Local and long distance phone service

Non-hosted service: With this type of service, the phone system is in your office. You can choose from two types of non-hosted service:

• Voice only (called TDM)
• Voice that goes out over a different type of transport—one that also allows sending and receiving images, videos, and other data (called SIP).

Hosted service: With hosted service, the phone equipment is located anywhere but your office, which could mean in different states.

Hosted service is attractive if, for example, your company has offices located in three cities. This type of service ensures continuity in the event of a power failure. If one system goes out, another will pick up seamlessly.

Each system can take messages, change messages, and provide every other response you want available to serve your customers.

Another advantage of hosted service is that the system can be set up so that any computer can access all of your services from anywhere. This can be a tremendous convenience if you are out-of-town for any reason.

Data and Internet services

We customize our Internet-speed recommendations based on your company’s current and anticipated usage.

A business with only one office has much different needs than a company that has multiple locations throughout the country. We’re able to provide the best telecom services to businesses of all sizes. Here are two specific examples of clients we can serve:

Here are two specific examples of clients we can serve:

Single-office businesses: Providing or updating telecom services to a small or mid-size company is usually straightforward. A law firm, for example, with about 20 attorneys and staff members might be fine with a 20 meg fiber, microwave, satellite, or copper transport.

Once we ensure that the correct telecom service has been brought to the building, your IT provider brings the service from that connection to all of the phones, computers or other equipment within your office.

Multi-site businesses: Any company with multiple offices is likely to have a range of needs. In the case of one multi-state medical lab company, the software that generates proposals is located at company headquarters. Individual labs in areas all over the country send their data to headquarters so the software can generate proposals for clients.

The small, individual labs might be fine with only 5 meg transport. However, at company headquarters, 100 meg transport is needed to receive and send data to all of the satellite labs.

Recommendations of technology providers

We know which companies offer the best service, billing, fee and tax transparency, and overall costs.

We vet a wide range of providers, and recommend only those that are best for our clients. Among those are providers of:

• Phone systems: Companies that provide phone systems for offices.
• Wiring services: For both voice and data. We can recommend providers for both union and non-union buildings, based on the requirements of building management.
• Web site development: We recommend those companies we believe will do the best job for each client.
• Co-location services: Back-up provided in different locations for optimal protection.
• Disaster recovery planning: We can help arrange for plans in any price range. However, in this particular case, the level of protection will be determined almost exclusively by the client’s budget. At one extreme, a large company can put in a $6 million plan that comes with a guarantee that no phone call or single byte of data will ever be lost.
  
  At the other end of the spectrum, we can put in a $25 phone line that customers or clients can call in the event of a service disruption.
  
  Somewhere between these two extremes is a system that works best for you. We will work with you to devise that system.

General telecom consulting

Any business can encounter problems with the equipment or services they use. Here are just a few examples of the situations we’ve been called in to handle:

• Problem solving: A glass installation company thought they needed to change data service providers because they were experiencing repeated problems with billing. We were able to solve the problem without the company’s having to change anything.
• Training: We have been brought in to teach employees about telecom and how it works.
  
  We also have trained employees from a wide range of industries on how to use their new telecom systems.
• Help with restoring service: One client experienced problems when an 18-wheeler truck knocked down a pole that carried utility cables from the street to the building. The company had no electricity, Internet, or phone services, because their back-up service was not planned properly.
• Saving a business much more than money: In another instance, a business owner called to see if we could save him money on his telecom services. He had a well-functioning system, which included secure back-ups.
  
  However, when I went to inspect the system components, I found that whoever had set up his system brought all of the cables together under a slop sink in the janitor’s closet. The new customer called in an electrician to move the wires, which prevented what could have been a major problem down the road.
• What and when to buy: We advise customers not only on the types of equipment, services and vendors that will provide them with comparable or better service—at the best possible prices—but also, on the optimal times to make changes in their equipment or services. The result: They save even more money.