Chuck Krogman was kind enough to lead one of our many ShoreTel Voip Seminars in August. Above is just a small clip of how VOIP has grown compared to legacy systems.

If you are interested in learning more about VOIP while being fed lunch or breakfast on us, please contact Teri U’Sellis at 502-459-9141

The next Seminars are …..

October 13th Louisville             11:00-11:30      Registration

Networking

Lunch Served

11:30-1:30         Seminar

October 14th Lexington            8:00-8:30          Registration

Networking

Breakfast Served

8:30-10:30        Seminar

Contact Teri at 502 459-9141.

As companies look to migrate from traditional telephony to VoIP implementations, infrastructure becomes a HUGE factor for a successful deployment. We always have to understand the cabling that is in place, switch gear, etc.

We met with a company last week that was in a 200 year old building and were utilizing wireless routers for their data connections because cabling the building for Cat5 was cost prohibitive. In addition, cabling a facility that old would be very disruptive and potentially endanger the integrity of the historical building.

Not long ago that would have dictated that this company stay with traditional telephony because Cat3 cabling was the only cabling available to the workstations.

Buying a traditional telephony platform is kind of like throwing away your VHS VCR to buy another VHS VCR. Most people want to migrate to DVD’s…

Unified Technologies has identified an exciting new technology we can deploy in an environment exactly like this that allows us to utilize the power outlets to deliver ethernet to the work stations.

As a result we can now provide a hardwired, more reliable and faster internet connection to their computers. It also allows us to deploy a VoIP platform and the company will realize all the benefits inherent with new technology.

In addition, its FAR more cost effective to deploy this solution versus running the Cat5 cables. We’ve seen cable runs as high as $1000 each to cable a facility of that age with closed in cielings, etc. Not to mention that it much less disruptive to the business and will protect the integrity of the historical building.

We have an outstanding solution for businesses in older buildings that face an infrastructure issue and need a creative and reliable solution for delivering ethernet to the workstations.

Mike Gabhart, Consultant

Unified Technologies

Phone/Mobile:  502.708.3337 

mailto:mgabhart@unified-team.com

Over the years, companies do some unusual things with their telco provider. They may install a phone line for a modem, they may “remote call forward” or RCF a number or add some other feature that they forget they have and never use.

These things cost money. And over time, if a company does not review their monthly telco expense, these small charges will add up.

This week we worked with a company that was spending $500/mo. to RCF a group of phone numbers. When we asked the company about these charges, they couldn’t even remember why they had set it up that way many years ago. We did a traffic study and found that the RCF lines weren’t ever used. That means they had been spending this extra money per month for a feature they didn’t even use! That adds up to thousands of dollars in wasteful spending.

Just last month we ran into a company that was still spending $.25/min for LD. That sounds crazy but if you don’t review your contracts, these things happen.

Ran into another company about a month ago still supporting 30 individual phone lines from Bell (1FB’s). Paying for 30 individual phone lines is far more expensive than investing in PRI service. Even after paying for the new phone system to support PRI, that company saved thousands of dollars a year and gained more features that positively impacted their business.

We would encourage businesses to have an objective industry professional review your telco expense atleast every 3 years to make sure they are:
1. Paying market rate for current services

2. Aren’t paying for services they don’t use.

3. Are leveraging the newest technology to help drive down operational expense.

Unified Technologies provides a free analysis and consultation for our prospective clients. We want to help your business increase revenues while driving down expenses.

Mike Gabhart

mgabhart@unified-team.com

502-708-3337

Great write up on TMCnet.com regarding ShoreTel’s communication platform in the healthcare market:

http://bit.ly/9yIESC

Brian Borgman – bborgman@unified-team.com – 502.708.3335

Nightmare VoIP Scenario #2:

There are two different types of IP phone system providers. We refer to those as facilities based and non-facilities based. You could also refer to them as regulated and unregulated. A facilities based, regulated hosted VoIP provider can provide reliability, voice quality, etc. As examples, in Louisville, you often hear about Smoothstone and Norlight. They don’t do a bad job, but the solution can be expensive.

Please be very careful with non-facilities based, unregulated VoIp phone system providers. These are often called “bring your own bandwidth” (BYOB) providers. There are hundreds of these companies out there and we hear about more every day. It can be enticing to buy from them because they make it sound so simple. The problems are that they do not understand your business and the solution is not reliable. In most cases they have trouble even making it work. I understand there are some success stories….but I don’t hear about those. So you get to hear a horror story through this blog.

I met with a company that recently made the decision to move to a “hosted” VoIP phone system from one of these BYOB providers. Wow. Where do I begin?

One of their employees called it the “worst business experience” he has had in 27 years. Unified designed a new solution and communicated to this individual that we want him to provide one of the best business experiences he has had in 27 years. Dropped calls, poor quality, calls lost in mid-air were just a few of the comments we heard from them.

He said we were already a better experience because we asked him what he wanted and asked him about his business. This person was the VP of their company and oversaw operations at 2 locations. We were in shock. How can a competitor try to implement a technology solution when they have no idea what they want or need?

It’s shocking but it happens all the time. I have a true appreciation for the unique manner by which Unified Technologies provides technology solutions for our business partners.

It should be no secret that technology can be a great thing…if it is deployed properly and is designed to help business processes. As advanced as VoIP is, it is not as simple as “plug and play”. You can’t just plug something in and hope it does what everyone wants. There has to be discovery, there has to be an understanding of business goals and objectives and there has to be communication. With our customers, we err on the side of over-communication.

Please choose the business partner you can trust. Choose someone who can see the entire picture of your organization. You are choosing a partner to help your business achieve goals and objectives.

As we untangle the situation and move them to a Shoretel solution, we now have to rely on an unregulated hosted provider to get the companies phone numbers back. I’ll have to update you later on our progress…..Melissa Johnston is working her magic as your read this…

Michael Gabhart

502-693-3159

mgabhart@unified-team.com

Nightmare VoIP Scenario #1:

VoIP trunking is a newer technology that allows a business to run their phone lines over their internet connection. For example, several of the local carriers offer dynamic PRI’s that basically allocate bandwidth to phone calls when a call is happening. But when no phone calls are being made, the full 1.5M T1 connection is going toward Internet.

I met with a company here in town that went to a business VoIP circuit through AT&T. Ironically, dynamic circuits have been around for years with other carriers like Nuvox, Paetec, TWTelecom, etc. but AT&T was very late to the market with their dynamic product. They just rolled it out this past year. I met with one of their early adopters and it has been a  disaster. Anyway, this was a relatively small office that contracted with AT&T to provide a data T1 and then run their 8 voice lines over the T1. The contract price for this was $500 before taxes/fees etc.

Several months later, after numerous # porting issues, long outages, lost revenue due to the outages, we were finally referred to their company to help put the puzzle together…

First of all, AT&T didn’t inform the company that they couldn’t port their fax number to the AT&T business VoIP circuit. That means an additional $50/mo.  above their quoted contract.

Second, AT&T assessed penalties for canceling the previous contract they had with this company for the their phone lines. (ie. AT&T assessed a penalty for switching from AT&T service to AT&T service….)

Third, it took months to finally deploy the solution. Porting of the main number led to several days/weeks of downtime for the customer. And with the communication chain at AT&T, straightening the situation out was next to impossible. Since the Business VoIP offering was new technology, they had to install new switching gear in their CO’s in order to support voice quality, etc.

Please keep the following things in mind:

1. VoIP trunking in this customers situation brought no benefit to their business. The migration  to VoIP was very painful, cost them a lot of employee time and energy and cost them business.
2. We encourage our customers to work with a carrier services broker, who can independently look at your different service providers and help you identify your best options. Direct carrier sales reps want to make the sale.
3. Unlike AT&T, there are other carriers that offer VoIP trunking through your existing internet circuit. BE VERY CAREFUL working with an unregulated IP trunking company. There are hundreds of them in the market these days and they market their services aggressively. Please understand that if you choose IP trunking through your existing internet circuit, you are susceptible to poor voice quality  and dropped calls. We see companies make this mistake every day, trying to save a little $. Please remember the cost involved with lost business before making this decision. The real challenge comes once you recognize the issue and try to move back to a more reliable service. Unregulated IP phone service providers can be a real challenge to work with.

Michael Gabhart

502-693-3159

mgabhart@unified-team.com

This week we met with two different businesses (prospective customers) regarding VoIP issues/concerns, and felt the need to blog about it.

WARNING: VoIP is an industry buzzword, but when someone uses the term they could be referring to any one of about 10 different things! I respectfully ask that businesses considering “VoIP” please be very careful and consult with a knowledgeable industry veteran before making any changes to their situation. PLEASE!!! This can be a very painful experience if you choose the wrong partner to entrust with this transition from traditional telephony to VoIP.

Voice over Internet Protocol is a technology that can be leveraged to increase profitability within a company. But what does that mean?

1. Does it mean free or cheap long distance?
2. Does it mean I can run my phone lines over our existing internet connection?
3. Does it mean connecting multiple locations to act as a single image?
4. Does it mean the ability to transfer calls seamlessly between locations without asking your customer, “Please hang up and dial…”?
5. Does it mean getting your voicemails delivered to your email?
6. Does it mean the ability to have calls routed seamlessly from your office phone to your cellphone?
7. Does it mean the ability to have a software application on your desktop that controls your phone?
8. Does it mean the ability to see the “presence”  of all the other users on your system?
9. Does it mean I get my voice lines delivered over a T1 and get more internet bandwidth when I am not using the phone “line”?
10. Does it mean I can have direct phone numbers for my employees?
11. Does it mean we no longer have a phone system to maintain in our office and we rent an IP seat with a VoIP provider?
12. Does it mean I can unplug my VoIP phone, take it home with me and still take calls?
13. Does it mean the phone is plugged into a data cable instead of a phone cable (Cat3)?

When you migrate to VoIP the answer to ALL these questions is “maybe”.

When considering VoIP for your business, the most important thing, by far, is selecting a trusted partner that understands your business. Migrating to VoIP technology is probably a very good thing for your business, but make sure you understand its impact on your organization BEFORE implementation.

Michael Gabhart, Sales Consultant

502-708-3337

mgabhart@unified-team.com

Unified Technology Receives ShoreTel’s Certified Champion Partner Program Status

Louisville, KY., September 3, 2009 – Unified Technologies announced today that they have recently been awarded ShoreTel’s Certified Champion Partner status, recognizing Unified Technologies as a value-added solution provider of enterprise communication solutions. ShoreTel, Inc. (NASDAQ: SHOR), a leading provider of Pure IP Unified Communications (UC) solutions, has designed the Champion Partner Program to strengthen the relationship between ShoreTel and its partners, advancing and growing both companies’ market share in the unified communications industry, while ensuring every customer continues to be delighted with their ShoreTel experience.

“We’re pleased to welcome value-added partners into the Champion Partner Program – especially those that have made the commitment to sales and technical training, infrastructure development and focus on customer service in delivering our innovative products and leading business solutions,” said Tom Hamilton, senior director of worldwide channel marketing at ShoreTel. “In this case, the achievement of Certified Champion Partner status is based on Unified Technologies’ value-add solution sales and delivery, of ShoreTel Unified Communications systems.

“It was a no brainer to take advantage of the opportunity to partner with a manufacture who understands the meaning of customer satisfaction, steps outside the box to help their partners, provides exceptional current product solutions and does so while having one of the strongest financial stability of all major telecom providers today. The combined 400+ years of industry experience at Unified Technologies backed by the solutions and service offered by ShoreTel, will undoubtedly secure our place as the leader of Voice and Data solutions throughout this region, ” said Robb Bashore, Vice President Sales and General Manager at Unified Technologies.

Since ShoreTel’s first product shipment in 1998, customer satisfaction has been at the core of ShoreTel’s top business priorities, and is a requirement for the primary business values for all ShoreTel partners. Customers who purchase ShoreTel solutions rank their product above other manufacturers for technology, ease of use, management, customer service, solution experience, product features and performance. Unified Technologies’ satisfied customers like Chapman Kelly and the Arch Diocese, have contributed to ShoreTel’s ranking as Best Overall VoIP telephony vendor among end-users for the past five years in a row, according to industry analyst firm Nemertes Research.

About Unified Technologies, LLC.

Unified Technologies, LLC., based in Louisville and Lexington Kentucky, is a team of highly skilled individuals that is not only focused on providing the best products in the industry today, but also backs those solutions up with a customer service model second to none. While there are imitators among us, the people of Unified Technologies will continue to do what we have always done – being the best at what we do. For nearly 30 years, the core group of Unified has built a reputation in our market for being the best, and that is not changing any time soon. Unified Technologies is an employee owned company with principal leadership from Scott Diamond and Mike Fischer. Robb Bashore, formally Vice President of Sales at Inter-Tel/Mitel, has joined the Unified Team this year to share in the leadership responsibilities and to assist in the company’s rapid growth it has experienced.

About ShoreTel, Inc.

ShoreTel, Inc., (NASDAQ: SHOR) is a leading provider of Pure IP Unified Communications solutions. ShoreTel enables companies of any size to seamlessly integrate all communications – voice, video, messaging and data – with their business processes. Independent of device or location, ShoreTel’s distributed software architecture eliminates the traditional costs, complexity and reliability issues typically associated with other solutions. ShoreTel continues to deliver the highest levels of customer satisfaction, ease of use and manageability, while driving down the overall total cost of ownership. ShoreTel is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and has regional offices in the United Kingdom, Sydney, Australia and Munich, Germany. For more information, visit www.shoretel.com or call 1-877-80SHORE.

We received the results of the independent survey conducted after the Euler Hermes installation.  The score was 100% -  meaning that this customer gave us a rating of excellent in all categories.

The following quotes from the customer appeared on the survey.

“The only thing that could make the experience better is if I had a need to purchase another system all over again.”

“Melissa Johnston of Unified was the absolute BEST!  Her knowledge of the system and ability to convey that to the average user was phenomenal.”

Unified has proven to be a first rate organization.  Brian Borgman of Unified introduced me to IP telephony in an impressive fashion…he did so with the help of a ShoreTel engineer!  The team effort was so impressive that I could not imagine working with anyone but Brian.  He has been responsive, straightforward, and extremely ethical in all of our dealings.