We are excited to announce that VoIP Supply is once again being nominated a finalist as one of the Best Places to Work in WNY for 2017. This is an annual Buffalo Business First program supported by Quantum Workplace to honor remarkable organizations in Western New York.
This program separates participating organizations into five categories based on their number of employees. The competition is to review employees’ opinions on some of the best reasons to work for their employees, including downsides, advice to leadership, and how satisfied they are with their workplace overall. This year there were 81 companies nominated to be the finalists including Evan Bank, BlueCross BlueShield of WNY, and more.
“We are proud to learn that our employees enjoy what they do everyday and share the same values. It’s because of our employees that we are nominated to be a finalist,” said Paula Griffo, President & CFO of VoIP Supply. “This is a really great opportunity for us to learn what our employees think and how we can improve the workplace and daily operation in the future.”
A big thank you to Buffalo Business First and Quantum Workplace for hosting this meaningful program and giving us this opportunity to participate. We’d also like to thank all of our dedicated and amazing employees for their hard work and nomination!
If you spend a great deal of time deploying VoIP systems or building IP networks for various customers, you quickly learn to appreciate things that just seem to work. What I mean by that is, there’s no crossing your fingers, or sacrificing a virgin to have a piece of equipment work the way it’s actually supposed to.
If you’ve been reading some of my posts or have seen the videos that I have been in, then all of you know that I am a bit of an ADTRAN fanboy. I like ADTRAN the same way that I like my 22-year-old Swiss Army Knifeâ. It’s reliable, well-made, fits in your pocket, and will always get the job done. With that, let me re-introduce you to the ADTRAN NetVanta 1531P. For my first introduction to the NetVanta 1531P, check out my unboxing video here. Also see the configuration video below:
A key aspect that Iâd like to spotlight on this switch is ADTRANâs âVoIP Setup Wizardâ feature. Setting up the LAN for voice is challenging, because of the complexity involved with configuring various settings such as Quality of Service (QoS), V-LANs, Class-of-Service (CoS), uplink ports, among others. With ADTRANâs VoIP Setup Wizard, the whole process is automated to just two-clicks and your LAN is setup for voice. This is ideal if you have a voice over IP phone system or are thinking of switching to VoIP, which allows for fast VoIP deployments. ADTRAN offers a number of âvoice awareâ features that simplify setup and management of your voice deployments.
The NetVanta 1531P won’t actually fit in your pocket (unless you still wear Jenco jeans) but it has a fantastic form factor that allows you to mount or set it just about anywhere in your organization. Yes, it is a small capacity switch with 12 ports, which means it’s meant for small deployments of VoIP phones or wireless access points, but I’ve found that it really shines as a test or provisioning bench switch. The 1531P can function as a DHCP server, which is not a feature readily found in the lesser “prosumer” class of switch in the same-ish price point (under $600). This is important because you can serve IP addresses to IP phones without the need for a dedicated piece of equipment such as a router or server. You can of course consequently serve DHCP options, such as option 66, to point phones to a specific TFTP server. A customer’s environment can easily be replicated by creating an additional VLAN with their specific IP address scheme, default gateway, and DNS information allowing you to configure both phones and even an IP PBX to be shipped pre-configured, which is the actual method used by VoIP Supply for provisioning services.
Okay, how about some more details? Well, it’s a small, lightweight, fanless, PoE switch, and it’s a layer 3 device. Actually, layer 3 light as described by ADTRAN, which means it can perform static routing (VLAN to VLAN) but is limited to how many static routes you can use (16). It cannot perform dynamic routing like the NetVanta 1544 for example, but there are some pretty big differences in the price point when making that comparison (by a few thousand). The NetVanta 1531P sports 8 PoE and PoE+ ports which produce up to 30 watts per port (PoE+) with a maximum PoE budget of 65watts. In terms of IP phones, it’s plenty to support 8 PoE powered phones as they aren’t as demanding as wireless access points, but do your research and make sure you are accounting for all devices needing power. There are an additional 4 ports on the 1531P, two are non-PoE Ethernet, and two SFP, all of which are 1 Gbps. There is a console port accessible via a DB-9 RS-232 port that connects you to a very familiar command line interface. If you have any command line experience with Cisco, then you’ll feel right at home with ADTRAN as the syntax is nearly identical. Of course, you can SSH for the same experience, but you are also provided a web-based interface which means you’ll almost never have to SSH or console into the switch if you are a little rusty on your command line witchcraft. For a complete list of the NetVanta 1531P check out the datasheet.
ADTRAN’s standard web interface that you find with all of their NetVanta and most TotalAccess products provides you with an efficient avenue to administer your switch. It isn’t overly garnished with tacky graphics or is so convoluted that it becomes a frustrating experience if you don’t already know the ins and outs. The web interface is, just right, and leaves out virtually nothing. There are some tasks that are moderately quicker via the command line, but as stated before, the user interface can accomplish all of the most common switch administrative tasks without needing to use the command line. It also doesn’t change its appearance, ever. Changes or added features are subtle and go almost unnoticed if you didn’t read the latest firmware release. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as I tend to place value on consistency and general standardization. Speaking of firmware, it’s free, for the life of the product. Yes, I said FREE. Firmware can be downloaded from ADTRAN after you create a login with them, which is also at no cost to you.
If you think you have a need for a small layer 3 switch that can provide PoE to IP phones or any other compatible device, give VoIP Supply a call. The ADTRAN NetVanta 1531P goes to the top of my recommendations list for battle proven, reliable, and feature-rich equipment.
Buffalo, New York, March 14th, 2017 – VoIP Supply, a leading VoIP solutions provider in North America, marked its 15th year anniversary with significant accomplishments in the CloudSpan Marketplace, a single platform that provides various cloud services to meet customers’ business needs.
In the past year, restructuring the CloudSpan Marketplace and the sales team to focus on proactive growth of service sales was a challenge for VoIP Supply but both are continually showing significant improvements the past 9 months.
Today, VoIP Supply’s CloudSpan Marketplace has grown mature, positioning for exponential growth in the current year and foreseeable future. The improved internal systems and processes satisfy new and existing customers with greater customer intelligence, increased team efficiency and effectiveness and a more personalized experience.
This year, VoIP Supply shifts the internal software platforms to more modern SaaS platforms and is expecting to see continuous improvements in customer experience and growth in the CloudSpan Marketplace as well as customer adoption of hosted VoIP services.
“The past 15 years have been a wonderful journey and a memorable adventure. I am extremely proud of what we have all been able to accomplish, the success that we have created, and the hundreds of thousands of customer interactions and solutions that we have been a part of,” said Ben Sayers, CEO and Founder of VoIP Supply. “We’ve experienced many great highs and have persevered through some of the lowest of the low. We’ve done so as a team and a family, working side by side with many great people over the years. I am thankful to all that have been a part of it and I’m grateful for all that we have been through.”
About VoIP Supply
VoIP Supply, LLC (https://www.voipsupply.com) is your trusted source for everything VoIP; from our large selection of name-brand hardware to our CloudSpan Marketplace. VoIP Supply provides you with a fully staffed inbound call center with licensed, certified and highly trained VoIP experts that can help you with any problem you might have. Whether you are a home user, business, reseller or service provider, VoIP Supply has the products, experience and expertise to make your deployment a success.
VoIP Supply is a three-time Inc. 500/5000 honoree, listed by Business First as one of WNYâs Most Admired Companies, as well as being consistently ranked one of Western New York’s Best Places to Work. VoIP Supply is also the first Certified B Corporation in Western New York.
Our dedicated Solution Specialists are here to help, so call us today at 1-800-398-VoIP or visit our website at https://www.voipsupply.com
As the cost of school supplies, textbooks, technology equipment, and other related expenses continue to increase, many educational institutions are looking for a way to reduce their costs – switching to a VoIP system can help you achieve that goal. While a lower monthly bill is the most common reason for deploying a VoIP system, there’s a lot of other benefits you may not have noticed yet. Therefore, today we are going to walk you through some of the popular VoIP service benefits that education institutions love!
#1 Minimum Maintenance
With a hosted VoIP system, you don’t need an IT staff to maintain your phone system. Your service provider will be responsible for the system maintenance, monitoring, and management. Simple house your phones and the VoIP service provider will deliver your VoIP service through the Internet connection.
You would love unified communications if you have students or faculty in a remote area. With a unified communication system, conducting a virtual seminar/class becomes an easy piece. Schools are able to connect students, faculty, parents from different channels (social media, apps, email, instant message, etc.) into one single system.
#4 Paging/ Intercom Support
Paging and intercom support help educational institutions communicate efficiently especially during an emergency event. The integration of intercom and your VoIP system allows you to make important announcements right from your phone device.
#5 Phone Features
A VoIP system has a lot of potentials. Here we list out some of the popular features most school systems take advantage of:
Announcements – make announcements about school events, schedule changed, or an emergency.
Conferencing – conduct faculty meetings over telephones.
Auto Attendant – set automatic professional greetings and direct callers to the specific routing options.
Call Recording – record all important calls with parents, students, or faculty.
Call Park – place calls into specific parking locations such as classrooms or offices andpickup the call when you arrive the location.
Call Queuing – organize different school departments into queues so that callers can be routed to the right place.
Find me/ Follow me call routing – control how your calls are directed even when you are not at the school office.
When it comes to conference phones, there is something for everyone. On some level, almost every company needs one and with all the options that are out there, it can sometimes be difficult deciding what conference phone will be the best fit for your conference room.
We can all agree that the most important thing to consider when choosing a conference phone is how well the party on the other line can hear you, and your team. It can be unprofessional if your client on the other end of the phone call has to keep asking to repeat something you said. This alone can set the wrong tone for your call and can have an impact on your business. And while some conference phone mics can go a long way when it comes to picking up voices at a distance, sometimes you just need more.
Imagine yourself in a huge conference room with 75 other people and you are about to call a client to potentially close a massive deal. One conference phone in the center of this room may not be enough to capture everyone’s voice! So what is the solution? Well, there are many different things that you can do to increase your conference phones range, but one option (the most logical thing to do) is to add more mics!
Let’s take the VTech VCS752 for example. This high-end conference phone actually comes equipped with two, that’s right, TWO wireless microphones that you can use to extend its normal range!
These two wireless mics actually charge off of the actual conference phone in their own little charging cradles and when fully charged, will give you 12 hours of talk time! These microphones are great, but they are small.
When I first saw them, I thought to myself “What if they get lost? With so many people coming in and out of the conference room, they are sure to be misplaced.” But then, VTech came through once more!
The VCS752 is equipped to handle such a situation with a Microphone Locater option, and it’s easy to use!
How to Locate Your Wireless Mics for the VTech VCS752
If you have a scheduled conference call and are missing one, or both of these microphones simply press MENU and then highlight and select STATUS. Once you bring up the status menu, highlight and select Wireless microphone. This will bring up the wireless microphone menu and you see an option to select Locate.
After selecting locate, your wireless microphones will begin to ring, making it simple to find them. After all, they are probably right in front of you, hiding under a stack of paper or behind a water bottle.
Once you have located your wireless mics, you can press CANCEL/Back right on the conference phone to stop the ringing, or they will stop on their own after 30 seconds. Also, placing them back in their charging cradles or hitting MUTE ALL on the wireless mic will stop the location tone.
So, if you are having trouble being heard in your conference room, and you are looking for an easy solution, give the VTech VCS752 a try! Do you already use the VCS752? How do you like it? Let us know!
The world of VoIP is filled with all kinds of benefits. This can be anything from lowering your monthly phone bill to having a super cool looking desk phone, but it is what you can do with your desk phone that sets VoIP apart from traditional PSTN lines.
The list of features you can access when having VoIP is too long to mention, but if I were to single one out, it would have to be BLF. What does BLF stand for? Busy Lamp Field, and if you are not taking advantage of this helpful VoIP feature, then you’re missing out!
While BLF can have several different functions, it’s basic and most popular function is a visual indication on your desk phone that allows you to see when other coworkers are on the phone, or unavailable. These are typically in the form of light-up buttons.
Having the use of BLF keys to help route incoming calls can increase productivity and efficiency, especially for job positions like receptionist or secretary. And while having BLF can be a total game changer, please keep in mind that this is not something that just works right out of the box. If you want to start using BLF in your office then this is something that needs to be set up manually and can be done easily through your phone system web interface.
If you are already using BLF, then let us know! We want to know what other things you are using BLF for besides call routing.
The world is changing fast. When I was little, no one was using the term “smartphone”, “USB port”, or “touchscreen”. Maybe, in the next decade, we will no longer need a so-called “phone” and the new generation will have to go to a history museum to see a physical phone.
The world is dynamic, so is your business. It’s time to review your phone system to see if it can keep up with your competitors, partners, and, the most important of all, your customers. Here we put together the top 5 indicators your phone system is outdated.
Top 4 Warning Signs Your Phone System is Not Sufficient for Business
Indicator #1 Increasing Monthly Fee
An increased phone bill is the most obvious indication your phone system need a facelift. While your competitors are cutting down their phone bills, your high bills might be putting you at a disadvantage.
Indicator #2 Decreasing Customer Satisfaction
In this competitive world, customers are expecting fast and precise answers from you. If your phone system can’t keep up their needs (call quality, etc.), you might lose your customers to other competitors who can serve them more efficiently and clearly.
Indicator #3 Lower Work Flexibility
With the help of technology, employees are able to enjoy higher work flexibility than ever before. More and more people are working from home or in a virtual system. If your phone system is not able to support or manage remote workers, you might face losing valuable employees or decreased work ethic.
Indicator #4 Separated Multiple Communication Channels
If your system doesn’t have a unified communication system, you might find your employees using various private communication channels. Not only could they miss important messages, but waste a lot of time making sure everyone is on the same page.
Indicator #5 Difficult to Upscale or Downscale
Businesses are dynamic. It’s normal to upscale or downscale your business at times, therefore, you have to make sure the changing process is as simple as possible. If you find it costly or time-consuming to add/remove a few lines, the phone system is not sufficient for dynamic businesses.
Now you have briefly reviewed your phone system. Did you see any warning signs in your phone system? What other signs did you see your phone system is holding back your business? Share with us!
March 6, 2017, Grandstream, the leading manufacturer of IP voice and video telephony solutions, released a new DECT HD repeater for beta testing by the Grandstream Beta Club.
The new DECT HD repeater is to be paired with the existing DP750 and DP720 DECT IP phone set, to extend the network signal range and provide users with the highest flexibility, setting them free from the base station without losing Internet connection.
About the Beta Testing
Qualifications: Customers who currently own a DP750 and DP720 DECT IP phone bundle and have broad experience with DECT IP technology especially those who have prior experience with Grandstream DECT IP phone products.
Availability: 50 units of the DECT repeater will be available for shipping to selected testers by late March 2017.
Application fees: The cost to participate in a beta test will be $1 to cover handling, however, the product model and shipping will be free of charge for each active beta tester. There’s no charge to applicants who are not selected for a Beta test.
About the new DECT HD Repeater
The new DECT HD repeater is designed to extend the range of the DP750 DECT base station to an additional range of up to 300 meters outdoors and 50 meters indoors. Take a peek at some highlights of this new product:
Pairs with the DP750 DECT base station to offer the extended range of up to 50 meters indoors and 300 meters outdoors.
Relays up to 2 concurrent HD calls, or 1 HD call in daisy chaining of 2 DECT repeaters
Easy set-up with Auto-Associate with a DP750, and auto self-configuration using the retrieved regional frequency band setting from the DP750
5 LED status indicators for Power, Network, Association, Activity, Signal Strength
Supports seamless call handover
10/100 Mbps network port with integrated PoE
To have more information about this new beta testing please visit Grandstream Beta Club.
Our tech support team at VoIP Supply offers great pre- and post-sales support plus provisioning, consultations, configuration, and installation help. We get a lot of VoIP hardware and software questions and would like to share the solutions with everyone.
What’s the default password for Plantronics Headsets?
Q: I have a Plantronics ear piece which I love. But then I got a new phone to replace my old phone and I can’t get the two paired. When I try to link the two I am asked for a pin number. I do not remember using a pin number when I first set this device up. If I did, I don’t remember the pin number. How can I solve this problem?
A: The default password for Plantronics headsets should be “0000“.
Stay Tuned
Come back for more VoIP questions and answers next time! If you have VoIP questions to ask us, please submit a technical support ticket or contact our VoIP experts today at 866 582-8591.
Designed for small businesses who don’t require advanced features, the GXP1600 series are simple, easy-to-use IP phones that satisfy your basic needs of VoIP. The GXP1600 series comes with 3-way conferencing and easy no touch provisioning with other Grandstream products.
The GXP1610/1615 is a single line VoIP phone with a 132×48 pixel LCD display and 3-way conferencing. With up to 2 call appearances while handling a single SIP account, the GXP1610/1615 offers high-end phone features that can be depended on in various office settings.
The GXP1620/1625 is a 2-line IP phone with a 132×48 pixel backlit graphical LCD display. Offering 3 XML programmable soft keys and multi-language support, this solution gives you the flexibility you desire.
If you are looking for a basic solution that can be interoperable with most third-party SIP device, the GXP1628 would be your go-to solution. It is a 2-line IP phone with 3 Â XML programmable keys and dual network ports that offers you HD wideband audio, full duplex speakerphone, and more features.
The GXP1630 is the latest member of the 1600 series that’s equipped with 8BLF keys and 4-way conferencing abilities. Integrated PoE, 3XML keys, dual switched Gigabit ports are just some of the useful features our customers love.
The GXP1700 Series Mid-Range IP Phones
The GXP1700 series features high-end, modern design, mid-range capacity at a near entry-level price. With up to 8 lines and 4 SIP accounts, this series offers 5-way conferencing, 4 soft keys and integrated PoE, USB port, and EHS support. The 24 to 32 digitally programmable keys and the advanced call productivity, efficiency, and high-volume control give users the flexibility they need to grow their businesses.
The GXP2100 Series High-End IP Phones
The GXP2100 series IP phones are tailored to businesses who are looking for more advanced features to maximize the work productivity and efficiency. Offering up to 12 lines, 6 SIP accounts, and 48 virtual BLF keys, the GXP2100 series highlights its suite of advanced call handling features that maximize your work functionality. See the chart below for a detailed comparison of this series:
What IP phones are you using? Did you make the right choice? Share with us!
We are excited to announce that VoIP Supply is once again being nominated a finalist as one of the Best Places to Work in WNY for 2017. This is an annual Buffalo Business First program supported by Quantum Workplace to honor remarkable organizations in Western New York.
