_ VoIP is one of the latest technologies in the telecommunications industry. Apart from the traditional telecommunications systems such as PBX’s and TDM’s, VoIP is a new breed that really got its moment with the advanced evolvement of the internet technologies. It helps to battle the cost and achieves a good reliability in the eyes of its users. Many reputable telecom manufacturers are now producing and basing their focus on build advanced and reliable communications technologies based in VoIP idea. 

So, what is VoIP and what can it do for your organization?

VoIP stands for Voice over IP Protocol. Instead of traditional telephone technologies and network it is enabled to use Internet technologies to transmit voice signals directly to the communications device. Basically, VoIP is phone service over the Internet. Here are some other names of VoIP:  IP Telephony, Internet Telephony, Broadband Telephony, Broadband Phone and Voice over Broadband.

How to use, advantages and limitations of the VoIP system

For the end user, using VoIP won’t bring any difference as one will be able to connect directly with anyone needed. VoIP uses several options for the connection. One might use a computer with a microphone or a headset, a special VoIP phone, or a traditional phone (a special adapter is required). There are several ways for your call to get on the line: it can use a traditional phone line by employing special communications technology, cable or your wireless network. One thing to keep in mind, if you are using wireless network you should be using a solid, reliable technology to make your calls.

One of the biggest advantages of using VoIP is using it with someone who already has VoIP as well. In this case, both users won’t be paying anything for the communication service provider as they won’t need it! The only cost will be paying for a regular Internet Provider as if one was paying for the internet connection to the desktop PC or a laptop. Please, note if calling to land lines or in other words traditional phone service, a VoIP service provider will be required.  Deploying and using VoIP service and technology is usually cheaper than using landlines or cell phone services, that’s one of the main reasons why many companies regardless the size choose to switch to VoIP.

One of the main questions for any type of organization is how to save money and achieve higher ROI? VoIP is one of those solutions where spending on it will be less than spending on traditional phone system. VoIP can send and receive both voice and data, totally eliminating the need to use the phone line.

Here are additional benefits that might not be available with the traditional telephone service:

·         Ability to take your business number with you when on the road

·         Access the phone system from the desktop PC or a laptop

·         Mobile Calling

·         Send telephone messages and faxes to the e-mail inbox

·         Ability to have Multiple Phone Numbers

With all the great features there are several limitations as well:

One of the biggest challenges for VoIP technology is a limited internet connection. While VoIP is very cost effective and productive, having a low bandwidth slow network will impact drastically the quality of sound and data transition. Another issue with VoIP technology is in comparison with the traditional telephone systems service VoIP doesn’t have the same level of security.  

Here are several terms to help you in understanding telecommunications jargon:

Gateway: A network interface that converts calls in real time from a public-switched telephone network (PSTN) to data on an IP network.

IP (Internet Protocol): The network layer protocol in the TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)/IP communications protocol suite that forms the foundation of the Internet and intranets.

PBX (Private Branch Exchange): PBX is a commonly used term for a private branch exchange – a telephone exchange system that serves one business. This switching system interconnects telephone extensions to each other as well as to the public-switched telephone network (PSTN).

POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service): A term which describes the voice-grade telephone service for basic residential and small business service connection to the public switched telephone network.

PSTN: Public-Switched Telephone Network. The traditional phone network.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol): A term for the family of technologies that use the Internet Protocol’s packet-switched connections to exchange voice, fax, and other forms of communication that have traditionally been carried over the traditional telephone network.

Softswitch: A programmable network switch that can process signaling for all types of packet protocols, including IP.

VPN (Virtual Private Network): Often used by companies to create WANs (Wide Area Networks) that cover large geographic areas. VPNs let IP packets travel securely over a public IP network by encrypting all traffic from one network to another.

 WAN (Wide Area Network): A network that covers a wide geographic region, such as a state or country.

_ The UNIVERGE SV8100 Communications Server is a fully integrated solution that is made to fulfill the sole challenges of small and medium size businesses. It is a high-performance, feature-rich solution that supports pure peer-to-peer IP telephony connectivity, digital switching, advanced networking, or a mixture of them- all from one box.

It gives an option of converging the organization’s voice and data networks, and achieves benefits from the cost-saving return, expediency, and an ease of use. By implementing Univerge SV8100, customer will be able to decrease costs and advance with the network efficiency by transparently sharing communication features and resources among branch and/or remote locations. Even if there is no need to migrate to 100% IP telephony at this time, the SV8100 is capable of deploying traditional circuit-switched technology, VoIP or a combination of both. This unique feature gives an option of strategically planning for the future communications needs.

SV8100 was developed and designed to deliver reliability, high performance, and finest voice quality. SV8100 is a compact yet a very powerful solution which is simple to deploy, manage and maintain and gives you an option to start small and economical expanding up to 712 ports.

Features for Advanced Communications

Connectivity

• Network efficiency reached by exploiting a single network for both voice and data.
• Ability to link numerous business sites together to deliver feature transparency between communication servers.
• Shared resources including: operator services, trunks, voice mail and other advanced IP applications.
• Connect communication servers with Netlink and get an automatic failover for operational continuity.

Manageability

• Developed to reduce customer’s Total Cost of Ownership.
• Made to reduce Future Cost of Ownership
• Centralize Management function provided by connecting to the network locally or remotely to easily manage every communication servers on the network from a single destination.
• Select from Either IP or Digital Terminals – if your business communications are pure IP or any combination of IP and traditional circuit - switched technology, NEC delivers a full set of terminals that will meet your requirements.

 Usability

• The system is developed to fully assist you on both locations your home office or on the road, an IP terminal or softphone offers all the same feature-rich capabilities as your desktop terminal.
• With an addition of SP310 Softphone application your computer turns into an IP terminal and all features of the office terminal are available within the click of a mouse.
• Customized terminal options are provided for specific applications including enlarged dial pad, selectable font size, labeling options and more.
• Selected terminal models provide paperless key labeling option to give your more customized features. Key labels are made to automatically change as the button functions are customized.

Productivity Tools and Features

• Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
• PC Attendant
• Instant Messaging
• PC Assistant
• Highlight Dial
• XML Open Interface Support
• Secure Mode
• E911 Compatibility
• SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) - Compatible with most SIP trunk providers and a variety of SIP terminals.
• UC for Business (UCB)
• Activity Presence

With all said NEC Univerge SV8100 is a great phone system for any small to medium business size. It there are lots of things that can be achieved with this system. One of the main advantages is that you can customized it anyway you want; if you want you can use traditional circuit-switched technology, VoIP or a combination of both! This is a great feature for anyone looking to expand the organization or communications strategy over the next years! Grow with the phone system you need for your daily communications.

_ The Avaya IP Office is a powerful solution for many small, medium and enterprise sized businesses. It is a world’s leading phone system that many organizations and businesses depend on on a daily bases for their communications needs.

Smart IP is pleased to announce that Avaya is finally at the last stage of releasing a new version of Avaya IP Office. (For information of Avaya IP Office 7 please visit: Avaya IP Office release 7 )

A new release should be out on the market in December,2011. Few sources had speculated that it will be released in November,2011, however there was no proof found at the time of writing this post. Nevertheless, Avaya had release the beta version that is now being tested by several Avaya dealers all over the North American region. As reported by the testers the system is much more mature and stable in comparison to the earliest version of Avaya IP Office. With all said it is to the customer's advantage that the system in more stable as it offers a better reliability and ROI with less technical failures. Here are several highlights:

-Linux based operation system support
-Voice Mail Pro server expansion module – lowers the cost
-Avaya Flare integration (Video Conferencing + Collaboration)
-Web-based OneX portal with a better user friendly design
-A new plug-in for Microsoft Outlook
-Improved UC functionality
-Seamless integration between office desktop and mobile devices
-Decreased Cost of Ownership
-Simplified management interface for a day-to-day changes

In addition, IP Office release 7 was initially made to smoothly integrate with the Nortel Norstar MICS and BCM product portfolio. It is our hope that this release is fully integrated and ready to simplify the needs of customers.

For more information on current version and introduction to Avaya IP Office world please contact us at (905) 759-2660 and visit: Avaya Phone Systems.

In this post I want to introduce to on of the world's famous and most used phone system for small and medium business. One thing that I want to mention at the beginning that even though this system was developed specifically to meet SMB market needs, many large enterprises have acquired and use this system for their branches of up to 250 phones. The systems is capable to support anywhere from 5 to 1000 phones which makes it a perfect choice for many SMB's and enterprise sized businesses. Even though it can be used for enterprise, I'll mostly be talking about the benefits and advantages of this system for small and medium businesses. If I'll find it appropriate to highlight any specific feature for the enterprise level, I'll definitely make myself clear on that. Let's start and I hope you'll enjoy learning about the Avaya IP Office benefits.

What is IP Office?
IP Office is a versatile communications solution that combines the reliability and ease of a traditional telephony system with the applications and advantages of an IP telephony solution. This converged communications solution can help businesses reduce costs, increase productivity, and improve customer service.

How can I use it in my business?
Avaya IP Office unifies your communications, providing your employees with a solution that lets them handle all
their business communications on the device of their choice: their laptop, mobile phone, office telephone or
home telephone; using wired, wireless or broadband connections.

Growing and developing companies are constantly looking for new ways to do more with less – keeping their business flexible, innovative, and with the advantage over the competition without driving up operating costs and capital expenses. Avaya IP Office is the right choice for any small business communication today – whether you have 5, 25, 250 or 1000 employees. have a single location or multiple locations across the globe. With IP Office you can tailor the solution to your user needs (e.g. Teleworker, Mobile Worker, Customer Service
Agent, etc.). Whether you have 5 employees, 25, 250 or more, IP Office is the right choice.

All small and medium size businesses are continuously looking for shortest ways to decrease costs and improve the way to operate. As every business, key point for you is to to keep all your customers, while adding new ones to your portfolio and grow at the pace that’s right for you.

An important thing to remember is that you need a communications system for every business day. Avaya IP Office offers you a really good start for your business communications, with the solution like IP Office you can revolutionize the way your small or medium size businesses communicates.

There are many useful features and functions in AvayaIP Office, however I'd like to name few that will help you lower the cost of communications of your business communications, you'll be able to: conference, make calls over a
managed Internet service (Voice over IP) and the you'll be exposed to "all-in-one" benefit of a converged communications system.

In the section below I'd like to give a brief overview of the IP Office product features.

IP Office offers many great features for the user we can start with the regular options as call/message forwarding and one-number reachability, and go on with, ability to control calls from any phone and turn a laptop into a phone, email text-to-speech, unified messaging, message notification and host conference calls.

I hope this brief overview will give you a quick glance over the Avaya IP Office phone system. For any specific information contact us.