We believe that the most undervalued concept in small business technology is convergence. Convergence is also known as Unified Communications. Simply stated convergence is the integration of data networking with computer networking. Converged networks are easily adopted by new and existing businesses and offer distinct advantages; lower support costs, lower telephone charges, a single vendor for data and telephony, and higher return on investment. Theses cost saving metrics are achieved through specific hardware configured to utilize Voice over IP (VoIP) to transmit voice data over high-speed Internet. Using this technology and supporting technologies like electronic fax allow us to completely eliminate per line phones charges. The more lines you have the greater the savings potential. We have chosen Cisco (link to Cisco SBCS page) as our vendor of choice and have earned the qualification of Cisco Small Business Select Certified Partner. This designation requires in depth product knowledge and ongoing certification.

So, why Cisco? That’s easy. Cisco is our vendor of choice because of their long-standing history in enterprise technology, their multi-tiered support structure, and their stability and market capitalization (over $100B). Cisco has defined much of what has come to be known as VoIP. Technology that has been developed for enterprise and military applications is now available to small businesses, affordably, and with quantifiable Return on Investment (ROI).

Our systems are built on the Smart Business Communications System (SBCS) platform. SBCS is an affordable grouping of products with very advanced capabilities. SBCS isn’t only VoIP and Unified Communications, it gives you the ability to:

•    Connect securely to your office network from anywhere you are online (VPN Client)
•    Provide secure wireless connectivity within your office (Clustered Wireless Access Points)
•    Receive voice mail messages in your e-mail inbox (E-mail Integration)
•    Have your inbound calls ring multiple phone numbers (Single Number Reach)
•    Click a phone number in your Outlook contacts to dial your phone (Unified CallConnector)
•    All of the voice mail, hunt group, blast group, call handling and forwarding features you are used to, plus
•    The ability to visually view your voice message by date as you do on your cell phone (VoiceView Express)
•    Call Accounting and Integration with electronic medical records (with Veramark and Allscripts MyWay)
•    …and video telephony

With the exception of Veramark Call accounting and Allscripts MyWay integration, all of these features are built in. The beauty of the solution is that although these features are there you only need to enable those that benefit your business. You also have the choice of basic IP phones like the five line Cisco 525G (left), executive phones like the eight line color touch screen Cisco 7975G (middle), or the new 9900 series phones with video (right). Small businesses will not need to worry about outgrowing the solution. The system can be scaled from eight to 104 phones.