As technology moves away from the desktop and into the cloud, it’s easy to overlook the most important link in the technology chain: your internet connection.
According to the Federation of Small Businesses, 85% of businesses see investing in new technology as a key driver for growth.
Without a robust, high-performing connection, cloud-based business innovations will not work. If you haven’t got the right connection today – and haven’t planned for the right connection in the future – your growth ambitions could be curtailed prematurely.
You may think that you don’t need the cloud. Maybe you don’t, today.
But tomorrow’s world will look very different. More business will be done online, more applications and programs will be cloud-only, and more data will be stored in the cloud. Already, cloud-based solutions give you the ability to store huge volumes of data, easily share files across your business, and do away with your on-premises phone system.
How do you know if your connection can cut the mustard?
A good place to start is to understand what you use your internet connection for now, what applications and websites your business relies on, and what could become essential very soon. Even if your business stays the same size, it’s more than a fair bet that your reliance on the internet will grow.
If you can, find out how much data your business sent and received over the internet a year ago and compare that with what you’re using today.
Then consider where your business is going in the next five years. Do you plan to expand? Will you employ more people who’ll need access to the internet? If you’re thinking about a new phone system, will you be taking advantage of one based in the cloud?
How to make your connection ready for the future?
If you’re a light user and expect to continue that way, then you’ll be fine with standard broadband or fibre.
If you’re using a lot of data or your needs are likely to increase, then you’ll need high-end fibre for better upload and download speeds.
And if you’re a heavy user (or plan to be) a leased line could be perfect. Guaranteed and consistent upload and download speeds on your own dedicated line, with very low latency, a leased line is ideal for businesses using a lot of data and where the internet connection is absolutely critical.
Before you or anyone on your team goes abroad, please make sure to call your account manager on 03456 200 200 to check you have the correct bolt-on in place. Once you have the correct bolt-on in place, managing your data abroad will be a lot easier. We’ve also got 3 tips on how to disable data hungry activities that go on in the background without you knowing.
1. Turn off auto-app updates
On most smartphones, apps can update in the background without your knowledge. This is handy when your apps are up to date whenever you check them, but this background activity could be eating into your data allowance without you realising, so it is best to disable.
2. Switch off email and app push notification
Does your phone alert you instantly when you have new mail? Do you get a notification when there’s breaking news on BBC News? That all requires data usage. Switching off email and app push notifications will help you reserve the data for the tasks that you actually need it for.
3. Disable video auto-play
When you’ve been scrolling through your news feed in the Facebook app, you might’ve noticed videos auto-playing. It looks great, but auto-play can be problematic if you only have a small data inclusion or you’re worried about your usage.
Switching off auto-play is a pretty effective way to cut back on your data usage, and might even save a bit of battery power as well.
To do this – open the facebook app > tap your phone’s menu button > tap settings > scroll down to video auto-play and choose an option
We hope you find these tips to keep data usage under control when roaming useful.
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
