Business Continuity Made Easy!
Continued from June 2006

Company Review (see June 2006)
Step 1 - Communication Continuity (see June 2006)
Step 2 - Data Continuity (see July 2006)
Step 3 - Process Continuity
Consultation with Business Continuity Planner
Step 4 - Workspace Continuity

Step 3 Process Continuity
Ensuring that critical processes and applications are available at all times

Business Continuity is simply defined as a series of acts necessary to prevent business disruption and re-establish business services as quickly as possible in the event of a disruption.  With this in mind, it is important to analyze your business flow and determine which processes are critical to the business.  Although it can be different in every situation, most businesses regard the process between sales and accounting to be the most critical.

To prevent a disruption to critical business processes, applications involved in these processes must be available at all times.  This can be done in several ways. 

On-Premises Redundant Server
To ensure maximum uptime of critical applications, it is necessary to have a redundant server to act as a failover. This can be a Hot Server (running, ready, utilizing a mirrored copy of the application database), a Warm Server (configured and periodically updated, turned off until needed) or a Cold Server (configured, but not up to date, turned off until needed).

While a Hot Server is much more expensive because of the upkeep and maintenance, it also allows for the fastest failover time. A Cold Server by contrast is less expensive but will require a great deal of effort and time to utilize in the event of a failure.

Outsourced Collocated Servers
By hosting your servers in an environmentally controlled data center, you are assured of clean and reliable power, regimented backup schedules and security from viruses and other attacks that can bring servers down.

Outsourced Dedicated and Blade Servers
Outsourcing applications to a dedicated server or IBM Blade server with a Storage Area Network ensures the highest availability for your company's applications. A failure on a Blade server can quickly be rerouted to a redundant blade, while database managed backup, mirroring or clustering ensure a highly available data source.

Hosted applications:

• Reduce the upfront costs associated with adopting new software
• Offer a faster implementation time
• Can be scaled for the growth in your company without affecting performance
• Protects against technology obsolescence
• Reduces the strain on your IT staff
• Provides a level of risk mitigation against inability to use the main company location

LightEdge Solutions offers Server and Application Hosting through several geographically diverse data centers, and soon through the Edge Business Continuity Center. For more information on services related to hosting, contact your Territory Account Manager, e-mail info@lightedge.com or call 877-771-3343.

Next month: Step 4, Workspace Continuity, alternate workspace availability

Scott Riedel
Product Marketing Manager

New Add-on Features for Hosted PBX
In an effort to continually stay on the cutting edge, LightEdge will be releasing several new add-on modules for Hosted PBX users. These are either new seat types or extensions to the Hosted PBX functionality, and as such are available for an additional charge. If you are interested in learning more about these features, please contact your Territory Account Manager, e-mail to info@lightedge.com or call 877-771-3343.

• Breakroom Seat (Polycom phones only)
  The Breakroom Seat is designed for use in breakrooms or lobbies. This is a Premium Seat license which allows up to 10 phones to share a single extension. When a call is placed to this extension, all phones will ring. Multiple Breakroom Seat phones may dial out simultaneously.
  
  
• Hold/Retrieve Seat
  The Hold/Retrieve Seat may be used as alternative to traditional call parking through 'star' codes. The Hold/Retrieve Seat allows calls to be pushed to an extension specifically designed for held calls. The advantages of the Hold/Retrieve Seats are that it simplifies the hold process, allows configurable park time before ring-back and enables users from alternate offices or cell phone to pick up held calls simply by calling the "hold" extension or DID. Use of this service with the LightEdge Soft Console is recommended.
  
  
• Hoteling Host Seat
  Hoteling is a useful addition to offices with many mobile employees. An office can enable a few phones and cubicles specifically for these mobile employees. When they are in the office, they can quickly configure the Host phone to act as their personal phone, complete with Call Manager settings. When not in use as a Host, the Host phone can be configured to act as a normal Dial Tone phone.
  
  
• LightEdge Toolbar
  The LightEdge Toolbar integrates with both Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer, allowing users to access their primary Call Manager features without specifically opening the Call Manager every time they log in to your system. A pop-up notification appears on the users monitor for incoming calls. From the toolbar, the user may: Answer, place the call on Hold, send to Voicemail, Transfer, 3-way call, and End.
  
  
• Paging
  Paging functionality is now available as an add-on. This allows users to perform either a one-to-one page (forces a single extension within the office to answer automatically via speakerphone or headset) or group page (forces a 1-way messages to all phones within a zone).
  
  Polycom users may utilize the Push-to-Talk feature for one-to-one paging. This is included in the LightEdge Premium feature package.
  
  
• Georouting
  Companies with multiple sites can consolidate to a single toll-free number, but have the call be rerouted to a local number based on the caller's Area Code (or Area Code + Prefix). This allows the simplicity of a single number with the ability to provide localized support.

LightEdge News

Service at the Ready
On July 26th, Xcel Energy in Minneapolis lost a transformer at their primary substation during a storm. While this failure did not affect the LightEdge data center or clients in any way, the building engineer reported to LightEdge staff that there was a possibility of a short power outage while Xcel replaced this transformer and spooled up the generators in anticipation of a possible outage. LightEdge staff took no chances and had backup generators fueled and running to ensure that all systems remained functional.

Business Continuity Center Nears Completion
The EdgeBCC facility exterior is completed and certified for 200 MPH wind resistance. The facility construction is on schedule and should be ready for use by November 1, 2006. LightEdge Solutions is currently offering facility tours and discussing disaster recovery workspace and server cage space availability.

Read More

LightEdge Increases Coverage in Ames, Iowa City and Dubuque
The recent addition of paired Cisco media gateways to the network infrastructure has allowed LightEdge better VoIP representation in Ames, Iowa City and Dubuque. The result is actually three-fold - expanded coverage, reduced costs and exceptional call quality and reliability in these three markets. This service expansion effects both Converged Access and Hosted PBX Voice-over-IP services.

Read More

Strategic Expansion in Peoria Market
Following the recent partnership with Internet Express, LightEdge has strategically selected Peoria as a target market for Voice-over-IP and other managed services. This will make LightEdge unique in offering a broad spectrum of managed services through a completely private and managed network.

Read More

LightEdge Case Study

Olson Manufacturing Consolidates Multi-site Telecommunications with LightEdge VoIP and IP WAN

Overview
Olson Manufacturing & Distribution, Inc. is a leader in the plastic distribution and fabrication industries. Founded over eighty years ago to develop and produce drafting products, Olson Manufacturing & Distribution, Inc. has expanded to include the distribution, fabrication and machining of plastic sheet, rod, and tube. While primarily servicing industrial accounts in the Midwest with locations in Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, Olson has recently developed a national presence due to an expanding customer base. Olson began doing business with LightEdge Solutions as an Internet and Wide Area Networking customer. As their business needs changed, Olson found that their telecommunications system was not meeting the needs of their growing business, and turned to LightEdge for a solution.

Challenge
With three offices and more than 50 employees located throughout the Midwest, Olson was convinced that they could improve upon the systems they were using in their three offices and simplify some of the processes for making changes and additions. Each of their three sites operated separate legacy PBX systems, which created a lack of integration between offices and made simple functions like moves, adds, and changes time-consuming and expensive. Due to these mounting issues and ever-increasing costs for maintenance and monthly long distance charges, Olson was compelled to review and consider alternatives to legacy systems.

Olson decided to review their current telecommunications systems and associated vendors to look for areas where service could be improved, costs could be reduced, or vendors could be consolidated. Olson reviewed several vendors in each market, looking at packages and pricing for both traditional and VoIP solutions. While many vendors offered VoIP packages with basic features, LightEdge Hosted PBX provided all of the cost, feature and support elements that Olson Manufacturing would require from their new system. In addition, because of their long history as a satisfied LightEdge customer, Olson felt certain that LightEdge would provide the same level of personal support and service that they were accustomed to as a wide area networking customer.

The LightEdge Solution
The LightEdge Hosted PBX service proved to offer more features at a better overall cost than the bids from competitors. Olson found that LightEdge Hosted PBX required no PBX equipment purchase, and could be obtained on a per-user,
per-month fee basis. This allowed Olson Manufacturing to purchase seats for their current needs, and then scale seamlessly on-demand as they add employees. And with all calls between offices routed through the LightEdge private IP network, Olson was able to virtually eliminate monthly long distance charges for all calls between their locations

The LightEdge Hosted PBX system also improved Olson’s integration between offices by providing extension dialing between the locations, and the ability to have a single receptionist answer and manage calls for each of the three locations. With the addition of the VoIP system, Olson’s employees enjoy enhanced calling features such as e-mail delivery of voice mail, find me/follow me and other mobile office features. Overall, Olson found that moving to LightEdge’s Hosted PBX VoIP service helped to reduce the total cost of their telecommunications system while providing rich features that enhance the efficiency of their business.

“ We knew LightEdge and had trusted them to provide WAN and Internet services for our business for many years. When it came time to upgrade to a new telephone system, we did our homework and found that LightEdge offered competitive packages with great options and features when compared to other vendors in our area. This coupled with a history of great service made the choice to go with LightEdge VoIP an easy one.”

— Cindy Huston, Human Resource and Finance Manager, Olson Manufacturing and Dist., Inc.

Lunch and Learn Sessions
The Lunch and Learn format is a free, informal gathering to share information on a topic. There is no sales pressure and no expectations. Our goal is simply to promote better understanding of technical topics that could impact your business and give you the "competitive edge".

Next Lunch and Learn Topic:

Practical Business Continuity for the SMB
This Lunch and Learn discussion covers the topic of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery specifically from the perspective of a small and medium-sized business. With barely enough resources to cover daily business operations, SMBs rarely think about the possible fallout from a temporary or extended business interruption.

This discussion will focus on business practices that effectively provide some level of risk management, but can also impact daily productivity. In this regard, SMBs can mitigate some risk elements while implementing activities that provide a real value to daily business operations.

Sign up now for the Lunch and Learn in September

For more information on Lunch and Learn topics, locations and dates, refer to the LightEdge Events Page or contact your Territory Account Manager.

Events

Product Updates

• Metro Ethernet - up to 40 Mbps
  Cost-effective, high bandwidth connectivity is now available in select LightEdge markets. If you have high bandwidth needs but have been unwilling to pay for a fiber run, then this may be the solution for you. Contact your LightEdge representative for availability.
  
  
• Mobile Wireless Functionality for Hosted Microsoft Exchange - LightEdge has added functionality for wireless mobile access to Microsoft Exchange for Active-sync enabled devices. This includes most Windows Mobile and Palm devices. The additional functionality is included in Hosted Exchange at no additional cost. This functionality will be available before the end of June. Contact LightEdge Solutions to learn more.
  
  
• Disaster Recovery Workspace - The EdgeBCC offers small and medium sized businesses the opportunity to continue their critical business processes despite a business interruption. LightEdge is beginning to work with businesses on "letters of intent" for seats in the disaster recovery workspace at EdgeBCC. These workstations are provisioned with desktop computers and VoIP handsets. If you are interested in learning more about the DR Workspace, contact LightEdge Solutions.
  
• Business Continuity Center Rack-space/Cage-space - With the ability to withstand 200 mph winds and redundant power supplies, the EdgeBCC offers businesses unparalleled protection for their technical infrastructure. Businesses interested in Rack-space or Cage-space within the EdgeBCC should start working with their Territory Account Manager now to ensure that space is available in November.
  
  

For information on new products and services, contact our
sales department at 877-771-3343 option 2 or info@lightedge.com.

Current LightEdge Promotions

Hosted PBX VoIP Productivity Bundle
$1,499 down/$699 per month
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
$469 per month with no upfront costs
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
One 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

Managed Backup and Recovery
One Month Free
Your business clearly suffers when you have periods of data downtime. LightEdge Solutions' Managed Backup and Recovery allows you to backup your critical data to an offsite data center at multiple times during business hours for quick and easy recovery.
Click here for more

For information on current LightEdge Promotions, contact our
sales department at 877-771-3343 option 2 or info@lightedge.com.