The Life and Times of Seattle's Small Business Systems Consultant. Articles and advice on small business phone systems, phone and internet services, VoIP, and all things technology related.
Selkowitz Technology | Seattle's small business network and telecom consultant
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- Polycom vs. Konftel – Conference Phones Compared
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Speakeasy EasyVoice Hosted PBX vs. Allworx Phone System – Cost Comparison
Quick math question – does $10395 or $16625 cost less? Turns out when you’re comparing Speakeasy “EasyVoice” vs. an Allworx Phone System the answer is $16625 costs less!
Hosted IP PBX Cost Calculator
Regular readers probably know I’m against hosted IP PBXs like Aptela, Packet8, and Vocalocity due to their high total cost of ownership (TCO) among other problems.
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]