Change is good. Really!

For a lot of us, change can be scary, even if the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. I recently experienced this when buying a new car. I loved my aging car even though it was having numerous problems associated with an old car with excessive miles. With no money down and a smaller monthly payment than I was paying previously, I was able to get into a brand new car that offered increased reliability and all of the latest and greatest features available on the market.

My only question was, why did I wait so long to make the switch?

Unified communications can lower costs, streamline processes, and take corporate productivity to new heights. So why aren’t you embracing it more quickly? Customers are sometimes faced with adoption obstacles such as a large capital investment, long deployment times, and limited resources that discourage them from implementing a unified communication solution.

A hosted or cloud-based unified communication solution negates these concerns and offers a more flexible and predictable solution that will enable you to be more effective and efficient. We help you develop a business case for deployment of a unified communications solution that aligns with your organizational needs by answering the following questions:

1.        Do you need to support a growing mobile and virtual workforce with features that foster collaboration and cross state communication? 

2.         Are you interested in reducing the total cost of ownership while extending communications and collaboration to the maximum number of employees?

3.         Are you looking to centralize management, streamline business processes and multiply the capabilities of a lean IT staff?

If you can answer ‘yes’ to one or all of these questions, you could be a good fit for a hosted unified communication solution from SNET, since it reduces overall costs, centralizes management, offers infinite flexibility and features, and enhances communications continuity. We encourage you to make the switch, and remind you that change can be a good thing!

The Big SIP

Right now, a lot of businesses are looking to SIP to save money by using a single IP pipe to their provider- like SNET- for voice calls and reducing or eliminating recurring network charges. But that’s really just the start. The current uptake in SIP services is an indicator of what the future holds: SIP is big.

You may have already heard of SIP. And if you haven’t, the chances are good you will very soon.

SIP is a communications protocol that is becoming extremely popular. How popular? Consider this: Infonetics (www.infonetics.com) reports that in 2011, telco companies saw their revenues from SIP-based services jump 128%. So, even if you are not yet thinking about how to use SIP in your business, the chances are good that one of your competitors is ahead of you.

Very simply, SIP—the initials stand for Session Initiation Protocol—radically simplifies communication between people, places, devices, applications and services. Just about anything that can be tagged with an IP address can be connected via SIP. It simplifies how quickly people can connect and collaborate. And it eliminates the need for a lot of phone lines and extra hardware. In fact, many S-NET customers have reported a return on investment (ROI) of 6–12 months by investing in SIP-based solutions. 

But what makes SIP so revolutionary is not simply its ability to save money. SIP changes how you think about using communications in your business.

 Here are six SIP scenarios. See if any apply to you:

You have multiple business locations. Each one must have a local phone number. But you want calls to those locations to get routed to a central service center where they can be more efficiently handled by people with the time and training. In the past, to get this kind of capability you might have had to rent 800 numbers and/or extra lines that sat unused most of the time. SIP gives you the best of both worlds: local presence and the cost efficiencies of centralization.

You have a mobile phone, several e-mail addresses, a bunch of landlines and a slew of IM contact names. You are tired of giving out all your contact information. With SIP you won’t have to: SIP establishes an “address of record”—an AOR—that provides a single, unifying identifier as your “public address.” People can reach you without having to know each of your unique device addresses or phone numbers.

You find it annoying to keep letting people know about your availability, i.e., “for the rest of the day, call me on my mobile.” Let SIP do this for you. SIP can make call-routing decisions for you by checking your calendar or seeing when you last checked your e-mail or used your mobile phone.

You are handling a conference call from your hotel room, but have to check out and want to keep the call going on your mobile. Or, you are on your mobile, but need to view a document and would like to transfer the conference call to your tablet. SIP makes all of that possible.

You operate a customer service operation using agents working from home. You want them to be able to serve customers using e-mail, instant messaging, Web chat, video, or a phone call. Rely on SIP to make it happen.

You use various programs in your business to keep track of sales, inventory, production scheduling, etc. When a problem arises, i.e., a shortage in a particular part, you would like to have a click-to-conference button on the program itself so you can quickly see who is available, initiate the call and share the application. SIP makes that possible. In fact, many applications using dynamic linked libraries (DLLs in Windows and shared libraries in Linux) are ready to be connected using SIP.

Key Trends Defining Unified Communications and how SNET Defines Communications

Key Trends Defining Unified Communications and How SNET Defines Communications!
Defining Unified Communications (UC) has always been a bit of a moving target. And that’s made many people wonder if they really need it.
In the beginning, UC often meant things like being able to see your voicemail and e-mail together on a PC.  Or having software you could put on your PC to control your phone and directory. The operative initials were as much PC as UC.
Now Unified Communications is being redefined. Mobile devices are a big part of what’s bringing about the change. Collaboration technologies are part of it. And so are improvements in the underlying communications infrastructure—IP, SIP, 4G and more.
At SNET Communications, we have just completed work on our SNET Communicator- which allows you to have a client running on whatever device you use- Droid, iPhone, Tablet or iPad- and see the status of your office phones, chat and even have a video call. Of course, you can still click to dial, have voice mail messages appear as email messages and all of the usual benefits of screen pops!
IP and SIP: The “unified” part of UC has always been primarily about getting your phone and computer to work together using the Internet-based IP and SIP protocols. This made it possible to have your PC and your phone on one network. But the bigger benefit was that a phone call itself was now able to be handled as a digital file (i.e., like an e-mail.) Just as you can easily have one e-mail go to multiple addresses, you can have calls go to multiple devices and numbers: business phone, mobile and home phone. Just as you can have dozens of people on an e-mail chain, you can have dozens of people on a conference call—without having to use a conferencing service. Just as you can easily manage different e-mail accounts, you can have multiple incoming lines for different segments of your business—a key way to create a better customer experience.  The benefits are substantial. That’s why sales of IP-based business systems grow in the double digits every year and are a driving force behind the UC revolution.
UC Apps: Everyone loves their mobile phone, in part thanks to all of the mobile apps that are now available. You can use your mobile to check the weather, do your banking, find a movie, etc. Now you can also get a UC app. SNET has one .It lets you tightly integrate you mobile phone and your office system: Manage your office directory. Set up conference calls. Make a call directly from a text. Getting the right app to marry your mobile phone to your office communications system is a major step forward for UC.
Collaboration: This is one of the hottest buzz words in business today. In fact, the terms “unified communications” and “mobile collaboration” are often used interchangeably. They are both all about bringing the right people together with the right information in the right context. “Presence” is a big part of this.  Having presence capabilities let you see at a glance who in your organization is available and how to reach them quickly.
Video: Today, anyone with an Internet-enabled device, a webcam and free software can make a video call to almost anyone else in the world. It’s estimated that more than a third of Skype-to-Skype calls now include video, with peaks as high as 50 percent during the holidays. This rapid spread of video calls in the personal, consumer market is driving the growth of video in business. Also, the SIP standard provides capabilities that simplify how video integrates and connects, opening the way to regular use of video with the same ease as voice and messaging communications. Businesses are also discovering that the smart use of video conferencing can give you new levels of flexibility in partnering, assembling teams and competing for top, full-time talent. For all of these reasons, video is becoming a larger part of the UC equation.
SNET Communications (www.snetconnect.com)  has a wide range of resources on our website that look at all aspects of UC—where it is today, and where’s it’s going.

ShoreTel Posts Significant Losses

ShoreTel Inc. Stock Downgraded (SHOR)

NEW YORK  -- ShoreTel (Nasdaq:SHOR) has been downgraded by TheStreet Ratings from hold to sell. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its deteriorating net income and generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Communications Equipment industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 257.3% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from -$2.38 million to -$8.51 million.
• Despite any intermediate fluctuations, we have only bad news to report on this stock's performance over the last year: it has tumbled by 62.89%, worse than the S&P 500's performance. Consistent with the plunge in the stock price, the company's earnings per share are down 240.00% compared to the year-earlier quarter. Naturally, the overall market trend is bound to be a significant factor. However, in one sense, the stock's sharp decline last year is a positive for future investors, making it cheaper (in proportion to its earnings over the past year) than most other stocks in its industry. But due to other concerns, we feel the stock is still not a good buy right now.
• The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. Compared to other companies in the Communications Equipment industry and the overall market, SHORETEL INC's return on equity significantly trails that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
• The gross profit margin for SHORETEL INC is rather high; currently it is at 66.20%. Regardless of SHOR's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, SHOR's net profit margin of -15.10% significantly underperformed when compared to the industry average.
• SHORETEL INC has exprienced a steep decline in earnings per share in the most recent quarter in comparison to its performance from the same quarter a year ago. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. But, we feel it is poised for EPS growth in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, SHORETEL INC continued to lose money by earning -$0.25 versus -$0.29 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings (-$0.05 versus -$0.25).

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Shoretel, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development and sale of Internet protocol (IP) communications systems for enterprises in the United States and internationally. ShoreTel has a market cap of $233.3 million and is part of the technology sector and telecommunications industry. Shares are down 35.9% year to date as of the close of trading on Wednesday. 

We feel that this is significant because Shoretel recently acquired M5 Networks a hosted provider and because we feel that this is a sign of hard times for telecom systems hardware providers.

Are you ready to go from Management 1.0 to 2.0?

In the current issue of Selling Power Magazine (April/May/June 2012), there is an interesting article with management guru Gary Hamel. He is thought to be one of the most influential management thinkers today.

Hamel describes two types of management- Management 1.0 and Management 2.0. Management 1.0 is the management style that we all have been taught for the past 100 years- standardization, specialization, hierarchy, alignment, control and the use of extrinsic controls.

On the other hand, Management 2.0 is based on developing adaptive, innovative and engaging places to work. The allows companies to meet the increase in competitive intensity worldwide. It allows companies to outgrow competitors or the economy by encouraging innovation and making it a systemic capability across a company's processes.

Hamel makes some predictions:

• We are moving to a world where everything in configurable by the ultimate consumer.
• As our economy becomes more of a service economy, value gets created in the interaction between employee and customer.
• In order to make organizations more innovative we need new practices and new principles.
• The most efficient companies will be the most democratic.

Okay. So what does this have to do with technology? Basically, everything.

You will need to set up processes that are extremely customizable and that involves a lot of flexibility. Let me give you an example- as the population ages, more and more of your employees may have a parent or spouse to care for. You will need to adapt your infrastructure and work practices to accommodate employees who, for obvious family issues, will have to work from home. Your communications infrastructure will have to adapt to this, your connectivity will have to adapt- your space and energy requirements will change - and so too will your corporate policies on security.

As interactions between customers (a.k.a clients, patients, guests,patrons etc...) become more important, you will have to adapt and perfect the art of customer interaction. You will need tools to measure performance, evaluate employee interaction, and standardize the customer experience to ensure that it creates value.

With a more distributed workforce, you will need to ensure internal communication to make sure that there is a cohesive esprit de corps. Mobile workers, tele-workers, remote offices need to be part of the total corporate body- not far flung fiefdoms or domestic exile. Remember, discipline from goofing off is a Management 1.0 principle. Management 2.0 companies rely on peers as motivators. The logic is simple- if what you do is transparent to your peers, they can see whether or not you are adding value.

The whole area of the technology cloud is an enabler for transforming your company from a Management 1.0 to a Management 2.0 company. Hosted PBX allows your remote employees to communicate freely, easily and cohesively. Hosted Call Center gives you the tools to enhance customer employee interactions and monitor performance. Managed wide area networks and managed cloud security give you the ability to connect your remote locations securely.

See how our clients have evolved from Management 1.0 to Management 2.0

Does your Vendor Know Small and Midsize Business?

The rules of engagement for small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) are changing. Speed, flexibility, responsiveness, personal service—the traditional hallmarks of small and midsize business success—can no longer be taken for granted. Your customers are a click away. And so are your competitors, especially large, global companies who are making smart use of technology to become more responsive and customer-driven. To remain competitive, small and midsize companies need to evolve their technology strategies and infrastructures to meet these new challenges. The stakes are high: the investments you make today absorb scarce resources and will set you on a path that will impact your business for years to come. How can you be sure that you are investing in the right solution? Obviously there are no guarantees, but your best insurance against making a costly mistake is to choose a vendor that is truly focused on the small and midsize market and isn’t just trying to fill the sales funnel with a lot of smaller clients. Look for vendors with these characteristics: Right-sized for SMEs: Small and midsize businesses are constantly adapting to rapid shifts in the market. The right technology for your business is one that is designed to adapt to the way you work, with plenty of capacity and a wide range of software options. Be wary of underpowered consumer solutions or systems that were designed for larger enterprises but now have been “dumb downed” for the needs of small and midsize companies. SME leadership: What is the company’s track record in meeting the expectations of the SME market? Is it a market leader or an also ran? Has the company innovated when it comes to SME solutions or are its real breakthroughs reserved for the better paying, larger clients? Cost control and investment protection: Look beyond the initial acquisition cost. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is as important, if not more important to SMEs, than the initial outlay. How does the offering stack up in terms of ongoing operating costs, administration or upgrades? Embracing new technology shouldn’t necessarily mean getting rid of older solutions, particularly if you are staying with the same vendor. Reliability and energy efficiency: Every vendor will tout claims for reliability and consistent performance. It’s important to vet these pronouncements either with existing clients or independent analysts. Also, look carefully at the investment you will still need to make in backup capabilities. Does the solution have proactive diagnostic capabilities that will make your job easier? Are there alternatives to acquiring redundant hardware? Finally, how does the solution stack up in energy consumption? Is it really green?

Employee Morale and Productivity Go Beyond the Paycheck

In a recent article published by Inc. Magazine, employers are looking for unique ways to improve employee morale in 2012. Increases in paychecks are no longer the happy-maker that they used to be.  Alternatives sighted in the article include ‘over communicating’, ‘celebrating wins’, and ‘keeping it real’.  All in all, the biggest factor for most employees is the ability to have work-life balance.http://www.inc.com/margaret-heffernan/how-to-keep-up-morale-in-2012.html?nav=linkedin

Once an anomaly for baby boomers pulling all-nighters at the office to keep up with the Joneses, work-life balance actually has a standing chance with today’s technologies– it’s called TELEWORKING.

For many business owners, just the thought of allowing employees to work from home is daunting – they perceive it to ensure lost control, lack of insight into employee productivity, and simply an administrative nightmare.  However, according to Forbes'  ”How Flexibility Can Boost Employee Productivity”, teleworking is more about adapting your work environment to accommodate for the ways in which your employees most thrive – the end goal being to increase productivity. http://www.forbes.com/sites/ccl/2011/06/29/flexibility-can-boost-employee-productivity/.

According to an article published online by the Teleworking Coalition “Will We Need Any More Office Space?”, teleworking, once considered an alternative workspace strategy, began as a corporate cost-saving measure.  While cost savings is still a predominant motivator, other factors have emerged to make the trend more compelling for employers; employee satisfaction, enhanced productivity and better teaming. As such, the use of teleworking has become not only an alternate to leasing or buying more office space – it’s become a strategy to secure top talent, increase employee productivity and job satisfaction, and in many instances, improve the overall effectiveness of a workforce.

S-NET's revolutionary Q Box allows the teleworking employees to use lower cost circuits such as cable modem and DSL - without worrying about outages or poor voice quality. It allows businesses to connect remote offices into their system. 

The Complete SNET Blog Guide to Service Level Agreements: Everything you need to know

What are Service Level Agreements (SLA's)?
A Service Level Agreements (SLA) is a contract between a service provider and customer that specifies what service will be provided, how it will be measured and in what timeframe it will be delivered. “SLAs” simply identify certain service levels or performance standards that the service provider must meet or exceed. The SLA also specifies the consequences for failure to achieve one or more service levels, such as credits granted to the customer on future invoices or rights of termination on behalf of the customer in certain instances. The SLA may also include credits or bonus incentives for performance that exceeds targets.

The linked concept of Service Level Management (or 'SLM') arises from the idea that, if you have agreed levels of service, you should have an agreed method of monitoring performance and dealing with exceptions and changes.

Why Do You Need SLA’s?
There are two major reasons to have a SLA, first, is to have the ability to measure the level of service being provided to the client and second, is to reap all the benefits from a well structured, well executed, enforceable SLA. The latter should be the desired outcome from any SLA the client constructs. This is an important point that is very often overlooked. Let’s take a look at an over simplified example (or is it?); let’s say you’re a retail store with business hours from 9 AM – 9 PM Monday - Saturday. You rely on your service provider in order to run your business. So you construct a SLA with your service provider that requires the availability of the services to be 99% excluding scheduled maintenance; however, you don’t specify hours of operation or days of the week in the SLA. The potential outcome is that the SLA could be measured on a 24 hour day / 365 days a year. The SLA could be met with 432 minutes a month of downtime, that’s more than 7 hours a month, 84 hours in a year! Ouch! Unfortunately, many times with newly established SLA’s the provider meets their SLA commitment; however, the client’s desired business outcome is not achieved, why, because SLA’s are not trivial to construct.
Hopefully, from the SLA example above it’s starting to become clear why SLA’s benefit both the client and provider. The main reason the client enters into a SLA contract with a provider is to receive a cost effective level of service that allows them to support and grow their business. The main reason the provider likes SLA’s is that the SLA clearly defines the scope of the deliverable that they will be compensated for. Therefore, the client needs to find a provider that will be flexible and willing to participate in a partnership that allows periodic updates to the SLA’s when the SLA are not meeting the client’s desired outcome. Without a partnership and the ability to work together to refine the SLA when appropriate, both sides will end up failing, as evidenced each year as thousands of clients file for divorce with their provider by either invoking the termination clause in their contract or just not renewing. However, with a strong partnership and clear roadmap through well-constructed SLA’s that can be modified and enforced the outcome could be a marriage made in heaven!

Key Elements of a Service Level Agreement
SLA's define an agreed service between two parties, whether it be internal departments or separate organizations. Below is a list of features you should consider when creating an SLA:
• What the service being provided is.
• The standard or quality of the service.
• The timetable for delivery.
• The responsibilities of the supplier and the customer.
• Provisions for legal and regulatory compliance.
• Mechanisms for monitoring and reporting of service.
• Any payment terms.
• How disputes will be resolved.
• Confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements.
• Termination conditions.

What Are SLAs?
Although in industry practice the SLA is a separate addendum to the outsourcing contract, it is not legally a separate agreement, but another set of terms and conditions of the services contract itself.

Structure of SLAs: Good, Bad, and Ugly
A good SLA will usually include a section that provides precise definitions of key terms. Next, specific service levels will be described in perhaps more than a dozen categories. In most cases, service level compliance is measured on a monthly basis.
From such service levels, the parties identify certain “key” service levels. Key service levels will be weighted by importance or severity so they total 100 percent. Then, if the outsourcer fails to achieve some of the key service levels, the percentage of key service levels missed for the month can be applied as a service level credit against a percentage of the invoice. If all the key service levels were missed in that month, then the full percentage service level credit could be given to the customer.
In some cases, the parties may choose to identify not only a threshold level of acceptable performance for each service level, but also a level of “increased impact” if the performance is at an agreed level below the threshold service level. If the outsourcer’s performance falls below the increased impact level, the percentage service credit may increase substantially.
Another factor that may be included in calculating service credits is a “frequency factor” that measures the number of times a particular service level is missed during an interval, such as a rolling 12-month period. If the frequency factor is triggered, the percentage to be applied against the total service credit is increased by some factor, for example, 1.5 or 2.0.
Just because certain service levels are not included in the “key service levels” does not mean they have no significance. First, they provide an objective measurement for tracking performance in areas that are important to the customer’s business and can spotlight the problem areas. Second, these non-key service levels are in fact contractual obligations which if not met, could form the basis of a claim of breach of contract by the customer.
Critical Conditions
Often the parties identify a subset of the key service levels as critical. For these critical service levels the parties will agree that the outsourcing contract may be terminated by the customer if the outsourcer fails to meet them at the frequency specified. Why is it important to include this type of provision? Contract law generally entitles one party to terminate a contract if the other party “materially breaches” the contract. A breach that isn’t “material” may entitle one party to claim damages, but it will not entitle that party to terminate the contract. Identifying the “critical” service levels and providing specific conditions for termination eliminates ambiguity in determining whether circumstances entitle the termination of a contract for cause as a material breach.
Force majeure!
Force majeure clauses excuse a party’s failure to perform if the failure resulted from an act of nature such as an earthquake or other natural disaster beyond the party’s control. In service provider contracts, negotiating the provisions of excused performance in the context of the service provider’s responsibilities and liabilities can be most challenging and time-consuming.
Examples include failures resulting from the customer’s non-performance, failures of third parties, and failures in hardware and software. Service providers seek a broad definition of force majeure and customers seek a narrow, tightly defined provision. Fair resolution lies somewhere in the middle. In any event, provisions should be included in the SLA addressing the outsourcer’s responsibility to correct and mitigate the effects of an excused performance failure. A force majeure event should not completely absolve the service provider from any responsibilities whatsoever.

9 Questions to Consider in an SLA Negotiation
Customers negotiating service provider contracts for the first time may be surprised to find that service providers are generally not proactive in proposing a fair and well designed SLA structure to the customer. Unfortunately, service providers may respond to a proposed SLA from the customer and negotiate in hopes that the customer will ultimately agree to an SLA that favors the service provider. There is clearly an opportunity for progressive service provider to distinguish their services by drawing on their experience in drafting and implementing an SLA structure that thoroughly addresses the customer’s needs in a fair manner.
Every customer must be prepared to know what they want and why they need the SLA, and be ready to convince the service provider. Reasonable customers will avoid over-measuring and including every imaginable service level. They should agree to fair credits for failures in meeting the service levels. Outsourcers should be willing to understand that the customer requires significant protection in the SLA, and acknowledge that there are certain levels of performance that would justify termination of the contract.
SLAs are not easy to design or negotiate. But a comprehensive, fair and effective SLA is critical for a successful outsourcing relationship. In the course of negotiating an SLA, customers and service provider have the opportunity to learn a lot about how their future partner will approach important issues in the relationship.

1. Which service levels will you measure?
Service levels are defined ways of measuring a service provider’s performance. A service level generally is a measure of the quality, speed, availability, capacity, reliability, user-friendliness, timeliness, conformity, efficiency or effectiveness of services.
A good service level is both within the service provider’s influence or control and an important measure of the success of the deal. A good service level is also designed to align the incentives of the service provider and the customer.
2. What will you measure, exactly, for each service level?
The parties must define the service level with precision. Unless each service level is precisely defined, the parties will not have a true agreement — a meeting of the minds — on service levels. Instead, you’ll have a situation where the customer believes that the service level measures A, B and C and the service provider believes it measures only A and B. When C fails, you’ll have a dispute that the SLA doesn’t address.
3. What process will you use to measure achieved performance?
For each service level, you need a process for measuring performance that the service provider achieves. The measurement process will affect the results. Thus, you need to know how service levels will be measured before you can decide how high to set the bar for performance.
The key issues in choosing a measurement process include:
Accuracy. A measurement process with a large margin of error puts more risk into the deal than one with a small margin of error.
Cost. The cost of a measurement process includes both the cost of running the measurement system and the burden that the process places on the people, computers and other resources that could otherwise be performing services.
Visibility. A good measurement system allows both parties both real-time access to data and the ability to audit historical data.
4. What is the measurement period?
The measurement period is the time horizon for measuring performance. Typically, the measurement period will be a month or quarter. Longer measurement periods give the service provider more opportunity to make up for bad performance. Shorter measurement periods give the service provider a “fresh start” more often. Longer measurement periods mean that more is at stake during any one measurement period.
The SLA should define not only how long the measurement period is but also how much of that time is within the measurement period. Is it 24×7 or 9×5? Does it include times when the service provider is shut down due to acts of war, terrorism, failure of its suppliers or other traditional force majeure events? Does it include periods when the demand for services exceeds the assumed levels?
5. What reports will be provided?
The SLA should require the supplier to make available clear, useful and timely reports on performance for each measurement period. The SLA should define precisely what information will appear on the reports, such as exception reports for missed service levels and trend reports for key service levels. The SLA might also require the service provider to conduct a root-cause analysis of service level failures and report the results to the customer.
6. How well will the service provider agree to perform?
Note that we’re at question number six, not question number one. Too often, people start with the number — say, 99.9% — and then start to define a service level. That’s the wrong order because the number is only meaningful when you know what’s being measured, who will measure it, how it will be measured and how often it will be reported.
The SLA can include both minimum service levels and target service levels. The service provider would be obligated to meet any minimum service levels, and failing to do so would be a breach of the outsourcing contract. The target service levels would be measured, and there might be service level credits associated with failure to meet them, but a failure generally would not be a breach of contract.
Customers should be wary of these pitfalls:
Agreeing to Existing Internal Service Levels. Some customers agree that the required service levels will be set at the customer’s existing internal performance. By doing so, they preserve the bad service that the outsourcing was designed to improve.
Agreeing to Agree on Service Levels. Some customers, eager to sign the contract, agree to work out service levels later. However, once the contract is signed, the deal team breaks up and the service provider has no incentive to agree to challenging service levels. Thus, no service levels are ever developed.
Agreeing to Fix Service Levels at Initial service provider Performance. Some customers, with no basis for setting service levels, agree to set them at whatever levels the service provider can achieve during the initial months of the contract. This gives the vendor an incentive to hold down service levels during those initial transitional months, that is, during the most perilous time in the contract term.
Setting the Wrong Incentives. Some customers ignore the idea that the supplier will “manage to the money.”
Asking for the Moon. Some customers demand unnecessarily high performance commitments. Providing better service requires the service provider to use, for example, redundant systems, excess capacity and better technology. Asking for better service than you need means paying more than you need to pay.
7. Will the minimum and target service levels change over time?
The SLA may include not fixed but floating performance commitments. Particularly in long-term, large-scale outsourcing agreements, SLAs may increase the performance commitments through:
Contractual Ramp-Ups. The SLA can include a fixed schedule of increasing requirements.
External Metrics. The SLA can base the service level on an outside measure of acceptable or achievable performance.
Supplier Performance. The SLA can ramp up the performance requirement based on the service provider’s actual performance. For example, for each year, the target performance could be increased by a percentage of the amount by which the service provider’s actual prior-year performance exceeded the target performance.
8. Will the SLA include service level credits?
A “service level credit” is a credit that the service provider grants to the customer after a service level failure. The service provider may be required to write a check to the customer or the customer may simply have the right to apply the credit to future service. Either way, it reduces the effective price of the services and the service provider’s profit margin.
As an example, an SLA might call for service level credits for any of 10 service levels. For each of those 10 service levels, the SLA might indicate a number of “credits” to be granted upon a failure, with each “credit” being a small percentage of the customer’s total bill for the measurement period.
The total service level credits for a measurement period might be capped at, say, 10% or 15% of the total monthly bill. This means that, although poor performance could reduce the supplier’s profit margin, it would not create a loss for the service provider. The total pool of service level credits (that is, the total service level credits payable if the supplier misses every service level) would then be some multiple of the cap.
There are many variations on this theme. Some SLAs impose credits only for repeatedly missing required service levels. Some SLAs allow the service provider to earn back service level credits for subsequent good performance, or to use superior performance to get “Get Out of Jail Free” cards to avoid future service level credits. Some SLAs have entire schedules of credits for a single service level, with larger service level credits for larger or repeated violations.
Service level credits are an incentive system. Smart customers design the service level credit structure on obtaining good performance throughout the contract term. They also retain the right to revise the service level credit structure so that they can re-align the incentives as their priorities change.
One important question is whether the service level credits are the customer’s sole remedy for a breach or merely one of the customer’s remedies. This is an area where loose contract language can have surprising results.
9. When does failure to meet service levels allow termination for cause?
Outsourcing agreements, generally, can be terminated for cause upon a material breach. A sufficiently severe service level failure would be a material breach. However, without clear language in the SLA, the parties might argue about whether a service level failure is sufficiently severe to be a material breach.
The SLA can provide increased certainty by defining particular events that, without argument, allow termination for cause. You can set minimum service levels at the level that allows termination. You can also define an amount of accumulated service level failures that allow termination for cause. For example, termination for cause might be allowed if the service provider breaches a single service level three times in succession, or the supplier breaches enough service levels that the service level credits are limited by the cap. The effect is to give the customer a clear exit right for substandard performance.

The Fiber Primer: Basics for Your Review on Voice and data services available on fiber optic from S-NET

Fiber Internet is better for a few reasons: [1] it's "dedicated" just for your use (not split off and shared with others nearby) [2] it's symmetrical (which usually also means FULL duplex, instead of half duplex, in other words: download and upload can occur simultaneously) [3] bandwidth is truly UNLIMITED, no hidden caps [4] includes a Service Level Agreement (SLA) which guarantees time/performance/throughput.

Generally speaking, symmetrical type bandwidth is considered "commercial grade" and tends to be used by the SMB/Enterprise market VS. consumer/residential end users. All because of the reasons I listed above, plus it lends itself to work better in a LAN environment- as the circuit is robust, efficient, and quite reliable, etc. You really get what you pay for. Finally, if you have applications that require real time traffic, such as: VoIP, SIP, and video conferencing + Citrix, VPN, heavy file transfer- commercial bandwidth (T1, DS3, Metro Fiber Ethernet) is essential.
Optical carrier services such as SONET and Gigabit Ethernet are becoming more available and less expensive as the need for bandwidth increases to support such applications as enterprise VoIP, tele-radiology, off site data backup for disaster recovery and video transport.

SONET, the Classic Optical Carrier
SONET is an acronym for Synchronous Optical Network. SONET was developed as a set of standards for telephone carriers in the mid-1980's. SONET picks up where lower speed trunk lines leave off but still maintains compatibility at the digital signal level.
For instance, the basic signal level for SONET circuits is STS-1 for synchronous transport signal. It's speed is 51.84 Mbps which is capable of carrying 1 DS3. A DS3 is the same digital signal level used by a 45 Mbps T3 line in the copper type carrier world. It is also the capacity of 28 DS-1 signals, the same as 28 T1 lines. When carried on fiber optic cable, a STS-1 signal is called an OC-1. An OC3 line would be the equivalent of 3 T3 lines and an OC48 would have the same capacity of 48 T3 lines.

SONET was designed to carry telephone conversations, so it handles the TDM (time division multiplexing) digital voice channels from PBX and telephone carrier switches easily. Because it is synchronized like the T-carriers, you can add or remove channels at will with an add-drop multiplexer. This makes it easy to interconnect a group of locations in a regional or even nationwide network.
SONET can be provisioned as a point to point circuit or hub and spoke star network, but the protocol really shines when it is set up as a ring of two independent loops. The system is designed to automatically switch from the main to the backup loop in 50 milliseconds or less if a fault occurs. This is called automatic protection switching.

Data over SONET
Like T1, SONET was originally designed to handle high capacity telephone traffic in digital format. It has since been used to carry high speed digital traffic, including backbone service for Internet Service Providers. ATM, Frame Relay, and Ethernet protocol signals can all be encapsulated and sent over SONET ring networks. If you are using a T1 or T3 data line now, it may well be carried by an optical network and dropped off and converted to the copper signal format at your location.

IP Services
Internet Protocol has become the defacto standard for data communications. Switched Ethernet networks running at 10 Mbps, Fast Ethernet at 100 Mbps, Gigabit Ethernet at 1 Gbps and 10 Gig Ethernet at 10 Gbps are the basic network speeds for large and small enterprises alike. The beauty of IP based services is that a corporate network in one city can connect via an Ethernet service provisioned on fiber optic cable to a similar network in another city and they'll work like one big network. The fiber optic circuit is simply a long, very long, network cable.

The current trend is to convert everything into IP format so that telephone calls, file transfers, Internet service and video conferencing can share the same network. That process is called convergence. Converging all those proprietary networks into one big one often has cost savings benefits especially at the enterprise level. You'll just have to be sure to have enough network bandwidth to handle all the extra data packets and quality of service management tools to ensure that voice and video signals get the priority they need to run as well as they did on their own networks.

STRATEGIES FOR FINDING CUSTOMERS—AND KEEPING THEM LOYAL

There are essentially two ways to increases sales: find more customers or find new ways to sell more things to the customers you already have. Both strategies are important, but often one or the other gets short shrift.

In a start-up, when the focus is on new customer acquisition, it’s easy to overlook upselling opportunities.
Over time, as a company gets more established, the focus shifts to upgrades and add ons for existing customers. Finding new customers may get the backseat.
Getting both acquisition and retention/upsell strategies working together is the key to smart marketing. You need new customers to replace inevitable attrition and stay innovative. At the same time, keeping current customers loyal pays huge rewards: a 5% reduction in your customer defection rate can increase profits by 25% to 80%.Here are five ways to keep your acquisition and retention strategies in balance:

Know your value: Regularly ask yourself, “Who is my customer and what value am I delivering?” Focus on problems you are solving for your existing customers that helps make them more competitive in today’s economy? Apply what you have learned to markets/customers you haven’t tapped yet.

Know the competition: Instead of simply trying to beat the competition, analyze what they are doing and how it impacts your acquisition and retention strategies. What problems do your competitors solve that makes them attractive to new customers and gives them the potential to make inroads on your current customer base?

Know the decision makers: Remember that the people making a buying decision do not always have the same set of criteria as the person actually using your product. That’s why simply repeating your core marketing message to decision makers won’t work. You have to target their hot buttons—how are you making their life easier? Helping them achieve their goals? What could make the decision maker at a prospect choose someone else, or at an existing customer decide not to remain loyal?

Make it easy for new and existing customers to reach: Give new customers, existing customers and decision makers the option to “self-select” on your website. Use the capabilities in your communications system—such as customized routing, hunt groups, multiple incoming lines, and connections to salesforce.com etc.— to get a streamlined presence on the phone that’s critical for both acquisition and retention strategies.

This Winter is going to be Rough - Do you have your Communications Continuity Plan in Place?

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According to their website, The AccuWeather.com Long-Range Forecasting Team is predicting another brutally cold and snowy winter for a large part of the country, thanks in large part to La Niña... yet again.

La Niña, a phenomenon that occurs when sea surface temperatures across the equatorial central and eastern Pacific are below normal, is what made last year's winter so awful for the Midwest and Northeast. Monster blizzards virtually shut down the cities of New York and Chicago. Last winter was one of New York City's snowiest on record.

La Niñas often produce a volatile weather pattern for the Midwest and Northeast during winter due to the influence they have on the jet stream. The graphic above shows the position the jet stream typically takes over the U.S. during La Niña.


So, besides dealing with a lot of snow and ice, what does this mean for your business and how are you preparing for it?
Here are some valuable thoughts on what you should be doing for communications continuity planning.
1.Employees: Do you have a method to notify employees about snow days – when not to come to the office? It may sound mundane, but if you don’t, then the costs can be significant as soon as hourly employees start clocking in on days that the business is closed.
Suggestion: A written policy that is communicated to all employees about snow days that includes:
Will they be announced by an email or by a phone tree?
Who will be sending the email or making the calls?
When will this be determined?
How will at home employees be compensated?
What work activities are they expected to do from home?

2. Customers: How will you notify your customers that your business is closed?
Suggestion: A written policy communicated to your key sales staff
Will you announce via an email or phone tree?
Who will be sending the email or making the calls?
How will your automated attendant greeting be changed? By whom? Saying what? When?

3. Practice Beforehand! Don’t wait until your first snow day to practice implementing your plan. You should have a dry run
If you are using emails to communicate to your clients, make sure that the database is accurate. Make sure that the phone numbers for employees are accurate.
Make sure that you can change greetings.

4. Recommendations: Did you know that IP based systems and can enhance your ability to function on days when you can’t get to the office? S-NET Hosted Solutions can enable your work at home employees to log in remotely and work as if they were in the office. When combined with remote login capabilities on your network, your employees can work – answering calls, dealing with clients as if they were at their desks.

It looks like it is going to be another long, hard winter. We know what to expect – but the key is getting ready in advance. I remember the story about an out of work actor who finally got a one line part in a play. He had to say “Hark, I hear the cannons roar”. This actor practiced his line- on the subway, walking to the theater, in make up. Finally, he gets on stage, hears a loud BOOM- and yells “What the hell was that!?”. Moral of the story: Don’t wait until Mother Nature drops a foot of snow overnight. Make sure you have a plan that has been practiced and works!

5 Questions To Ask Yourself About Your Current Phone System

In today's competitive business environment, every sale is critical, every resource precious. And, every dollar spent has to drive bottom line results. That's why it's important for you to assess your current communication system. Here's five questions you should ask yourself:

1. How much do you know about callers before you pick up the phone?

We are all familiar with traditional caller ID, but now you can take it to another level.

S-NET Hosted PBX gives you instant access to your database before you answer the phone. If the caller is a prospect or customer, your sales team will have a full profile and contact history before they say, "Hello." Your team is better informed, and their calls are more effective.

2. How many phone numbers do customers need to reach you?

Making your customers hunt for the right number — and potentially be unable to reach you — slows transactions and reduces customer satisfaction.

With S-NET, one number — the office number — is all an employee needs to give out because your system knows where to forward each call. We call it "one number reachability" and your customers will love it.

3. Is setting up a conference call complicated and costly?

Conference calls have become a way of life for businesses. With IP Office, you no longer have to connect to a third party to hold your conference calls. You can start a conference call from your own phone at a moment’s notice. It’s fast, easy and free.

And for last-minute invitations, you can use SNET’s co-worker presence panel to check other colleagues’ availability to join the meeting.

4. Can your employees still conduct business while traveling?

When your staff is on the road, you can’t afford to let problems or order requests wait until the right person returns to the office.

With S-NET, your employees who work outside the office — whether full time or out due to an unforeseen situation — can access all of the same communications tools available in the office. From the home, a hotel room, an airplane terminal or almost anywhere, they can stay on top of their work so nothing slips through the cracks.

IP Office can also convert your voicemails into e-mails and send them so your team members get instant notification, retrieve all their messages and have the ability to reply ASAP.

5. Are you able to adjust to periodic fluctuations in call volume?

Whether you use a traditional call center or simply have people answer phones, managing call volume is important to customer satisfaction. Even if you’re busy, customers don’t want to hear busy signals.

S-NET Call Center Suite gives you the technology and tools you need to quickly adjust your call handling capability with fluctuations in call volume. By identifying peaks and valleys of your business calls, you can adjust your staffing and make better use of call recordings to minimize wait time and reduce caller frustration.

With S-NET Call Center Suite’s customer service applications for agents and supervisors, you’ll communicate more effectively with agents through wallboard displays — and you’ll get detailed data on calling patterns to help drive more effective sales campaigns and day-to-day selling performance.

Visit http://www.snetconnect.com to learn more today!

Collaboration & Teamwork: A Real Problem or Marketing Hype?

Collaboration is a hot, business buzzword today—very hot. It seems everyone is talking about better ways to speed team work and decision making.

But is this hype from consultants and companies selling solutions? Or is there real fire behind the smoke of all the collaboration talk.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest the latter. Yes, people have always “collaborated.” We have always had “teams.” These are not new ideas. What has changed is the environment in which collaboration and teamwork take place. And that makes all the difference. Here’s why:

Mobility: The workforce today is incredibly mobile. As much as 40 percent of U.S. workers now have jobs that could be done from outside the office at least part of the time. Not being face to face on a regular basis changes the nature of collaboration: visual cues, informal interactions—things which have always speeded collaboration and have always been take for granted—are now problematic.

Multitasking: Multitasking has always been a challenge as in the oft-quoted aspersion of someone not being able to walk and chew gum at the same time. But again, the reality today is different: many people work on a task while monitoring a feed of information, participating in a conference call, responding to IM and e-mails, etc. Yes—at a certain point all of this multitasking becomes a joke and unproductive, but the reality is that some variation on the above is today’s reality. In fact some people might not even consider what was just described as “multitasking.” All of this has huge implications for how information gets presented, how we get someone’s attention, how decisions are arrived at, etc.—all key elements of collaboration.

Context: How we view and respond to something depends in large part on the context in which it is presented. A physical office is a context. A face-to-face collaboration over a conference table is a context. A detailed report—with an introduction, background, supporting points, a conclusion—is a context. But in a mobile, multitasking world dependent on e-mails, IMs, tweets and more, we find ourselves constantly moving quickly in and out of different situations in which we often have very little context. As the title of a humorous book once put it, “We are in the context of no context.”

Racing from place to place, juggling multiple tasks and starved for context—that’s a big part of today’s work environment. That’s why collaboration is not just a buzzword and why supporting effective workforce collaboration is a critical part of any business strategy today.

Upgrading your office communications: Is it worth it now?

Deciding whether and when to upgrade your communications is a challenge for every small and growing business. Today’s new communications solutions offer many advantages, but are they worth it? What’s the best way to make an intelligent judgment? Here are three options to help answer that question:

Survey employees: One strategy that many businesses use is to survey their employees. Employees are a great source of insight. Complaints that ring true in terms of impact on the business—lost productivity, poor customer service, and unnecessary costs—may give you all the information you need to build a case for an upgrade.

What If?: Another option is to play a bit of “What If?”: what would be the impact on your business if your communications gave you:

The ability to recognize your top customers and route their calls for priority attention
Enable your employees to give out one number—their work number—and get their mobile phone, office phone, home phone, etc. all working together
Get built-in call recording for analyzing customer service or simply catching everything said on a critical call
Eliminated the need for outside conferencing services
Many companies that upgrade their communications report that the impact is huge, but they really couldn’t “see it” when they were just getting by with an older system. Playing a bit of “what if” can help identify real benefits.

Calculate the Value: Perhaps the best way to determine if an upgrade is worth it is to take a cold, hard look at the finances. A new communications system can lower the costs of long distance, mobile phone plans, conferencing services and more. It can eliminate the need for technicians to visit your company for routine system administration and reduce the time that employees (such as front desk personnel) devote to answering the phones. It can help make your business greener, giving options for employees to work from home: cutting energy costs and possibly the cost of office space. These savings can add up to tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Hiring and Keeping Great Employees: The Mobility Factor

In recent years, the global economy has seen sustained levels of high unemployment. So that means it’s easier than ever to find and hold on to great employees, right? Wrong!

Finding and retaining the really effective employee remains a major challenge, particularly because today’s work force is so diverse. That’s why “one-size-fits-all” strategies for keeping good people simply don’t work any longer. And because turnover among valued employees is costly, disruptive, and negatively impacts customer satisfaction, it remains a major challenge. That’s why more and more companies are taking advantage of their communications systems to support teleworking options.

An insurance company of approximately 40 people headquartered in the Washington, DC metropolitan area did a comprehensive study on their telework program and found that 64% of employees said they would turn down a 20% salary increase to continue teleworking. In addition, 57% of teleworking employees reported improved job satisfaction/morale. For more information, see Unleashing the Hidden Productivity of Your Small Business by Chuck Wilsker, President & CEO, The Telework Coalition at: http://bit.ly/qiom1T.

Teleworking is not for every employee. But by implementing a teleworking plan, employers get more options for addressing the needs of employees they simply don’t want to give up:

The valued employee who wants to stay, but whose spouse or significant other needs to relocate.
The employee who needs a better work life balance—to be more available to children, an aging parent, etc.
Members of Generations X (born after 1961) and Y (born after 1981) who have grown up on technology and expect to make it part of their everyday lives.
With gasoline and public transportation costs rising, the five-day-a-week commute is becoming an expensive approach to workplace management. The Telework Coalition (TelCoa) estimates that a full-time teleworker receives an $8,400 indirect pay raise, regardless of his or her salary rate, due to the reduced expenses in gas consumption, wear and tear on the vehicle, insurance, parking, etc.

With two-earner households commonplace, there is a greater push to find ways to put personal and family obligations ahead of corporate needs—without making it an either or tradeoff. Teleworking provides that option and its one that more and more businesses are going to have to look at. http://bit.ly/k2scnJ

S-NET Recognized as Computerworld 2011 Honors Laureate

IDG’s Computerworld Honors Program today announces S-NET Communications as a 2011 Laureate. The annual award program honors visionary applications of information technology promoting positive social, economic and educational change.
“The number and quality of nominations this year were very inspiring and demonstrate how valuable IT is to community change,” said John Amato, Publisher, Computerworld. “Computerworld is very proud to name the 2011 class of Laureates and showcase their initiatives benefiting society through innovative uses of IT.”
According to Alex Fayn, President of S-NET Communications, “The significance of being selected as a Laureate in the Computerworld Honors Program for our organization is tremendous. It represents peer recognition of the efforts we have made in the development of our product family and the contribution it can make to this country!”.
S-NET Communications has deployed the S-NET Q Box powered by ViBE to guarantee voice quality and reliability on its Silver Networks Hosted Virtual Pbx platform. It allows businesses to use less expensive bandwidth to carry their voice traffic. A simple low cost ADSL line (under $20 in most markets) can handle up to 28 simultaneous calls with guaranteed business grade quality of service and failover. This allows business locations that were previously either under-served or un-economical to service due to poor infrastructure, the ability to have reliable and economical connectivity. Bridging the digital divide remains one of the crucial factors in economic recovery and the deployment of the S-NET Q Box powered by ViBE along with S-NET Communication’s Silver Networks cloud communications services is a significant leap forward in reaching this goal.
The Computerworld Honors awards will be presented at the Annual Laureates Medal Ceremony & Gala Awards on June 20, 2011 at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C.
About Computerworld Honors Program
Founded by International Data Group (IDG) in 1988, The Computerworld Honors Program is governed by the not-for-profit Computerworld Information Technology Awards Foundation. Computerworld Honors is the longest running global program to honor individuals and organizations that use information technology to promote positive social, economic and educational change. Additional information about the program and a Global Archive of past Laureate case studies and oral histories of Leadership Award recipients can be found at the Computerworld Honors website (http://events.computerworld.com/Honors2011).
Founded in 2004, S-NET Communications is a Chicago based cloud communications provider of hosted IP Telephony Services. S-NET provides managed voice over IP services to businesses and organizations throughout the United States from its redundant data centers. These products include a robust hosted call center, virtual PBX and MPLS through dedicated circuits. Through S-NET Communications Silver Networks portal, this same robust set of products is delivered via their clients own connectivity- in a completely bandwidth neutral environment- whether cable, sDSL, aDSL or other carrier’s circuits.
About Computerworld
Computerworld is the leading source of technology news and information for IT influencers worldwide, providing peer perspective, IT leadership and business results. Computerworld’s award-winning Web site (http://www.computerworld.com),bi-weekly publication, focused conference series and custom research forms the hub of the world’s largest (40+ edition) global IT media network. In the past five years alone, Computerworld has won more than 100 awards, including Magazine of the Year by American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) awards in 2010, the 2009 Best Blog from the Neal awards, and 2006 Best Overall Web Publication from ASBPE. Computerworld leads the industry with an online audience of over 3.5 million unique, monthly visitors (comScore Media Metrix, August 2010). Computerworld is published by IDG Enterprise, a subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world’s leading media, events, and research company. Company information is available at www.idgenterprise.com.

I want my ____ at work!

I want my ____ at work!
Fill in the blank with my: iPad, my Android phone, or my Galaxy Tab…
Every morning, when my kids lived here, I would call them downstairs for breakfast. My youngest (a.k.a. Mr. Charming) would try his luck daily. “But, Dad, I NEED COCOA PUFFS”. “No, son”, the prematurely curmudgeon (a.k.a me), “you need breakfast”. It seems like the same thing is happening today in the workplace. Everyone – and based on the lines outside the Apple stores recently, that can’t be much of an exaggeration- wants to bring their iPad (or iPad2) to work, use their iPhone or Droid instead of the company issued phones, not to mention a Mac. The Motorola Xoom is a hybrid that maybe even defies categorization – and I am sure that if you own one, you want to bring it to work. This creates a number of headaches. I would strongly suggest you consider the following issues:
1. Data security- when an employee can access data from your company, is that data going to be secure on his device? Can someone else breach his security on that device and access your data?
2. Are you paying for needless surfing? With the new AT&T pricing plan for Internet access, using the iPhone or Droid can cost you a premium if you exceed the total amount of data usage on your plan. If your employee wants to use a smart phone and you are paying for the mobile plans, make sure your plan matches the increased usage that comes with a smart phone – before you agree!
3. Is that Droid safe? Can it compromise your network? There have been malware cases reported by users whose smart phones use the Droid operating system. If you let the phone on your office network- is your network secure?
4. Are the new toys/devices going to increase productivity or increase distraction? Last year the mantra was reducing costs. Now, the new mantra is improving productivity.
5. If one of your top people- C level – brings their device to work, are you going to have the infrastructure in place to meet their expectations? Do you have enough wireless access points? Enough bandwidth?
6. Continuation of above. If one of your top people brings their device to work, are you (and your staff) going to have to contort your systems to enable the device(s) to work on it and meet their expectations? Case in point- if they get a smart phone, does your voice messaging client work with their device? Are there apps for that device that require additional (unplanned) expense?
7. Are the devices that are coming to work going to be (today’s) influencers in your upcoming (tomorrow’s) IT decisions? If “John” in sales brings his iPad and the VP of marketing decides that everyone needs one, will your budget get blindsided?
8. If you are using SaaS applications – do you have enough licenses?
9. Is your staff going to have to support devices that they are unfamiliar with- and be made to look “less than”?
I don’t have answers for you – but I think that there is no “one size fits all” solution. However, you should consider these nine issues before the barrage of devices hits you!

Everyone is talking about the cloud....

“Everyone is talking about it. Most are doing it already. If you aren’t doing it, you’re really missing something.”
Cloud applications. What does it mean? What does it mean for your business? What can you do? Why should you consider it?
Cloud applications are a series of tasks and functions that your company previously would have had to devote your own hardware, software and technical support to implement. These include software applications like accounting, contact records management, e-mail hosting, storage, voice processing (phone service, voice messaging, call center, call accounting, call recording) and even your basic application suite of spreadsheets, databases and word processing. In the past, you would have needed servers, software licenses, technical staff, and hardware to design, use and maintain. Now, thanks to companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and a slew of others, you can securely have all this functionality without the associated capital investment and ongoing staff expenses.
These providers are essentially the platform that your company uses as its information technology infrastructure. Much the same way that you wouldn’t necessarily own your own power plant to provide your company’s electricity, you use these services on a license by license basis to provide you with the customizable program you need for a particular task. Google provides Google Apps- word processing, spreadsheet, presentation…and the list is updated regularly. Amazon provides space for you to run specialized applications you may have developed and can then virtualize to their servers. Salesforce.com provides a complete sales force automation platform. You don’t need to worry about having servers on site or administering them. You don’t have to worry about patches, updates or licensing. Both power and security are monitored on a comprehensive 24/7 basis.
Over the past few years, telecommunications has evolved from digital circuits to a standard packets based protocol. Instead of having dedicated phone circuits, the trend has moved to “virtual lines” based on this new protocol. These lines, or trunks, are referred to as “SIP” trunks. Much in the same way that the applications your computer networks have moved to the cloud, so too have your phones. Instead of investing in a system, communications services are now provided as hosted applications. Voice messaging, fax messaging and contact management now integrates seamlessly with your email and Microsoft Outlook – as well as your Blackberry, iPhone or Droid.
The ultimate of these applications is a hosted contact center that provides integration between hosted phone, automatic call distribution, customer database management, call recording, and accounting programs. Once requiring a considerable capital investment and dedication of vast resources, robust hosted call center applications are available for a minimal user investment of less than $100 per month. There are no significant hardware investments, no processor investments, no server investment and no expenses for patches, maintenance or upgrades.
Both from a human resources aspect and from a regulatory aspect, tele-commuting and geographically dispersed work groups are a fixture in the corporate landscape. Cloud applications make work groups function much more cohesively and with the same set of collaboration tools. Conference calling, white boarding, shared document collaboration and video conferencing are apps that can be accessed anytime and from anywhere.
Bandwidth quality and reliability are crucial to business continuity. Successful cloud applications require bandwidth that is secure and high quality. High quality bandwidth means that the measure of latency falls to an acceptable level for a particular application. Carriers must provide a guaranteed service level agreement that guarantees a response time for outages or service degradation. “Bandwidth diversification” means best practices ensure that Internet access will be provided across multiple providers using different delivery media (cable, DSL, dedicated circuits, fiber or wireless). Errant back hoe operators shouldn’t be able to shut down your operations!
The Cloud provides you with applications that do not require major capital expense and enable productivity. It means that your IT staff – whether in house or acquired externally- concentrates their efforts on process improvement instead of maintenance. It means that you are able to leverage enhanced features, functions, and infrastructure without having to build it for yourself. It means that you can focus on running your business.

SNET Communications Debuts Hosted IP Telephony Solutions for Insurance Agencies

Des Plaines, Illinois - 30/11/2010 - SNET Communications introduced its suite of Hosted Phone System Services for a major group of over 200 Northeastern Illinois insurance agents gathered at their year end conference in Schaumburg, Illinois. The robust package of products shown by SNET (http://www.snetconnect.com) was designed in conjunction with highly successful insurance agencies and veteran agents.

When Ken Smith received word that his corporate home office was no longer providing phone and internet to their individual owned branches, he needed a fix. Ken had four locations that had previously operated independently from a communications standpoint. His agencies worked like separate businesses just because they were in different physical locations. Ken Smith said."I haven't stopped talking about the solution SNET provided me with for my agencies with other colleagues. It has been like productivity on steroids for us!".

The SNET offering specifically addressed Ken Smith's insurance agency's specific needs of productivity, mobility and cost efficiency. SNET teams worked with him to design off premise outbound telemarketing solutions and mobile applications, as well as solutions that integrated his multiple offices allowing them to work together. These solutions allowed Ken to expand his agencies and increase their output. Ken's colleagues at other agencies learned of his success- which SNET replicated in their agencies. SNET, working with their agent Steve Bahlmann from Broadband Options,decided to introduce the concept to the owners and producers of the larger Northern Illinois territory. Steve Bahlmann said, "In this current economic environment, agencies have to be more productive and SNET has the tools to make them optimize their communications resources!".

SNET Communications' suite of products for insurance agencies is a robust, reliable and easy to implement hosted telephone system package. The ability to connect multiple offices, empower agent mobility and enhance agency productivity have made it a welcome additional to the best practices of independently owned insurance agencies.

SNET Communications solutions cover hosted voice over IP phone services. Agencies can either use their own bandwidth, such as inexpensive cable or DSL, and supercharge it with SNET applications. Phones are inexpensive, managed from SNET's 24/7 network operations center and constantly updated with improved functionality. Since 2003, SNET Communications has provided innovative and reliable telecommunications service to companies throughout the Chicago metropolitan area.

Communication - My Manifesto

We are put on this earth to live. We live with other people. Communication is a necessity. Like breathing. Technology is a means to this end. Somewhere, we got lost.

I can probably trace the watershed moment of our attention span to when Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video came out. It became the gold standard for how long the general public could maintain concentration.

Faxes became the next attention grabber. How quickly could you scan a page became the determining factor for attention. E mail was soon to follow. People stopped writing. If I want to really display an emotion today, I will write you a letter or note by hand. Otherwise, it's an email. Writing is reserved for special occasions. Somehow, we all became "king baby". "I want your attention RIGHT NOW!". Email isn't good enough. Now we have texting and instant messaging. We don't care what you are doing- you will pay us attention right now. As I write these words, I have gotten three texts and one instant message. Where is my train of thought going? Are these really important? Is it highly critical?

As a wired society, we have developed ourselves into a societal attention deficit disorder. I should say, an attention deficit by disorder. What is this doing to our civility? I can text something abrupt easier than I would barge into someone's space. I can write coarsely- or post abusively because the consequences are just out in the Ether and it doesn't require a lot of courage.

Now we have "cyber bullying" - where the consequences are profound. Lives are ruined when private information is posted. What happened to slander and libel? Go to any news site and read comments to almost any article. Conjecture is presented as fact. News is a matter of opinion.

Our workplaces are permeated by "king babies". "I want what I want when I want it NOW!!!. I will send you a text, I will interrupt you, I will reach across the network and grab your attention!."

Communication is our interaction with each other. It defines our relationships - at work, at play and as a society. Civility is our way to regulate these interactions. Communication without civility is disorder. Disorder spoils the development of our thoughts. Our thoughts become our words, our words become our actions, our actions become our character, our character becomes our destiny.