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What do You Really Know About Low Rate VOIP? And is it Right for You?

Believe it or not, Voice Over Internet Protocol (or, ‘VoIP’ as it is more commonly referred to) is now 20-years-old. However, despite it’s two-decade presence in the market, many business owners are still confused as to what it does and how it can save them money and increase productivity.

In a survey conducted by Hello Operator, they found that nearly 71% of consumers couldn’t define what VoIP is without getting a contextual cue. And surprisingly enough, even though younger users are thought to be more “tech-savvy” than older users, the report indicates they aren’t any more knowledgeable about VoIP than their older coworkers.

Since it’s clear more people need to understand the wide-spread benefits of wholesale VoIP for business, let’s point out some important facts about the service:
What exactly is VoIP?
According to dictionary.com, they define VoIP as:

A technology or set of standards for delivery of telephone calls and other voice communications over the Internet, involving the conversion of analog voice signals to digital form.

Because calls are made over the Internet rather than traditional analog phone lines, this provides a great deal of opportunity for a reduction in IT and phone company costs as well as the ability to provide more enhanced communication features that were costly additions for the traditional, analog services.
Is it reliable?
According to the same Hello Operator study, the main concerns with implementing a low rate VoIP solution are reliability during a power outage and call quality.

As for power outages, the …

How to Quantify Reliability

Here at Millennia Technologies, we get asked all the time about how we can deliver the same kind of reliability that phone lines offer through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. We understand the concern because running your phone service over the internet simply cannot offer 100% reliability. We can get very close to it, but there are simply no providers out there that can realistically offer VoIP service and promise no downtime at all.
When Redundancy Works
Redundancy in VoIP is an alternative route for data to use in case the main route experiences a failure. These additional routes help to minimize complete outages.

To help clients understand the VoIP reliability factor better, providers usually publish their uptime percentages, which represents the amount of time their users experienced downtime over the course of a year.  For the most part, providers have uptimes between 99.99% and 99.999%. However, even though those numbers may seem very close, it makes a significant difference in the amount of downtime a customer will experience. The ideal number is “five 9’s” or, 99.999%.

For example, this chart identifies the vast differences these downtime percentages can create:

Understanding All-Inclusive Percentages
How do you know how your provider stacks up? Ask them. Any reputable provider should be able to provide you with this information as well as information and some clarity as to why they experienced the unscheduled downtime. Additionally, you should be aware of if the projected percentages are “all inclusive.” All-inclusive figures are the unscheduled …

Tips For Creating a BYOD Solution and Security Policy

Bring Your Own Device, or “BYOD” as it is more commonly referred to, is dramatically shifting of how companies today do business. Because of this mobile shift and dependency, the desire and ability for employees to work from anywhere is growing rapidly. Many companies that wouldn’t dream of allowing sensitive company information on a personal device just 5 years ago are now reaping the many benefits of having a mobile workforce. However, these organizations are also taking protective steps to ensure their data is protected with the implementation of a BYOD Security Policy.

The Benefits of BYOD Solutions

The shift to a BYOD world is happening because of a number of benefits a mobile workforce can provide:

Worker Satisfaction: Many employees today prefer to work on the devices they know and love. Your organization will also draw in better applicants because they are drawn to companies providing the ability to work from anywhere.

Increased Productivity: When employees are using the devices they are also using for personal connections, they are likely to respond faster to work-related items on that same device.

Cost Savings: A BYOD solution can take away a number of expenses for the business. Costs for the hardware and service can be transferred from the company to the employee.

 

Creating A BYOD Security Policy

Threats like viruses, Malware, unsecured devices, and theft all put sensitive corporate data at risk. In order to prevent these problems, a BYOD security policy should be created, monitored and enforced within the organization. …

Establish Continuous Communication With Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime

In June of last year, the London Business School held a Global Leadership Summit. During the event, the school conducted a survey of the attendees regarding the variety of modern business challenges. The survey covered a variety of different topics, but one of the interesting findings included that half of the respondents expected to be working remotely by year 2020.

Believe it or not, 2020 is only six years away. That means 50% of your organization will be working from somewhere other than the office in just a few short years. You may think that figure sounds crazy, but a recent article identified that working remotely grew about 79% between 2005-2012, with that number expected to rise again over the next decade.

But what does that mean for businesses of the future?

To begin, it means organizations will need to find ways to motivate and empower workers to work efficiently from anywhere. Thankfully, the move to cloud-based technology is making this possible. Employees now can gain access to virtually any business-related item they need from anywhere, as long as they have a secure and reliable internet connection.

Traditional Equipment and Modern Communication Simply Don’t Mix

Phone systems are a lifeline for ensuring consistent communication happens effectively while working remote.

With traditional phone systems, creating network connectivity with flexibility is incredibly challenging. Even if you are able to make it work, it’s likely that you may still experience a handful of other issues, such as:

Service Quality: It may seem as if …