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Tortel USA announces purchase of Citel Technologies
Tortel USA announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase the business and assets of Citel, The VoIP Migration Company, and will operate under the name Citel Technologies Inc. Under this agreement the new company, a corporation headquartered in Amherst, NY, will continue to develop, manufacture, sell and support Citel’s award-winning Portico Telephone VoIP Adapter (TVA) that enables enterprises to quickly migrate enterprises to VoIP without the need to purchase expensive new VoIP handsets and wiring infrastructure. The company will continue to offer full sales and support of the Citel/MCK EXTender product suite, one that enables enterprises to extend the functionality of a corporate PBX to remote offices and home-based workers, as well as other legacy products.

How To Create a Virtual Office

It has become a growing trend for businesses to look for alternatives to the standard office setup, especially for those companies which are just starting out and are looking for ways to reduce their startup costs. One of the more popular alternatives of recent years is the virtual office, which allows individuals to work from home while conducting a large part of their business over the telephone or online. If you or you’re the owner of your business are interested in learning more about virtual offices, what advantages they have over standard physical office space, and how you can set up a virtual office at home, then please take the time to consider the following information.

About Virtual Offices

A virtual office, as you might gather from the name, is one that does not exist in a physical location but instead is a combination of the work that one or more individuals does at home as well as interfacing via telephone and internet with others in other locations. A virtual office can help you and other employees to coordinate and work as a team while still giving each the freedom to work from their own chosen environment. By choosing to create a virtual office for you and your coworkers, each of you can find a greater degree of personal freedom in your work while still working toward common business goals as members of an overall team.

Virtual Office Advantages

There are a number of advantages that should be considered when deciding to use a virtual office as the means for your company to thrive and do business. In addition to the greater amount of personal freedom which is granted by a virtual office, you may also find that there is an increase in individual productivity because each office member is able to work according to their own biological schedule and therefore is able to do the majority of their work during the time of the day or the night when they would normally be most active and alert. Choosing to create a virtual office setting can also save money for all involved, as they will not require a daily commute in order to get to and from work and will also be free to have lunch or breaks with foods that they have around the house instead of having to purchase their meals from restaurants or cafeterias. Physical and mental health can also reflect the benefits of using a virtual office, as individuals who choose this sort of work environment tend to get more exercise and suffer from less work-related stress than those who work in office buildings.

Establishing a Virtual Office

In order to create the virtual office that you desire, you and all members of your staff are going to need to have some basic pieces of equipment. A computer of some sort is a must, and it should have enough storage, memory, and processing power to run common applications which would be used in your line of work. Other essentials include a cellular or home telephone, access to copying and fax services, and a mailing address for any correspondence which will be sent to the company (in most cases a post office box is sufficient.) It is also highly recommended that you create a website for your company to serve as an internet storefront, since potential customers will need something to base their decisions to work with your company on.

Once you have the equipment that you need and have established your web presence, make sure that you have taken care of any last-minute paperwork including securing business licenses and tax identification numbers as needed. Make sure that you have received any inspections that may be required for your specific type of business and that all of the proper paperwork for operating a business in your area has been filled out. You should now be ready to begin your business.

There are many benefits of creating your own virtual office. Learn how you can take action to implement this process while continuing business as usual. Visit our premiere website at

With record oil costs and summer right around the corner the cost of gasoline is not going to be coming down any time soon. Business are being hit by the record high costs while trying to remain competitive and not passing costs on their customers.
VoIP Technology is an excellent way to fight back at the pump and an excellent investment for your economy stimulus check.

How can VoIP technology reduce your fuel costs? Start by working at home one or more days a week. Let’s face it, many employees can do the same work from home as they can at the office. If your work is done on the phone or from the PC you are a prime candidate to work from home. Working from home can greatly reduce your fuel costs. . At Telcom & Data at least half of our employees work from and it works out great. The company benefits from less wear and tear on personal and company vehicles, parking costs, and less fuel consumption. Combine savings with more family time for employees and you have a win, win, win scenario.

“My Phone System Doesn’t Support VoIP.”

Yes it does. In fact we can bolt on VoIP to ANY phone system no matter the age or manufacturer. MultiTech a manufacturer of modems also provides VoIP gateways that can connect VoIP extensions to your existing phone system through either spare analog or spare trunk ports. Of course with any VoIP solution, telecommuters will still need high speed internet access from home. But connectivity is easy and cheap. The cost for a single telecommuter or remote office is only a few hundred dollars.

The best reason to offer telecommuting is to attract and retain talent. Ask any employee what's important to them and the answer will be family. Telecommuting allows employees to spend more time with the family. Spending more family time provides employees with a better and less stressed life style. A happy employee is going to stay longer and be more productive. Offering telecommuting even on a part time basis can have a huge impact.

For More information on reducing your fuel costs call Telcom & Data at 800-335-0229

If you are an owner of the AT&T, Lucent or Avaya manufactured Merlin Legend Phone System chances are you have or will be experiencing a voice mail outage. Voice Mail failure is to be expected just as with any other computer failure. The system contains a hard drive that is constantly running. Eventually all moving parts crash and the Merlin Legend Mail, Merlin Messaging, or Intuity Audix voice mail systems are no exception.

What to do if your voice mail system fails?

If your auto attendant is programmed to answer all calls you will want to call your vendor to change programming so calls can be answered the old fashion way.
The next thing is to get a replacement voice mail system. There are a couple of options.
1. Purchase a refurbished replacement system.
2. Purchase a new Windows based PC voice mail system.
3. Have the system repaired. (Takes about a week.)
3. Purchase more post it notes for manual message taking.

Purchasing a refurbished replacement voice mail system is easy and inexpensive but you might want to ask your self how long you plan on keeping the phone system. If you are going to hold on to it making an additional investment in outdated technology might be OK. The replacement voice mail system is a proprietary system manufactured specifically for your phone system.

Purchasing a new PC based system would add additional features and allow you to re-use the voice mail system should you decide to upgrade the phone system in the near future.
PC based voice mail systems such as DuVoice provide not only sophisticated messaging but also unified messaging features so voice mail and fax messages are sent to your email. Voice mail messages can be played back from your PC speakers as a .wav file and fax messages are viewed as a .tif file.

Telcom & Data provides service technicians as well as new and refurbished voice mail system options.

You can call them at 800-335-0229

Analog to Digital Phone Converters What Are They and Do I Need One?

Analog telephones and telephone devices have been around for a long time and even with the inception of VoIP and software based replacements for some of these devices demand for analog modems, credit card readers, fax machines and conference speaker phones remains high and not likely to fade soon.

Many PBX, Key Systems and IP based phone system manufacturers offer analog connectivity to their phone systems but many do not, and even still, adding a single port of analog connectivity can be expensive.

A Digital to Analog Converter can be your answer. Digital to Analog Converters such as the KONEXX converter offers an inexpensive conversion for all analog type of devices. Connecting an analog device to your phone system using a converter such as the Konexx Converter is easy and you don’t have to call your tech in to connect it for you. Digital Converters like the Konexx easily connect to the digital telephone handset. Settings can be changed on the converter to best match the impedance of your specific phone system. Connecting an analog adapter takes less then 5 minutes.

Digital to Analog Converter can be used for all types of analog devices including, Polycom SoundStation2, VTX 1000, Conference Phones, fax machines, analog modems, credit card readers as well as analog and cordless analog phones.

Fore more information on Digital to Analog Converters call 800-335-0229.

From the Desk of Ricardo Trinidad

For the past 80 years the Quam-Nichols Company has been involved in the speaker industry. Formed in 1930 the Chicago based company started off by manufacturing the speakers in radios and then televisions later on. Two things have stayed the same over the years. Quam has stayed located in Chicago and they are still manufacturing a wide variety of high quality loudspeakers. Telcom & Data is proud to now carry Quam Ceiling Speakers. Their ceiling mounted and ceiling tile replacement loudspeakers are perfect for paging or background music. Quam's ceiling mounted loudspeakers are perfect for a buildings indoor paging system. Both music and announcements can be played over the speakers. The 70V ceiling loudspeaker comes in kits with everything needed to install. Including an 8" full range loudspeaker, 5W- 25/70.7V pigtail transformer and 22 gage steel baffle, 16 gage steel enclosure and speak bridge. Their Ceiling Tile Replacement loudspeakers are available in more options than the ceiling mounted speakers including different colors and sizes. A tile replacement loudspeaker can be found to match most tile ceilings. These are also perfect for both paging and background music. There is no assembly needed with this product. It comes with a few parts to for installing it in the ceiling. Once it is done, it will not noticeably stick out from the other tiles. For more information about Quam's Ceiling mounted and Ceiling Tile Replacement Loudspeakers, visit Bogen-paging.com or call 800-355-0229 About Telcom & Data: Since 1996 Telcom & Data has been providing thousands of telecommunications solutions to organizations around the world to measurably improve communications. The company is a leader in business phone systems, intercom systems, and mass notification products. Telcom & Data maintains a network of over 1600 technicians with locations in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Miami.

Most conference phones on the market are essentially identical. When it comes to appearance and features there are no major differences. Telcom & Data, a leader in business phone systems, is proud to carry an original VoIP Conference Phone that's unlike any others on the market. Revolabs FLX VoIP Wireless Conference Phone completely redefines the traditional design of conference phones. The system has several distinct features that give users freedom with the placement and accessibility of the speaker, microphones, and dial pad. The FLX was designed to adapt to the user. It is available in several versions with different microphone configurations. Revolabs VoIP Conference Phone provides wireless freedom with no more wires on the conference table. The speaker and microphones can be placed anywhere around the room for convenience and increased audio quality. Wearable microphones allow for users to freely move around the room and still be heard. The FLX wireless VoIP conference phone can also make private calls with the included handheld phone. Revolabs FLX can be used to provide the audio for video conferencing systems. The FLX can be the only audio technology needed during a video conference. Its USB audio to a PC feature can vastly improve the audio of online conferencing. Applications such as Skype, WebEX, Lync and Sametime can now have wireless capabilities for conference calls. The FLX Wireless VoIP Conference Phone also has Bluetooth capabilities. This makes it possible for a smartphone to be turned into a conference phone by connecting it to the FLX. For more information on the Revolabs FLX Wireless VoIP Conference Phone, visit Telcom & Data's Website or call 800-335-0229. About Telcom & Data: Since 1996 Telcom & Data has been providing thousands of telecommunications solutions to organizations around the world to measurably improve communications. The company is a leader in business phone systems, intercom systems, and mass notification products. Telcom & Data maintains a network of over 1600 technicians with locations in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Miami.

Secluded campus type areas have a lot of people in a single area and much at stake if an emergency situation were to happen. With the possibility of an emergency situation happening anywhere at any time, a quick and simple system is needed that allows a person to notify the appropriate people in case of a situation. This type of system would increase reaction time and allows for a quick resolution of the threat. Telcom & Data is proud to carry a product to fill this need. An Emergency Firebar Ringdown Telephone Conference System by XOP Networks has the power to alert an entire campus with just one lift of a phone. The XOP Networks Emergency Firebar and Ringdown Telephone Conference System provides unique features that are designed for secure locations where instant communications is important. This system provides telephone ringdown capabilities to multiple locations. The firebar feature allows for a single phone to go off hook and automatically call the other phones in the group and connect callers to a single conference. The Blast Dial feature can call a group of telephone numbers for instant communications. A person close to the emergency can simply lift the handset on any of the connected phones and trigger a dial out to other phones. As people answer these calls they are automatically placed into a conference with the initiator. XOP Networks' Ringdown Firebar Conference Server ranges from eight ports to 96 ports. The conference system also allows people outside the immediate emergency area to be reached. For more information on the Emergency Firebar Ringdown Telephone Conference System by XOP Networks, visit Telcom & Data's website or call 800-335-0229. About Telcom & Data: Since 1996 Telcom & Data has been providing thousands of telecommunications solutions to organizations around the world to measurably improve communications. The company is a leader in business phone systems, intercom systems, and mass notification products. Telcom & Data maintains a network of over 1600 technicians with locations in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Miami.

Many businesses are reluctant to upgrade their phone system because they believe it is a difficult transition. They think that the installation and having all the employees learn how to use it will take a while. Companies are in need of a smooth transition that limits the down time. Telcom & Data is proud to carry a system that accomplishes this. An Allworx VoIP Business Phone System Bundle provides everything a small business needs in a short amount of time. New technology can be intimidating. That's why the Allworx phone system has the largest set of traditional telephone capabilities of any VoIP solution in its class. This allows for the use of both analog and VoIP phone connections and for a controlled pace of the transition to new technology. The Allworx system is the only analog, VoIP, and PC network solution available with a complete set of features designed exclusively for small businesses. Movement to this system can be done with no disruption to business operations. The Allworx VoIP Business Phone System is designed to improve business right out of the box. The features are designed to improve customer service, increase sales, increase productivity and lower phone costs. Allworx is easy to administer and set up.

For more information about an Allworx VoIP Business Phone System Bundle, visit Telcom & Data's website or call 800-335-0229.

About Telcom & Data: Since 1996 Telcom & Data has been providing thousands of telecommunications solutions to organizations around the world to measurably improve communications. The company is a leader in business phone systems, intercom systems, and mass notification products. Telcom & Data maintains a network of over 1600 technicians with locations in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Miami.

Having safe and reliable communication is an absolute must in hazardous work areas. These environments can include any number of dangerous situations. Telephones for these places must be specifically designed to handle severe weather and other dangerous conditions. Telcom & Data is proud to supply a tough phone that can handle any elements thrown at it. Guardian's EXT-401 Explosion Proof Phone provides safe and reliable communications for Class I Division 1 and Class 2 Division 1 areas that are hazardous because of flammable gasses, vapors, dust or fibers. The Guardian EXT-401 has many great features and benefits. To improve user friendliness, the buttons on the phone are oversized so they can be easily pressed while wearing gloves. To handle extreme weather, the device features corrosion resistant and moisture resistant circuitry. The phone can withstand temperatures ranging from -40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Guardian designed the phone with rugged copper-free cast aluminum housing and a heavy duty handset cord. The device is constructed to contain explosions within the equipment. This prevents an explosion from igniting the hazardous environment outside the phone. Guardian telephones can easily be connected to any telephone network by standard wiring and components. Voice quality is unaffected when phones are connected within 15,000 feet of a main telephone switch accepting single line telephones. Maintaining safety standards may require use of special wiring conduits or other considerations. The phone can be factory set for either tone or pulse operation. For more information on Guardian's EXT-401 Explosion Proof Phone, visit Telcom & Data's website or call 800-335-0229. About Telcom & Data: About Telcom & Data: Since 1996 Telcom & Data has been providing thousands of telecommunications solutions to organizations around the world to measurably improve communications. The company is a leader in business phone systems, intercom systems, and mass notification products. Telcom & Data maintains a network of over 1600 technicians with locations in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Miami. About Guardian Telecom: Founded in 1986, Guardian's predecessor, Newco Safety Tel Inc. set out to develop and market a new generation of hazardous area telephones for use in locations where dangerous explosive atmospheres could be present. Guardian's state-of-the-art production facility and qualified personnel continue to design and produce top quality telephones with a full range of features, making safe communication economically available to everyone, regardless of their work environment.