately, Fibre Optic broadband isn’t available in all areas, and many businesses in rural areas or on industrial estates will struggle to get it at all!

If slow broadband is affecting your business, and you cant get Fibre Optic Broadband……….how else can you get faster internet access?

 

Well the first alternative is quite simple – by using the mobile phone network. Mobile data connections provide internet speeds similar to fibre optic broadband but over the mobile phone network. In order to get a mobile data connection you need to be in an area covered by 4G which fortunately is becoming more widespread. 4G routers are available which use a mobile phone sim card and can connect your computer network to the internet.

If 4G isn’t available then you may need to consider a dedicated leased line. This type of internet connection requires a dedicated fibre optic cable to be installed in your premises. This can often mean a new cable has to be laid and routed into your premises, and may mean a long lead time of 3 months or more to get the service. Once installed, the fibre optic cable can deliver ultra-fast speeds that no other service can beat, however this comes at a higher price and can often cost several hundred pounds a month. The good news is, however, that you get a dedicated line which is 100% used by yourself, and it comes with guaranteed up-times an a service level agreement to ensure you are connected at all times.  This can be a great option for those businesses which rely on the internet to operate.

So, in order to get faster broadband you may need to choose between one of the alternatives which suits your business needs the best. If your business only has occasional use then mobile data may be better, but if you are a heavy internet user, or need a guaranteed 24/7 connection, then getting a dedicated leased line will be the best option in the longer term.

If you would like to find out more on how nxcoms can help your business become faster and more efficient through new technology, why not call us on 0161 711 1100 or email info@nxcoms.co.uk

 

Hosted Telecoms

Hosted Telecoms

Jul 23, 2018 | Blog, News

A hosted telecoms solution is fantastic for small businesses that need flexibility

 

If you’re a small business, particularly if you’re a new startup, it would seem to be a very large investment to purchase a new telephone system for your company, however, with a hosted telecoms solution you can have a fully professional system without the large capital outlay.

Hosted, or cloud-based, phone systems usually consist of a telephone handset located in your office which connects via an internet connection to a PBX or main processing unit based in a large remote data centre somewhere. These kind of services are usually subscription based, so you pay on a per-user per month basis.

For a small business a hosted system can be ideal, because it gives you big telephone system features but without a big upfront cost. As your business grows you can simply add more users, and likewise if you need to downsize you can reduce users to save costs. Changes are normally done via a web control panel and are instantaneous, so you can quickly change settings whenever you need to.

There are a number of things you need to consider when running a hosted telephone system, the first and foremost is the speed of your internet connection. If your internet connection isn’t fast enough then you will get poor quality and broken-up calls. For most businesses this would involve using Fibre Optic Broadband, or a Dedicated Leased Line connection. If you are in an area where the internet speeds aren’t very fast, then its best to use a completely separate internet connection from your computers, so you would have one purely for your phones and one for your computers. This helps because it means anything your computers are doing, such as downloading files or streaming data, should not affect your phone calls at all.  Unfortunately this is the area where many providers and business owners don’t consider when first setting up, and then they often get a bad experience of VoIP technology because network congestion causes them to experience poor quality phone calls.

Most hosted telephone systems are flexible, so you can choose the best solution which fits your business needs – because hosted systems are subscription based, you can change to another system completely if your current one doesn’t suit your requirements, and financially you have kept your costs down as there are no up-front capital expenditures!

For more information on hosted telephone systems, please get in touch on 0161 711 1100

Did you know there’s an extra sales person in your business that you never knew you had?

Did you know there’s an extra sales person in your business that you never knew you had?

Jul 10, 2018 | Blog, News

You probably don’t know it, but right now you have an extra salesperson in your business, costing you absolutely nothing and their probably sitting there at this moment, not doing anything and a completely wasted resource…..

 

Many business owners don’t actually realise that they have a sales person in their business RIGHT NOW……Even better, they don’t want paying, they never get tired and they never go on holiday!

No I haven’t gone mad!  I’m actually taking about using your telephone system as a sales and marketing tool, with on-hold marketing.

You’ve probably heard it many times before – you call a business and they put you on hold to tinny music, “greensleeves”, or even worse, complete silence…….Wouldn’t it be great if you could utilise that time to tell your customers and prospects about all the great products and services you can provide to them?

Its a known fact that most of your customers aren’t aware of everything you do, so by using on-hold marketing messages you can cross-sell to them without any extra effort. Around 20% of callers enquire about a product or service that they hear about whilst on hold, so it makes sense that you should be using your telephone system as a marketing tool.

We’ve teamed up with the fantastic people at iNarrator to help you get more business through your phone system.  Why not take a look at this video and call us on 0161 711 1100 find out more?

 

 

 

 

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