VoIP Supply just keeps popping up everywhere! Buffalo Rising, Buffalo’s metropolitan community news blog, featured a story on helping colleges and universities become better connected through voip technology. Check out the entire story here.
Todayâs topic will be on the latest Dual Mode phone I have come to love. Now, not too long ago I talked about the UT Starcom GF-210 series phone. I talked about this phone because to me, nothing could beat it on the market. Well, that was last month, and today, I am going to talk about the HPâs version of a dual mode phone. The iPaq 510 phone is one for the record books. Its candy bar-like design and full listing of functionality just beats up the competition.
Now, let me just reiterate the benefits of Dual Mode VoIP phones. Not only can they work with your GSM (cell phone carrier), but they will also work on your existing network in the office or at home, saving you thousands of minutes per year that your phone carrier would be charging you for, not to mention the elimination of carrying two phones (one personal and one business), but also the combination of a full set of features. This is one phone that anyone would love.
Get up to 6.5 hours of talk time: under the best network conditions/coverage with continuous talking and a fully- charged battery. Not to mention the standby time: up to 7.8 days (188 hours)
Scan, read, and reply to e-mail: using Microsoft Exchange, POP3, or IMAP; you can also use VoiceReply to reply without typing
Be productive: with mobile versions of Microsoft Outlook, Office, and Internet Explorer for Smartphone3, 4
Get clear voice quality: that enhances communication
Save your wireless airtime minutes: while in the office with Voice Over IP over your wireless LAN (Wi-Fi), and your company’s PBX phone system (interoperability has been tested with the major IP-PBX providers)
Use a Bluetooth headset: or the built-in speakerphone
See who’s calling: with Caller ID, which presents a phone number, name, or even a photo
Now with that set of features, and simplistic design; youâre probably telling yourself that this is going to be pricey. Well itâs not. HP is selling this for $319.99, but there is good news. There is a $70.00 instant rebate, so the total comes out to $249.99. Now compared to the UT Starcom GF-210, which prices out at $239.99, which one seems like the better deal? To me, I would take the HP any day.
However, I do have some bad news about the VoIP phone. And I know what youâre thinking, âthere is always a catch!â This is not so much a catch, but just a small speed bump in the road. VoIP Supply does not currently have them in our product catalog. But we are working on it. And I foresee in the near future that we should be carrying it. So stick around!
Our customers are our most valuable asset, and are a group of people that we strive to impress all day, every day. With more than 57,000 customers since August 2004, growing the company from 5 employees to 65 employees, more than 100,000 shipments and over $65,000,000 in gross VoIP equipment sales, I can safely say that we have had some hurdles to overcome, but have always placed the customer first and done our best to over-deliver.
Over the years there have been a few instances where we just plain got it all wrong. Like any growing business, we have made decisions that started with good intentions but ended up with poor results. Some customers have been nice enough to point out these issues to others; other customers have taken part in our customer satisfaction surveys and brought to light many areas where we can improve. The purpose of this post and others to follow is to highlight some areas of need and our plans to improve.
Returns: One area that has been a thorn in our side (and the side of many retailers) is the handling of product returns. No one likes to have to return a product and most are upset to begin with since the device is not working. Once upon a time our process for returns was slow and inconsistent with poor communication throughout the process. I am happy to say that this has been addressed and has improved, and that we have plans to continue improving the process even further. With dedicated staff, refined returns criteria, additional returns details/options printed on the packing slip and invoice, automated communications with each customer through various stages of the process and transparency, and expectations each customer should have make the end result far more positive.
Since we are not a manufacturer, we are not able to ensure that the products work, only that they can be replaced efficiently, if and when they break. From our experience and customer feedback, one common theme has been not knowing what status of the return is. We now communicate with each customer when a request for a Return Merchandise Authorization has been received, when an RMA number is granted or declined, when an RMA expires, when the return is received in our warehouse, when it has been tested, when the tested return is approved or declined and when the final credit is processed. This entire procedure now has service level assurances included where the testing and processing must be completed within 48 hours, and initial RMA requests are all handled within one business day or sooner.
There are dozens of other customer service projects and initiatives going on; I will detail them in future posts. Most are related to communications in one manner or another. With effective, consistent and proactive communications, our customers are always informed and able to focus on their needs without the distraction of tracking down their products.
Located in West Virginia, Alderson-Broaddus, the 635-student college founded over 100 years ago, purchased analog gateways as well as a 200+ seat PBX phone system to connect the dorms and buildings, mostly for emergencies.
The new system will make it easier for the university community to communicate and keep expanding its methods to keep staff and students safe.
Bruce Blankenship, vice president for assessment, planning and technology at the college said they moved to VoIP for a number of reasons, including cost, changing technology and flexibility in services.
âWe saw a potential cost savings,â Blankenship said. âWe were facing an upgrade from analog, which would be much more expensive. Our copper network is also beyond capacity in terms of adding new users, so we wanted to try and put our resources into a new IP network, as our current fiber loop has been around 40 to 50 years.â
Blankenship marked the importance of what happened at nearby Virginia Tech and the importance of disaster response planning.
âVoIP supports better communications with the constituents on campus,â he said. âCurrently we provide one phone per student suite, with four to eight students sharing each for emergency and local calls. We donât provide the phones, just a jack, and down the road we are thinking of possibly offering more VoIP services for each student.â
For the 150 faculty and staff on campus, plus the student community, VoIP Supply provided the right solution at the right price. Blankenship talked with VoIP Supply and VoIP Supply partner, Digium (then known as Switchvox), in order to come up with the best possible solution for collegeâs needs.
âI’m glad to have had our Switchvox SMB IP PBX be selected to play a part in improving communications at Alderson-Broaddus College,â said Tristan Degenhardt, Switchvox Product Line Director for Digium. âThe stability and flexibility of the solution will allow them to deploy a system that not only serves their needs in the case of an emergency, but the extensive feature set will provide far-reaching benefits in their organization on a daily basis.â
Blankenship believes in the power of VoIP for the future of the schoolâs needs.
âWe really think VoIP will serve us better than our current service,â Blankenship said. âThe faculty and staff is looking forward to more features on their phones like caller id and integrating the VoIP system with the email and calendaring system. Itâs an emerging field, and the staff wants to take full advantage of the features.â
Benjamin P. Sayers, VoIP Supply CEO, said that selling VoIP as a proactive tool of protection allows the company share in the sale of social responsibility.
âWe get different kinds of orders every day, but knowing that we could be helping alleviate the response time in emergencies makes the job all the more worthwhile. We are proud to take on Alderson-Broaddus College as a client.â
Aastra Telecom has announced that it will be releasing its first SIP-based IP PBX in early May; the AastraLink Pro 160. I recently had the option of attending a technical webinar on this product, and I have to say, Iâm very pleased by its offerings in its initial deployment. The AastraLink Pro 160 is designed and targeted at applications for 25 phone system users or less, but allows for up to 9 AastraLink Pro units to be interconnected via IAX trunks to accompany remote offices, multiple locations, and larger applications with more users. The unit is strictly hardware based, and blankets Asterisk, however there is no access to the root command line interface–thereâs simply no need to. The AastraLink Pro 160 is accompanied by a user-friendly Web GUI interface where all configurations such as the configuration of IP endpoints, PSTN trunks, SIP trunks, and call feature functionalities, can all be performed. The AastraLink Pro 160 is designed specifically for LAN environments, and works best with Aastra SIP-based units such as the 51i, 53i, 55i, 57i, 57i CT, and the newly released models, 9143, 9480i, 9480i CT, because the PBX has built-in auto-provisioning features that will auto-seek any of the units mentioned above on the same LAN and provision the units for inter-office voice connectivity. Simply plug the Aastra IP Phones into the LAN, and let the AastraLink Pro 160 do the rest.
-Support for up to 50 extensions when SIP Trunking is facilitated.
-Expandability to link up to 9 AastraLink Pro units via IAX trunking for your remote and multiple location applications.
-No user or application license fees.
-Auto-provisioning tool that allows the system to work seamlessly with Aastra IP Phones. Simply plug the phones into the LAN, and let the AastraLink Pro 160 do the rest.
-A built-in Auto Attendant that configures on initial setup.
-Ability to support open-sourced SIP IP endpoints other than Aastra phones, with phone configuration back to the AastraLink Pro 160 appliance.
The AastraLink Pro 160 is a pure hardware-based solution, no messing around with Asterisk root configuration files, and zaptel configurations for those in-house installers. Thereâs simply no need to! The unit contains the following hardware specifications that are designed to facilitate all of the feature functionalities of the product:
-6 analog RJ-11 FXO connections for PSTN and POTS connectivity with G.168 echo cancellation on board.
-2 analog RJ-11 FXS Connections to directly connect a fax or analog telephone up to. A cool feature with this is that the hardware has the ability to auto-switch FXO connectivity from Port 1 FXO to Port 1 FXS device in times when the network may be down. This is most noted as PSTN failover or emergency backup services, so you still have a way to communicate with the outside world in times where your network may be down. (you can also use a VoIP gateway)
-1 LAN port for connectivity to the LAN. This is strictly a LAN device and is recommended always that your LAN is segmented for voice or data in some way to reduce possible QOS issues. The LAN connectivity is also used to facilitate SIP trunking and IAX trunking between multiple AastraLink Pro 160 appliances. In these types of instances, ensure your LAN connectivity has access to your WAN to facilitate this. Aastra recommends the user of Netgear switches, and Netgear/Linksys routers specifically supporting UPnP.
-1 WAN port, which is designed for future use.
-2 audio stereo input jacks to allow for in and out circuitry for Music on Hold (MOH) and external paging.
Look for this product to become available on Voipsupply.com in early May of this year. This is a perfect application for small to medium sized deployments, and is an in-house installerâs dream regarding setup procedures. More information on the upcoming release and more feature specifications can found here.
Here at VoIP Supply it’s important that we stay on the cutting edge of voip technology, and we are able to do that by having companies such as Digium come in and conduct day-long training seminars. We can then pass along additional knowledge to our customer base. Chris Langford and Gayle Magee from Digium were here this past Monday bringing everyone up to speed on the the latest Digium offerings.
The Digium presentation covered three main topics: PCI Cards, Digium Appliances and the Switchvox PBX.
A special thanks to Gayle and Chris for coming into town and keeping us up to speed, and thanks for the t-shirts!
Are you ready to save big on voip this spring? VoIPSupply.com is offering a huge selection of top rated products at new, limited time low prices. Not only are we providing top notch customer service and care but record low prices for the voip industry.
If youâre in the market for a new voip phone, nowâs the time to buy. Our price breaks are being offered across the board on Aastra, Cisco, Grandstream, Linksys, Polycom, ip phones and even Audiocodes analog gateways! A few of our more popular products that weâre offering price breaks on include the Aastra 9133i IP Phone, Cisco CP-7940G IP Phone, Grandstream GS-386 Analog Adapter, and the Linksys PAP2T-NA Adapter to name a few.
Why stop with IP Phones when you can get free ground shipping on IP Cameras and dvr cards! Our IPCameraSupply.com store is offering FREE ground shipping on popular Axis ip cameras and Geovision dvr cards. The very popular Axis 207 IP camera is one of many Axis IP cameras for which weâre offering free ground shipping. Check out the site to see our full line of Axis ip cameras and Geovision dvr cards.
These incredible low prices and free ground shipping offers will not be around forever. If youâve been in the market, nowâs the best time to get those VoIP deals youâre looking for. Bear in mind, VoIPSupply.com and Ip Camera Supply offer more than just competitive pricing and shipping promotions. We assist our customers from beginning to end with friendly, qualified technicians and sales associates. Weâve been making voip happen since 2002, and we can make it happen for you!
No one will mistake Buffalo, NY for Silicon Valley, but over the last few years, the region has become something of a hot bed for technology companies.
And this has caused a land grab for the area’s top tech talent.
Although the Western New York area is home to over a half dozen colleges and universities, many technology companies are finding it increasingly hard to find IT staff.
In Sunday’s Buffalo News, VoIP Supply was profiled as one local company that is not only flourishing, but doing it all with local talent. As an employee here for the last five years, I can tell you that it has been thrill to see a little five man operation turn into over 70, with aspirations to be well over 80 by the end of the year. While the growth in headcount is great, the greatest part about the growth is that most of the people who have come into the doors here have been friends (and or family members) and those who were not will soon become.
So many times in business we all forget about what really matters; people. A few weeks ago, I had a candid conversation with our CEO, Benjamin Sayers. We were talking about the vision for the business and it had nothing to do with size, revenues or profits, but what he said was “creating an awesome work environment where everyone looks forward to coming to work, feels challenged, appreciated and has the ability to learn, grow and succeed in whichever path they might choose.” If that does not define people over profits, I am not sure what does.
Over the last week, fresh off our recognition as the Best Place to Work in Western New York and the story above in the Buffalo News, I have had the opportunity to first hand see what can happen when a organization is created that puts people first and profits second. Sure we aren’t perfect, but it will never be because of a lack of trying.
To the 70 current employees, I’d like to say thanks for all that you do here and to anyone who is looking to be part of an enjoyable, dynamic, high energy culture, check out the employment opportunities we have here; it’s well worth the five minutes.
No one will mistake Buffalo, NY for Silicon Valley, but over the last few years, the region has become something of a hot bed for technology companies.
And this has caused a land grab for the area’s top tech talent.
Although the Western New York area is home to over a half dozen colleges and universities, many technology companies are finding it increasingly hard to find IT staff.
In Sunday’s Buffalo News, VoIP Supply was profiled as one local company that is not only flourishing, but doing it all with local talent. As an employee here for the last five years, I can tell you that it has been thrill to see a little five man operation turn into over 70, with aspirations to be well over 80 by the end of the year. While the growth in headcount is great, the greatest part about the growth is that most of the people who have come into the doors here have been friends (and or family members) and those who were not will soon become.
So many times in business we all forget about what really matters; people. A few weeks ago, I had a candid conversation with our CEO, Benjamin Sayers. We were talking about the vision for the business and it had nothing to do with size, revenues or profits, but what he said was “creating an awesome work environment where everyone looks forward to coming to work, feels challenged, appreciated and has the ability to learn, grow and succeed in whichever path they might choose.” If that does not define people over profits, I am not sure what does.
Over the last week, fresh off our recognition as the Best Place to Work in Western New York and the story above in the Buffalo News, I have had the opportunity to first hand see what can happen when a organization is created that puts people first and profits second. Sure we aren’t perfect, but it will never be because of a lack of trying.
To the 70 current employees, I’d like to say thanks for all that you do here and to anyone who is looking to be part of an enjoyable, dynamic, high energy culture, check out the employment opportunities we have here; it’s well worth the five minutes.
This week VoIP Supply has a great promotion featuring GN Netcom products. You can save $100 when purchasing a GN9330 and GN1000 combo. The GN 1000 Remote Handset Lifter answers and ends calls remotely, allowing you to roam free around the office. The GN9330 Wireless Headset is the perfect pairing and provides noise cancelling sound with a lifter. It is also WiFi-friendly. Your voice will always be transmitted clearly, even as you are moving through a noisy area. The headset allows a nine-hour talk time without recharging, ensuring you are always ready for every call.
So make sure to check out VoIP Supply, because these essential VoIP items wonât last long. Get a great deal by saving $100 when purchasing this great combo.
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