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LightEdge Launches New Voice Platform
On October 28th, after six months of development and testing, the LightEdge Voice Engineering Team performed a major upgrade of the LightEdge Advanced Voice Solutions infrastructure including implementing all new hardware and installing a significant software upgrade to enable additional features and provide better reliability and control.
What Existing Customers Should Know
- After October 28th the online voice portal will display feature changes and additions
- Information related to the changes in the voice portal is available at http://www.lightedge.com/voip
- Although the platform and portal have changed, your service is controlled by feature packs assigned to your voice seats. Your service levels will not change until the feature packs for your company are transitioned by our staff. This will be done in a staged progression:
- Anyone wishing to transition to the new feature pack to take advantage of the new features should contact their Account Executive to request a transition.
- Anyone requesting the transition will be placed in the queue and migrated in the order received.
- Conversion timelines will depend completely on volume in the queue but are expected to mirror standard installation times of 30-45 days.
- All customers will eventually be transitioned to the new feature packs. Your company will receive a call to schedule a service pack change if you have not called to be placed in the queue.
New Features available after converting to the new service packs
- Diversion Inhibitor (Standard and Premium Seats) - Can be used in conjunction with any Call Forwarding service to ensure that call goes to voice mail after the appropriate number of rings rather than continuing to ring an alternate phone.
- Updated Receptionist Console – A new look and feel to the receptionist console allows front office staff to quickly see the activity state of users on the phone system and efficiently manage and distribute all incoming calls.
- Updated AVS Toolbar - Allows users to access voice features from a toolbar within Outlook or Internet Explorer
- Busy Lamp Field - Displays a call state indicator on your handset for users that you are monitoring. For example, if you manage several people you can visually see when they are on a call and when they are free.
- Call Forward Not Reachable - This is an essential business continuity feature for automating call forwarding in a crisis situation. If the platform can't connect with your office because of a line cut, power loss or other outage the call will automatically be rerouted to a predetermined alternate phone number.
- Additional features will be released throughout 2009 as they are developed and tested
What Every Business Should Know
- Infotronics predicts that almost half of small companies and two-thirds of large organizations in North America will be using Voice-over-IP products and services by 2010.
- Hosted Voice services allow your company to spend as you grow rather than buy an overbuilt PBX and grow into it.
- As mobile and tele-workforces expand, Hosted Voice service will provide the only way to keep employees connected through Auto-Attendants, Call Centers and Receptionist applications.
- Market pressures and the present economic climate are forcing businesses to rethink their strategies. Hosted Voice and IT solutions are gaining acceptance as IT Directors continue to trim costs from the IT budget.
A Rolling Disaster - Summer 2008 Flooding
The question “who would have thought?” arises as we look back at events that have occurred since the 12th annual Disaster Resource Guide was published. Severe flooding in the Midwest, over 1,700 fires burning in California during July, an earthquake in Illinois, shipping shut down for an extended period on the Mississippi, production lines shut down due to the bankruptcy of a key supplier, record oil and grain prices, and the subprime mortgage meltdown are only some of the events that have impacted us during the past year.
Gartner: 25 ways to cut IT costs
Cutting costs is "never an activity with long lead times," Gartner Inc. guru Ellen Kitzis said at Symposium/ITxpo 2008 in Orlando. Kitzis, a research vice president at the Stamford, Conn.-based consultancy, teamed up with colleagues at a packed 8 a.m. panel to give CIOs a roadmap to trim costs.
Here are their 25 tactical tips across four categories: IT management; enterprise software; enterprise infrastructure and operations, the networks and telecom; and enterprise infrastructure, hardware and IT operations.
#17 Deploy IP telephony and Voice over Internet Protocol (save 50% to 80% of maintenance).
Gartner: Restructuring top concern for CEOs in 2009
CIOs should keep one word in mind as they prepare for the new year: restructuring. That is the uppermost issue on the minds of your CEOs as the economy lurches toward 2009, according to the latest research and surveys from Gartner Inc. And it cuts a wide, wide swath.
Restructuring in 2009 entails organizational restructuring, as in layoffs. It means financial restructuring, as in de-leveraging to operate more on a cash basis. It means corporate restructurings, as in spinning off units, preparing to acquire troubled companies or preparing to be acquired. It might mean the restructuring of entire industries as it becomes apparent who will survive the current economic shakedown.
The Upside of the Financial Crisis
We live in interesting financial times. OK, now it's your turn to make a gross understatement. But seriously, there may be an upside to the current financial problems we’re experiencing that may actually boost spending in certain key areas of the messaging and collaboration space. Here’s my take on the potential impact for 2009:
78 Ways for your Business to Save Money in this Economy
With the economy struggling, every business is trying to cut costs to make ends meet. Small businesses, which have fewer resources, especially feel the burn. Not to fear. We’ve come up with a mega-list of ways to trim the fat off your enterprise so you don’t become a casualty of the latest economic downturn.
#4 Check out VoIP. VOIP is basically a phone service that uses the Internet. Many small businesses are opting for this cheaper alternative that can save them up to 60% over their traditional telecom costs.
#5 Get a cheaper business phone service. Try a hosted PBX system, like Virtual PBX. Unlike a standard PBX, there is no hardware or software to buy or maintain, so costs start low and stay low.
#7 Reduce the number of phone lines. You could accomplish this simply by configuring office PCs to send and receive faxes. The Windows XP operating system and Small Business Server both make it easy to set up fax services.
#10 Reassess your phone plan. Even if you don't switch to VoIP, you can get service for cents per minute depending on your call volume.
#17 Do it online. Do all of your sales calls need to be in person? Internet-based technologies like Web conferencing and tools like Microsoft Office Live Meeting let you make online presentations to customers.
Four types of tech in demand during a downturn
The economic downturn is not universally bad news for IT, according to consulting company Frost & Sullivan which says gloomy markets can actually mean good news for certain segments of the tech industry.
As economic uncertainty deepens there is renewed business focus on cost-cutting which can be a boon to IT, according to Andrew Milroy, ICT director at Frost & Sullivan. He identified four technologies and service areas likely to experience increased demand in the current climate: sustainable IT; outsourcing services, managed and hosted services; information management tools; and services that support mergers and acquisitions.
| LightEdge Launches Hosted Exchange 2007 Platform |
Are you still relying on POP3 e-mail or a legacy version of Microsoft Exchange on an aging in-house platform? LightEdge has completely rebuilt our Exchange platform and upgraded to Exchange 2007 to offer our customers a simple and flexible alternative to running your own Exchange environment. Hosted Exchange through LightEdge is the easiest way to get more out of your communications:
Simple Setup - use our automated sign-up tool and online administrative portal to set up your account within a business day
Mobility - get true Anytime/Anywhere access with Outlook Web Access or BlackBerry/ActiveSync Integration
Cost Effective - only pay for the seats that you need, there's no upfront or maintenance charges
Proven Tool - Enterprises rely on Exchange because it provides the tools that are important to your business in a unified, easy to use package. |
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| Voice and Web Conferencing - 2 Week Free Trial |
| With busy schedules and mobile workers it's often difficult to get everyone in a room together for internal meetings or customer calls. LightEdge offers a unique service that allows you to use voice and web conferencing as much or as little as you need with no upfront costs and no monthly minimums. Simply use it when you need it and pay for what you use. |
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- Free 2-Week Trial
- Only 6.9 cents per minute
- No upfront costs
- No monthly minimum
- No Risk - cancel at any time
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Contact LightEdge for information on how usage-based conferencing can impact your business.
877-771-3343 |
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2 week trial is limited to companies that are not currently subscribed to LightEdge Voice and Web Conferencing. Trial allows one (1) chairperson from the company to utilize services for a period of 2 weeks with no charges. After the 2 week trial period, charges of 6.9¢ per minute, per participant for voice conferencing and 15¢ per minute, per participant for web conferencing will apply. Additional users can be signed up through the My.LightEdge.com portal after the trial has ended.
Unified Communications on a Hosted Platform
Later this year, LightEdge will be offering two new products that integrate with our Hosted Exchange 2007 environment to create a complete hosted communications and collaboration suite of products called the LightEdge Connected Office. These products are designed for the fast-paced company that needs to communicate more effectively, share resources and multi-task.
Hosted Microsoft Communicator
Instead of allowing employees to use personal Instant Messaging accounts for corporate communications, you can equip them with a secure, encrypted environment with LightEdge Hosted Communicator.
 Presence - With a quick glance of the Communicator application you can tell who is available, who is busy and who is currently logged out of the system.
- Instant Messaging - Often times you just need to ask a colleague a quick question and don't want to get bogged down with a call or a meeting. Communicator allows you to get your answer quickly and save everyone precious time.
- Multiple Party Messaging - Add multiple parties to the same conversation to get all the viewpoints necessary to make and confirm decisions
Call 877.771.3343 or info@lightedge.com to learn more
 Hosted Microsoft SharePoint
Hosted SharePoint allows you to quickly create rich document and information sharing portals for your business without the need for any outside programming.
- Document Management -secure central repository for all share documents in the office with functionality for check-in, check-out, version history and alerts when items are modified.
- Corporate Intranet - complete with
announcements, Blog, discussion groups and RSS feeds.
- Project Management - Run your department more effectively with a shared hub of information including assigned tasks and status reporting.
Call 877.771.3343 or info@lightedge.com to learn more
 Hosted Microsoft Live Meeting
Microsoft Office Live Meeting is a hosted web conferencing service that connects audiences for online meetings, training sessions, software demonstrations and remote collaborative initiatives. With meeting attendees participating from their PCs, you can deliver a presentation, kick off a project, brainstorm ideas, edit files, collaborate on whiteboards, and negotiate deals at a fraction of the cost and without the hassle of travel.
- More Collaboration. Less Travel. - get more done with fewer face-to-face meetings by limiting your need for travel.
- Engage your Audience - deliver multi-media presentations including presentation slides, live and recorded video, application sharing and audience feedback tools.
- Easy for any Meeting Size - whether you are collaborating with a colleague in another city or presenting a business model shift to the entire company, Live Meeting is easy to simple to use.
Call 877.771.3343 or info@lightedge.com to learn more |
