Have you ever wondered when your next meal will be? Or Have you ever been so hungry you couldn’t think straight?  One in three children under the age of five are malnourished in Sierra Leone.  The FEED A CHILD campaign is an opportunity to feed the Sierra Leonean children and make a difference in their lives.  Children who are malnourished suffer greatly and are at greater risk for disease and infection.  The Feed a Child campaign supports the children at the Child Rescue Centre and the nutrition programs at Mercy Hospital in Bo, Sierra Leone.  To find out more Click here.

For updates, follow us on Twitter at @TELELINKCOM.

TELELINK Communications uses “best practices” guidelines as recommended by industry experts.  Best practice for VoIP is to install a circuit for voice traffic only (i.e.  no data traffic on that circuit) in an effort to achieve best possible voice quality.  However, when voice traffic is carried over the always-changing public internet, callers will experience degradation in voice quality at times, a reality over which no one has no control.

VPNs or On-net (never leaving the original provider network) services typically improve quality of service.  However, for businesses operating in a mission-critical environment, MPLS or a dedicated Point-to-Point circuit is considered standard connectivity.

Business today depends on how quickly you respond, regardless of the means of communication.  Don’t miss an important call or email because you are away from your desk.  Don’t miss a text because you are away from your cell phone.

How about this scenario?  You finally receive a call back from a prospect you’ve been trying to reach for a week, but the call comes into your office phone 5 minutes before you need to leave for your son’s soccer game.  So, you answer the call on your office phone and then (transparent to the prospect) you “move” the call to your cell phone.  And, because he’s really interested in what you have to say, you “move” the call to your home phone where you’ve stopped to pick up your son’s cleats that he forgot.  You win the deal with the new client AND you made it to your son’s soccer game on time!  All thanks to unified communications.

HERO EMPLOYEE AND HERO DAD!

We get a lot of questions these days about PanTerra Networks and their cloud-based communications. In a nutshell this is who and what PanTerra Networks is.

PanTerra Networks is the leading provider of cloud-based unified communications Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for small and medium sized business. The company’s WorldSmart solution is delivered from the cloud through a 100% browser-based UC client, eliminating any premise-deployed hardware or software. WorldSmart provides unified communication services for unlimited digital voice, video and fax, instant message, mobile text and email all with presence through a single user and administrative interface. WorldSmart also includes integrated web collaboration, desk-share with white-boarding, remote desktop access with audio and video conferencing for a variety of business applications including call centers, multi site operations, remote employees, high touch operations, fast growing companies and service areas inside large corporations with demanding communication needs. WorldSmart tightly integrates with other business SaaS applications like Salesforce offering additional benefits. PanTerra’s WorldSmart futureproof services include infinite scaling, 24×7 lifetime support and service updates for life. To learn more about PanTerra Networks visit the Telelink Communications web site.

Please contact us to for a PanTerra demonstration.

Cloud communications are Internet-based voice and data communications where telecommunications applications, switching and storage are hosted by a third-party outside of the organization using them, and they are accessed over the public Internet. Cloud services is a broad term, referring primarily to data-center-hosted services that are run and accessed over an Internet infrastructure. Until recently, these services have been data-centric, but with the evolution of VoIP (voice over Internet protocol), voice has become part of the cloud phenomenon.

Cloud communications providers deliver voice and data communications applications and services, hosting them on servers that the providers own and maintain, giving their customers access to the “cloud.” Because they only pay for services or applications they use, customers have a more cost-effective, reliable and secure communications environment, without the headaches associated with more conventional PBX system deployment.

Companies can cut costs with cloud communications services without sacrificing features.The success of Google and others as cloud-based providers has demonstrated that a cloud-based platform can be just as effective as a software-based platform, but at a much lower cost. Voice services delivered from the cloud increases the value of hosted telephony, as users can equally well turn to a cloud-based offering instead of relying on a facilities-based service provider for hosted VoIP. This expands their options beyond local or regional carriers.

In the past, businesses have been able to do this for IT services, but not telecom. Cloud communications is attractive because the cloud can now become a platform for voice, data and video. Most hosted services have been built around voice, and are usually referred to as hosted VoIP. The cloud communications environment serves as a platform upon which all these modes can seamlessly work as well as integrate.

The above information is from Wikipedia.com

… while reducing costs.

VoIP telephony systems have the potential to improve call performance and lower operating costs, but businesses need to carefully develop their technological infrastructure to achieve these benefits.

A recent CRN report explained that VoIP services often experience poor performance or unintended expenses because of poor planning that can be easily overcome through strategic infrastructure development.

When it comes to performance, the report said VoIP is capable of transmitting digital signal with higher call quality than traditional phone systems. However, many companies do not recognize that they cannot achieve this benefit unless they equip network infrastructure to properly route VoIP calls and maintain performance. If the infrastructure is deployed to optimize VoIP, it can outperform traditional calls.

Cost is another area where planning is necessary, the report said, because VoIP calls to non-VoIP users can generate unexpected costs. As a result, companies should carefully distribute VoIP infrastructure throughout its offices to maximize financial benefits.

VoIP can dramatically improve call performance and reduce costs when deployed properly. As a result, many businesses are moving quickly to adopt the technology. A recent MZA study found approximately 60 percent of businesses in North America are using IP telephony instead of traditional phone lines.

There are so many terms that contain the word, “VoIP”, that’s why it’s so confusing.  Voice over Internet Protocol (Voice over IP, VoIP) can mean VoIP Service, or you can have a VoIP phone, or a VoIP PBX (system).   Basically, using VoIP, calls are digitally transmitted over an IP network instead of using traditional phone lines.  What you need to keep in mind before spending your hard-earned money on a VoIP connection or VoIP system, is that not all systems and circuits are created equally.  AND, regardless of what anyone tries to sell you, NO ONE can control the quality of voice services over the public internet.  The voice quality may be great at times and very warbled at other times.

So… what should you know next?  See the article on this blog entitled, “Best Practices in VoIP”.

ShoreTel’s ShoreWare Call Manager desktop application focuses on simple communications with ease of use for users and system administrators, while offering one of the lowest TCOs in the industry. System-wide administration is easily performed with the web browser-based ShoreWare Director application. Read More…
Source: VoIP News