Nowadays, many small to medium companies are thinking about and looking into Voice over IP (VoIP) PBX systems, if for no other reason than to save money over their existing or antiquated traditional phone systems. Making this transition requires a lot of analysis and decision making. One of the more important decisions is whether to purchase your own VoIP PBX or to go with a “hosted” or virtual PBX, which is a system hosted by a VoIP provider. There are good arguments for both solutions, including cost, voice quality and reliability. Let’s look at each solution to see which works best for your business.

Premise Based VoIP PBX

With a premise based VoIP system, you either install the IP PBX yourself, or have a dealer or VAR (value added reseller) Install it for you. The equipment sits in your company’s data center, connects to your LAN, and distributes calls to IP phones also connected to the LAN. You own the equipment and software, and administer and maintain it. Calls can come to the IP PBX from a communication service provider over traditional PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines or over your company’s broadband Internet connection, or both.

The premise-based approach has several advantages. Although the upfront cost is higher than with a hosted service, your company owns the system, rather than having to make payments forever. And with ownership comes increased control—you can customize or extend the capabilities of your systems more than you can with hosted service, provided you have the technical resources or are willing to pay somebody to do it for you. Another advantage is that it’s not necessary to rely solely on the Internet to deliver calls.  A premise based IP PBX gives you fallback capabilities should your Internet service be interrupted. Security is also higher because all messages and call data remain on your company’s premises.

But when compared to hosted solutions, there can be a significant disadvantage depending on the needs and resources of your organization. The biggest is monitoring and maintenance. Someone has to be available virtually all the time to make sure the system is running right. Someone also has to maintain and upgrade the software on a regular basis. Premise-based systems typically require maintenance contracts that add significantly to the total cost of ownership. Configuring remote users can also be somewhat complicated and thereby expensive.

Here are a couple of premise-based solution providers:

GSolutionz

Cisco

Here is a great post on VoIP-News comparing premise-based systems to hosted systems:

http://www.voip-news.com/news/hosted-premises-pbx-pro-con/

Pros

• You will own the system
• You can customize it to suit needs
• Doesn’t necessarily have to rely on Internet for quality, reliability
• Messages, prompts, records remain on your company’s premises

Cons

• Significant costs for hardware and software maintenance contracts
• Requires staff for monitoring and maintaining
• Configuring remote users can be tricky
• Hardware, software upgrades could eventually become necessary if your user numbers and/or call volume grows

Hosted PBX

Hosted VoIP, also known as hosted PBX or virtual PBX, runs on equipment belonging to and located in the data center of a service provider. Calls travel to your office via its broadband Internet connection. Hosted services can provide many of the features and capabilities that traditional phone systems offer. Users can make or transfer calls by dialing each other’s extensions. They can also make conference calls, park and pick up calls, and answer calls forwarded to groups of extensions, known as ring groups. That’s not to mention all the new capabilities that IP makes possible, such as listening to voice mail messages through e-mail or another online interface, or placing calls by simply clicking on names in onscreen address books.

This solution also allows you to create extensions in different locations, such as multiple offices or employee homes. Remote VoIP extensions act just like extensions of traditional PBXs in that you can call them directly by dialing extension numbers, page them, or include them in call groups. The real benefit of VoIP extensions is that you are not charged for calling between them, no matter where they are located.

The biggest benefit of the hosted approach is its low upfront cost. The only equipment you need to buy to get started is IP phones for your employees. You then pay a monthly fee for each extension, which typically includes packages of minutes or unlimited domestic calling as well as cheap international rates. This approach lets you increase the number of users as needed and eliminates some ongoing costs. There are no hardware or software maintenance contracts, for example, and no need for in-house IT staff to monitor equipment and fix problems.  All service, maintenance, and updates are managed and provided by your service provider.

Hosted services can also have considerable drawbacks, though. The monthly charges can add up, especially when they involve paying full rate for little-used but necessary extensions. And unlike equipment purchases, hosted PBX payments don’t end until you cancel the service, and upon termination of service the business is left with no associated asset. Security is another concern, since voice mail messages and call records reside on the service provider’s servers, not you servers. Call quality and service reliability can also be significant worries, since both are totally dependent on your Internet connection(s).

Today, their are many hosted PBX providers. Here are a few:

Aerioconnect

NCISP

Here is a great blog for finding out all you need to know about hosted PBX: 

http://www.voip-news.com/blog/

Pros

• Low upfront costs
• Increase capacity exactly as needed
• No need for maintenance contracts or staff
• Remote extensions

Cons

• Quality, reliability depend on Internet
• Pay full rate for little-used extensions
• No end to payments, no eventual ownership of equipment
• Messages, prompts and call records reside in service provider’s data center

A Third Alternative

Another alternative, sometimes called “hybrid-hosted,” combines the key elements of hosted and premise-based systems. You buy and own the IP PBX equipment, which resides at your premises. But the vendor monitors and helps manage the equipment from its data center. This arrangement offers most of the benefits of both hosted and premise solutions, while doing away with most of the disadvantages of both. However, it is also by far the most costly.

As with conventional premise solutions, hybrid-hosted systems lets you pay once to purchase the equipment rather than paying forever for extensions, some of which may see little use. And messages and call data remain within the company.

 

And as with hosted solutions, hybrid-hosted systems significantly decrease the hassles and headaches of premise solutions. Part of it is ease of use. Administrators and managers can access their systems from anywhere via web browsers, rather than having to be on premises or to have configured special routes through their firewalls. Setting up remote users is simple too, and linking branch offices is often a one-click process. Users can even configure their own extensions from wherever they are.

Perhaps most important, the hybrid-hosted approach alleviates monitoring and maintenance headaches. From its data center, the vendor proactively watches the customer’s hardware and software, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for impending failures, and takes action before they happen. It also transparently maintains the software, pushing out automatic updates without the need for someone at your company to do anything. The vendor can also choose to back up call records and generate reports, taking a significant load off the premise equipment. And it also backs up the customer’s configurations (though usually not its voice mail messages or prompts due to privacy concerns), allowing for easy recovery in case of disaster.

Pros

• You own the system
• Can customize to suit needs
• Messages, prompts, records remain on company’s own premises
• Vendor monitors for faults 24/7
• Vendor backup of customer configurations with easy disaster recovery
• Automatic software upgrades
• Easy remote administration through web browser
• Easy setup of remote users
• One-click linking of branch offices

Cons

• Upfront costs higher than with hosted solutions
• Hardware and software maintenance contracts recommended
• Hardware upgrade eventually necessary if user numbers grow
• Support and management contracts can be quite high, eliminating the savings you would gain from using VoIP.

William Harrel – www.williamharrel.com

Nowadays, financial problems can happen to nearly anybody, even those of us who do our best to keep our  houses in order. Insolvency is rapidly becoming a huge issue for many families throughout the U.S. A few years ago, new laws made filing bankruptcy more difficult, including requirements that you get financial counseling and take courses to help you understand your finances and help you determine is bankruptcy is right for you.

Oh brother! So, here you are, broke and distraught. Now they want you to sit through some grueling and boring class on finance with a bunch of folks in the same boat.

Internet to the Rescue

The good news is that the law does not rule out taking the course on the Internet in the privacy of your own home. williamharrel.com has recently developed such a course for the folks at Money Matters, a division of DBSM, Inc.

 

Actually, the law requires that you take two courses, one before you file and one after you file. In order to successfully navigate the BK quagmire, you must file certificates for both courses. And the two certificates, “Bankruptcy Certification” and “Pre-Discharge Education”, must come from a government certified agency. My BK now, or MyBKNow.com, has been approved to issue both certificates. 

For a complete description of the course requirements, go here:  http://www.mybknow.com/faq.php?

I have known the folks at Money Matters for over 25 years. While there are a few other online courses out there, there isn’t a nicer, more reputable organization to turn to for help during this most trying of times, bankruptcy.

You can check out My BK Now here: http://www.MyBKNow.com

William Harrel – www.williamharrel.com

Many thanks to Brian Gardner and the folks over at StudioPress for their impressive and delightful WordPress themes. I have just used one of them, Streamline, to upgrade this blog. Thanks to them, no longer is Communications Technology Watch boring and ordinary. The StudioPress Streamline theme is complete, reasonably priced and easy to implement, saving me countless hours redesigning this site from scratch. Great craftsmanship. You can bet I’ll be back the next time one of my clients needs a blog.

Clear Instructions

I was genuinely impressed with how well everything works within the theme, and the instructions on the StudioPress support Website are well-written, clear and complete. Not once was I held up waiting for answers from the StudioPress support team. I found everything I needed on the support site. And the few questions I did have (pre-purchase) were answered via email immediately. Few things are more frustrating than waiting hours or days for support to get back to you. 

Superb Tutorials

As a writer of many aftermarket software books and how-too articles, I have some experience in telling endusers how to do things. Seldom have I seen a clearer set of tutorials. Each process is laid out and identified so well that I didn’t have to waste time looking for answers. I appreciate vendors who consider my time valuable. (And, of course, a well constructed support site saves the vendor’s time, too. Still, there are many endusers who either refuse to use the resources or, no matter how well they are written, can’t seem to understand them.)

Keep up the Good Work

Nowadays, many companies are choosing to use WordPress and other blog server software to construct entire Websites. a trend I was somewhat dubious about at first. Especially since my background is design and I hate to program. Thanks to StudioPress and companies like them, we, the programming-challenged, can keep up with technology without having to spend all our time mired in experimenting with and debugging frustrating code. I encourage Brian and StudioPress to give us some more themes. And, yes, I understand it is hard work and takes time.

You can check out the StudioPress themes here: http://www.studiopress.com/

For examples of various sites that use StudioPress themes, go here: http://www.studiopress.com/showcase

To keep ups with StudioPress news, such as special offers, checkout their blog: http://www.studiopress.com/category/announcements

William Harrel – www.williamharrel.com

Yes, creating Websites is fun and rewarding work. And nothing is more fun and rewarding than creating Flash Websites, or other Flash applications, such as online movies or training courses. Nowadays, learning to use Flash is a must for student Website and Web application designers.

So, naturally I was thrilled when I landed the assignment to write an introduction course for Ed2Go. The name of the course is “Introduction to Adobe Flash CS4″. It is a beginner’s course on creating basic Flash movies and Websites with the latest version of Flash, Creative Suite 4.

ed2go is the largest online course provider, offering hundreds of courses through most major universities, colleges and other learning facilities.

Course Details

This twelve-week course will introduce students to the basics of using Flash, and will cover the following:

• Getting to know the Flash interface
• Flash’s drawing tools
• Flash’s text tools
• The Flash Timeline and frames
• Intro to ActionScript
• Using images, sound and video clips in Flash
• And much more

The course is well underway and should be available is a few months.

Bill Harrel – www.williamharrel.com

OK. So we have another IE, version 8. Once again Microsoft piles on the features, changes the interface, and introduces frustrating new “security” with disregard for the enduser. It’s a toss-up as to whether a couple of new wizz-bang enhancements make upgrading to version 8 worthwhile. Why is it that it always takes a service pack or two before upgrades to this product are stable?

Nifty New Features

Granted, there are a couple of new features that will make browsing somewhat easier, but I would rather have seen the bloat and performance issues fixed–besides, this new version has introduced a couple more problems. But let’s look at the good, before ranting about the bad and the ugly.

Accelerators

Accelerators don’t really accelerate anything. They are designed to save you steps. And, for the most part they do. The concept is that you can get in-place content with a few mouse clicks, rather than having to navigate to new pages.

Here is an example of how it looks with Live Maps:

 Web Slices

Web Slices is, perhaps, the best new feature. Basically it allows you to flag specific Web pages. IE will then monitor them and notify you when the content on the page changes. This is great for monitoring blogs, auctions, and so on. And you can setup as many Web Slices as you want and set the monitoring and notification intervals.

Here is an example of Web Slices monitoring an Ebay auction:

Here is a link to a page on Microsoft’s site that describes Web Slices in detail:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/features/web-slices.aspx

The thing to keep in mind with both Accelerators and Web Slices is that the owners of the sights you want to monitor have to setup server-side Accelerator and Web Slice applications in order for your IE to use them. So far, not many sites have Web Slices or Accelerators available.

Other new features

There are some other new, not-so-exciting features that Microsoft is touting as all that and a bag of chips, but for the most part they are ho-hum. Here they are:

• InPrivate Browsing
• Search Suggestions
• SmartScreen Filter

You can get descriptions of them here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/features/overview.aspx?tabid=1&catid=1

And, of course, there is always Microsoft’s constant “security” enhancements. Whether security is acutally enhanced (or that these changes are necessary), I am not really qualified to judge. But I do know that each new browser upgrade makes using IE more difficult.

For example, (and I am just getting started using IE 8), some security enhancement in IE 8 has crippled my ability to upload images to this blog through the WordPress interface while using IE 8. I keep getting an error that the target directory can’t be created. (The directory is already there.) None of the documents on Microsoft’s support site address this specific issue. So I have had to change the way I upload images. Or use another browser.

The same Old Bloated IE

I have always had problems with IE that I never have with Safari or FireFox. Since upgrading to Vista, the latest two issues are quite aggrivating. First, for some reason, now and then IE just stops working. I get a Not Responding error. Sometimes, after several minutes, it corrects itself. Other times, I have to go into Task Manager and kill IE to get it to work again. Second, when ever my Laptop goes to sleep (as it does every night), after waking it up, I cannot get IE to open within 5 or 10 minutes, not without rebooting my computer, that is.

(I know, you’re thinking that something is wrong with my computer. Perhaps, but, again, the other two browsers don’t behave like this.)

One of the reasons I upgraded was to try to solve these two issue. No luck. The program is still huge, takes much too long to load and is terribly quirky. If I run into any more problems, I am going back to version 7. It is usually a good idea to wait for the first service pack release before upgrading any Microsoft product.

Bill Harrel – www.williamharrel.com

Ok. So everybody knows that you can have multiple undos and redos in InDesign. The problem is that you have to continuously step backwards until you get your document back to where your want it. A bit of a pain.

Checkout MultiDo and EasyHistory from 65bit Software. The first plugin is free; EasyHistory is $9.99. Can’t beat that!

 

The plugin is available for both Mac and PC; however, as I write this it still has not upgraded to InDesign CS4. 65bit says it is coming soon.

Rather than going over the features here, here is a video showing you both products and how they work:

http://www.lynda.com/home/Player.aspx?lpk4=47843

You can get the plugin here: http://www.65bit.com/products/easyhistorycs/easyhistorycs.shtm

Hey, for 10 bucks, you can save yourself some time. My time is worth more than that!

William Harrel – www.williamharrel.com

Over the years you learn how to do many things in Photoshop. Some of them, no matter how many times you do them, are time consuming and tedious. Selective focus, causing certain aspects of a photo to pop out while dimming other elements, such as backgrounds, is one of those tedious processes. Typically, selective focus is achieved during the photography process itself, or with tedious manual processes in Photoshop.

So, I am always elated when somebody comes up with something to make these kinds of tasks easier. Enter FocalPoint from OnOne Software. Take a look at this Before and After and put away your dodge and burn tools.

 The interface is relatively easy and straightforward.

 I found out about this nifty tool at: http://sharingbaba.com/softwares/?p=3423

You can download a trial version or purchase FocalPoint at: http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=35

I liked it. So will you.

William Harrel – www.williamharrel.com