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Entries by Richard Reiffer
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Pros & Cons of BYOD

The BYOD or Bring Your Own Device movement has gained a tremendous amount of traction and isn’t going away anytime soon. Many companies now allow employees to bring their own laptops, smartphones, tablets, and other productivity tools to their workplace and reap the benefits of familiarity.

While most employees tend to speak only positives about BYOD, not all employers share the same opinion because a haphazard BYOD policy can put a company in several tricky situations.

If you’ve thought about implementing BYOD at your office but haven’t been able to decide, consider the following pros and cons of BYOD.
Pros of BYOD
1. Comfort: The best thing about this program is that it allows the workers to use devices that they are already familiar with. Because the employees are already comfortable with their devices, they can focus more on work-related tasks instead of “settling in,” making increased efficiency one of the biggest pros of BYOD.

2. Flexibility: When you allow your employees to use their own device, they are better able to work remotely. Remote workers can join calls, meeting, and general collaborations from anywhere and at any time, without needing work-issued tools to access their documents and data.

3. Cost savings: Perhaps the most obvious benefit of BYOD for employers is the financial savings from not having to buy a device for each employee. Rather than issue a brand new smartphone with its own data plan to every hire, employers need only to ensure that new hire downloads the right applications to …

Don’t Stay Stuck at Your Desk

Modern society has been engineered to keep you sitting down. You sit while you work at the office, you sit when you drive, you sit when you watch TV, and through so many of your day’s activities. We all know and acknowledge that exercise is good for our health, but are you aware that sitting down might be actually killing you?

Sitting has been linked to obesity, heart disease, and even premature death. Thankfully, many workplaces have begun to recognize these negative effects and the value of allowing their team to move around for both health and productivity. Unified communications have significantly simplified the ability of people to communicate “on the go” so that they are never forced to remain sedentary.

Here are some of the ways you can work outside of your cubicle:

 

1. Take a break to walk around after you finish a task

Every time you get something done at the office, make it a point to stand and move around for a while. Get up, stretch those tight muscles, or even take a lap around the building. If you’re worried about your boss giving you a hard time for taking a break, make use of the instant messaging capabilities of your unified communications 2017 system.

Instant messaging will allow you to keep your projects moving without the need for calling meetings and writing lengthy emails. This is “work while you move and move while you work” in the truest sense.

2. Go out for lunch

You …

Mitel & ShoreTel

As many of you have been made aware, Mitel announced last week that they’ve entered into a definitive agreement to purchase ShoreTel.  This transaction is projected to finalize in the 3rd quarter of 2017.

We’ve had several customers reach out with questions as to how this affects them with their current ShoreTel system along with prospects curious about how this may affect a future or eminent purchase, all great questions.

We’re providing a document from Mitel concerning several of these questions for you to read through. You can access it here.

In short, we feel this is very positive and exciting news.  Between the two companies they will create the 2nd largest Premise/Cloud Manufacturer/Provider in the US giving us a much more robust product set for our customers.  And from everything that’s been disclosed so far, all existing ShoreTel products will remain on the same trajectory.  Any future changes will allow for the best of both products to be merged together in order to create the best possible products for our customers.

As always, we are happy to address any questions you may have so feel free to reach out to us directly at sales@mtvoip.com.

How Unified Communications & IT Solutions Can Help Attract Millennials

Millennials are taking over the world, and not just only in a figure of speech. There are more millennials in the current workforce than any other generation, and it’s estimated that they will constitute roughly 75% of the global workforce by 2025. From inventing new IT solutions to pushing boundaries in marketing, the young workforce is doing it all!

The go-getter mindset millennials possess is the result of growing up with ever-evolving technology. It is a fact that this generation is the first to have used cell phones, computers, tablets, laptops, and other gadgets to complete day-to-day tasks.

The technological expertise they have developed over the years can be a boon for corporations, but only if they truly adapt to the “millennial attitude.” Unified communications can play a significant role in utilizing this tech-savvy crowd to their maximum potential due to all its benefits.

How unified communications can attract millennials:

1. By encouraging virtual relationships

Millennials grew up building virtual relationships all their life. From the days of dial-up internet and Rediff mail chat rooms to the ongoing dominance of Facebook and Snapchat, millennials have managed to find a place among them all. Naturally, they are more comfortable in dealing with virtual relationships that involve tweeting, texting, WhatsApp, social media, and what not.

So, if you want to attract the best pool of millennial employees, it’s important to provide them modern communication options such as web chat, video conferencing, etc. Millennials want to work with …

The Don’ts of Hosted VoIP Solutions

The VoIP industry has been on expansion mode for quite a long time now and is expected to grow even further. With the rise of smartphones, giving the desktop computer and laptops a run for their money, mobile VoIP has also made a profound impact on the corporate environment.

In fact, recent reports suggest that the global VoIP market will grow to $136.76 billion by 2020 from $70.9 billion, which was in 2013. While there are many reasons for you to be excited about the idea of implementing VoIP within your organization, there are a few things that you must avoid doing.

In this article, we’re going to talk about some of the absolute DONT’s of hosted VoIP technology. So, keep on reading!

1. Don’t ignore default passwords

Hosted VoIP solutions might be efficient, cost-effective, and secure, but it cannot protect your systems if you do not take the least bit of care. A lot of people don’t bother to change the default passwords that the manufacturer uses to quickly login and run tests.

These passwords, which are no more complex than “password” or “root,” can be found in the hardware documents publicly. Before the systems are put in their places, make sure you have changed these passwords to your liking. Otherwise, you run the risk of hackers getting access to mobile VoIP and stealing your data.

2. Don’t ignore outdated infrastructure

Very often, the cause of failing VoIP can be traced back to leaks in …

4 Concerns about Hosted VoIP Solutions

Cloud technology is booming, and for all the right reasons. This technology is efficient, scalable, and provides cost-effective storage and communication solutions to businesses. Despite more and more small businesses jumping the gun to adopt VoIP, some business owners just refuse to see its advantages.Their reluctance usually stems from a lack of awareness, coupled with misinformation that they may have gathered from various sources. In this guide, we are going to make an effort to demystify VoIP and present a clear picture of how hosted VoIP solutions can mean profits for the business.

Here are answers to some of the popular questions that small business owners ask about hosted VoIP:
Concerns About Hosted VoIP Solutions
Q. Is cloud communication completely secure?
 

A. When executives think about switching to a cloud-based communication platform, the first thing that comes to their mind is the possibility of things going wrong. Whether it is outsiders stealing a phone and hacking into their network or eavesdropping and unauthorized international calls, these are some of the risks that can cost a business dearly.

The good news is that sophisticated VoIP phones consist of unique digital signatures built into their firmware. The signatures are restricted and cannot be rewritten, which puts a limit on the capacity of someone hacking the system to eavesdrop or disrupt calls. Moreover, these systems encrypt signaling information that prevents hackers from getting vital details.
Q. Do I have full control over my phone systems?
A. Yes, just because you are opting for hosted …

Why Your Startup Should Be In The Cloud

Very few startups have the luxury of starting out big. After all, funding comes rolling in only when the startup has proven itself to have profit potential. Think of all the multinational enterprises like Facebook, Google, Apple, etc. – all of them started from a garage and went on to become global phenomenon’s worth millions!

If you happen to run a startup company, team coordination and communication is vital. But how do you effectively communicate with your team members when there is no office space to unite them together? This is where cloud technology can come into play.

If you didn’t know already, startups and cloud phones are a huge thing now! And rightly so because of all the benefits this technology provides. Keep on reading to learn why your new business should use cloud technology. Pronto!
Why should you adopt cloud?
There has perhaps been no startup that didn’t benefit from simple and effective communication. Communication is now at the core of every modern business, and it needs the functions of the latest technology to grow.

Startups that utilize features of VoIP have the upper hand because they can reap the benefits of things that expand far beyond making and receiving calls. From instant messaging to video conferencing; from auto call response to voice to text conversion, the benefits offered by this technology are abundant.

These IP PBX phone systems can allow growing businesses to overcome multiple obstacles via an all-in-one solution that even costs less than other …

What is VoIP & How Does VoIP Work?

As the way we communicate changes and new ways to communicate appear every day, the tools we use to take advantage of those new methods also change. Today, if you are looking for communication systems for your business, you can’t go anywhere without hearing the term VoIP. And while this term has already become well known among industry professionals, you might be wondering exactly how VoIP works. Let’s break it down.

 
What is VoIP? How does VoIP work?
VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. Also known as IP Telephony or Internet Telephony,

it’s simply an alternative way to make phone calls, without a legacy phone. Or a phone line.

To get technical, VoIP takes analog audio signals (like your voice on a call) and turns them into digital data that can be transmitted over the internet. This makes it possible to connect phones over your internet connection or make calls from your computer, completely bypassing the phone company.

Since VoIP hit the market, carriers completely devoted to this service, like Vonage, are steadily growing and carriers like AT&T are adapting their services.

While these are the basics of VoIP, there’s a little more to it than logging on to Skype and making a call. Behind the invention that has the potential to completely replace the traditional phone system are different types of services and calls and different options you can add to your VoIP service.

 
VoIP Options
ATA: An Analog Telephone Adaptor allows you to connect a standard phone to your computer …

4 Video Conference Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

New advancements in video conferencing tools and software has helped businesses improve productivity, efficiencies, and communication with clients and between team members. When location is no longer a barrier to communication, the possibilities for collaboration are endless. But, as with all new technologies, video conferencing can bring certain headaches. We’ve all experienced, or at least have heard of, the dreaded Zoom meeting where an unexpected error occurs and the meeting is painfully cut short.

Technology fails, and when it does, it can cost you business. So, when it matters most, don’t let your video conference fail you or your business. When you invest in the right unified communication solution, you can avoid the following video conference fails.
Fail #1: Forgotten Call-in Numbers or Passcodes
When it’s time to hop on a conference call, it should be a simple process. But some video call services come with lengthy call in numbers or require you to enter a multi digit passcode before you can even enter the meeting. If your clients are on the go, there’s nothing more frustrating than losing the email or invite, or entering the wrong password. Your video conference software should allow you to quickly schedule a video meeting with your client and let multiple users join with a simple click.
Fail #2: Hard to Use equipment
Your video conference software should be easy to use, but all too often, that’s not the case for most business. Bulky video equipment, complicated switch …

Unified Communication for Your Startup

Startups are innovative. They find success by solving a common problem with a not-so-common solution. So, it’s only fair that they would strive to provide an innovative experience for their customers. But, there are many things that often hold startups back from offering advanced solutions in every aspect of their business. They are often low on funds, lack a professional office space and don’t have mass amounts of resources at their disposal to take advantage of when issues arise.

So, the tools they do use and invest in, like those meant to help them communicate with each other and their customers, need to work as hard as they do. Intelligent voice and data solutions as part of unified communications can offer that.

A hosted VoIP solution for startups can connect employees, is backed by expertise, can help them communicate with their customers and each other, and has the capacity to grow when needed.

VoIP offers a communication solution that is scalable and mobile, just like most startups.
Beyond the Phone
While many startups stick with cell phones to save money, this means offering personal numbers to customers, and many just aren’t willing to do that. And, a hosted VoIP solution offers more than simply the ability to make phone calls. Intelligent voice & data solutions mean call processing but also video conferencing, instant messaging, mobility, online collaboration and more.

A unified communication system allows startups to take a simple phone and turn it into a complete communication center while staying true to their …

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Millennia Technologies is a full-service voice and data solutions company for midsize to enterprise customers. Specializing in UCaaS , CCaaS , Cybersecurity , IoT , Voice , Cloud , and more. Our passion is firmly rooted in showing clients how well-designed data solutions can significantly accelerate business operations, and then celebrating their goal-shattering successes.