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With the usage of video conferencing systems, distance is no more a communication barrier.

Along with business phone systems and other communication equipments, video conferencing equipments have also emerged as efficient and one of the best mediums for long distance communications. These equipments have proven to be highly useful especially for business organizations, which need to organize meetings and seminars with their offshore clients, employees and business associates on a regular basis.

Video conferencing systems facilitate to share audio, as well as, visuals during a conference. Although, video conferencing and video telephony seem to be similar technologies, in reality they are not. Video conferencing allows a group of participants to confer simultaneously over a network, whereas, video telephony facilitates the transfer of video and voice, but only between two individuals.

Video conferencing is one of the latest developed technologies in the field of communication, which can be used effectively for fulfilling a number of objectives. Video conferences can be used for conducting seminars, meetings, training sessions etc and therefore facilitate organizations to get their job done, without the employees having to travel from one place to another. Consequently, like phone voice recorders, video conferencing too facilitates to increase productivity through better communications. Moreover, it also helps organizations to cut on the extra expenses incurred on the traveling and accommodation of employees.

If you have come to know about video conferencing only recently and are planning to buy the best video conferencing systems, then you need to do a bit of research on your part. This will help you buy the right equipments and set them in a proper manner so that video conferencing works in the most beneficial way for your business.

Business phone systems were very expensive when they were first launched in the market and similar were the case of video conferencing equipments. However, gradually people identified the many advantages of video conferencing systems and started to look and demand for cost effective video conferencing solutions. This led to reduction in the prices of video conferencing equipments and services.

Today, a number of video conferencing systems and services are available in the market at competitive prices. With the reduction in prices, these solutions have started to suit the pockets of more and more numbers of businesses. Therefore, now the benefits of video conferencing can be enjoyed by small and medium sized organizations as well, and improve their productivity and growth. But it is essential that high quality equipments and services are purchased for enjoying the maximum benefits.

VOIP telephony , a technology that allows employees to work from home, could be the most important measure a business takes today in preparing for the possibility of an swine flu pandemic. Without this infrastructure in place, death and illness and fear could easily cripple a business' workforce.

According to a Washington Post article from writer David Brown , more than half of U.S. companies think there will be a global flu epidemic in the next two years. Two-thirds think it will seriously disrupt their operations and two-thirds say they aren't prepared.

Is your company prepared? Has anyone been appointed to plan for a pandemic?

Tommy G. Thompson, who heads the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions in Washington, estimates that only one in five U.S. companies "are in good position in terms of being able to react -- and even those are going to have to restructure and improve their plans."

Models have suggested that at least a third of the population is likely to become ill in each wave, with peak absenteeism somewhat higher, about 40 percent of the workforce. Depending on the strain's virulence, 900,000 to 10 million people might be hospitalized, and 200,000 to 2 million might die.

Absenteeism can also be attributed to working moms who need to stay to take care of sick family members.

Given this scenario, the consultants say, companies should expect that an swine flu pandemic will kill some employees, temporarily cripple workforces, and sow confusion and fear, as well as force people to make harrowing decisions between allegiances to work or family. It would make communication difficult, threaten supply chains, and probably interrupt production of goods and delivery of services.

Because of this businesses are encouraged to become a co-leader with government in preparing for an swine flu epidemic, including the implementation of VOIP telephony. Fear is worse than disease, making communication vital. Password-protected Web sites are a good way to communicate with employees. Companies are better than government or medical institutions at rotating fresh people onto crisis-management teams. Fear of lost wages is the single biggest concern when workers are asked to home-quarantine, so companies should have clear policies in advance.

The US Government Department of Health and Human Services suggestions include enhancing communications and information technology infrastructures as needed to support employee telecommuting and remote customer access.

Who can work at home? Who needs IT upgrades in advance to make that possible? Who needs to come in? These are just a few questions needed to be addressed when planning for a pandemic.

VOIP telephony is the technology that can help employees work from home. With more and more households having high speed Internet access in place already, implementing VOIP is inexpensive and easy. Manufacturers such as Avaya offer all-in-one IP Office communication systems that can enable your business to work virtually.

Investing in VOIP telephony can help a business survive an swine flu pandemic. For more information on how a company can plan for business continuity during a pandemic call 800-335-0229 or click here for the Department of Health and Human Services check list.

The environment of the present day market is very competitive and challenging for business organizations, specially, the new and small sized ones. With the different business phone systems available in the market, survival has become easy for these organizations.

An efficient and effective medium of communication is essential for every business organization for increasing its productivity and growing even in the cut throat competition. The small business phone systems available in the market have emerged as one of the best mediums of communications, which help organizations to maintain regular and effective communications with all the clients, employees and business partners, specially the ones located in other parts of the country or world. Therefore, with the help of these systems, organizations can improve their productivity through enhanced communications and succeed in the market.

Although a small business phone system is not equipped with all the latest features like the VoIP phones and the latest conferencing phones, it comes with the basic features which prove helpful and highly beneficial for the small and newly setup businesses.

Telephone technology is being developed and is growing with each passing day. Due to increased number of manufactures and widespread popularity and demand, even the latest business phone systems are offered in prices which can be afforded by several small and medium sized businesses as well. Therefore, the usages of the latest communication equipments are no more restricted to the large organizations alone.

The VoIP phones are the latest phone systems available in the market. These systems are being widely acclaimed by business organizations of all sizes and from different sectors because of the number of benefits which these offer.

VoIP gateways and phone systems facilitate to make voice calls over the internet. Because of the low call costs, VoIP technology has emerged as highly beneficial especially for the large organizations, which need to make hundreds of calls to clients and customers on a daily basis.

No matter whether an organization decides to invest in small business phone systems or in the latest ones, it is important to first identify the business communication requirements and the budget, and then invest in a system accordingly. This will help to ensure that the goals of the organization are met in the best way and within the minimum time period.

You must have many a times heard about VoIP and VoIP gateways. But do you know what these technologies actually are?

To understand what a VoIP gateway is, you first need to understand what VoIP technology is. VoIP is the term used for Voice over Internet Protocol . It refers to the technology which facilitates transmission of voice traffic over internet networks. Internet protocol was originally developed for sharing data. After its immense success, the technology was adapted for sharing voice networking.

More and more number of business organizations have started to use VoIP instead of the traditional PSTN for communicating because it is cheaper and more useful than the other mediums of voice communications. Some of the benefits of using VoIP technology and VoIP phones include:

VoIP facilitates to transmit more than one phone call on a single broadband phone line. Therefore, more telephone lines can be installed by the business at a lower cost.
Like business phone systems, VoIP phones too, have many advanced features such as call forwarding, caller ID, call waiting etc. For these features, the businesses don' t have to pay any extra charges.
VoIP offers unified and secured communications, which can be integrated with other internet based services such as video conferencing, web conferencing etc for enhancing the business communication.
Now let us discuss what VoIP gateways are. Gateways are devices which convert telephony traffic into internet protocol so that data can be transferred over a network. These are generally used in the following two ways:

For converting PSTN to VoIP. A VoIP gateway facilitates to receive and place VoIP calls on a regular telephone network. With the VoIP technology, businesses can make larger volumes of calls at much lower prices.
To connect traditional PBX and other business phone systems to an IP network. A VoIP gateway allows making a call using VoIP technology instead of a regular telephone line. Business can either buy these services from a reputed and reliable VoIP service provider or can route the calls through the internet to reduce the call charges.
VoIP gateways are available in the form of external units and PCI cards. However, most of the business organizations prefer using the external units as their VoIP devices. Every VoIP gateway has a connector for getting connected to the IP network and one or more number of ports for connecting the phones lines to it.

Although desktop video conferencing services have been available in the market for quite sometime now, it has gained a rapid recognition and a wider use only in the recent years. Businesses of all sizes and from almost all the sectors have recognized this form of conferencing as one of the most efficient tools for business communications.

With these services, it is becoming possible for big, as well as, small sized organizations to maximize their productivity and performance and cash in huge profits. Desktop video conferencing, being an effective communication tool, is also helping organizations which have just entered the market, to set up strong base and pillars for the business. With the help of desktop conferencing, organizations can maintain regular and effective communications with their customers, clients and employees located in different places.

So what exactly is a desktop video conference and which conferencing system and equipments are required for conducting such a conference?

A desktop video conference is a form of conferencing which not only facilitates the participants to share information though the white-board and instant messages, but also share the entire desktop along with pictures and videos. Therefore, this form of conferencing is much more interactive and useful than the simple audio conferencing.

Besides using the computer system and video camera, a desktop video conference can be made further more effective with the use of conferencing microphone. If the participants use high quality microphones and speakers, they can share voice messages along with pictures and instant messages.

During times of emergencies, most of the organizations prefer conducting a desktop video conference rather than using their VoIP Phones for making calls. The factors which make desktop conferencing a preferable choice for organizations is the ability to share documents and any type of computer displayed information along with audio and video.

Desktop video conferencing acts like a face to face conference between the participants, although they are located in different destinations. The vast physical distance between the participants, in no way has an adverse effect on the conference. In fact, many big organizations conduct in-house desktop conferences, as it allows the important employees to work on the same project with close coordination.

In the present competitive market, desktop video conferencing is definitely one of the most useful and powerful mediums of business communications, which is not only beneficial for the big organizations, but also for the small and medium sized businesses.

A common belief among the recently set-up businesses and the small size businesses is that, business phone systems are not of any use for them. The misconceptions such as, these phone systems are very costly and do not have feature which are useful for small sized businesses, are the factors creating such kind of belief. However all the above mentioned concerns are not true and these phone systems are as useful and beneficial for the small sized organizations as for the big ones.

There are different kinds of business phone systems available in the market with a wide variety of features. Some of the most common features which are available with almost every kind of phone systems include voicemail, extended voicemail, call forwarding, rollovers etc. However, due to a number of features available with these phone systems, it at times becomes difficult and confusing for a business to decide which features will prove useful for the business and which phone system should they buy.

One of the very first things which an organization needs to consider while buying a business phone is its quality. The avaya phone systems are known as one of the best phone systems available in the market. The other things that an individual needs to consider before buying a phone system is the number of extensions that will be required and the features which will help the organization to improve its business communications and increase its productivity.

However, while evaluating the different features, it will be helpful if you consider the future growth plans of the organization, along with the present requirements. This will help you to plan in advance and also minimize the requirements of investing in another business phone system in the near future.

Some of the features in your Avaya systems which

can prove beneficial for your organization include:
Voicemail - It is the most important feature of phone systems and you need to go for a system which has sufficient number of voicemail extensions.
Call forwarding - With this feature available in your phone system, you can stay in better touch with your customers, as well as, employees even when you are out of office.
Expandable - The business phone system that you buy should be able to accommodate the future needs of your organization through expansion. The VoIP Phones available in the market are considered to be the best option while considering the future growth Should be easy to install and configure.
Besides these features which are useful for small sized organizations, the business phone systems are nowadays available at reasonable prices as well. Therefore, organizations don't have to worry about exceeding their budget.

Effective September 1st 2008 Polycom will be raising prices across the board on all Audio and Video conferencing equipment. Polycom is adjusting prices due to macro-economic factors including rapidly increasing costs of gas and oil and a general increase in the costs of materials required to manufacture and deliver their products. In general the price increase will be 3%, with some products and/or services going higher. Order now and beat the increase!

If you are looking to purchase New Polycom products in the near future, please do so by August 31 as that is the last day we will be able to honor any outstanding quotes. Call us at 800-335-0229 and save on all video conferencing and audio conferencing products before the price increase.

Tried to book a flight to or from a smaller regional airport lately? US Airlines are cutting flights across the board in an attempt to reduce the already huge losses which may be as high as 12 billion collectively this year. Not Since 2002 has the airline industry been hit this hard. Reducing service by as much as 50% to smaller regional airports is just one strategy the airlines are enacting, raising the costs of tickets is another. Competition for fewer seats will also add to making a bad situation worse.

How will your company deal with fewer flights and higher travel costs?

Implementing audio and video conferencing systems can help your company stay in touch with your customers as well as reduce travel costs and headaches. With the cost of bandwidth becoming cheaper IP Audio and Video Conferencing Solutions make more sense then ever.

Telcom & Data offers a full range of collaboration tools designed to help you stay in touch with your customers, employees and vendors on a global basis. We offer Avaya IP Office for VoIP communications for remote workers, state of the art Polycom HD video conferencing, as well as reservationless web based audio and web conferencing systems.
Never before has so much technology been available to help you reduce travel costs and stay in touch with customers.

A recent conversation with Tom Cervino IT Manager at M3 Companies a multi location real-estate development company of master planned communities in the South West brought to light that not only has video conferencing reduced travel but in fact has vastly improved communications between locations as they are able to meet more regularly.

If your company is looking at ways to combat the reduction in airline service and the higher costs of travel check out our new Going Green area of Telcom & Data web site. Going Green is packed with user friendly solutions that can help your company stay in touch, save money and lower carbon emissions. If you would like to discuss ways your company can implement a Green Solution call us at 800-335-0229

Last weekend hackers were able to hack in to the FEMA phone system to rack up over $ 12,000 worth of phone bills. FEMA is part of Homeland Security, which in 2003 put out a warning about phone system hacking. Most of the calls were calls in to the Middle East including Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, India and Yemen.

The type of hacking done was termed very “old school” and the FBI is currently investigating the matter and added “phone system hacking is usually very difficult to track”.

One of the best ways to protect your business from hackers is by using a call accounting system or software like Tapit Call Accounting Software. Tapit provides detailed reports on all call activity but is also has a fraud component. The Tapit Fraud Alert Module protects your company from a 3 billion dollar problem facing business today. The average fraud price tag is $ 42,000.00 . The Tapit Fraud alert module alarms you when set calling parameters are being breached by sounding an alarm and sending out text messages.

Fortunately for TAX payers the problem was caught by Sprint only after $ 12,000 worth of calls were made. It could have been much worse. The hackers could of placed many more thousands of dollars worth of calls. In most instances, companies do not realize they have hacked until they receive a new phone bill.
.FEMA will ultimately be responsible for the $ 12,000.00 worth of phone bills.

Hacking occurs routinely but rarely makes the news unless it is a high profile hacking such as FEMA. A typical hacking occurs to small and med size companies that can ill afford a $ 12,000 plus phone bill. The US Courts have repeatedly sided with the phone companies in determining who is responsible for paying the hackers phone bill. For one non-profits experience check out the story about Check out the story about 4Help Non Profits. If you would like more information on how to protect your business from telephone hacking, call Telcom & Data at 800-335-0229.

Telcom & Data has recently announced that it will provide remote support services for all
Avaya and Lucent manufactured phone systems including Definity, Merlin Legend, Merlin Magix, IP Office, Partner ACS, Merlin, Spirit and other systems.
Remote support services can be purchased in as little as ½ hour time increments starting at only $ 55.00 per half hour on most systems except Definity and IP Office which start at $ 70.00 per ½ hour.

Providing affordable remote maintenance services has been difficult to find. Avaya charges a 4 hour minimum of $ 600.00 per hour which makes support unaffordable.
Telcom & Data covers extension programming, lines and trunks, cover groups, voice mail, night service and other programming.

Telcom & Data also offers remote trouble shooting and diagnostics. If Telcom & Data can not resolve a customers issue remotely, Telcom & Data offers nationwide service capabilities for on site support.

For more information or help please call 800-335-0229. All services are guaranteed.