Telefun or How I learned to let go of winter and love VOIP

January 28th, 2009 Chris

As many of you know, I have grown to despise all things winter: dark, cold, snowy, etc… And so Colleen and I escape to South Beach as a respite from the deep freeze here in Ottawa. That’s one of the great things about having a micro-business without a brick and mortar presence: we can literally work anywhere.

Typically though, being away from home brings angst that the business will suffer. One of the standard challenges is how to keep in touch with partners, customers, etc… without giving up a level of service and without paying Bell or Rogers too much money. As far as I’m concerned, we are routinely asked to bend over here in Canada when it comes phone services.

That’s why I was excited when one of our customers, Tim Welch from Talkswitch, introduced me to this magical little box that we’ve just finished installing. A magical little box that not only provides us the ability manage multiple lines, have voice mails, auto-attendants (press 1 to get closer to – yet never quite reach – a human being…), etc…, it also can help you stick it to the phone company.

 

The really cool thing that the Talkswitch box supports that makes this all possible is VOIP. Now – I remember travelling all over the place back when I worked for my former employer and using Skype. Pretty good but with the occasional line drop, poor quality, etc… Not particularly conducive for trying to close a deal. We tried to use it last year when we were down South and it was definitely hit or miss (mostly miss).

When Tim told me about their VOIP support, I was thinking it would be the same as Skype. Well – it’s very different. I turn my computer into a phone – like Skype – but instead of connecting to the big cloud of competing-for-bandwidth-calls-from-every-corner-of-the-earth, the Talkswitch box is our own dedicated VOIP hub. In other words, I can pick up my “phone” from my computer anywhere in the world and I’m hooked up to the box in our office. From there, I can call other extensions or call out – just like I was in the office.

And the same applies for inbound. Someone dials my extension and it automatically rings at my local computer (before going to my normal voice mail or being forward to my cell – however I configure it).

And best of all – the quality is great (usually better than normal phone lines). And we save a ton on long distance charges. And we get all the stuff we’d get from a normal small business PBX (which of course you need anyways if you have more than one or two employees and a fax line).

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So, if you have the flexibility to go somewhere more fun or warm in your micro-biz, take it! There are tools there that can help you continue to work seamlessly and don’t have to be expensive!

C.

Posted in Telecom | 1 Comment »

All You Can Eat

July 31st, 2008 Chris

For those who don’t know me very well, I have a dangerous combination of deadly or near-deadly sins: gluttony and cheapness. First, I love food – ranging from chicken wings to foie gras – and I love them in quantity. And I am cheap – I love getting good value for money. That’s why “all you can eat” always appeals to me in theory. Unfortunately, in practice I usually find the product sorely lacking.

For example, I’ve never found an all-you-can-eat sushi meal that I like. It’s always a bunch of kappa maki and no tuna or salmon to be seen. And God help you if you get between the big overweight guy and the shrimp tempura roll…

While I can’t always find satisfaction with the all you can eat buffet, I am increasingly finding great all you can eat deals in service offerings for our micro business, especially in telecommunications. Much of it happening in the last 12 months.

Here’s a couple of examples:

• Long Distance. In the past, we’ve paid per minute charges for our long distance and toll-free lines. In the last few months, different vendors have introduced flat rate or bulk minute plans. At home where I sometimes work, we have a $20 a month, all you can call 24 x 7 in Canada and the U.S. At the office, we just switched to a bulk minute package that meets our needs and is cheaper than what we were paying before.
• Teleconferencing. Again, we’ve been paying per minute per participant in teleconferences. We recently switched to a vendor who gives us unlimited use of teleconferencing up to a certain number of phone lines for a monthly rate. This is really cool – we can have as many teleconferences each month and we just pay one rate.
• Web conferencing. Here is an area that has seen substantial pricing changes over the last six months. It started with Microsoft changing their web conferencing package to an unlimited use, per month charge. Adobe has also entered the fray with similar pricing. There are some restrictions on the number of participants at different service levels, but regardless, the price difference is substantial (I mean like 80% less than conventional plans).

If you’ve not re-examined all your vendors and their price plans in the last year you should. Ever year virtually every market gets more competitive and you can reduce or even slash costs which, for the micro business, means more direct money in your pocket.

And it’s not just saving money that makes these all-you-can-eat plans attractive. It’s the change of behavior that results when you know you have essentially eliminated variable costs.

For example, if you’re paying flat rate for web conferencing, why would you ever do a customer presentation with only a teleconference? (OK, there are probably some examples but bear with me as I make my point). If you’re paying flat rate long distance, why would you ever hesitate to contact a prospect via email when you can give them a phone call. Etc…

By shifting to fixed service costs and eliminating variable costs, you put yourself in the position to expand marketing efforts, to increase customer touches and improve the professional look of your company.

So make a list of your top 5 service costs (start with telecom) and go see if there are better deals out there. It is time well spent.

C.

P. S. Bonus points if you can identify where this post’s image is taken from.

Posted in Financial, Telecom | 2 Comments »