The latest entrant to the Samsung Enterprise range is the Samsung Galaxy A17 5G.
Designed for cost-conscious organisations with a need for security and control, it’s a feature-packed handset built for business.
Features including an ultra immersive 6.7” Super AMOLED display, a triple lens camera featuring a 50MP lens, and 5G speeds set it up with more premium devices, but at a budget price point. add the extra Enterprise benefits of an extended 3yr warranty and 7 years of security and maintenance releases ensures your devices stay secure throughout their lifecycle.
Being an Enterprise device, the handsets can also be delivered ‘white glove’ meaning your staff just need a username and password to login and go, with no physical intervention required before delivery via setup with your chosen MDM service.
In recent years, the efficiency of ‘eSIMs’ has gained increasing popularity. Whether you’d like to use the same device for both your personal and work phone numbers, or would like an international number as well as your UK one – an eSIM is a worthy option to look into and has many benefits.
Check out this article below by Forbes, detailing the ins and outs of this great piece of technology.
As of the latest update from O2 in August of this year, the current devices which are compatible with eSIMs are;
- iPhone: XS Max, XS, XR, 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max and SE 2020
- Samsung Galaxy: S20 4G, S20 5G, S20 5G Plus, S20 Ultra 5G and Z Flip
- Google Pixel: 3 and 3 XL
Contact your Account Manager today to find out more about the eSIMs we can provide you with.
SCG and the Customer Experience
We are proud to announce that we have recently achieved a 4.9* rating on Trust Pilot – something that we are incredibly pleased with. We pride ourselves on providing unparalleled customer service to everyone we work with, to provide bespoke connectivity solutions depending on individual business needs.
If there is anything else you think we can help you out with or would like us to take a look at, please don’t hesitate to contact your Account Manager today on 03456 200 200.
WHAT is The Great British Switch Off?
The UK’s current telephone system is made up of voice lines, so currently even if you only wish to install internet, you will also have to have a voice line installed. Also known as the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), this current services has been around for over 140 years and consists of millions of miles of copper wires under the ground – the Coppersaurus.
The Great British Switch Off is the term used to refer to the switch from the relic that is a voice-based system, to full-fibre broadband.
To do so, Openreach will remove the the voice element of the network, replace it with fibre and finally switch off the PSTN.
This will revolutionalise the way in which we communicate and allow us to move forward and progress from a technological point of view.
WHY is it happening?
Simply put, the copper service (PSTN) which once thrived can now no longer keep up with the growing demand of data and is becoming obsolete.
Benefits of the new network;
- More Reliable
- Faster Connection
- Less interference so higher signal strength
- Quicker installation
- Supports more devices being connected
WHEN is it happening?
It has already started!
In December 2020, the first ‘Stop-Sell’ notification was sent out in Salisbury from Openreach, meaning they would no longer accomodate for or sell voice lines (copper) – therefore a switch to fibre was required.
In June 2021, lots of other areas in the UK also received the Stop-Sell notification and from now until September 2023, Openreach will be sending them out at a rapid rate until finally the switch is nationwide. Keep an eye out for your areas’ Stop-Sell being sent out as this will be an important date to work towards.
HOW will this affect you?
Getting the new network in operation well in time for your areas Stop-Sell is imperative to business continuity. It is anticipated that telecoms companies will experience a huge rush of orders in the months leading up to the nationwide switch off, so there will be a running risk of having to wait for installation and therefore be without internet for a period of time. Don’t get left behind!
WHAT are the solutions?
The change to fibre eliminates the voice element of the network. This means that people and businesses will no longer be able to make a call the traditional way and will have to equip themselves with Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone systems.
Voice over IP is part of the next generation technologies that allow you to place a phone call over the internet.
There are two main VoIP systems:
- Hosted: It is a phone system housed in the cloud, rather than in your office.
- SIP trunk: It is a service that connects your existing on-premise PBX equipment to the internet, thereby eliminating the need for a traditional landline or digital phone services.
Which one will be the best suited to you will depend entirely on your specific business needs, hence the necessity of a thorough assessment of your situation.
As the vaccine rollout gathers pace it’s time for people, and business, to start to think about their post-COVID plans.
We have spoken to many of our clients who have moved to a ‘work from home solution’ about their plans post lockdown and they typically fall into one of three situations:
- Everybody back to the office and business as usual
- A flexible working solution with people working from home and the office
- Closing the office and everyone continuing to work from home
As well as considering the well-being of your staff, any potential social distancing measures you may still need to implement, and how your clients/customers are going to be operating, below outlines some of the things to consider from a telecoms point of view as you plan your post lockdown operations:
Business as Usual
For businesses moving back to the office with plans to be business as usual, its likely everything is in place and ready to go already, however with video calling becoming the way to do business and proving so popular, it is definitely here to stay.
Regardless of whether your staff are back in the office or not, is your office broadband going to cope with 10 staff members all online for a video call at once? Is it time to consider upgrading your broadband ready for post lockdown?
Hybrid Working
For those planning a hybrid solution, is your current office space still fit for purpose? Do you need to down-size? Are your systems in place to communicate with people in and out of the office? If you are looking to relocate, have you considered the broadband and telephony setup when you get there? Private fibre services can take months to get installed, so if you are relocating, now is the time to be looking to make sure services are installed and live ready for your return.
Working From Home Permanently
If you have already decided to work from home it’s likely your systems are already in place to do this and it is just a case of shutting the doors on the office. Have you considered how to keep your business number when you cease your landline services? Or how to keep your staff communicating remotely? Is their home broadband up to speed, and what provision can you put in place to ensure it is?
Regardless of your situation, we can help with all of the above. Whether it be a quick check to advise on broadband options at a shortlist of potential new offices and arranging the move of your landline numbers, or just helping to make sure you’re up to speed at your current office get in touch and we can advise on the options for you.
As previous articles have highlighted, Openreach will be switching off the digital phone network – known as ISDN – in 2025, and will no longer be providing new installs or support from 2020 onwards. Businesses using this old technology will need to make the switch before then, and over 50% of businesses in the UK have already done so. Openreach will also be extending this switch-off to their PSTN, or analogue line, services meaning ALL voice phone lines will need to be moved to VoIP.
Openreach are now in dialogue with service providers like us on how best to help businesses move to the new VoIP solutions to ensure no customers are left behind by carriers not pro-actively advising their clients on the implications of the switch-off.
SCG has been providing VoIP services since 2009 and we are well placed to advise businesses when and how to make the switch smoothly. If you have ISDN lines, or aren’t sure if you do, then please get in touch on 03456 200 222.
“Openreach, Britain’s digital network business, today launched a consultation with its Communications Provider (CP) customers and industry groups about the move from analogue telephony to digital voice services. The consultation will help prepare the industry for the upgrade to ‘Voice Over IP’ technology and the withdrawal of wholesale products and services that run over the traditional analogue telephone network – which is due to close in 2025.”
It’s time to ‘Flip the Iceberg’
Back in 2009 when I began with 2Circles, the country was bouncing back from a worldwide fiscal crisis and the priority for the majority of businesses I spoke to was: ‘Save money, cut costs’.
Helping businesses drive down their monthly telecom spend was the priority, and the value of investing in new technology, along with the complete lack of affordable fast broadband products meant looking at anything else except ‘cutting costs’ was lost both on the customer and I.
Fast forward to 2017 and, although the Brexit bombshell may be stifling some businesses, on the whole things look much rosier and with such dramatic changes in the telecoms landscape, the priorities for business have changed considerably. Yes, businesses are always keen to cut costs, but with the improvements in internet connectivity and reliability, the areas where these cost savings are being seen have typically been below the surface. I have written previous posts about the value of a high-quality, guaranteed broadband service and the power of our cloud-managed Meraki firewall devices but in some cases the true value of these services is often overlooked as the solutions are often looked at in isolation. Decisions are made without factoring in the other areas you would cut cost like the reduced IT support contracts required, the savings cloud-based solutions offer over the existing cumbersome and energy-heavy onsite servers – not to mention replacement costs when they go bang and the time-cost to your business.
Having a secure reliable, monitored connection also means less downtime on your broadband meaning the days of the significant time-cost of staff not able to work without internet connectivity are gone too.
Yes, better broadband and cloud managed services do cost more than your ‘off the shelf’ broadband products, and arranging a private fibre connection does cost more, however it’s time to flip the iceberg and ensure that the additional costs of NOT having a guaranteed and monitored connection are a thing of the past.
With the recent spate of hacks affecting businesses across the globe, most notably a number of NHS trusts, the Scottish Business Resilience Centre has offered advice on how to protect your business against this. Simple steps such as updating your operating system software and making sure your anti-virus is up to date are great places to start.
Other things to monitor are back-ups of all your data so if your data IS encrypted, you have another copy elsewhere which can be restored. These backups can be on-site, or cloud-based solutions and your IT company can offer advice on the best solution for your business.
Although the hackers quite often use email and ‘social engineering’ to access your networks, one area often overlooked is ensuring that the hackers can’t gain access to your network simply by dialling in through your broadband! Just as a burglar would have a tough time if you had a secure front door, there are solutions you can implement which will stop them gaining access to your network in the first place.
Our managed firewall solutions can help to protect against the hackers gaining access to your network be it in the office, at home, or on the road. As more and more businesses are moving to a BYOD (bring your own device) model, our firewall solutions come with mobile device management solutions that allow you to protect not only your internal network, but also the mobiles you hand out to staff members, wherever they go! The below image shows just some of the features which can be controlled and monitored.
So when you lock the door at the office or your home tonight, consider how secure the door is on your network, and should you double-check it.
“A cyber-security body has urged Scottish companies to update their IT systems in the wake of Friday’s ransomware attack”
For those of you who can remember that far back, 1986 saw the introduction of ISDN, BT’s digital telephony network. I was 2 years old so wasn’t incredibly excited by it all, but back then it was seen as the ‘next big thing’ enabling businesses to have multiple lines and numbers all handled by their shiny new digital phone system. ISDN was also the delivery method for BT’s ‘Home Highway’ service launched back in 1997 which doubled standard dial-up to a whopping 128Kb speeds. Things have moved on somewhat since then and with Ethernet and 80Mb Superfast services now readily available – at 600 times faster than ‘Home Highway’ – BT have announced plans to turn off their ISDN network in 2025, meaning any business with ISDN lines will now need to consider the alternatives and prepare their business for the turn-off.
So what’s the urgency?
Although the switch off isn’t imminent and the announcement has not been made with the aim of panicking people into losing their lines, but more to encourage the exploration of the alternatives.
The switch-off has been enabled by massive investment in the rollout of improved connectivity right across the country and with the ability to move their Fixedline services to IP-based solutions, ISDN is now old-hat. Its worth noting that Openreach haven’t installed a single ISDN line in central London since 2014. The rollout of Superfast fibre, the development of new Ethernet products and the recent £3,000 Broadband Voucher scheme has meant Superfast Ethernet services are now financially accessible to SME businesses which in turn has opened up the opportunity for them to consider the ISDN alternatives. With over 3m active ISDN lines, Openreach are also looking to avoid a ‘last minute rush’ to move across to other the solutions which is why they have made this latest announcement.
What are the alternatives, and what’s so good about them?
In much the same way the television Digital Switchover from 2007-2012 upgraded us from the 5 channels of analogue TV to the better picture and hundreds of channels available on digital TV, the switch from ISDN to IP-based telephony brings huge benefits.
The direct replacement for ISDN is a service called SIP – session initiation protocol. Although the full name of SIP gives no real clues as to what it is or what it does, SIP essentially gives you a phone line carried into your premises over your internet connection, removing the need for a physical ISDN line.
The biggest barrier to SIP adoption in the past has been the unreliability of broadband. With the introduction of guaranteed Service Level Agreement products modern connectivity solutions are now more reliable and robust than the existing ISDN services and with SIP costing up to 78% less than ISDN exploring the alternatives to SIP has never made as much sense as it does today.
The second alternative to ISDN is cloud-based VoIP solutions which essentially move your entire telephony solution into the cloud benefitting from a huge range of services such as call recording, remote access voicemail, call queuing, and unification of multiple sites onto a simple platform at a fraction of the cost of an on-site system.
The key benefits of SIP and VoIP solutions are:
- Fast implementation – no more waiting weeks or months for Openreach to install physical lines as calls are carried over a broadband connection
- Geographical freedom – move site quickly and easily without losing your number, wherever you decide to move
- Higher resiliency – as calls are carried over the internet and not tied to the physical line multiple broadband lines can be installed to provide automatic failover and redundancy into your premises
- Disaster recovery – numbers can be set to divert automatically to another office or mobile in seconds should your existing office experience fire, flood, theft or power outages
- Cost saving – up to 78% reduction on the cost of ISDN
To hear how SIP and VoIP can benefit your business please get in touch with the team here at 9dots and we can pop out and run through the new technologies and what it means for your business.
Written by Martin Kershaw 22/01/2016
For most people the last time they renewed their business mobile contract the questions would’ve been, “what network?” and “what handset?” but with the merging of Orange and t-mobile to form EE, the launch of the joint 4G network modernisation program venture between O2 and Vodafone, the launch of the ‘calls over wifi’ technology and the growing dominance of Android and Windows to join iOS and Blackberry as mobile platforms the decision making process for your next mobile solution will likely have changed. So what’s new?
As little as 10 years ago, smartphones as we now know them didn’t even exist. Nowadays smartphones are effectively mini computers, providing a tool with which you can access almost everything you would ever need for business. We can access our emails, our server documents, make changes to proposals and presentations and even sign and approve documents on move. That’s before we even consider that we can print, take high-res photos and even film in 4K definition on them. Oh yeah, and make a call from time to time..
Although most modern smartphones can offer these basic functions, there are a few traps to avoid and a few important decisions to make early on in the process regarding platform, hardware and network. Here we will cover off a few of the factors which will help narrow these down.
BUSINESS CRITICAL APPs – although most business apps are available across all platforms, the windows mobile store is still lagging behind the apple and google play stores and if there are any business critical apps you require its worth checking the availability of those apps across all platforms as this may help you decide which platform you can rule out.
OFFICE COMPUTER PLATFORM – are you apple or PC users? Have you migrated to office365 or are you gmail users? Although these factors don’t rule out which operating system to use these days, it is important to factor in the added functionality each brings to the table.
SECURITY AND DEVICE MANAGEMENT – what level of access do you want to give to your employees, and how do you manage this across your mobile fleet? Blackberry has ‘Pentagon-level’ security and provides absolute control over your mobile fleet as standard with BES 12 however the functionality of iOS, Android and Windows 10 may mean that these platforms may also provide you all the functionality you require. If you require a full management solution, then looking at adding an mobile device management service to your contract may help you keep control of this and we can advise on this.
Once you have decided on the platform to use, then the next decision will likely be network. O2 are the only network provider to commit to providing 4G coverage to 97% of the population by 2017 and have an aggressive rollout plan which is seeing £1m a day spent on their mobile network infrastructure. There is the added benefit of their partnership with Vodafone to ‘mast share’ across the country. To see what network will cover your area best check out the new service from OfCom – http://www.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-coverage
The great news is that we are the only wholesale provider to all 3 networks meaning we can mix and match networks on the same contract, with a single bill and 1 point of contact so just pick which is best for you!
Last but certainly not least is hardware. This often comes down to personal preference and budget but speak to us to determine the best solution for you.
Written by Martin Kershaw 04/11/2015
The Scottish Government has announced the extension of the current NHS 24 online British Sign Language (BSL) Video Relay Interpreting Service pilot to the rest of the public sector in Scotland. The new Scottish Government-funded service will mean deaf people can now speak to public services, such as their local council, doctor’s surgery and the Scottish Government, without the need for someone to call on their behalf.
Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health, Jamie Hepburn, welcomed the new service.
He said: “There are estimated to be around 6,500 people living in Scotland who use sign language and these people deserve to have the same access to services as everyone else. For the majority of people who rely on sign language to communicate, they need to arrange to have someone to call on their behalf. This new project will mean deaf people can video call an interpreter directly who will then speak to the relevant public sector organisation and act as an intermediary for the deaf person. This is a fantastic project and gives British Sign Language users equal access to public sector services, allowing them to enjoy greater participation in daily and public life.”
Andrew McCafferty, lives with his wife in Greenock, who are both profoundly deaf and recently used the video relay service to call NHS 24 – receiving treatment that saved his life.
He said: “My wife and l are profoundly deaf and use British Sign Language to communicate. It can be really difficult and frustrating to communicate with doctors, police officers and workman from the council that come to carry repairs in our home. Recently l took seriously ill and contacted NHS 24 through the online BSL interpreter service. The online interpreter assisted me throughout the call and later when l received treatment at the hospital, the doctors said the treatment saved my life. This is a great service which Deaf people can use when they need it, no matter where they live in Scotland.”
ContactSCOTLAND-BSL is funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by Sign Language Interactions. Our partner SignVideo has been at the forefront of providing these types of services to the private sector for over 10 years and has already secured partnerships with the likes of Arnold Clark, O2, Vodafone and the Wheatley Group.
If you would like to find out how your business can provide this service to potential deaf clients get in touch with Martin Kershaw on 0131 3000103.
Written by Martin Kershaw – 09/03/2015
