So What's a Converged Network?
If you're at your office desk right now, you're probably looking at the two things that most directly impact your daily productivity - a phone and a computer. Both devices help you to work and communicate, but as is stands today they really don't work together at all. Imagine the potential if both devices shared the same network and could work together for additional productivity.

A converged network allows you to disconnect your old telephone lines by providing both voice and data connectivity through a single network line with a single provider. Because the system routes voice calls as data over a network, calls to on-network sites do not require long distance charges regardless of their location. With a converged network model, calling is no longer limited by the number of lines procured from the telephone company.

How is this done?
To create a converged network it is necessary to use a Voice-over-IP system to convert the elements of a traditional phone call into data packets that can be routed through your network. A converged network can be accomplished in a couple of different ways:

Converged Trunk Access VoIP
In a Converged Trunk implementation, the voice transmissions are converted to data after they pass through the on-premises telephone PBX device. Converged Trunk is the simplest way to begin a VoIP system. Since the PBX is left intact, it does not require new phones or staff retraining. Businesses may start with a Converged Trunk and then gradually transition to a fully hosted PBX voice system as their PBX reaches capacity or is no longer serviceable.

Hosted PBX VoIP
In a Hosted PBX implementation, the on-premises PBX device is removed and the phones are replaced with IP phones. IP-based phones connect directly to the company's network and allow users to utilize a comprehensive set of features configured by the user through an intuitive web-based interface instead of a network administrator.

Why is a Converged Network important?
Network convergence is becoming a hot trend as businesses continue to do more with less. A converged network simplifies an IT infrastructure and reduces costs by consolidating all voice and data traffic to a common platform. Convergence reduces the total cost of ownership by better utilizing currently available bandwidth, decreasing administration costs, eliminating the risk of technological obsolescence and providing better communication functionality to your company.

The Future of the Converged Network
Bringing voice and data to the same platform creates some incredible opportunities for the future. Integration with CRM products will soon provide functionality to dial a contact simply by clicking the phone number, or pop up the contact's record within the CRM from the caller ID of an inbound call. Soft phones are being developed to allow users to communicate without an actual phone by simply using a software program and headset connected to the PC.

Scott Riedel
Product Marketing Manager

Edge BCC - Business Continuity Center

Ask yourself the following:

• Does your company have a Business Continuity Plan?
• Have you reviewed it lately?
• Does it adequately protect your business against threats that could impair your ability to do business?

The Edge BCC (Business Continuity Center) is a unique opportunity for both existing LightEdge clients and businesses located throughout the United States, providing business continuity and risk management capabilities from a facility housed in the Midwest.

From the Edge BCC, LightEdge will offer:

• Business Continuity Services
  • Hosted Applications
  • Managed Backup and Recovery
  • Hosted PBX VoIP
    
    
• Disaster Recovery Workspace
  • 300 seats of office workspace, available 24x7x365
  • Conference rooms
  • Desktop PC's
  • VoIP phones for Hosted PBX
  • Network connectivity

The Edge BCC facility is being constructed from pre-cast concrete walls with a dual-layered membrane roof. The seals used between the concrete sections have been rated to withstand sustained winds of 200 MPH. Air conditioning units and condensing units will be placed at ground level rather than on the roof to avoid any unnecessary penetrations in the roof structure.

If there was a single word to describe the construction design for Edge BCC, it would have to be "Redundant". Everything in the facility has been designed around the N+1 concept. The facility has a multi-layered roof, dual electrical fees terminating at separate transformers, multiple cooling units, multiple generators, dual uninterruptible power supplies and several access points to both telephone providers and the internet. The buildings connectivity is feed by divergent fiber paths that enter the building through two independent locations.  There are dual demarcations points that terminate at separate secured locations in the building.   These fiber paths will tie into our metro fiber ring that will provide high availability for the building. 

Construction status as of March 31

• Completion date still scheduled for November 1st
• All pre-cast walls installed
• First membrane of the roof in place
• Sealing of pre-cast joints 60% complete
  • Seal testing as weather permits early April
  • Seal testing involves creating an internal vacuum and spraying water at 150 psi into the seal
• Roof drains being tied in
• Electrical rough in is continuing on schedule

Pre-order Disaster Recovery Seats
Seats in the Edge BCC Disaster Center may be used by businesses in the event that their business location is unable to remain operational, due to fire, natural disaster or other threat to the safety of employees. The disaster center will be furnished with 300 cubicle stations complete with desktop computers and VoIP phones.

LightEdge is beginning to take orders for the Disaster Recovery Seats. If you are interested in learning more about the EdgeBCC or would like to schedule a walk-through, please contact your Territory Account Manager or call 1.877.471.EDGE (3343).

Current LightEdge Promotions

Hosted PBX VoIP Productivity Bundle
The VoIP bundle is a full phone replacement for small businesses. The package includes up to T1 Internet Access, 5 hosted PBX seats, 5 Polycom phones, one auto attendant, fax line and Cisco router. Each seat includes 500 minutes of outbound domestic long distance calling.
Click here for more

Converged Access Trunk Bundle
Prepare for the future by eliminating your telcom lines and converging your voice system with your data/Internet connection. Converged access does not require new phones or retraining for your staff. Infinite scalability is provided by creating a hybrid system with Hosted PBX seats. Once your voice and network systems are converged, you can gradually migrate to a fully hosted system.
Click here for more

Hosted Microsoft Exchange - First Month Free
Get all of the benefits of Microsoft Exchange without the infrastructure, maintenance and cost of a premises-based solution. Hosted Exchange through LightEdge is so much more than just e-mail - it allows remote e-mail accessibility through the web, schedule collaboration for better productivity, spam and virus filtering and active directory integration - all in a completely managed environment.
Click here for more

VoIP Tips and Hints

Focus on your work with VoIP Productivity Features

You wake up energized thinking this is going to be the day that you are really going to get things done. In the shower, you mentally prepare a detailed schedule of events and smile with accomplishment as you know this is going to be "the" day. Unfortunately the accounting department, your suppliers and your mother view your new found dedication with disregard and pick today, of all days, to call for a chat.

This month's productivity section includes ways to use the functionality of your VoIP phone to screen or redirect calls for maximum productivity.

1. Do Not Disturb - Ah, pure silence. Your calls are sent directly to voicemail leaving you to concentrate on your work. If necessary you can configure the phone to emit a ring reminder to let you know how much you are being missed.
   
   
2. One-click Send to Voicemail - Although today is all about you, there may be a few people important enough that you will pick up the phone. For everyone else, there's One-click Send to Voicemail on your Call Manager application.
   
   
3. Call Forward Selective - Take your laptop and move to another room in the office, or possibly a coffee shop with wireless access. Set your phone to forward the most important calls to your cell phone by adding those numbers to your "select" list. Everyone else can leave a message.
   
   
4. Call Forward Always - To carve out a little time for yourself, use the Call Forward Always feature to send your calls to an assistant or someone else in your department.
   
   
5. Priority Alert - With Priority Alert you can make your phone ring differently based on pre-defined criteria. So you can disregard your regular ring and answer only when you receive important calls.

All right, now that your phone isn't ringing it's time to get some serious work done.

Voice-over-IP Case Study
Successful Implementation of 875 seat, 17 location Hosted PBX VoIP
Westside Community School District was in a predicament. With a PBX phone system reaching capacity and an inoperable voicemail system, the district was up against the wall and needed a real solution. In most situations a school district would simply request the budget for a new PBX and continue the trends of the past. Westside, however, prides itself on utilizing technology to improve processes and productivity. Before taking the traditional route, they looked for better options.

They researched Voice-over-IP as an option and began working with LightEdge Solutions to determine the best plan of action. Because the school district's PBX was out of date and the voicemail was no longer functional, LightEdge quickly dismissed a phone trunk replacement solution. It was determined that Hosted PBX VoIP would be the best option.

In August 2005, LightEdge Solutions implemented the largest VoIP project for the company and one of the five largest installs in the United States on the Broadsoft Platform. In total, the project included 875 Hosted VoIP seats deployed over 17 separate facilities.

In the end the solution turned out to be affordable, offered better risk protection for the future and will allow Westside to stay on top of new voice technology without effort. The teachers and administrators were quickly able to learn the new system and now enjoy the ability to use direct extension dialing, receive voice messages in e-mail and receive messages on alternate phones through call forwarding.

For more information on Westside Community School District, read the Press Release or visit their website.

Managed Backup and Recovery
Pop Quiz time. When's the last time you actually checked your backup through a trial restore? The answer is likely that it's either been a very long time or possibly never. Regardless of this gut check, a test such as this will really only test that the configuration has been set properly and that the tape and equipment is performing well at that particular time.

Tape devices have become the overall standard for business backups, primarily because the devices are less expensive than other solutions. That makes sense as not everyone can afford to implement and maintain a Storage Area Network in their organization.

Did you know:

• "Restoring from tape fails 50% of the time in distributed organizations and mid-sized companies." Baroudi Bloor
  
  
• "Over 34% of companies do not test their backups and of those that tested, 77% found their tape backups failed to restore." Storage Magazine

One of the most important factors to realize in a backup plan is that not all data carries and same importance. Data can be broken down into several categories - Critical, Important and Other. Critical data would include information that would be impossible to replace such as the database records of a client contact manager or financial application. Important data could be contracts, or other files that would be difficult or time-consuming to compile if the originals were lost. Other data is daily data that is either not important or could be recreated without much effort.

Your backup plan should be based around the importance of each data type:

For more information on the LightEdge Managed Backup and Recovery options, click here or contact your Territory Account Manager.

VoIP Lunch and Learn Sessions
In February, LightEdge hosted Introductory VoIP Lunch and Learn sessions in Des Moines, Kansas City and Omaha. The overwhelming attendance and the feedback shared after the conferences has been so positive that we have scheduled additional VoIP sessions in all of the LightEdge markets.

The Lunch and Learn format is simply an informal gathering to share information on a topic. There is no sales pressure and no expectations. Our goal is simply to promote better understand of Voice-over-IP telephony and other topics in our markets.

If you missed the VoIP seminar in February, make sure that you attend the VoIP Lunch and Learn in your area in April. The VoIP material will be presented by VP of Product Development, Sanjay Srinivasan. Sanjay helped to develop both the Hosted PBX and Converged Access Trunk VoIP products and has extensive experience in the telecom industry.

Future continuing education sessions will include: SQL 2005, Microsoft CRM, Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery, Network Security and Offsite Backup/Storage. For more information on Lunch and Learn topics, locations and dates, refer to the LightEdge Events Page or contact your Territory Account Manager.

Events

My LightEdge Support News
As part of our growing offering of products and in response to customer requests, we are pleased to release an enhancement to our customer portal, MY.Lightedge.com, that allows customers of our Hosted PBX product to initiate certain changes to their accounts. Lightedge is confident that this new functionality will increase the value to our VoIP service and cut down on request times for the following activities:

Adds – adding additional functionality to existing seats or adding new seats

Changes – changing names on phones, seat types or changing hardware

Simply log on to My.Lightedge.com and select the “AVS Hosted PBX” service link on the left side of the screen. Click on the AVS service. The screen will look like this:

Changes can be made from one of the three options listed by the “Manage” header.
By providing this functionality via the portal, Lightedge hopes to provide a simple, streamlined channel for the administration of your service. Please feel free to contact us with any questions regarding use of the portal or your VoIP services.

Meghan Smith
Product Manager