Selkowitz Technology | Seattle’s small business network and telecom consultant

Allworx Adds Multisite Call Routing

One of the most exciting new features in the recent Allworx 6.9.5 update is multisite call routing. Say for example your business has a Seattle office and an Anchorage office. Calls between Alaska and the lower 48 are billed at a special LD rate - for example with one carrier lower 48 interstate is $.025/min [...]

Talkswitch vs. Aptela, Packet8 and Vocalocity

One way to get phone system functionality in your small business is a hosted VoIP phone system. According to the hosted VoIP providers, a hosted phone system has “low start-up costs and low monthly fees…implementation is cheaper, quicker, and easier.” Sounds good right? Trust me – don’t rush off to sign up just yet.

Features

Having the [...]

Talkswitch vs Response Point - Price Comparison

In the first part of the series, I compared TalkSwitch to Response Point and found TalkSwitch clearly has a better feature set, easier management of advanced features, and better support. Beyond all of that, though, TalkSwitch is a better value.
To be comprehensive, I’ve compared TalkSwitch to Response Point in five different setups - chances are [...]

Response Point SP1 vs Talkswitch 6.1 - Small Business Phone Systems Compared

Last year Microsoft introduced the Response Point phone system to great fanfare. I reviewed it after it came out and concluded that aside from one nifty but questionably useful feature, it was an underwhelming product when compared to TalkSwitch. Microsoft has since had a chance to update their product with a service pack and I [...]

Why VoIP Sometimes Doesn’t Work Right

I regularly speak with many small businesses who’ve tried VoIP systems and are having problems, here’s one email I recently received:
“I have tried Fonality (dropped calls), and another voip system and the probem I was dropping too many calls, etc.”
In the past few months we’ve replaced an Accessline Vertical Accelerator VoIP system, Blarg’s VoIP [...]

Five Ways Businesses Can Answer Calls

Small businesses often understand the way they handle calls isn’t effective, but aren’t aware of the options and implications. Here’s how your business can answer calls and the benefits of each:
Ring Everyone
The most basic setup is when a call comes in, every phone rings and everyone tries to pick up. This is common with 4 [...]

Picking a Greener Phone System

Many mainstream products are going green - cars, computers, cleaning products, etc. But finding an environmentally friendly phone system is a big tougher. When considering the greenness of electronics you have to consider the manufacturing process, levels of toxic materials in the product, energy consumption, lifespan, and recyclability at the end of life.
At the time [...]

5 Reasons Your Business Shouldn’t Issue Cell Phones

Cell phones are a handy and ubiquitous part of life - some small businesses are even using cell phones instead of office phones. But there’s a number of downsides to cell phones when compared to a modern phone system with telecommuter support.
5) Cost - an unlimited minutes cell phone costs $100 or more per month, [...]

Accessline Vertical Xcelerator Digital Phone System Reviewed

I previously compared Accessline’s Home Office Phone System to Talkswitch, since then they added a Small Office Phone System package based off the Vertical Xcelerator phone system. This package is designed for offices needing up to 8 lines and 24 extensions.
Price
For the sake of comparison I’m comparing the Accessline package and Talkswitch - the Talkswitch [...]

Packet8 vs. Buying a Phone System - Price, Service, and Quality Compared

Many offices are looking at hosted VoIP as a solution to cut phone equipment and monthly service costs. I think you’ll find though that the reality doesn’t match the marketing hype.
First, lets talk about packages. An interesting aspect of many VoIP services is a lack of a local calling area. So if you’re calling in [...]