Archive for March, 2009

VOIP – What to Consider Before Making the Switch

Is your company considering a new telephone system? If so, you may have heard the term VOIP a lot lately. It stands for VoiceOver Internet Protocol, and it’s a fancy way of saying that, with a VOIP system, phone calls are transmitted via the Internet, rather than over traditional telephone lines.

For companies with two or more locations, VOIP may be a good choice. The calls made between offices are not metered, so the cost of those calls is lower; and communication between employees in different buildings – and different states, for that matter – is virtually seamless.

But if you like the marketing and customer service benefits that On Hold Marketing provides for your callers and your company, you have a few things to think about before making the switch to VOIP.

The Bandwidth Issue

Bandwidth is defined as “the transmission capacity of an electronic communications device or system” or “the speed of data transfer.” When it comes to Internet connections it’s often referred to as “the pipe.” The wider your pipe, the faster digital information can travel in and out of your building.

When buying a traditional telephone system, you need to know how many phone lines your business requires at any given time. If your 50 employees each make a few phone calls per day, you might get by just fine with 10 or 15 lines. But if your staff of 50 is literally on the phone all day, you may need 55 or 60 lines.

When purchasing a VOIP system, you won’t be concerned about phone lines, but with bandwidth. Every call between your VOIP main location server and the branch locations will eat up bandwidth. If your “pipe” isn’t big enough to handle both your call load and your Internet needs you’ll suffer with call quality issues, including echo, slapback, and “broken” conversations.

An Important Difference Between Phone Conversations and On Hold Marketing

With VOIP, the audio information that is your phone conversation doesn’t flow from point A to point B in a smooth, connected stream. Instead, it’s broken up into digital bits and pieces that pass back and forth through your Internet pipe. The natural pauses in your conversation serve as break points.

But On Hold Marketing consists of voice and music, and music doesn’t typically contain pauses. Because it’s a continuous source of sound that can’t be broken up into bits, On Hold Marketing requires more bandwidth of your VOIP system. If that’s a problem for you, read on.

The Benefits of Keeping Your On Hold Marketing Systems

If you decide to go with a VOIP system, you may want to keep the On Hold Marketing equipment you already have in place. When your On Hold Marketing productions play from a dedicated OHM system at the branch location – not through the main server of your VOIP system – they won’t require nearly as much of your VOIP bandwidth.

Keeping dedicated On Hold Marketing systems at each location also allows you to stay more flexible. You can target your on hold content to local callers, promoting each location’s products and services, and announcing local sales, events, hours, personnel information, etc. Is one location shutting down briefly to re-tool or move across town? Do a few branches close for inventory at the end of the year? Keeping On Hold Marketing systems at each location lets you put the word out to only those callers who need that information.

No Streaming

Many VOIP systems allow you to store your On Hold Marketing content on the VOIP server, but they may not give you the ability to stream individual messages. That means that, every time a call is placed on hold, the caller hears the same messages in the same order. That’s not good for on hold applications, especially for frequent callers. After all, one of the benefits of dedicated On Hold Marketing systems is that you’re practically guaranteed your callers will hear a wide variety of messages about your company.

Is an I.T. Person Required?

If you just have a VOIP system, you’ll probably need a member of the I.T. department to load your new On Hold Marketing updates. Timely uploading to your system may be a problem if I.T.’s priorities don’t align with those of the Marketing department. And if your I.T. tasks are outsourced you’ll pay hard dollars for each upload. But, if you keep your dedicated OHM system in place, you’ll continue to receive content updates remotely without human intervention, just as you do now.

Finally, representatives from a few companies have told us that their VOIP system does not accommodate On Hold Marketing. Fortunately, that’s not true. Some may require an additional adapter, VOIP system equipment or programming, but any company with a VOIP system can enjoy the benefits of On Hold Marketing. Please let us know if we can answer any questions for you.

Scott Greggory is the Creative Director at BusinessVoice, a Point-Of-Entry Marketing agency that helps you grow your business by increasing customer share and retention. Our solutions touch every person who contacts your company, whether they call, visit you online, or walk through your front door.

Call toll-free 866/473-9000 or visit us online at http://www.businessvoice.com

Are you INTO TECHnology?

Computing In Industry

We can’t get away from them – computers are everywhere, from the washing machine to the car it seems everything is now run by a computer and with the exponential rate they are advancing there is probably more computing power in the average mobile phone than NASA used to put a man on the moon.

And that has always been a problem for industry, as unlike other areas that computers have to function in, such as the home or office, computers in industry have to be manufactured to a robust standard and have to deal with all sorts of hostile environments from dust filled warehouses and baking hot furnaces to soaking wet production lines and deep freeze lockers.

Most industry computers are specially made, designed specifically for whatever environment they are to be used in, whether by being intrinsically sealed for dusty or hazardous atmospheres or being air-conditioned or heated to control extreme temperatures.

Whilst these industrial computers can function perfectly well they are highly expensive and replacing them can cost, not just in replacing the PC but also in downtime during the re-installation.

And that is why industry has always struggled to keep up with the ever increasing advances in technology – in fact many industrial computers have been in use for a decade and contain very old operating systems and couldn’t cope with modern ones.

Whilst this may make many industrial PCs quite stable, running ten-year-old technology does mean many manufacturing processes are not running as efficiently or using the latest software developments as they should be.

Of course, the time eventually comes when a complete upgrade can no longer be put off and the industrial machines are ripped out and replaced costing a fortune in replacement units and production downtime.

This has always been a catch-22 for industry, weighing up the cost of upgrading compared with the possible improvements to production an upgrade will bring but there is an alternative.

For several years industrial computer enclosures have been designed and manufactured that can house a conventional PC yet still provide the robustness of that of a conventional industrial machine.

These enclosures are made from all types of material including food-grade stainless steel and can be used in all hazardous and hostile environments from dust and explosive atmospheres to wet rooms, furnaces and freezers.

As well as being far less expensive than buying a bespoke industrial computer these enclosures have allowed industry to use conventional low cost PCs in environments that they could normally not function in. Furthermore it is now possible to replace and upgrade machines in a matter of minutes whilst still using the same enclosure and reducing production downtime.

Copyright 2008 © Richard N Williams
Richard N Williams is a technical author and a specialist in the industrial computer industry helping to develop industrial computer enclosures and protection for all environments. Please visit us for more information about industrial pc solutions.

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New Tiscali Television – Review

Why are you not using the new Tiscali TV service? If it is available to you sign up today! I have used all of the competitors services over the years and I can honestly tell you that this is the best digital TV service available in the UK today, end of story. It’s technically streets ahead of the competition and on price and value wins completely hands down, what you get for your money and what can do with the service in terms of interactivity and viewing content is truly staggering. There is no way in this one article I could cover everything that it has to offer, this will have to be a general overview and I shall have to cover the mains areas of interest separately.

Tiscali television also comes bundled with 8 MB broadband, free line rental and a choice of free weekend or anytime calls from an unbelievably low £15.99 – £19.99 a month (I am not kidding!) Not only that but there are free international calls thrown in too. Just on line rental alone if you switched from BT you would be saving up to £130 a year let alone whatever you may be paying to your existing broadband provider or Sky/Virgin – all I can say is we’re looking at a give away here and you would be mad not to pocket the savings by switching to a Tiscali television bundle today. The one drawback is that it is not available to everyone in the UK yet but the footprint is growing weekly with hopefully 50% of UK homes enabled by the end of 2008.

Quite often people ask “Is this service viewed on my computer?” and the answer is no, this is a fully fledged digital TV service so yes you watch it on your TV in the living room. The TV broadcast is primarily delivered down your phone line, so no need for a satellite dish and you don’t need to be in a cabled area, the digital TV box is also enhanced with two internal free-view tuners that you can take advantage of, if you happen to have a free-view arial. This enables you record up to 3 channels whist watching another by also supplementing the DSL signal (phone line) with the two DTT signals from the free-view tuner.

Where Virgin lost out, Tiscali television has gained, in a deal with BSkyB that will add the full set of Sky basic channels – including Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Three, Sky Arts, Sky Travel, Sky News and Sky Sports News to its channel line up. This comes in addition to the Sky Movies and Sky Sports channels which can also be added to your Tiscali television package. So you are not going to miss out on the premium content delivered by Sky like 24, Lost, The Simpsons and Prison Break,..

In addition to this premium broadcast content Tiscali TV can offer the biggest range of both Video On Demand (Over 1000 movies) and TV On Demand, whole series like 6 Foot Under, Desperate Housewives and Lost as examples enabling you to create in affect your own TV schedule and watch what you want, when you want. Not only that but there is a TV catch up service where BBC1 BBC2 BBC3 C4 FX etc archive their programming for the last 7 days allowing you to literally catch up with any viewing that you’ve missed during the week.

Another first Tiscali TV offers an award winning children’s channel Scamp it even comes with it’s own remote (a minimote) just for the kids, a great on demand channel that educates and entertains pre-school children.

I could go on and on as I’ve said earlier I’m going to have break my review up into sections to do area justice an enable to to make an informed choice about this product.

An on-line marketer, reviewer and product researcher, testing product, services http://www.tv-connection.org.uk/tiscali-ea and potential ways to make an extra income online.

The World On-Demand Service

World-On-Demand (the leading platform of the The New Media Group) is a network neutral “power-play” IPTV service based in Japan and available across the Asia-Pacific region. Bringing together the best of international television and film to users on demand, it provides a full range of channels and networks for viewing on television sets, PC’s and soon Japanese based mobile phones.

World-On-Demand was launched to bring greater diversity to the Japanese media marketplace by specializing in handling internet television from a diverse and international perspective. Initial reaction by the industry was positive and since its launch the service has added many of the world’s major television networks to its service, along with expanded distribution in Australia, Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere. Although there was some criticism that The New Media Group was entering a competitive market, its unique positioning allowed the company to target a greater diversity of interest groups and communities.

A single subscription allows users to view their chosen channels and video content through their TV’s, PC’s and Mobile phones whenever they choose. Functionality includes browsing for favourite channels across an easy-to-use web or screen interface, swift access to hundreds of the most current and popular television shows in the world and regular updates as to when new shows and viewing options are available.

World-On-Demand also offers online social networking features known as My world communities, allowing users to discuss, share and post comments on tv shows while building online communities based on their shared interests.

Content
Members of World-On-Demand are offered to be a part of communites called “My” that make their viewing more distinctive. Communities come to the World On-Demand to interact, within an online space that World-On-Demand has created to personalize the way people watch major media, altering the one-size fits all approach of tradition broadcasting means.

World-On-Demand carries channels from well-known networks such as FOX, Star TV, TV5Monde, Deutsche Welle, National Geographic, EuroNews, EuroSport, MTV, FCTV, Al Jazeera, VOA and more. By working with partners from every country in the world the service has greater power at serving more community groups and more interest areas and ensures that it reaches them by running neutral to one particular internet service provider or telephone network.

Sports
World-On-Demand has a diverse portfolio of sports rights covering major events in Football, Cricket and more. World-On-Demand includes a mixture of live events and highlights coverage that is picked up from specialist sports channels based in a number of nations.

In addition to the sports above, World-On-Demand is building a broader collection of alternative interest for adrenaline junkies and fans of extreme sporting events.

World-On-Demand intends to encourage a strong following of customers who aim to see their favorite events in different languages, or want quick and easy access to sporting events that are not usually covered in the local mainstream media. For example somebody living in Japan can gain access to international cricket events through Indian, Australian or British TV coverage without having to wait for late and toned down distribution in the Japanese media.

Education
Specialist education packs are offered to language learners and students studying foreign languages. The packs combine powerful elearning tools with television and video content direct from a country’s most popular channels to act as one combined access point to a new culture.

Other Communities groups served include:

Action
Adventure
Business
Cooking
Dance
Drama
General Interest
National channels
Lifestyle
Nature
News and Documentaries
Religion
Travel

Technology
World-On-Demand requires a minimum broadband connection of 4Mbit and Flash 8 or above on either Internet Explorer 6.0+ or Firefox 2.0+. A set-top-box supplied directly by the company is needed for TV viewing.

History
World-On-Demand is owned and operated by The New Media Group, a company founded by ex-employees of media and media financing firms from the US and Asia-Pacific. The New Media group also owns a variety of other new media products and companies, including Media Pay, Dynamobile CMS, Intelligent Ad Delivery and Factor Moble, K.K., all based in Tokyo, Japan.

Where Are Diamonds Found and Used?

Three Kinds of Diamonds:

1.) Original Diamonds: These are the original, valuable diamonds. They are measured in karats. One carat equals 0.205 grams. They are used as jewelry.

2.) Bort: A semi-transparent and striated diamond. It is harder than an original diamond and it is used to carve high quality diamonds. In the drilling industry, these diamonds are used for drill bits.

3.) Carbonado: This is a black, uncarved diamond. It is harder than an original diamond and it is used in the manufacturing of drilling equipment.

There is approximately 160 million carats of diamonds being produced each year. The value is about $13 billion at the mine level. A little more then 50% is actually gem quality, which represents about 90% of the total value. The remainder is industrial quality stones used for cutting tools, mining, drill bits, construction and manufacturing.

Diamonds of the past came from India dating back to as early as 500 BC. So, for more than 2000 years they were the only producer of diamonds. Around the 1700s other sources were being found in Brazil. They then became the new world leader in diamond production for about the next 150 years.

Now diamonds are being mined in about 20 countries. 97% of the world’s diamonds by weight and value are produced in eight of the twenty countries. They are Botswana, Russia, South Africa, Canada, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, and Australia. Five of the top leaders that produce 60% are in Africa, they are; Botswana, South Africa, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Namibia.

South Africa is the most senior member of this group. Their first discovery was around 1870 and within 10 years this find caused the global market to increase by 1000%. Also due the heavy competition of this big discovery it gave birth to the organization that shaped the diamond industry, known as De Beers.

For more info go to http://www.diamonds11.com

VoIP Carriers – Expanding the Horizons of Low Cost Telephony

The VoIP Carriers are known for their ability to bring robust, powerful and reliable services. These carriers have made it possible for people to make long distance communication almost free of all hassles. This cost effective communication brings high speed data transfer over the internet networks. It enables people to connect promptly and stay ahead in competition. Without it there is every chance of big organisations to fall back in competition.

There are mainly three types of VoIP carriers. These are Tier-1, Tier-2 and Tier-3 providers. Tier-1 is known to have its own network and operate globally. The Tier- 2 networks lease their services from the Tier-1 and then deliver the same to the customers of their area. Then there is also the Tier-3 carriers that lease services either from Tier-1 or Tier – 2 and then provide the same to the end users that fall in their domain.

By using the VoIP carrier services people can ensure that they can make savings on their phone bills. This system of telephony is based on the principle of international calls, but local phone call rate are brought into picture as people have to just pay in terms of local rates. Sometimes, the call rate is kept free of any charges. Thus, it helps people make international calls at cheaper rates. Moreover, the presence of other facilities as call waiting, call forwarding and call display eases the functionality of the phone. Then there is also the possibility that one can make use of this technology for 3 -way calling. So, conference calls become possible with this service in hand. Users can undertake conference among various people living in overseas regions of the world.

The VoIP carrier service provider has become the ultimate means to access cheap VoIP services. The service providers come out with various plans. So, the customers are left with several options to choose from. The only way for one to emerge as winner is to enroll himself with the VoIP carrier services. The wholesalers of VoIP too take advantage of this option and they play a more significant role to enable the VoIP service reach every home or business establishment. So, they rapidly tie up with small companies and promote resellers. This is the reason why VoIP is reaching a large number of people worldwide. Moreover, the VoIP carrier provider frees people from the need to lease PSTN links or airtime as is required in traditional networks. The users also find a greater bandwidth in order to make international calls. So, service providers or the VoIP carriers actually work together to enable people reach a state of profitability throughout the world.

Thus, with good carriers undertaking the task of connectivity, it is for sure that VoIP would expand and grow. Innovative solutions at affordable costs are bought by carries in their areas of operation. These costs are always low in comparison to traditional telephony.

For more information, visit: VoIP carriers offering enhanced quality VoIP services.

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Why it is Best to Buy Used Mobile Phones?

Normally, my cell phones last forever. Of course the time I did not buy additional insurance, my phone crashed! I loved the flip phone, but when the screen cracked after less than a year, it was adios. Have you ever tried to buy a new phone before your contract was up? The 1-800 customer service number states they can not help. The mall location assures they can get you a discount but you will have to go to the corporate store. Once you get to the corporate store, you are told to get the $50.00 discount on a phone you do not really want, your signature will be required on a new two year contract. HELLO, can you say rip off??? I also checked some of the discontinued phone sites. I thought I was getting a great deal on a PDA until I realized it did not have a camera. Always read the description carefully, make sure it is unlocked, and insure your provider services the model you are seeking to buy.

When the ancient phone from three years ago broke, frustrated and skeptical I looked at a used phone. My first phone was a used Razr with cool ring tones still downloaded. I never knew what the Yummy song was before then. I dropped that phone several times and within two months it was beyond repair. Ugh, time for another phone! The next used phone was a cool Samsung slide phone, once again with cool ring tones. My spouse has the Mario Brothers theme.

When you are looking for a used mobile phone, make sure it is adaptable to your provider. Most sellers say the provider before the model. I am a T-mobile customer, so a Verizon Razr will not work. Sometimes the phone will be like new. My slide phone was still in the box with the manual and all attachments.

There are risks to buying a used phone such as no warranty, a dead battery, and sold as is which may include a defective product. However, I was willing to take the risks and pay $50.00 and $75.00 for a used phone instead of paying over a $100.00 for an outdated model and another two year contract.

Happy shopping and I hope your used phone has cool downloaded ringtones included!

Into Tech

Samsung E250 – A Gorgeous Handset

The Samsung E250 handset – a thin slider mobile phone is known for its contemporary looks and is a darling among mobile phone users. It is deigned well and has taken over the mid range mobile market by storm. This mobile is aesthetically designed and has high quality built-in features. The technologies deployed on the handset are the latest.

The mobile is designed with a slide-open mechanism and its dimensions are 99.5 x 49.5 x 14.1 mm. The large TFT screen can be viewed even if the gadget is kept closed. The E250 model is light for it has net weight of 80 gms. So, it is ideal to carry the mobile. Moreover, the device has 10 MB of internal memory and the user can also further expand the memory by adding extra memory card in its card slot. This serves as an incredible memory space in the device. It is facilitated with GSM capability that allows people to carry it to distant places while still availing the network connection.

This Samsung mobile has certain things that keep the mobile going. There is a LCD screen that is large and attractive. This screen gives 128 x 160 pixel resolution. The keypad has a design that is user-friendly. This screen is known to support 65K colours and is very happening as it can be used to view videos, pictures and playing games. Watching videos and playing games is very entertaining and serves as a time pass for people who are its uses. There are also other entertainment options such as listening to music with the aid of the music player that supports formats such as MP3, AAC and AAC+. Thus each day can be made delightful with melodious music on the E250. The FM radio too is a good option for such entertainment. In fact, the FM brings more to the users than entertainment. Radio stations broadcast news and other information related programs. The user remains gratified with the entertainment options of the mobile. Besides, thrilling games are known to fill one’s spirit with joy and excitement. The camera of the Samsung E250 can capture marvellous looking pictures. It can record videos too.

Connectivity with other devices are established with options such as Bluetooth and USB port. Bluetooth can be used for wireless transfer of files and the USB port is best for transferring files by means of cable cords. Other alternatives like EGDE and GPRS help users establish connectivity. Internet is a good option for sending and receiving of files with attachments. The emailing options is utilised for the purpose. Internet is also good for downloading of ringtones, music files and video files. Games once downloaded can be stored on the whopping memory of the device. The device helps people remain connected with near and dear ones with ease.

The battery of the gadget gives 250 hours of standby time and the talktime is 5 hours. It can be used for long hours either to play entertaining games or to listen to music or to connect by means of alternative connectivity options. Free connection is established with laptops and other such compatible devices and files are randomly shared among them. Any sort of connectivity on the device is guaranteed and the users enjoy availing the high end connections. The GSM facility is great for accessing the various connectivity options anywhere on the earth. Samsung E250 is available at a reasonable price rate.

Raina Kelsey is an expert author. He has written articles on Samsug mobile phones.

‘Install and Neglect’ Policy of Indian ISPs Hinders Internet Growth

Internet connectivity in India has decreased when compared to the number of PCs in 2006-07. According to Internet and Mobile Association of India and IMRB report, the proportion of PC owners with Internet connection has shown a decline from 2005-06. In 2006-07, it is decreased to 68% from 75% in the previous year. That means only 68 computers have internet connections out of 100. This is because of the failure of ISPs in providing better services, as 54% of the ISPs failed to meet the benchmark quality in providing service, according to TRAI report of performance indicators for December 2007.

The gap between the number of PC owners and the internet subscriptions is widening as the growth of Internet could not catch the growth of PC sales. The Internet growth is seriously affected by the poor service quality of the ISPs. According to the TRAI report of performance indicators, it has been stated that 54% (7 out of 13 ISPs which have more than 10,00 subscribers and have 98% of market share) of the ISPs have failed to offer benchmark quality in providing services with in 15 working days, which reflects the grave situation. It has also been stated that 39% of the ISPs failed to restore services within next 3 working days of the compliant lodged.

The above figures vindicate the lack of customer oriented approach by the Indian ISPs, which are very much interested in sales but not in after sales service. Customer receives many calls from ISPs persuading for a sale, but typically ends up with making unyielding calls to customer care for service. ISPs often fail to offer promised speed- says ‘up to 256 mbps speed’ which is vague. They don’t give any guarantee of the stated connectivity speed at any point of the day, which is purely dependent on the traffic at the time of access.

Some of the serious drawbacks of ISPs are crippled maintenance service, unskilled technical support, low security, frequent breakdowns in connectivity and meager customer service. Apart from these technical drawbacks, ISPs also charge exploitative prices for the Internet subscriptions, which are far higher than the western countries. Poor service quality at higher price affects the viability of small scale offshore IT and ITES businesses in India.

According to the recent report released by TRAI, the broadband subscriptions reached 3.9 million from 3.47 million in February 2008. That means only 430,000 new broadband subscriptions were taken in March 2008, which is very disappointing at 11% growth. The percentage of broadband connections of total Internet subscriptions is around 35% of 11.15 million* Internet subscribers, which should grow further to support eCommerce in India. Unless and until ISPs encourage internet subscriptions with improved service and better quality at reasonable price, Internet usage and broadband will not grow considerably.

The worrying aspect of the disappointing Internet and broadband growth in India is that it will result in lagging of eCommerce in India. This would also lead to loss of job opportunities in the new age industries in a country aggressively looking to create jobs. Further, it would make the Indian eCommerce market lag not only against developed countries but also against the Asian ones.

*The number of Internet subscribers is calculated taking the growth rate of the quarter ending December 2007 from the earlier quarter that is 7.64%. The number of Internet subscriptions is 10.36 million by December 2007, according to TRAI.

Marvist Consulting Private Limited offers Internet marketing and Internet marketing research services to clients globally. Marvist Consulting is recognized as a premier offshore Internet marketing consultant that offers result-oriented services. As an Internet marketing India based provider, we have helped businesses in North America and Europe seeking expert SEO India based consultants.