Indy Business: Why So Affordable?

icon-dollarIndy Business: Why So Affordable?

New business customers sometimes ask us how we can offer our phone service for Indianapolis so much cheaper than the big internet companies.  We don’t always know how to answer that question because we’re not one of those big companies.  Still, we’d like to try breaking down how we can offer so many services for so little money even as our competitors have to charge more.

Providing phone service isn’t that costly.

Phone service using traditional phone lines can be expensive to provide, but modern VoIP phone service is relatively inexpensive.  We’ve actually been able to lower our prices as we’ve grown because internet and cloud services become cheaper and more reliable year after year.  So why don’t the big phone and cable companies do the same?

The phone companies at least are trying to pivot to VoIP, and that may allow them to save money; but cable companies have been offering VoIP all along.  We think they charge so much because they have to.  Either they have to charge to make up for administrative costs, or they have to charge a lot to accommodate their shareholders.  Either way, the customer ends up paying more.

Customer turnover is expensive.

Because the phone and cable companies raise their prices and fees regularly, they have a lot of customer turnover.  Closing accounts, convincing new customers, and opening new accounts costs a lot of time and therefore money.  Perhaps that’s a more lucrative way to do business in the long run, but it sounds exhausting to us and it certainly angers customers.

Instead, we’ve opted to charge a consistent monthly price for a good service.  As a result, we’ve seen our customers stick with us for years and years.  That allows us to spend less time on customer turnover, and more time improving our phone service for existing customers.

What to do about it?

If you think you might be paying too much, feel free to contact us or call us anytime.  Worst case scenario, you get another quote and find out if you’re paying too much.  Thanks for reading our thoughts and have a great day!

Indy Business: Offices Gone Paperless

icon-file-text Indy Business: Offices Gone Paperless

One of the biggest changes that businesses and offices want to make in 2018 is to go paperless.  Or at the very least, they would like to reduce the amount of paper documents they currently create and receive.  There are many gadgets and services out there that aid in this process, such as document scanners, shared folders, and even cloud document management services.

What might surprise you, however, is how many businesses believe that they still need a dedicated fax machine.  The days of needing a dedicated machine, a costly landline, and all the paper waste that goes with them are all but over.  There are many solutions now that cut out the antiquated fax machine entirely, like our secure virtual faxing service (vFax).

Instead of having a standalone machine, vFax services allow you to receive and send faxes from anywhere.  You can send an email and have a client or business partner receive it as a fax.  And when someone faxes you, you receive it right in your email, already scanned and ready.  But the best part is that other people don’t have to make any changes if they are stuck with a clunky fax machine.  You get all the benefits of an email to fax service, and they can carry on with business as usual.

Of course, virtual faxing is most effective when paired with other services like Dropbox, OneDrive, or even our business phone service.  No one thing will get you to being completely paperless.  If you’ll excuse a bad joke, it’s going to be a death of a thousand cuts.

The next time you’re looking into reducing your paper usage or eliminating the costs that go along with it, feel free to give us a call or contact us to learn more.

Thanks and have a great day!

Business Blog: Network Cable Alternatives

icon-unlink Business Blog: Network Cable Alternatives

Some locations are almost impossible to wire for modern network needs.  Places like parking garages, old houses and hotels, or almost anywhere that concrete was used will require a lot of time and effort to make a traditional network setup a reality.  But that doesn’t have to be the case.  Recent advancements in networking and wireless technology have introduced options that were unthinkable even as little as 5 years ago.

The first and best option for wiring an old building is to use powerline adapters like the TP-Link AV600.  Powerline adapters use your existing power lines and electrical outlets to send network signals.  They basically turn your power lines into a local, secure network.  We’ve used these to great effect in historical buildings and businesses.  And they are even stable enough to work with something that typically requires a constant connection like our Indianapolis Business Phone Service.  Plus, they don’t interfere with the normal functioning of your electrical system.

Another option is to go wireless.  With the newer mesh WiFi systems on the market now, you can achieve great coverage with no dead zones for very reasonable costs.  Our favorite system is the Mesh WiFi System provided by Google.  It is easy to setup, very affordable, and the extra ethernet port on the units can even act as a LAN connection for your network.  Because of these perks, we have almost completely phased out the older WiFi systems that rely on multiple access points wired to a central monitoring hub.  Those systems cost a lot more to install and maintain.

Even if you don’t need to wire an old home or concrete building, we think you can save time and money with the technologies recommended above.  And as always, feel free to contact us or call us at (317) 644-0075 if you have network cabling questions, or if you’d like to schedule a free networking consultation in Indianapolis, Indiana.  We’re always happy to help.

Business Blog: Understanding the Cloud

icon-cloud Business Blog: Understanding the Cloud

Across the Midwest, “the cloud” is still misunderstood and therefore not fully trusted by businesses and professionals.  But embracing the cloud is a great way to save yourself time and money.  At Indy Developers Network, we test technology before we offer it to our clients, and we’ve seen the reliability of our services increase while the cost of operating those services have decreased.  This is what allows us to offer our cloud phone service for businesses at such amazing rates.

One of the easiest ways to understand the Cloud is to think of a hotel.  You can rent a whole house for a trip, but availability and pricing are less reliable than a hotel room.  That’s because a hotel has many identical rooms it can offer you if one or many rooms become unavailable for some reason.  Travelers don’t care much about what room they get.  They just want a room that does what they need.  The cloud is no different.

Instead of having all your data in one location, the cloud securely spreads it around until you need it.  And you don’t care whether you’re getting it from computer A or B or C, so long as everything works.  If computer A goes down, B or C will pick up the slack and you don’t notice any difference.

Luckily, phone service isn’t the only area where the cloud can help businesses be more efficient.  From email to modern faxing alternatives to data storage, there are many ways to take advantage.  Hopefully this post has helped clear up some of the mystery of the cloud and made you wonder about the ways it can make your business more efficient and more productive.  If that’s the case, feel free to contact us anytime at (317) 644-0075.  We look forward to saving you time and money.

Business Blog: Saving Money Each Month

icon-book Business Blog: Saving Money Each Month

Many businesses become complacent with their monthly expenditures and forget to compare alternatives that are currently available, but that’s the surest way to lose money every month.  Not all new products and services are better than older methods, however some definitely are.  A thing we commonly see is a business or corporation still relying on telephone service provided by the old phone and cable companies instead of better VoIP phone service (VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol).

If every Indianapolis business switched to VoIP business phone service, the savings potential would be a huge boost to budgets across the Midwest.  With traditional phone service, you pay for the number of lines you need and that’s the end of it.  But with VoIP phone service, the number of lines does not always determine your cost.  Usage is much more important.

For example, an office or company that has 10 phones should be able to pay for the equivalent of 5 phone lines, saving them easily over $100 per month.  And they would still have access to 10 incoming and outgoing lines, plus all of the business features they depend on to communicate effectively with their customers and vendors.

Finally, it should be said that not all phone service or phone service companies are equal.  When choosing any service–but especially business phone service–you want to choose a product that was built specifically for business, as well as choose a company whose customer service is local.  You shouldn’t have to talk to someone across the country or across the globe when you have an issue that needs addressed.  You want a person you know and trust.

These are the things we wanted to provide when we created our business phone service for Indianapolis.  Affordable rates, local customer service, and features that make everything just a little bit easier.  If that sounds like something that could improve your business, feel free to contact us to learn more.