I’ve recently been blogging about small business phone solutions, details below…

Small business mobile phones

Whilst some mobile dealers and websites are not interested in small business users, going after the larger deals and corporate mobile sector, at Best Business Mobile Deals we are always looking to provide small business mobile phone deals that offer great value and make the best use of new technology…….

Mobile landline solutions

A mobile landline gives you a virtual landline phone number that rings on your mobile phone wherever you are. There are a number of different products that provide a similar end result but work in different ways and offer different pricing structures……

Focused on the future

As a company we already have in place the infrastructure to provide total telecoms solutions to businesses large and small. Companies that want to get ahead of their competition need to make the best use of new technology.

Bringing together a range of cutting-edge products and services that work in harmony means that we can tailor a package for your business that precisely meets your needs and expectations.

Data and the necessary connectivity to carry it should be a priority for small to medium sized businesses. Our business data solutions enable faster communication between office staff, remote staff and multiple sites. We ensure connection is maintained via resilient solutions that fully address all of your data needs.

Business Landline Promotion

Of all of the services we offer, our business landline tariffs can provide some of the best savings against your current provider. All we need from you is your latest bill in order to provide an analysis and prepare a cost saving report.

To find out more read our article, Reduce your business landline bills.

I’m hoping to keep this blog more up-to-date in 2012 so further posts will follow shortly, all being well.

For many businesses, particularly SMEs and new start-ups, this low initial cost and pay for what you use model keeps overheads down and also allows them to be more productive in and out of the office.

All a business needs now is a good data connection (from ADSL broadband to a dedicated leased line) to carry all of their hosted services and they can be up and running with cutting edge applications and services in a matter of days.

I’ve recently been posting about the benefits of hosted telephony solutions on some of my telecom blogs and some of these articles are listed below.

For a free review of your current business telecoms and help and advice regarding hosted telephony solutions call 0115 944 8977 or visit 21C Telecom.

* Could a hosted phone system save your business money?

Does your business currently have a phone system? Is it approaching the end of its life or are you outgrowing the features it offers? Have you considered a
hosted solution when the time comes to replace it?

A hosted phone system has a number of advantages over the traditional PBX:

• No need to buy a costly phone system
• No ongoing maintenance
• Always up-to-date with the latest technology
• Pay for the features you use
• Flexible and scalable
• Enables flexible working
• Ideal for multi-site operations

* The benefits of Unified Communications

Unified Communications (UC) is the merging of your mobiles and landlines, your voice and data, to provide seamless communication across all channels.

As a business owner/decision maker you don’t need to know how the technology  works, your real interest is going to be in the benefits that UC can bring to
your company in terms of savings and efficiencies.

A unified communication solution routes calls quicker to the right person. This means improved response times and first contact resolution. This type of
skills-based routing results in fewer transfers between staff and thus increases productivity.

* Joined up communications

How many calls a month does your business miss? Do you know the figure? How many of these are missed sales? How many missed calls end in complaints?

Too many businesses don’t know this information and would be unable to find out with their current telecoms set up. Vodafone One Net makes it easy for you
to manage your calls and helps you route calls in a way which means you answer more and direct them to the right person first time.

I’ve used a transitional image effect on the front page to fade in/out four images related to the services on offer, the script for which was obtained from Dynamic Drive. They offer a lot of free scripts, many of which I’ve used over the years for a variety of different effects on various websites I’ve worked on.

The 21c Telecom Blog is powered by WordPress with a customised Twenty Ten theme. I’ve always found this particular theme, which was the default theme installed, much the easiest to work with and customise.

Otherwise it’s just been a “cleaning up” exercise to make the site look more professional and hopefully to obtain a better conversion rate for visitors sending their details for a free review or more information about products and services.

Website projects in the pipeline

I’ve also been working on a project for a local Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire company which has required a lot of backend coding. I’ve provided them with a customised content management system for parts of their site so that they can add publications/advertisers to relevant sections.

The site isn’t live yet so I can’t provide a URL to take a look at. Mind you I am not responsible for the design of the site, only for the integration of the CMS. The site design leaves a bit to be desired IMHO but the client likes it and they are the boss ultimately.

I’ve learnt a fair bit doing this and am now looking for other projects to use this knowledge and put it to good use. In fact I’m looking for any web projects and new websites to do so please use the 21c Contact Form to get in touch with me for a discussion/pricing.

• Broadband and data connections
• Virtual numbers
• SmartPhones and Tablets

Broadband and Data

If it’s not already, data connectivity is likely to dominate your telecoms agenda in the near future. As more phone systems move to VoIP and more and more business services migrate to the cloud the importance of a fast and reliable “data pipe” increases.

When reliance upon broadband is business critical the question you need to ask is; What if your business broadband fails?

Getting a good, reliable service in the first place is one thing, but no service is 100% reliable and you should make contingency for possible outages, even if it’s only getting hold of some mobile broadband to tide you over whilst the fault is fixed.

For larger businesses there are proper failover solutions which can enable you to keep working without even realising your main connection has gone down. 21c Telecom Ltd are specialists in data solutions from simple ADSL broadband through to connecting multi-site UK-wide companies.

Virtual Numbers

You have probably heard a lot of advertising for Vodafone One Net all over radio and in print. Essentially this gives you a virtual landline number which is connected directly to your mobile phones. When someone calls your landline number your mobiles ring enabling you to take more calls wherever you are.

This freedom of movement is very much sought after as businesses seek to become more mobile and allow staff more flexible working. There are several other solutions which involve virtual numbers and call diversion which achieve a similar result.

As a converged telecoms company 21c Telecom Ltd offer several options which could suit your business depending upon size of company, number of users, calls made etc. We can provide a quotation for comparison purposes showing you the difference in price and performance between the different solutions.

SmartPhones and Tablets

There are not many business customers asking for talk and text phones these days. It’s all about mobile data and apps. That’s why increasingly SmartPhones and Tablets are becoming the main sellers for business mobile companies.

The names that stick out are iPhone, BlackBerry, Samsung Galaxy, iPad, Playbook, HTC – these are dominating the mobile device marketplace. Whilst other manufacturers are making similar devices they are not getting much attention when compared with the “big boys”.

SmartPhones and tablets allow a better integration with your existing business systems meaning that you can effectively carry your office in your pocket. This makes staff more connected and thus more productive.

In reality any pain involved in changing suppliers is short term but the gain is ongoing. The pain is quickly forgotten and the gain keeps rolling in month after month. But that doesn’t stop us meeting a lot of resistance when we try to help businesses save money.

We offer a free, no obligation telecoms healthcheck which analyzes your current telecoms infrastructure and usage and pinpoints where savings and improvements can be made. For many businesses the savings are large and more than justify any short term difficulties in transferring between suppliers.

For most businesses the transfer process runs smoothly and there is little or no impact on their business. Once transferred you can then enjoy the savings each and every month.

The areas in which we can help reduce costs include:

• Mobile phone tariffs
• Landline calls (particularly calls to mobiles)  and line rental
• Phone systems
• Data solutions (ethernet, MPLS, ADSL broadband)
• Vehicle and device tracking

Maximum benefit is gained by taking several services in an integrated solution, not only in terms of cost reduction but also with a better service that can be provided by a single supplier. No more chasing several different providers in order to resolve an issue.

Being based in Ilkeston, Derbyshire we have easy access to most parts of the country and can visit you at a convenient time to go through a free review for any or all of our services. Just call 0115 944 8977 in the first instance to discuss what you would like to achieve.

The end of laptops as we know them?

…As you can see from the picture below, the Motorola Atrix is designed to be used with a special dock which includes a screen and keyboard and turns it into a fully functioning laptop….

Benefits of a hosted business phone system

A hosted phone system is ideally suited to small businesses, branch offices and mobile workers. It offers flexibility and scalability, not to mention affordability!….

Business Ethernet Networks (Leased Lines)

The need for faster and more reliable internet access from businesses has increased dramatically over the past twelve months in the UK. This demand is driving the price of high availability leased lines and Ethernet circuits down…..

What is NFC mobile payment technology?

…This means that in future you may be able to dispense with small change in your pocket and use your phone instead. You simply wave the phone above the reader and wait for the payment to be accepted….

Vodafone report strong One Net growth

Sales of the One Net suite of unified communications solutions increased ten-fold between October and January and then doubled again between February and March……

Compare business phone systems

There are a host of different phone system manufacturers out there including Panasonic, Avaya, Toshiba, Siemens, NEC, Cisco and Nortel. How do you compare the different phone systems for your business?…..

Are BlackBerry phones still good for business?

…Newer BlackBerry phones have very much been aimed at broadening their appeal into the consumer market and there is evidence that this has succeeded with a large proportion of younger users carrying their devices. So are they still good for business?….

As well as dealing with repairs, he also talks people through some of the common setup problems. As a result of this he has started compiling a bit of a knowledgebase to show people in easy steps “how to”.

The majority of questions relate to email set up and data issues so this is a good place to start. The most popular SmartPhones, the iPhone and BlackBerry, are the obvious candidates for the first few posts, details of which are below.

James will be expanding this section of the website over the coming weeks with more advanced technical issues. If there are any questions you have relating to mobile phone technical issues send them in by email and we will address them.

Whilst SmartPhones are requested by the majority of enquirers, we do have a cautionary word about them. They pack in so much stuff that they are prone to breaking fairly easily – they do have lots of things to go wrong. We get plenty of them back in for repair.

For a lot of businesses, who use their phones primarily for talking rather than data, a lower specced handset can prove to be a better choice.

21c Telecom Ltd can offer you a full range of high-end handsets which includes the iPhone 4, the latest BlackBerry handsets, the HTC Desire HD etc. as well as traditional business phones like the Nokia 6303i on a range of business tariffs.

I have been posting elsewhere however though and here are some of my blog posts from the past week…..

• The best business mobile phone on the planet? - When looking for new mobile phones for your business which is the best one to get? Ask a hundred people which is the best mobile phone for business and you are likely to get a dozen or more different answers
• Your debt questions answered - When choosing a debt solution it is very likely that you will have a number of questions that you need answering. Questions before deciding on the best option for you and, once that decision has been made, questions about how everything will work going forward.
• Sarah Ferguson £5 million pounds in debt? - It has been widely reported that Sarah Ferguson, once a member of the Royal Family by marriage to Prince Andrew, is heavily in debt. Figures quoted vary from £2 million to around £5 million.
• Don’t worry about debt problems, get the solution - Is your glass half empty or half full? The same situation but different ways of looking at it. Generally in life you should always try to take the positives from things, to be optimistic and laugh off your difficulties.
• Debts 2 Go getting bigger - The Debts 2 Go website has increased in size again with three more pages:
• Free debt advice
• Free debt help
• Get out of debt
• BlackBerry business mobiles - Research in Motion (RIM) are the Canadian company best known for their BlackBerry range of smartphone handsets. They were founded in 1994 and launched the first BlackBerry mobile in 1999. Since then the BlackBerry has gone from strength to strength
• Top 10 business mobiles – July 2010 - The figures are in for the Top 10 business mobiles for July 2010 based upon despatch figures across our telecoms group.
• Saving your business money - At Business Mobile World one of our key aims when talking to businesses is to reduce their bills. Saving money on your tariff, and therefore your monthly spend, is obvious and quantifiable. We have some examples of savings we have made for business mobile customers already on our website.

The debt products and services are:

• Debt Management (see “The Benefits of Debt Management” blog post)
• Debt Consolidation Loans
• IVAs (Individual Voluntary Arrangements)

In fact the debt consolidation loans are not easy to get these days. So that just leaves us with debt management and IVAs!

These are similar in that they both allow you to write off a proportion of your debt (up to 70%!), freeze the interest and restructure the debt repayments so that they are affordable.

Which is available to you will depend upon your debt amount, number of creditors and your personal circumstances.

When I was younger, and much more carefree than now, I ran up plenty of debt on credit and store cards. It soon mounted up to a five figure sum and things looked bleak. I was lucky – I owned my own house, the market went up and I was able to sell at a profit and clear my debts.

I vowed never to get back into that situation again and, so far, have been able to stick to it, although my savings are gradually dwindling now to the point that the next couple of years could be sticky unless something turns up (fingers crossed for the double rollover tonight!).

Having debt problems can make it seem like there is no future but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Taking out a debt solution and sticking to it for the full duration will leave you debt free. Short term pain for long term gain.

Looking at it another way – if you have debt problems now and you don’t tackle them soon what do you think is going to happen? The problems will only get worse and worse.

Debt advice is free so there is no excuse for not giving it a try and getting your life back on track. Getting out of debt is likely to be one of the best things you do.

Camp site was OK, just a problem with the toilets being about 3/4 mile away from our tent! Luckily we were surrounded by woods, which came in useful!

The good news is the tent is fine and worked like a dream. It’s a Campus Nevada 8 and we are well impressed with it. Relatively easy to put up – although not helped by rain and hungry toddler. Waterproof and roomy.

Our single gas cooking stove worked beautifully too, thank you whoever sold it to me on Ebay. In fact the only bad news was our unbelievably badly behaved son.

Such a nightmare was he that we packed up at 7.30 am on Sunday morning to get home! We’d had enough. I think that may be the end of our camping trips for this year on our own. If we have company, someone to keep our toddler amused and occupied we might consider it.

There is always next year when, hopefully, our son will have grown up a little and will behave a bit better.

It’s been a good summer overall and when the sun shines the UK is a great place to be. Just a pity the sun doesn’t shine more often. Looking out the window now it doesn’t look like it’s coming back any time soon.

I’m back at work anyway so not too worried. Working on the Car Loans website, providing some extra blog posts related to the weekend’s motorsport (the disgraceful Ferrari team orders) and also to the car finance page.

So impressed with WordPress on this blog that I’ve set up a multi-user version (WordPress MU) on one of my redundant websites which is now re-named the Big Red Mouse Blog Site. This was really just a test initially to see if I could get it working but I’m now planning how to expand it. If anyone would like a blog on this site please get in touch.