Unified Communications Cisco Unified Communications

It sounds obvious but one of the best ways to streamline your business is by combining your communications and with a more streamlined business comes efficiency which of course results in better business.

Integrating people and communications is the main objective of Cisco Unified Communications, making your employees’ jobs easier and allowing them to work a hell of a lot smarter. These days the amount of communication channels we have access to are endless and unless you stay in control it’s easy to lose track and find your business in a huge mess of communication confusion. This is where unified communications can lend a hand, managing your multiple platforms and functions whilst also keeping you connected.

So if you want to reap the benefits of a unified communications system then all you need is a business broadband connection and just in case you haven’t got one, don’t worry we can even provide you with one of these. After all it’s our job here at Elite Telecom to get your business running as effectively as possible, so what are you waiting for? Get in touch with us today and see how we can help.

Cisco today unveiled their revolutionary new approach to business and employee collaboration in what they term ‘the post-PC era’, which will see a new generation of users utilising expanded cloud-based services using the web in an entirely new way.

This new generation will move beyond what Cisco describes as a ‘PC-centric’ era of communication and instead evoke what they now call a ‘people-centric’ approach, which will enable users to access data at any time and using any application or device.

Known as WebEx, the new system will offer a freely downloadable web-browser supported on the existing Cisco Jabber that will help extend the reach of millions of users already on popular browsers already supported on Windows or Mac based operating systems.

Users will be able to see whether or not their colleagues are available using live synchronisation applications, schedule meetings, access files and collaborative presentations using live synchronisation and take advantage of one-click unified communications packages such as high quality video conferencing and live feeds.

The new system is due to be released later in 2012 and, in conjunction with their newly unveiled unified communications and virtualised workspaces,  is set to revolutionize the way employees interact with both their colleagues and other businesses.

To find out more about the latest in cloud and unified communications from the best manufacturers available, contact Elite Telecom. We provide award winning business telecoms services to thousands of firms worldwide.

Small and medium sized businesses are projected to spend around $12billion on unified telecoms components in the next three years, according to leading reports.

AMI-Partners, as part of its 2011/2012 North America SMB Unified Communications Review, found that although uptake on complete UC systems is relatively low, the opposite is true for uptake on individual components.

These results indicate that while unified telecoms solutions provide huge savings after the initial investment, companies are finding it more economical to invest piece by piece in today’s tougher climate.

The results also demonstrate the demand for bespoke unified communications packages better suited to smaller, more specialised business types, a pattern that leading manufacturer Cisco has already started to take advantage of with last week’s release of their retrofit SME VoIP systems.

Single point solutions appear to offer a glimpse into the future of small or start-up business telecoms services, with operators offering certain aspects of the full suite offered today. Services such as internal e-mail and remote data access will be available as patches which could eventually be linked together if and when required.

Over the next five years, UC packages and option such as these are expected to double, providing a positive outlook for future telecoms markets.

“The revenue opportunity in winning full UC SMB customers is large” says Brian Galgay at AMI, “but to do so vendors need to provide structure and guide these SMBs along the path from single components to a full UC solution”.

To find out how best to optimise your business telecoms services, contact Elite Telecom. We provide award-winning solutions tailor-made for thousands of businesses worldwide.

A recent report published by the Wireless Broadband Alliance has shown that the number of publicly available WiFi hotspots is to more than triple by 2015, an increase which will see hotspots increase from 1.3 to 5.8 million hotspots globally.

The findings also show that 58% of mobile operators consider WiFi to be indispensable to their operating strategies due to a rapid upsurge in demand from smartphone users and employees working remotely.

The majority of growth is anticipated to take place in two key areas – wide area and local area outdoor hot-zones – which will see increased coverage in public areas such as parks and transport areas such as train stations and airports.

This increased coverage is said to add to user experiences of telecoms operators and will provide a more reassuring presence as well as intensified brand awareness.

Making these hotspots available in public transport areas should also bolster the business mobile telecoms market, increasing the availability of business user access to unified communications solutions such as email and internal data.

This rise in the demand for remotely accessed data has also been named as a major cause for expanded coverage, with experts anticipating global mobile data traffic to increase to 16.84 million terabytes a year by 2014.

As such, the need to establish robust and secure data storage and dissemination systems within business structures is being emphasised, with the WBA recommending that precautionary measures be taken over the next 3 years.

For more information on our award winning business telecoms services, provided to thousands of firms worldwide, contact Elite Telecom.

Ronan Dunne, CEO of Telefónica Europe plc or O2 's U.K. operation has released a recent statement urging businesses to disregard recent speculation concerning the security of VoIP networks and embrace the revolutionary system to its full potential.

The announcement follows the trial of the company’s new VoIP services, which allows users of the Android and iOS smartphones to communicate with each-other using Wi-Fi supported calls, text messages and emails.

This release forms part of a wider series of optimistic forecasts for VoIP technology, with industry experts anticipating that new evolutions within the technology will see it become a long-term feature of the telecommunications market.

Dace Dadds of the Federation of Communications Services, for example, stated that there is no doubt that the solution will have a major impact on the market, although the full extent to which it will form a part of our telecoms feature remains to be seen.

The American market for VoIP solutions grew by an extraordinary 65% compared to 2010, prompting industry experts to urge UK markets to take advantage of the still fledgling industry while they still hold a market share.

The future for UK business telecoms is also looking bright as a result, with many VoIP hardware manufacturers such as Cisco looking to expand their products in order to tap into the SME sector.

For more information, or to find out about our award winning products, contact Elite Telecom. We provide VoIP installation and maintenance services to thousands of businesses worldwide.

Small and medium sized businesses across the UK are being urged to get preparations underway for what is forecasted to be another winter of heavy disruptions to commerce.

Last year’s freezing conditions, the coldest in more than 30 years, saw businesses grind to a halt as supplies, maintenance and customer services felt the shock of paralysed transport and communication channels.

Despite many firms claiming that they were sufficiently prepared for the adverse operating conditions, up to 50% felt that their business suffered, with some subject to disastrous consequences.

Snowy and icy conditions kept staff away from work for 3 out of 4 major UK companies, however, 39% of firms claimed that this did not matter as new innovations in unified communications and cloud resources meant employees were able to work from home.

Analysis of the UK economy did however, show an average daily loss of around £1.2 billion, further emphasising the need to ensure that preparations for business continuity are taken sooner rather than later.

As well as the added risk of telecoms infrastructures temporarily shutting down, industry experts cite the potential lack of available maintenance solutions as being the biggest threat to business operation.

As such, The Forum of Private Business is warning firms to take control of their data storage and retrieval systems and to ensure that adequate disaster recovery procedures are implemented nationwide.

Contact Elite Telecom to find out more about our award winning data-storage and disaster recovery systems, custom made with businesses in mind. We provide thousands of firms worldwide with the means to operate at full capacity all year round.

New reports detailing research funded by the US telecoms provider AT&T show businesses which adopt cloud computing as their primary communication and data transfer method could save up to 69% in outgoing costs as well as drastically reduce carbon emissions.

Based on a review of 12 industry leading companies that have been using cloud computing for at least two years, the report concludes that a large US company which adopts the approach could save millions of metric tonnes of carbon emissions in just a matter of years.

Businesses with annual revenues of around $1billion, for example, could save on average 87.5 million metric tonnes in carbon emissions annually by 2020 and could make economy wide savings of around $12.3 billion in the same period.

This compares to an average total lifetime cost of implementing and maintaining a cloud computing system, which amounts to around $12.3 million.

These figures are also nicely complimented by the increased efficiency and organisational flexibility offered by cloud computing and unified communications. Firms looking to develop and customise their services to suit individual client needs can also do so more quickly and effectively using unified resources.

In short, as both financial and environmental sustainability reaches the top of the agenda for firms of all sizes and models, cloud computing and unified communications are proving increasingly attractive options.

To find out more about how your business can benefit, contact Elite Telecom. We provide thousands of firms worldwide with award winning business telecoms services, tailor made to suit every client.

‘Enterprise grade’ IP telecoms will be the focus of Cisco’s new approach to expanding the scope of their award winning devices, according to recent announcements.

IP telephone company networks with ‘integrated capabilities’ are to be aimed at providing small and mid-size businesses with a cost efficient solution to IP based telecoms, which will have the capacity to be retrofitted using existing infrastructures and offer respite for potentially strained IT and call-centre budgets.

Using the existing Cisco Business Edition3000 and the Cisco Business Edition 6000 models as a base, a series of updates will be made available which will enable smaller businesses to access unified telecoms services such as video and instant messaging.

This could prove to be very successful to businesses for which telecoms represent the majority of annual budgets.

The proposed solutions are to be easy to use and maintain and will offer a greater range of services than the public branch exchange (PBX) systems commonly used by SMEs.

With greater versatility will also come increased telecoms security, which again will attract modern firms: a rapid rise in over the phone and internet payments now means telecoms security is of paramount importance to company reputation, and with the capacity for IP telecommunications to be easily recorded, stored and retrieved; VoIP looks like the answer.

For more information on the latest Cisco products for all business sizes, contact Elite Telecom. We provide award winning bespoke solutions for thousands of business around the world. And with our exclusive intelligent call-queuing system, we can improve the efficiency of your telecoms system by up to 15% in just a matter of weeks.