Tag Archives: business
Tips to Ensure a Smooth Migration to IP Telephony
There are a number of reasons which make VoIP telephony an appealing addition to any modern business, and those who have switched from a traditional telephone system will have done so with clear objectives in mind. If youre considering migrating to a VoIP service provider, consider the following questions to ensure a stress-free migration.
What do you want to achieve through switching to a VoIP service provider?
When making decisions on behalf of your business, its important to set some clear objectives. You must first understand the reasons driving the switch – perhaps you need to cut costs on lengthy international calls, modernise old equipment or improve your communications as a whole. Be clear on your goals, and always keep them in mind when reviewing service providers.
What VoIP package best suits the business?
When you have an understanding on the reasoning behind the switchover, seek out a provider that can help you to achieve those specific needs or requirements. Every business is unique, so shop around for a service that suits you.
While every business is unique, so is every VoIP provider, and many providers will be flexible with the services they offer and should be able to accommodate your specific needs. It pays to speak with prospective providers about your specific requirements to help inform your decision.
Does the provider understand the business?
If a VoIP provider understands your business, they can detect possible issues before they arise, saving both parties time and money. For instance, in a seasonal business, a high call volume around Christmas may cause time lag and call-quality issues. A reliable VoIP provider will preempt this situation, and prepare for it before it becomes an issue.
Are staff able to use the new systems?
As with any new software/hardware, staff will need to receive some training in the functional aspects of VoIP before it is implemented throughout the business. While some deployments are more complex than others, a typical VoIP system should be simple to grasp and designed to be user friendly, so the transition should be a smooth one.
Can you trust the provider?
Typically, when you make the transition to a hosted VoIP system, the only thing hosted on site are the handsets. On occasion you may wish to see whats happening behind the scenes, and a trustworthy supplier should allow you to so. If a supplier has made considerable investments in technology, they will be proud of their facilities.
Its also important to ensure that the provider isnt just a reseller of other providers services and that they have technical knowledge and resources to manage any eventuality, no matter how complex.
And finally…
A business should learn from any mistakes or successes made in the deployment process. If there are some obvious areas for improvement, then revise the plans for any work going forward. If youre deploying a a multi-site roll out then any refinements now will save time and money later. Also be sure to understand any implications of adding additional handsets or functionality further down the line.
Finding the Best PHP Website Hosting Package for any Purpose
There are many free website hosting packages that are enough to host personal sites and even some small business sites. However, just about all of these sites run on slow shared servers and lack any PHP support. The free hosts that do provide PHP support are often unreliable and have minimal database features. This is why you need to go for real commercial website hosting offerings that provide PHP.
PHP often works alongside MySQL in creating a very dynamic website. Both of these languages are open source too so you do not have to worry about costly licensing issues. It also integrates with HTML so you can apply any existing knowledge of HTML to your PHP content.
Fortunately, many providers offer this even in their cheapest packages. Overall reliability and extra features still vary though which is why you need to follow some of these tips to land you a good host.
Try to gather some links to popular website hosting packages that each have competitive prices. Then check each link and find out what databases are supported. If you are migrating from a previous host or you created your own database offline, you need to make sure the website host can support everything that you are planning to host.
The available disk space is also an important aspect depending on the type of content that you are hosting. Ordinary business blogs that rely on text and images won’t need very high requirements but larger stores that have online shopping portals and other highly graphical sites that rely on Flash or HD video will need additional disk space beyond the gigabyte range.
The cost per gigabyte being reasonably low these days, multiple PHP website hosting providers should give you more than enough available space to fit loads of content but the bandwidth limitations is an entirely different story. Bandwidth refers to the amount of data being transferred to visitors and if you are expecting thousands of visitors every day, even minimal websites may suffer from bandwidth issues. Once you exceed your monthly bandwidth limits, your site will shut down for the remainder of the month and that could lead you to lose some potential customers. When looking at the different website hosting packages available, go with the one that provides at least 10 gigabytes of bandwidth. That should be enough to start a small business of any kind and you can probably stay under the bandwidth limitations for more than a year before you need to upgrade.
The last thing you need to look for in a website hosting package is the extra features being offered. A website builder is a good example for this and serves as a great add-on for those that do not have much experience in coding a PHP business site. Additional features may include spare email addresses, support for SSL certificates so you can add authenticity, and support for mailing lists so you do not have to sign up for a separate autoresponder service.
These are the most important elements that are included in any good website hosting package that offers PHP support. If you find yourself still choosing from a few available packages, do some final searches on these services and choose one that received positive reception from customers.
Tips to Ensure a Smooth Migration to IP Telephony
There are a number of reasons which make VoIP telephony an appealing addition to any modern business, and those who have switched from a traditional telephone system will have done so with clear objectives in mind. If youre considering migrating to a VoIP service provider, consider the following questions to ensure a stress-free migration.
What do you want to achieve through switching to a VoIP service provider?
When making decisions on behalf of your business, its important to set some clear objectives. You must first understand the reasons driving the switch – perhaps you need to cut costs on lengthy international calls, modernise old equipment or improve your communications as a whole. Be clear on your goals, and always keep them in mind when reviewing service providers.
What VoIP package best suits the business?
When you have an understanding on the reasoning behind the switchover, seek out a provider that can help you to achieve those specific needs or requirements. Every business is unique, so shop around for a service that suits you.
While every business is unique, so is every VoIP provider, and many providers will be flexible with the services they offer and should be able to accommodate your specific needs. It pays to speak with prospective providers about your specific requirements to help inform your decision.
Does the provider understand the business?
If a VoIP provider understands your business, they can detect possible issues before they arise, saving both parties time and money. For instance, in a seasonal business, a high call volume around Christmas may cause time lag and call-quality issues. A reliable VoIP provider will preempt this situation, and prepare for it before it becomes an issue.
Are staff able to use the new systems?
As with any new software/hardware, staff will need to receive some training in the functional aspects of VoIP before it is implemented throughout the business. While some deployments are more complex than others, a typical VoIP system should be simple to grasp and designed to be user friendly, so the transition should be a smooth one.
Can you trust the provider?
Typically, when you make the transition to a hosted VoIP system, the only thing hosted on site are the handsets. On occasion you may wish to see whats happening behind the scenes, and a trustworthy supplier should allow you to so. If a supplier has made considerable investments in technology, they will be proud of their facilities.
Its also important to ensure that the provider isnt just a reseller of other providers services and that they have technical knowledge and resources to manage any eventuality, no matter how complex.
And finally…
A business should learn from any mistakes or successes made in the deployment process. If there are some obvious areas for improvement, then revise the plans for any work going forward. If youre deploying a a multi-site roll out then any refinements now will save time and money later. Also be sure to understand any implications of adding additional handsets or functionality further down the line.