by Greg Lipschitz | March 11, 2020
With COVID19 isolations taking place, now is the time to be thinking about remote working. Impact to business is going to be huge so we’ve put together 6 ways to maintain business continuity.
Consider cloud applications to allow your staff to work from home.
Internet Connection – Accessing cloud applications requires good internet. With a range of internet services like NBN, 4G and Fixed Wireless, your staff can continue to work.
Chat & Collaboration – Microsoft Teams or Google Hangouts are great way to keep the flow of conversation without clogging up your inbox.
Email & Files – Office 365 and Google for Work make accessing email and files easy.
Accounting – Platforms like Xero, MYOB and Quickbooks allow you to invoice and pay staff.
VPN – still running on premises applications? A Virtual Private Network will connect remote staff to internal systems.
Phone Calls – forward calls to mobiles or work from anywhere, on any device with a Cloud Phone System.
Summit Internet is the leader in Voice over IP Technology.
Our Cloud Phone System is COVID19 ready for your isolated workforce.
We have apps for iPhone and Android, PC & Mac. All you need is a headset and you’ll be making and receiving calls as if you’re at the office.
If you’re needing to make the move in a hurry, our Team can arrange to divert your current phone number. This will allow you to take advantage of all the features today, whilst your number moves.
We’re working around the clock to keep your business running and your staff safe.
To find out how we can help you, call our team on 1300 049 749.
by Greg Lipschitz | December 5, 2019
Dr Michael Kostidis didn’t realise the impact the NBN would have on his Osteopathy clinic.
NBN copper disconnect affected his practise in Doncaster back in February 2019.
“Our current provider didn’t transition us. We then lost our phone number and haven’t been able to receive calls for 6 months”
Dr Kostidis contacted Summit after months of dealing with his current provider.
“Our current provider are a pack of Dodo’s”, Dr Kostidis said.
“Summit have been amazing in assisting us to get back our phone number. Within two weeks, we have calls again and can contact our Patients.”
Dr Kostidis estimates the business loss to be $31,200 in revenue over the period of not having a phone number.
“We’ve noticed a significant downturn in bookings. If patients didn’t have my mobile, we would have been out of business.”
Don’t be a victim of NBN copper disconnection.
Contact Summit Internet to plan the cutover of your phone lines before it’s too late!
We have a range of solutions to work with existing business phone systems using PSTN and ISDN. We can also transition your business to our Cloud Hosted Phone System.
Speak to one of our NBN transition specialists on 1300 049 749.
by Greg Lipschitz | September 2, 2019
Time to settle this once and for all!
Now that the NBN is making it’s way out across Australia, avoiding the reality that is VoIP is no longer possible. Sooner or later, over 90% of Australians will be using a VoIP service to make phone calls.
But in the past, poor old VoIP has got itself a bad rap.
Scared traditional PBX resellers are perhaps the greatest culprits perpetuating myths regarding VoIP for business as a viable solution. We provide both Hosted Phone Systems and SIP solutions for Traditional PABX’s so we’ve heard every myth in existence.
But because VoIP is going to be unavoidable, we thought it was high time we got our myth-busting hats on an addressed some of the misconceptions once and for all.
Busting the most common Myths about VoIP
Myth #1 – VoIP is totally unreliable
One of the reasons this myth is so popular is because, if you don’t have the right internet service to make business phone calls, you’re going to experience problems. Way back when VoIP first emerged, this was more common than it is now. Actually – this problem should be non-existent now, if you go with the right provider.
If your phone service is sharing with your internet service, an email download could mean interruptions to your phone calls. There are two possible solutions. The first is to up the bandwidth (only viable for smaller businesses). The second is to get a separate, dedicated data service that exists only for your phone system.
When it comes to running your phone system, using SIP is really the only way to go. It’s next-level, business grade VoIP, and it’s fast, reliable, and affordable.
Myth #2 – You need IT specialists to operate it
VoIP and SIP, once set up, do exactly what your traditional phone lines do. You pick up your phone, dial the number, and talk to someone.
Your VoIP service will simply plug into your modem rather than into a wall socket. But if you want to get technical, with IP enabled phone systems, you’ll also be able to make calls using your computer and mobile devices.
Myth #3 – VoIP isn’t secure
It’s true that VoIP and Hosted PBX fraud is a thing, but most VoIP providers have stricter safeguards than their traditional phone line counterparts. If someone started making lots of fraudulent calls on your phone system, a VoIP provider would know well before you got your phone bill from Telstra.
Myth #4 – VoIP is hard to install and use
It’s actually extremely simple. You simply connect your handsets to your router, and because Hosted phone system handsets are already programmed, you can just start using them straight away. No fiddling about required. As far as operation, the VoIP and SIP handsets look and operate just like normal phones. One touch buttons for all key features.
Myth #5 – Small business doesn’t benefit from VoIP
On average, businesses save 60% on their phone bill compared to Telstra!
VoIP gives small businesses many more features allowing greater flexibility.
The truth is, this probably won’t be the last negative misinformation you hear about VoIP, but sooner or later it will be time to accept that it’s the phone solution of the future.
If you want to get on the awesome VoIP bandwagon, speak to one of our phone system experts. We offer SIP Trunks for Traditional PBX’s and NBN Ready Phone Systems, and we’ll happily go through the pro’s and con’s of each with you.
by Greg Lipschitz | August 26, 2019
If you’re using VoIP or SIP trunks, there are a number of factors that can impact the quality of your calls. Many of these have nothing to do with your PBX system or the quality of your VoIP or SIP service.
If a web page loads slowly because you’re downloading a large file, the pauses in your internet speed are usually unnoticeable. But with internet phone calls, these pauses can cause an interruption to your phone call quality.
First and foremost, having a good internet connection is essential to making sure your calls are clear and uninterrupted, however, that’s not all there is to it.
Where does Quality of Service fit into the PBX puzzle?
Before we get into what Quality or Service is, it’s important to understand what it isn’t. This means understanding a little about breakpoints and bandwidth, both of which can impact your calls. Knowing this information means you can rule other issues out before deciding that QoS is the reason for your drop in call quality.
Breakpoints
Breakpoints are all of the different locations where a fault can occur in your phone service. Think of the way your plumbing is connected to the public water plant. There are pipes within the plant itself, public pipes and connections, t-sections where the pipe moves from the mains to your house, and pipes to every different tap in your home. When you turn on your tap and there’s no water, the fault could lie in any of these places (probably more, but we’re not plumbers 🙂)
Telecommunications breakpoints work in the same way. There are breakpoints in the public network and inside your premises, from the wall outlets, your PBX system, your modem, and your wall outlets. Breakpoints can impact your call quality and, depending on where they are, finding a solution could be the responsibility of your VoIP service provider, your VoIP service carrier, or your IT team.
Bandwidth
The amount of data that can be transmitted through your internet connection in a set amount of time is known as bandwidth. Yes – this one is all about your internet connection.
You will see bandwidth expressed a Mbps (megabits per second). Your connection will have a upload bandwidth (speed of data you send out), and a download bandwidth (speed of data that’s incoming). When you selected which internet connection to get in your office, there would have been a maximum bandwidth included. It’s usually referred to as ‘connection speed’. For example, you may have a plan with a 100GB download limit with a connection speed of up to 25/5Mbps.
When you connect your PBX system to your internet connection, each call will be taking from your maximum bandwidth. If it’s sharing the load with your general internet use, it could put pressure on your bandwidth, and you could experience interruptions and a drop in call quality.
Your service carrier should have discussed your phone and internet use before you signed up for a plan. Often, a single data connection will be able to carry your internet and your phone calls easily. But if it can’t, the best solution is to have a dedicated data service for each. That way, your phone and internet run each on different services, and the use of one will never affect the quality of the other.
What is Quality of Service?
When your call quality drops, the problem could be one that is beyond the power of your phone system provider. It could also be out of the hands of your SIP service carrier, and even your resident IT guy.
These factors are referred to as Quality of Service (QoS) and are concerned with the finer details about how the internet works, and how your devices connect to others.
Latency
Latency refers to the time it takes for data to travel from one point to another. When you visit a website, download a video, or send an email, latency refers to how long it takes your computer to connect to the source, and retrieve their data for you to access.
Ping
Ping refers to the reaction time of your connection, kind of like the way the reflexes in your body work. It measures, in milliseconds, how long it takes for you get a response after you’ve sent out a request. The faster the ping, the better the reaction time of your connection.
The number of breakpoints your service travels through will influence the speed of your ping.
Jitter
Devices use packets to communicate with each other over the internet, they use packets. Packets are, put simply, chunks of data sent back and forth.
If device A sends a packet to device B every 10 milliseconds (ms), and device B is sending packets back at the same rate, there is no jitter.
However, if device A is sending packets every 10ms, but device B is busy downloading a large file or video, it may not be able to receive the packet you’re sending in the same timeframe. In this case, it might get zero packets for 60ms, and then get 6 packets all at the same time.
Now, this doesn’t matter if you are browsing websites of checking your email, because 60ms is no time at all. However, every millisecond counts in a phone call. You WILL notice the interruption, no matter which end of the line you are on.
Finding a Solution
The root of QoS issues lie in the wide expanses of the internet. They cannot be repaired by your phone system provider, the carrier of your SIP service, or by your IT guy.
While it’s important that you eliminate other possibilities first, one step closer to a solution is to have a dedicated internet connection. This would exist solely for the purpose of carrying your phone calls. This way, general internet use in your office will never have any impact on your call quality.
If you’re setting up VoIP or SIP in the near future, getting the right provider is an absolute must. Speak to the team at Summit Internet on 1300 049 749 to find out more about switching your PBX system to a SIP service.
by Greg Lipschitz | August 21, 2019
Put Your Phone System in the Cloud
Cloud phone systems – they’re all the rage! But what are they? A cloud phone system is hosted in the cloud, which means that data is stored in a secure server which you can reach over the internet. A cloud phone system replaces traditional land lines, and is hosted by a provider like Summit.
Instead of an answering machine tape, phone bills, and tons of wires, a cloud phone system is stored digitally. This makes it less expensive and easy to use. Because of this, it improves the way businesses operate.
What’s so great about it?
- Cost Savings. A cloud pbx system is much less expensive than traditional land lines. It allows you to sound like a ASX 200 company for a fraction of the price.
- Easy set-up. Because the system doesn’t require wire rerouting, cloud-based phone systems are easy and fast to set-up.
- Time saving. Traditional business phone systems are high maintenance and require intense set up. Skip all of that and save time.
- Remote capabilities. Remote capabilities is a fancy way of saying that you can easily hook a cloud phone system up to mobile phones, so you don’t have to be tied to a desk.
- Advanced features. Today’s cloud phone systems have all the advanced features you need, including the ability to add multiple extensions, IVR Menus, call forwarding, voicemail, Ring Groups, and different physical phone options.
What about features?
- Voicemail. A cloud phone system differs from a traditional system in part because users can receive their voicemail messages via email on the go.
- Call forwarding. A cloud phone system can help you forward calls to your support team, customer service desk, development team, or anywhere else.
- IVR Menu. Setup a menu so that your calls can be instantly routed to the correct department or team.
- Ring Groups. Group users together in to Teams so that you can direct external and internal calls directly to a group of people.
- Phone options. You can use traditional-looking phones in your office, or set up mobile phones to receive calls with a cloud-based phone system.
Why It’s Great for Small Business
Cloud phone systems are ideal for small businesses for a lot of reasons:
- Summit Cloud PBX extensions, voicemail, and call forwarding work with your 1300 or 1800 number to create a professional appearance and make your business sound bigger.
- Whether you’re crunched for time, money, or all of the above, a cloud-based phone system is the perfect solution with quick set-up and no additional hardware costs.
- Summit cloud PBX solution combines a robust blend of features that allow you to be flexible, mobile, and productive – the trifecta for small business.
A cloud phone system is a great fit for any entrepreneur, and Summit’s system will grow with your business, allowing you to focus on running it.
If you’d like to speak with one of our Team about your requirement, call us on 1300 049 479.
by Greg Lipschitz | August 12, 2019
Buying a new phone system can be a minefield as there can be a lot of technical jargon & it probably isn’t something you do every day. Whether it is your first time buying a phone system or your fifth-time upgrading an existing system, things can get confusing, fast.
Based on our experience working with over 12,000 customers over the years, we have found there are 7 essential questions that you need to ask when going through this process. These are the questions that you need to be asking when looking at any perspective phone system providers quote to help you get exactly the right system for you.
Or to begin the process for you, we have provided the questions, and the answers we suggest below:
Is my phone system NBN ready?
At Summit Internet, every phone system that we sell is NBN ready. Your new system will be SIP-enabled, and so will be feature-packed, bringing huge productivity benefits to you and your business.
What cabling requirements will my new phone system have?
Upgrading your phone system does not automatically mean that you will have to alter your existing cabling. Cabling requirements are more often a by-product of your office space than of the phone system itself. However, if you do need to make changes to your existing cabling then there is no need to panic – we can work with you and your IT technician to work out if your cabling is suitable.
How many phone lines will I need?
With a Hosted Phone System, each phone is able to make and receive calls whilst other people are on the phone. The concept of “lines” is no longer relevant with your NBN Phone System.
Which brand is the best for my business?
The brand for you depends on your own unique business circumstances. However, we will say that if you purchase a popular brand you will find it easier to locate spare parts for repairs and expansion. As always, we are here to help you, so chat with one of our friendly advisors to discover which brand is the best fit for your business.
Am I required to sign a maintenance contract when buying the phone system?
In most cases, no. Unless you are a medical facility, then you probably do not need a 24/7 365 on-site maintenance contract. Once your system is programmed and installed professionally, the majority of the changes you need should be able to be handled remotely. So, find a provider who offers suitable remote support and then you will only have to pay for an onsite technician when you really need one.
How will you support me?
At Summit Internet, we are with you every step of the journey. We will be with you today, tomorrow and next year with VIP remote support. Our Australian-based team are here to answer any questions that you might have and make remote programming changes you need.
Do you offer a money back guarantee?
We offer a no questions asked 30-day money back guarantee for hosted phones systems.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve looked at the 7 most important questions to ask when buying any new phone system.
If you have any other questions when buying a new phone system, please give our team a call on 1300 049 749 who will be happy to help.
