Tag: business

Indy Business: Customers’ Favorite Features

icon-phone-square Indy Business: Our Customers’ Favorite Features

We’ve learned a few things from talking with our Indianapolis phone service customers. Unfortunately, we don’t have any hard data to back up everything we’re about to say; but we can confidently state that our customers seem to use all the features we offer, and there are certainly some features that people tend to mention more or seem to find more useful.

We wanted to take a moment to look at those features.

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SPAM BLOCK

This is an obvious favorite for obvious reasons. Everyone (us included) hates receiving unwanted calls. It’s even worse when you’re receiving spam calls to your work phone where you can’t download an app to block them, which is why we offer to block unwanted calls before they even reach your phone.

But not only do we block the call from bothering you, we make the spammer think your number has been disconnected. This leads to fewer spam calls over time and is good for everyone. Except the spammers of course. Again, it’s obvious why this is a customer favorite.

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CUSTOM NUMBERS, SECRET NUMBERS

So many places don’t offer you a choice when you’re picking a new phone number. They may offer you a sequence of numbers if you need two or more phone lines, but there’s no guarantee that those numbers will be easy to remember or fit your business.

We always thought it made sense to give people a choice on what number would fit them best, and our customers seem to appreciate it. Not only that, but we’ve found that our customers also appreciate being offered numbers not intended for the public. Many of our customers have secret numbers they use for their own internal purposes. Sometimes it’s as simple as calling a person directly, and sometimes the custom number is more complex. It just depends on what works best for the client.

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HOW’S THE WEATHER?

As much as we hate to admit it, this feature isn’t exactly ours. In fact, we didn’t even realize we offered it until a customer asked us why theirs wasn’t working at the moment. As it turns out, the business office phones we prefer have built-in weather updates. The phones show updated local weather data as long as they have a working internet connection. Anyway, it’s a smart feature, people like it, and we’re glad we can “offer” it!

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Of course, every customer is unique and will prefer the feature(s) they utilize most, but we still wanted to share some insights we’ve noticed over the past couple years. If you have any questions about our features or what we offer, feel free to contact us anytime.

Have a great day!

  • by IDN

Indy Business: Cloud Phone System?

icon-cloud Indy Business: What is a Cloud Phone System?

What makes a cloud-based phone system or service different than the old analog phone systems? There’s a tendency in today’s tech to just add the word “cloud” onto everything, but in the case of our phone systems, they really are powered by the cloud. Because of that, the service offers some exciting differences from your typical business phone service.

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YOUR PHONE, EVERYWHERE

The biggest difference with a hosted or cloud-based phone service is that your phone line and features don’t just live in one location. Sure, you can still have a dedicated office desk phone, but the calls going to that phone can be routed to a cell phone, a software phone, or any number or device you can think of.

The easiest way to think about it is to imagine phone service that behaves more like your email. You might access your email from your office, then your smartphone, and also have your emails handy on a tablet when you’re relaxing later that night. Similarly, cloud phone service is there when you need it and gone when you don’t.

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ALL THE FEATURES, TOO

One of the big benefits of a cloud phone system is you don’t need your fancy desk phone to handle all those features. Everything comes along with you, no matter which device you use. You can do 3-way calling and conference calling, your voicemails can be sent to your email, and you can even speed dial your co-workers when you’re sitting on your back porch.

Or, for those of us who like to unwind after work, you can send all your calls to voicemail at 4:59 PM!

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Hopefully this has helped clarify what a cloud-based business phone system is and how it behaves. If you have any more questions or want to try it out for yourself, feel free to contact us anytime.

Thanks, and have a great day!

  • by IDN

Indy Business: How Much Bandwidth?

icon-exchange Indy Business: How Much Bandwidth Do I Need?

It’s 2019 and people are using more internet than ever before, so one of the questions we get asked a lot is: “How much speed or bandwidth does my business really need?”

The answer to that question is not going to be the same for everyone, of course.   Some businesses and offices are going to use more bandwidth than others, and if you have surveillance cameras or business VoIP traffic, that will only increase your network traffic.

Let’s take a look at some different considerations that can help you predict what speeds you’ll need.

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NECESSARY SERVICES

There are still small businesses who mainly browse the web and use email, but that is becoming increasingly rare.  For most businesses, they will need to do some kind of file sharing; they will subscribe to a cloud backup service; they will do occasional video conferencing; and their computers will need to download regular security updates for operating systems and applications. Each of these can and will increase the amount of bandwidth needed at any given moment.

The good news is that there is quick and dirty equation we can use to estimate bandwidth usage. But we want to stress that this isn’t perfect and many businesses may need more internet because of their network load. Still, it should get you in the ballpark of what’s acceptable for 2019.

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A QUICK CALCULATION

For today’s needs we think a good rule of thumb is to start with at least 10 Mbps and add five more Mbps for each user. So for a business with 10 employees who all have IP phones, smartphones, and some kind of work computer, you would want at least 60 Mbps. Again, this is not guaranteed to work for everyone. Some businesses will not need that much, and some will need more.

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WHAT ELSE CAN I DO?

If you still aren’t sure how much bandwidth you need, we actually suggest going a little low to start out. The big cable and phone companies will be glad to upgrade your service if necessary, but they’re not always as willing to downgrade unfortunately.

You can also contact us to help determine your internet needs. We’ve helped a lot of businesses optimize their bandwidth strategies, and our business phone service can be configured to work with almost any internet connection. Thanks for taking the time to read our thoughts, and we hope to hear from you!

  • by IDN

Indy Business: New Year, New Phones?

icon-calendar Indy Business: New Year, New Phones?

We fully admit that this might be a boring resolution for the new year, especially when compared to things like reshaping your body, working toward your dream, or cutting out a particularly bad habit.  But then again, us phone service types are usually more reliable than we are exciting, so don’t expect too much!

From our point of view, after you have recovered from all the holiday parties or family gatherings, we think it is the perfect time to look into some new phone service Indianapolis.  And here’s why:

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SAVE MONEY

With the kinds of discounts we can provide for businesses with multiple phone lines, it’s definitely worth looking into our business phone service prices to see if you can save.  For people with enough phone lines, we can get the cost per line under $14!  I doubt you’ll find a better price in Indy, but please let us know if you do.  We’d love some healthy competition.

And of course that price includes all features and adapters, plus we don’t do long-term contracts or introductory pricing.  Your rates will not go up.  Guaranteed.

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THE PERFECT OFFICE PHONES

You probably won’t have to upgrade your phones when you switch; but if you do, rest assured that you can choose from a wide range of fully-featured office phones.  Typically, we upgrade people to a Grandstream GXP2130, but you can choose just about any SIP office phone to go with our service.  The Grandstream line of phones has all the modern features you expect; they’re constructed from quality materials; and they’re still under $80.  But again, please choose whichever phone fits you best!

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Whatever resolution you’ve chosen for the year, we wish you all the best in achieving it.  And if you happen to be a practical business-type person like we are, we hope you’ll contact us this year to see if we can save you money while upgrading your service.

Happy New Year, Indy!

  • by IDN

Indy Business: Should I Bundle?

icon-money Indy Business: Should I Bundle?

People often ask us whether they should bundle their phone service, internet, and/or TV service, so we thought we’d write a little bit about how to decide if it will be best in the long run.  Sometimes, bundling can save you money and give you better options, but it can also be a little bit like putting all your eggs in one basket.

Here are some things to consider when you are deciding whether to combine your services with one company.

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LONG-TERM COSTS

The long-term costs of bundling are better than they used to be.  It’s pretty rare to be locked into a two-year contract with only one year of savings nowadays, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you will save money over the life of your service.

For example: if someone is paying $60 for internet service and $70 for a couple business phone lines with the same company, we can often save them money every month.  Unbundling phone and internet service might make the internet costs go up, but the savings that a dedicated VoIP phone service provider can offer usually makes up for that and then some.

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RELIABILITY

Of course, the most reliable, die-hard phone service is still an analog landline; but that is also the most expensive.  For this post, we want to focus on phone service that comes bundled from an internet service provider.  We have noticed that ISP’s typically behave as if their internet service (and therefore their phone service) will never be knocked offline, but unfortunately that’s not the case.  Internet service is not guaranteed, and VoIP providers like us have learned to plan around those failures.

When we take on a new customer, we often walk them through phone service options they have never considered, including what to do when their internet service inevitable goes offline.  When that happens, we want the phones to keep ringing, even if that means we have to start dialing cell phones or fax lines.  Your internet service provider isn’t going to think about this, because they don’t like to admit their service isn’t 100% reliable!

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STILL UNSURE?

If this post hasn’t completely answered your questions, feel free to contact us anytime.  We consult with business and residential customers regularly, and we’re always happy to help!

  • by IDN
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