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Your email is your business life-line for communications to your clients
Small, medium and large businesses are keeping closer tabs on expenses today. Unexpected costs wreak havoc on even large budgets. Many enterprises are opting for the convenience and predictability of email hosting for business.
By using Dataglide’s Kerio Connect, businesses don’t need to concern themselves with periodic maintenance and management tasks. At the same time, they enjoy a hosted Microsoft Exchange type service, eliminating the cost of upfront licensing for the products and hardware upgrades.
One of the major benefits of using Dataglide Kerio Connect is its hosted email and hosted email archiving. Clients can rely on its security advantages for encrypting and digitally signing sensitive internal emails. Companies using this kind of security layering are less exposed to outside hacking and surveillance by competitors.
Hosted email archiving gives companies instant access to past correspondence filed in a logical and easy to use system of folders and synced calendars. Using Dataglide’s email hosting for business means office staff and mobile personnel stay in touch and on the same page hour by hour without waiting for an on-site server’s nightly updating.
Dataglide’s hosted email not only saves on the cost of licensing and equipment but also plays a big role in keeping a company’s message handling requirements up to date. Even better, Dataglide Kerio Connect ensures interoperability of a mobile staff’s cell phones and tablet computers with the home office’s computers. Moreover, personnel can use Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome browsers to access their Dataglide Kerio Connect accounts. Our hosting service is compatible with Outlook for Windows and Mac, Apple Mail, Entourage, iCal and more.
Even during challenging economic times, business systems and solutions are constantly evolving. Using Dataglide’s Kerio Connect hosted email provides problem-free hosting for businesses of all sizes.
Many email hosting companies operating according to their own needs, not those of their customers. In comparison, our client companies will not experience unexpected shutdowns for maintenance. We provide advance notice when we need to shut down our servers for maintenance and upgrades which is rare and is always scheduled between 2am and 3am on weekends when access is not often needed. When a maintenance is scheduled you will never loose an email communications because we queue email for delivery with backup mail replays. Even better, we schedule these periodic tasks to avoid conflict with our clients’ hours of operation.
Dataglide Kerio Connect clients retain all rights to their hosted contents. There are some email hosting companies that retain the right to handle or mishandle customers’ information as they see fit. We maintain your email, events and data as highly confidential and never use it to discover what your interest are, your buying habits or what merchants to direct their advertising towards. Your data is safe and secure.
Some companies even limit the number of emails allowed within a 24-hour period. We don’t do that. Dataglide puts the needs of its clients’ front and center on the email hosting for business stage. Comparison shopping among providers illustrates the superiority of Dataglide’s Kerio Connect capabilities.
You will find Dataglide services offer:
Set monthly costs, with never a surprise when you possible go over soft limits
No licensing or upgrading concerns for clients
Interoperability among browsers and operating systems
Multi-layered security make your data safe and confidential
Real-time syncing of devices and computers
Logical and easy-to-use functionality and access
Convenience that you will always have US-based telephone and email support
Protection of proprietary content so that robots and search engines don’t watch your data activity
Dataglide Connect does all of this better than the other providers out there. This is why so many companies are turning to us for their hosted email needs.
Have More Questions?
Are you ready to talk to a Dataglide specialist? Ready to place your inquiry order online? As trained Kerio professionals we are ready and available Monday-Friday 8AM-5PM to answer your calls. Call us Toll-Free (888) 400-5557 or local in Greensboro, NC (336) 346-6000.
In North CarolinaCarolina Digital Phone offers the ability of reducing communication cost by utilizing a SIP enabled IP PBX phone system instead of a traditional PSTN PBX network is the first advantage people think of when switching to an IP based PBX phone system. Essentially phone calls made over an IP network are free. Typically an IP PBX by-passes the wholesale charges made by the incumbent telephone company. (AT&T, Verizone, Qwest, SBC, Bell South and Sprint) This by-pass occurs as the customer is connected to a SIP enabled trunk provider, via an broadband Internet circuit like a data T1 line, as opposed to multiple telephone lines to the incumbent phone company’s switch. The SIP provider will use the Internet to by-pass the long distance and international charges as long as the distant end party is connected through a SIP enable connection. For example, an international call that is placed over an IP PBX will be carried on the IP network from the point of origin to a break outpoint in a foreign country. The SIP provider will incur its capital costs of the IP infrastructure and only the wholesale charge for the foreign national leg of the call. Previously, the service provider would have to pay charges to the local phone company, an international carrier and the foreign carrier. The end result is long distance and international call charges are significantly lower than traditional phone companies.
Benefits of an IP PBX Phone System:
Simplify. An integrated infrastructure that supports ALL forms of communication allows more standardization of equipment and a single cabling infrastructure. This leads to a further overall fall in operational costs.
Flexibility.
An IP Telephony system is based primarily on software rather than hardware, making it easier to alter, up grade and maintain. IP Telephony allows you to safely set up a fully functioning office anywhere a broadband connection is available including the home office and telecommuters.
Scaleable.
Traditional telephone systems are difficult to expand or upgrade, it is easy to outgrow your current system and you may need to replace hardware or, even replace your entire system. IP Telephony systems however are easy to upgrade in line with your company as it grows, as your needs change your IP Telephony system can adapt easily to your changing telecommunications requirements.
Easy Installation. IP Telephony allows corporate users to use a single high-speed Internet connection for all voice, video, and data communications. This is known as convergence and is one of the primary driving forces behind corporate interest in VoIP. As we have seen VoIP is not just about reducing call costs, it gives companies much more than that. By using a single data network for all communications, it is possible to reduce overall operating costs, increase employee efficiency and allow greater flexibility in communications than ever before.
Your local sales engineer working with Carolina Digital Phone in Greensboro, North Carolina is Nicky Smith, and can be reached by dialing his direct dial number (336) 346-6004. If you are not successful in reaching Nicky Smith immediately, you should call our number in Greensboro, North Carolina at (336) 346-6000 and press option 2. Or call our Toll-Free number (888) 400-5557. Our in-house sales office hours are 8:30 AM until 5:00 PM EST.
Carolina Digital Phone as not only made investments in the local community of Greensboro, NC by has expanded into neighboring states South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia. Kentucky. Indiana and Ohio You should take a few minutes and read some of the excellent customer testimonials listed on their web site.Their hosted PBX VOIP phone system replaces expensive phone systems, installation, handsets, land lines and numbers with a simple, cost-efficient alternative. Carolina Digital Phone provides a powerful phone system, hosted in the cloud, which is available to use on a monthly subscription basis. Each user can use a softphone or handset, which just needs to be plugged into their broadband or office network to allow them to access features such as voicemail, IVR and more, all from their control panel. They offer a competitively priced alternative to premise-based IP PBX solutions. There is never a long-term contract commitment because the service is offered on a month-to-month basis unlike the traditional telephone companies that require long-term contracts.
Now you can cut your current phone bill in half and have the high-quality service and features previously only available to Fortune 500 companies. Get the complete business phone system that delivers outrageously affordable, incredibly advanced business phone service right over your Internet connection.
Reason to Swap your Old PBX for a VOIP Hosted PBX
Looking for A Reason to Swap your Old PBX for a VOIP Hosted PBX — How About Eight Great Reasons!
1. Lower CAPEX Costs: Buying a traditional phone system is like buying a new car, it significantly depreciates the day you place it in service. Plus, you own a piece of equipment that you’ll have to one day replace. You can put that money to better use by spending less up- front by intstalling a VoIP Hosted PBX system.
2. VoIP Hosted PBX is Dynamically Scalable: Up-size and Down-size on the fly. VoIP Hosted PBX Service lets you buy the exact number of users you need right now – later you can add users when you actually need them. This helps preserve capital in comparison to guessing what size PBX system you need to buy today to support the number of users you think you’ll have in 3 – 5 years.
3. Hosted PBX System Significantly Reduces Depreciation Losses: Traditional PBX systems depreciate almost 70% the day you take them out of their box. With a VoIP Hosted phone service, you won’t have to worry about depreciation since you’re not purchasing equipment.
4. Hosted PBX is Cheaper, Easier to Maintain and Update: Moves, Add’s and Changes no longer require on-site changes to your phone system. Most VoIP Hosted PBXs can be remotely configured by the vendor, thus the flexibility to add, change, delete or move users within hours. Your expenses will be reduced by eliminating costly monthly maintenance contracts or the high labor cost required to have a tech onsite for every change you need.
5. Hosted PBX Uses Non-Proprietary Components: When you buy a traditional PBX phone system, you’re locking your company into a long term commitment to a proprietary architecture that may or may not keep pace with technological changes. Bottom line, you are betting your company’s future that the proprietary technology will remain compatible with evolving industry standards. In the future, there’s a good chance with a traditional PBX you’ll be at the manufacturer’s mercy for repair and expansion since only their parts will work with your purchase. Make sure your VoIP Hosted PBX system works with multiple phone manufacturers. So if you decide to move to a different system, a forklift upgrade won’t be necessary.
6. Hosted PBX System Eliminates Technology Obsolescence: Since you’re not purchasing a phone system, you don’t have to worry about the equipment becoming obsolete. Updates and new features are automatically available to you with Carolina Digital Phone’s Hosted PBX service.
7. Disaster Recovery/ Emergency Protection: A hosted PBX product will protect your company’s calling infrastructure the same way you protect your website and email – with specialized, secure off-site hosting. Make sure if you are considering a VoIP hosted PBX that the vendor provide security and redundancy so you don’t have to worry about the physical requirements and support of your phone system.
8. Improved Features for Improved Productivity: Most enterprise Hosted Voice PBX service providers include advanced calling features that are not available with traditional phone systems. Features that will improve the way you control your calling, like Visual Voicemail, unique DID’s, Find-Me/Follow-Me, Click-to-Call and Outlook Integration.
Looking for a way to cut costs while still having the pbx system and phone service you need? Hosted pbx may be what your small business needs today in this economy. Hosted pbx can help a small business by already having the pbx system available via internet at the hosted pbx providers office. No need to pay all the upfront costs of a quality pbx system for your business phones. With hosted pbx, your pbx provider has your pbx system on their site and you access your assigned pbx system via the internet.
Hosted pbx saves a small business in pbx system equipment costs, but also on employee payment and business office space. With the pbx system reached via internet, there is no need for a special room or space for the pbx system, not all the wiring of connecting each office phone to the pbx system. Every small business computer and desk location can connect to hosted pbx without the extra phone wiring. Hosted pbx provides the updates and pbx system maintenance as part of their hosted pbx services so that your small business doesn’t have to hire someone to maintain the pbx system. These are only two ways that hosted pbx can save your small business on phone costs.
Not only does hosted pbx save costs for a small business on phone equipment and IT services, hosted pbx coupled with voip phone service can also save on costs of each phone call. Hosted pbx coupled with voip phone service treats every phone call equally. There are no extra phone call charges when making the long-distance phone call compared to the local phone call. Because voip uses the internet every phone call is equal cost. With hosted pbx service coupled with voip service, your small business may be able to work out a regular monthly payment that includes both hosted pbx and voip phone service.
The traditional pbx system and traditional pbx services just don’t measure up to what hosted pbx and business voip offer. The benefits of hosted pbx and voip are endless.
Hosted pbx doesn’t only benefit the small business, but also the business with several office locations around the world. Since each office location can access one hosted pbx phone system and phone service, this makes the business more united and costs much less than paying for a pbx system for each and every business location.
Hosted pbx providers could also offer cloud pbx which means that your pbx system is now on the internet cloud rather than the hosted pbx office. Hosted pbx and cloud pbx is ideal for the traveling business people. While traveling, this business person can access their voip phone service.
Hosted pbx coupled with Voip services can offer your small business unlimited growth and success! The possibilities are endless when it comes to hosted pbx services while the services are limitless! Hosted pbx molds an office telephone system to a better technology usage which can lead to better communication and understanding within your small business team, and between your small business and your customers and clients. Hosted PBX and Traditional PBX
Hosted pbx doesn’t only benefit the small business, but also the business with several office locations around the world. Since each office location can access one hosted pbx phone system and phone…. Learn more at hosted pbx and system
1. Lower CAPEX Costs: Buying a traditional phone system is like buying a new car, it significantly depreciates the day you place it in service. Plus, you own a piece of equipment that you’ll have to one day replace. You can put that money to better use by spending less up- front by intstalling a VoIP Hosted PBX system.
2. A VoIP Hosted PBX is Dynamically Scalable: Up-size and Down-size on the fly. VoIP Hosted PBX Service lets you buy the exact number of users you need right now – later you can add users when you actually need them. This helps preserve capital in comparison to guessing what size PBX system you need to buy today to support the number of users you think you’ll have in 3 – 5 years.
3. A VoIP PBX Significantly Reduces Depreciation Losses: Traditional PBX systems depreciate almost 70% the day you take them out of their box. With a VoIP Hosted phone service, you won’t have to worry about depreciation since you’re not purchasing equipment.
4. A VoIp Hosted PBX is Cheaper, Easier to Maintain and Update: Moves, Add’s and Changes no longer require on-site changes to your phone system. Most VoIP Hosted PBXs can be remotely configured by the vendor, thus the flexibility to add, change, delete or move users within hours. Your expenses will be reduced by eliminating costly monthly maintenance contracts or the high labor cost required to have a tech onsite for every change you need.
5. A VoIP Hosted PBX Uses Non-Proprietary Components: When you buy a traditional PBX phone system, you’re locking your company into a long term commitment to a proprietary architecture that may or may not keep pace with technological changes. Bottom line, you are betting your company’s future that the proprietary technology will remain compatible with evolving industry standards. In the future, there’s a good chance with a traditional PBX you’ll be at the manufacturer’s mercy for repair and expansion since only their parts will work with your purchase. Make sure your VoIP Hosted PBX system works with multiple phone manufacturers. So if you decide to move to a different system, a forklift upgrade won’t be necessary.
6. A VoIP System Eliminates Technology Obsolescence: Since you’re not purchasing a phone system, you don’t have to worry about the equipment becoming obsolete. Updates and new features are automatically available to you with Hosted PBX service.
7. Disaster Recovery/ Emergency Protection: A hosted PBX product will protect your company’s calling infrastructure the same way you protect your website and email – with specialized, secure off-site hosting. Make sure if you are considering a VoIP hosted PBX that the vendor provide security and redundancy so you don’t have to worry about the physical requirements and support of your phone system.
8. Improved Features for Improved Productivity: Most enterprise VoIP Hosted Voice service providers include advanced calling features that are not available with traditional phone systems. Features that will improve the way you control your calling, like Visual Voicemail, unique DID’s, Find-Me/Follow-Me, Click-to-Call and Outlook Integration.
In Greensboro, North Carolina you can get a VOIP Hosted PBX Internet telephone service that is state-of-the-art technology for your business. Hosted PBX VoIPinternet phone services allows you to keep your local Winston-Salem number. And new numbers anywhere in North Carolina are available for immediate activation. Now available at a great savings for any size business. Our broadband VoIP (Voice over internet protocol) is instant, reliable, and there for you considering the calling features you have appreciated previously. Hosted PBX VoIP plans in North Carolina are available at a great value and will save your business a lot. Call us right now (336) 714-4500 and we shall show you exactly why so many of your respective businesses are switching to hosted PBX platform.
Carolina Digital Phone is a locally owned hosted PBX provider of high quality VoIP services. IP-based, broadband telephone service delivers the excellent advantage of not requiring other lines or wire being hooked up directly. You already have high-speed internet access, now you can harness that power with a hosted PBX system.
Choosing an email solution may seem like a minor issue for your business, but it can actually have major ramifications in the long run. The more resources, in terms of both computer systems and employee time, that your server solution takes up, the less it will for accomplishing other things that actually make your business profitable. There are excellent business reasons that you should consider choosing Dataglide, a Kerio Connect hosted service rather than Microsoft Exchange.
One of the most valuable features of Dataglide, a Kerio Connect hosted solution is the sheer amount of flexibility that it offers you in the software you use and the way you deploy it. This software offers far superior support for other email and calendar platforms, such as Apple’s Mail and iCal, when compared with Microsoft Exchange. You can also deploy the platform itself on Windows, Mac, or Linux according to your own preference. Choosing Dataglide will guarantee you a greater level of flexibility in the future as you make additional technical decisions. If you should ever want to change the server platform that you use, or allow your employees to use a different operating system that will make them happier and more productive, you will never have to decide against it based on the fact that your email server would be incompatible with the new software.
You should also consider choosing Dataglide, a Kerio Connect hosted service because of the superior value and features that it offers. It is not merely an email server, it also enables cross-platform collaboration, wireless mobile synchronization, Email archiving, automated backups, and a robust level of email security. All of these are things that any business that wants to be both efficient and effective needs to have, and using this platform means that you do not have to seek out and install separate solutions to achieve them.
Choosing Dataglide, a Kerio Connect hosted platform will give you a great set of features and put you in a position where you have a great deal of flexibility in making decisions about the other types of software that you are going to run. For many businesses, it is the best choice available on the market.
With Dataglide’s Kerio Connect Hosted email your business a much more professional feel, which should give you a leg up with prospective clients, especially in this economic climate! To stay competitive, helpfully sophisticated messaging tools can provide a highly efficient way to not just access communications but also manage contacts and schedule tasks.
Dataglide’s Kerio Connect Hosted email also has the advantage of allowing you to scale up and down as needed. Pay-as-you-go models minimize your risks while maximizing your benefits! Letting information technology professionals operate your e-mail server saves you time and lets you concentrate on your business. Even if you have your own IT staff on hand, letting someone else do the grunt work frees up your own people for more important matters!
And again, it all just feels so much more professional. Kerio Connect Hosted email means that you don’t have advertising running along your messages. It means you needn’t see any yourself when accessing your e-mail. Such premium services are mostly geared towards small to medium-sized businesses, giving you enterprise-level power at a fraction of the cost of running your own servers like the Big Boys! Instead of fiddling with configurations, you just tell your host how you want things, and because it’s professionally hosted you can be sure of expert quality second to none. Why waste time with free webmail and the like? Plans are affordable and the convenience can’t be beat.
Again, you also look better, and in business as in much else in life, first impressions are lasting impressions! Have you ever had someone hand you a fancy business card with a free webmail account listed? How did that make you feel about the person or his or her company? Not very positively, in all likelihood. Well, spare yourself some of that uncertainty in the minds of others, especially potential clients!
Written by Nicky Smith
Email me with your feedback at: nicky.smith@carolinanet.com
CAROLINANET.COM, a privately held small business in North Carolina
Have More Questions?
Are you ready to talk to a Dataglide specialist? Not ready to place your order online? As trained Kerio professionals we are ready and available Monday-Friday 8AM-5PM to answer your calls. Call is Toll-Free (888) 400-5557 or local in Greensboro (336) 346-6001.
Is that spam? Or did I sign up for that newsletter?
by Charles Bermant, Special to The Seattle Times
Spam is in the eye of the beholder. A message may arrive, immediately annoying because it’s trying to sell something you don’t want or need. You click on the “report spam” button and it disappears, along with anything else that may arrive from that particular sender. It doesn’t matter that you may have voluntarily subscribed. The subject is no longer interesting, and you want it out of your face as quickly as possible.
As it turns out, reporting a “legitimate” marketing message as spam could be considered an irresponsible, inconsiderate act. While it may appear to be an easy timesaver for you, it can provide an equal and opposite reaction of grief and woe for somebody else. Stefan Pollard of Email Labs said the spam reflex is a common reaction but adds, “If this is a message that you have asked to receive at some point it is your responsibility to click the unsubscribe button. You should only report messages that you did not ask to receive as spam.”
According to Pollard, each spam report counts as a black mark against the sender. A small business sends to what it perceives as an opt-in list, but if one in 1,000 recipients cry “spam” the business’s provider may refuse to deliver the rest of the messages until the business shows proof that everyone on the list opted in. This is possible, but it hurts the people who can afford it least. A legitimate business needs to channel its energy toward delivering product and servicing customers.
So how do we determine what is legitimate? You can report the obvious scams and smut without feeling guilt about driving someone out of business. One determining factor is that the law requires marketers to provide an unsubscribe link and a physical address rather than a post-office box. Pollard said that most marketers manage to follow only the first rule. Pollard’s company advises and supports companies involved in e-mail marketing, so its first concern isn’t necessarily consumer comfort.
Still, its advice to clients about the best e-mail marketing practices can be used as a barometer for consumers. If a sales pitch follows these guidelines, such as providing a direct e-mail return link and a phone number, perhaps it has earned your business. “E-mail is the Web’s most personal communications stream,” he said. “If customers think there is someone on the other side, it builds a relationship with the company. It builds the company’s credibility, and makes customers feel that it is safe to buy.”
In the meantime, we need to recognize that clicking “report spam” resembles casting your vote on Election Day. Neither act makes an immediate sound, but in both cases someone is listening on the other end. On the other hand, if a message looks like spam and doesn’t follow any of Email Labs’ good marketing practices, perhaps it deserves a “no” vote.
For a complete explanation of e-mail’s best practices go to www.emaillabs.com/articles/email_articles/email_best_practices_audit.html.
If you have questions or suggestions for Charles Bermant, you can contact him by e-mail at cbermant@seattletimes.com. Type Inbox in the subject field. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.
Hosted Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Communications
No equipment Required – phone services delivered from the cloud
Our hosted VOIP phone system replaces expensive phone systems, installation, handsets, land lines and numbers with a simple, cost-efficient alternative. Carolina Digital Phone provides a powerful phone system, hosted in the cloud, which is available to use on a monthly subscription basis. Each user can use a softphone or handset, which just needs to be plugged into their broadband or office network to allow them to access features such as voicemail, IVR and more, all from their control panel.
VoIP is a means of carrying phone calls and services across digital Internet networks. In terms of basic usage and functionality, VoIP is similar to traditional telephony, and a VoIP-enabled telephone works exactly like a ‘normal’ one. However, VoIP has a number of other advantages, such as cost, ease and future proofing.
When your customer adopts VoIP technology, they have typically been driven by the lower costs of IP telephony over traditional methods – a powerful incentive for most businesses. However, hosted VoIP from Carolina Digital not only brings them lower costs, but also gives them a complete array of other benefits. It is the perfect complement to our hosted desktop service, giving you comprehensive access to an affordable, mobile, scalable, state-of-the-art business infrastructure on demand.
Now you can cut your current phone bill in half and have the high-quality service and features previously only available to Fortune 500 companies. Get the complete business phone system that delivers outrageously affordable, incredibly advanced business phone service right over your Internet connection.
How? You might ask. With Carolina Digital voice over IP phone service – available wherever there’s an Internet connection
Carolina Digital Phone delivers IP-based Fortune-500 PBX features with Polycom phones as your only hardware investment. No other equipment or software is needed. Companies of any size to achieve a great business phone system with a full suite of PBX features offered. Moreover, communication through hosted VoIP enables mobile workers to stay in touch while working from remote locations.
Whether you’ve been kicking around the idea of switching over to VoIP Broadband Phone Service or you’ve never even heard of it before, if you’re interested in increasing both the quality of your phone service and the money that stays in your bank account, then listen up. As I see it, here are just some of the reasons why you should lose all of your current phone services in favor of VoIP over both traditional land line and cellular services:
With Voice over Internet Protocol phone service, you will no longer have a need for your land line phones any longer. Now I’m not telling you to rip out your old phones and throw them in the trash, yet. The technology is still in somewhat of a transitional period and you may need to find a way to use both services while getting used to a new system, but soon enough you will find that your old system is no longer needed. VoIP phone service will also eliminate the need for any long distance services you currently have and will save you money by dropping these expensive services and, eventually, your land line service altogether.
Communications with VoIP are unlimited. Once you choose which VoIP service provider you’re going to go with you will be put on a flat rate service where you can have unlimited communications worldwide. Depending on your equipment, many service providers don’t even charge extra for international calls. But even the ones that do, their fees are next to nothing compared to what you were paying for the same services with traditional land line and cell phone services.
Conference calling is no longer limited, either. Previous 3-way calling service found with land line and cellular phones are no longer limited to just you and maybe 2 other people on the conversation. Now you can have as many as you want on the call because virtually all VoIP service providers offer a better solution. Since the internet is used as the method of delivery with VoIP service, technology is no longer 2-dimensional. Using VoIP phone service for both conference calls and teleseminars is relatively simple which makes it an excellent idea for business.
VoIP service is cheap: But not in the sense of not being worth what you pay for it. You will definitely be getting more than your money’s worth. Why, even the most expensive of VoIP service providers are much less expensive than traditional services. By eliminating the middlemen and others that have a hand in helping to provide you with your current services, VoIP can bring your costs down dramatically. In addition, since your connection is established and maintained through the internet you don’t have to worry about the need for it to have to go through land based wiring systems that are in need of constant repairs, maintenance and upgrades. Now initially there may be some small additional charges when the person on the other end of the line you need to talk to is still using a land line or cell phone service (at least until they wise up and get VoIP) because the need for the “middleman” still exists. Just be sure to check with your chosen provider for any rates that may apply.
No additional costs for Internet services – Service packages offered by most VoIP providers allow you to save money on your broadband service from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) by providing you with the same quality service included in your VoIP service plan. By going with a VoIP service provider that offers the option of broadband Internet service, too, you will save more money by being able to get rid of the added expense of a separate ISP.
There are all kinds of free services and features with VoIP – Many VoIP service providers don’t even charge you to use their services at all. For example, since VoIP operates using your computer’s broadband technology, if the person you need to talk to has VoIP, too, all you need to do is activate your VoIP service and that’s it because most with most VoIP service providers computer to computer calls are free. By eliminating the need to pay for the rental fees of cell towers or land lines there are no expenses involved when placing calls over the internet to someone else with VoIP service. In addition, many of the features you would normally have to pay extra for with traditional services like caller ID, call waiting, three-way calling, call forwarding, voice mail, etc., are included and already set up for you in most packages available from your VoIP provider. Many of these features were rarely even used with the other types of services because there were always additional fees that were charged for them. Once you acquire these features along with your VoIP service and begin using them, you will be asking yourself how you ever did without them. Once again, always be sure that you check with your provider for the services and features included with your plan and any rates that may apply.
VoIP is capable of sending both files and data – VoIP service allows you to send files or data, like faxes, over the connection, too. Just like you would over your broadband connection from your computer, you can send faxes anywhere faster and at a much lower cost than you would with a cell phone or a land line. VoIP allows you to send files or data much in the same way that you would if you were downloading a file from the internet.
VoIP goes with you where ever you go – Since the internet is accessible throughout the world, VoIP will always be there with you. Where ever you can establish a broadband connection you can use your VoIP service to make a call. Wireless, or WiFi, “hotspots” are available in hotels, coffee shops, airports, etc., all over the world so you will almost always have your service there with you. If you’re out on the road a lot, just think about all the money that you’ll save by not having to pay extra for long distance calls or additional cell phone service fees when you need to make a call back home. Staying in touch with the office or, if you’ve gotten rid of your old traditional service at home, too, the family will be just like being there. All you will need to do is hook up a headset and microphone to your laptop and you’ll be good to go. There are also VoIP phones, or softphones, available that are a lot like cell phones with software installed on them that will allow youto use the service much in the same way by tapping into an existing internet signal. Some VoIP service providers include these phones as part of the package you choose so that anywhere there is a broadband connection available, you can use your softphone to make calls just the same.
Hopefully this has helped to clear up any of the questions you may have had in regards to why you should get rid of your current land line or cell phone service, or both, and go with VoIP service instead, whether it be for your business or personal use. Besides, if you already have a computer with a broadband connection, a router, a microphone and/or a headset, then you’re already more than halfway there.
VoIP is the future of telecommunications and the future is now. So before you go and sign on for another year with your current cell phone provider or commit to another annual contract with your land line phone service, I highly recommend that you look into VoIP phone service instead. Not only will you begin to reap the benefits of saving money by eliminating your current service providers right off the bat, you will also realize the convenience and quality that comes with VoIP, too. By doing so now, you will show other businesses that you’re staying on the cutting edge of technology and why they should be doing business with you and not somebody else. Because if you wait too long and suddenly find yourself falling behind in the game, it could already be too late. Let’s put it this way, if another business is trying to get a hold of you and find themselves having to pay additional charges because they’re calling your traditional land line office phone, or cell phone for that matter, do you think they’re going to call back if they’ve managed to get a hold of someone else that’s not costing them additional money? Think about it.
Twtter is the biggest all in one Twitter application directory. People here can subscribe to whole lots of apps and get benefits- of all the applications free of cost. Twitter is not just a place where you Tweet, it is more than that where people can share and help each other out. So, twtter has been making application that makes user ease their twitter.
Find most exciting Twitter application on the internet just here. You can have lots and lots of fun with application and make you tweet easy. You can have access to different twitter related applications that can access twitter and get information related to your twitter account. You can optimize your twitter account by getting the Report Card for your twitter, getting the latest trends that may be beneficial to you interest, auto following the followers and more.
Is mail calendar sync important to you? Apparently, Microsoft doesn’t think so. It’s no longer available as an integrated solution for free with the latest version of the Windows operating system. For some odd reason, the company decided to do away with years of tradition and bundle separate calendar and mail applications — as a download, no less!
That’s right; not only is there no mail calendar sync like before, but the alternatives provided aren’t even provided “out of the box” — they have to be downloaded first. This is due to Microsoft not wanting to go to court over monopoly accusations anymore. By providing just about anything and everything a casual computer user could want out of the box, it had been sued numerous times for stifling competition by the makers of such software as web browsers and, yes, e-mail clients. So with the latest version of Windows available on the market, Redmond’s decided to make everyone download such freebies, thus signifying consumer choice as opposed to somehow being forced to use only Microsoft products by virtue of their free inclusion with the operating system.
So, all well and good, but why oh why did it also have to have taken away the intuitive mail calendar sync provided by the integrated solution it used to, well, provide?? What would having calendar and contact functionality together in a free e-mail program have done to its fears over looking like a monopoly? Such features are almost always found together now, and separating the two into two separate programs is indisputably a step back. Or is Microsoft just being snarky with the government and its competitors — at the expense of Windows end-users?
Who knows what they’re thinking. Who knows why they stopped including pinball in their free games line-up! It’s a silly decision, which is compounded by their silly response that there are separate Windows 7 programs for calendars and contacts!
Hosted email gives your business a much more professional feel, which should give you a leg up with prospective clients, especially in this economic climate! To stay competitive, helpfully sophisticated messaging tools can provide a highly efficient way to not just access communications but also manage contacts and schedule tasks.
Hosted email also has the advantage of allowing you to scale up and down as needed. Pay-as-you-go models minimize your risks while maximizing your benefits! Letting information technology professionals operate your e-mail server saves you time and lets you concentrate on your business. Even if you have your own IT staff on hand, letting someone else do the grunt work frees up your own people for more important matters!
And again, it all just feels so much more professional. Hosted email means that you don’t have advertising running along your messages. It means you needn’t see any yourself when accessing your e-mail. Such premium services are mostly geared towards small to medium-sized businesses, giving you enterprise-level power at a fraction of the cost of running your own servers like the Big Boys! Instead of fiddling with configurations, you just tell your host how you want things, and because it’s professionally hosted you can be sure of expert quality second to none. Why waste time with free webmail and the like? Plans are affordable and the convenience can’t be beat.
Again, you also look better, and in business as in much else in life, first impressions are lasting impressions! Have you ever had someone hand you a fancy business card with a free webmail account listed? How did that make you feel about the person or his or her company? Not very positively, in all likelihood. Well, spare yourself some of that uncertainty in the minds of others, especially potential clients!
There is many a Microsoft Exchange alternative on the market today, practically all of them inexpensive in comparison, that’s been giving the Boys at Redmond a real run for their money these days. After all, the company has gotten too comfortable with its dominant position and with increased upgrading costs, businesses large and small (especially small!) are wondering whether Microsoft is still the right solution for them.
Thus the scramble for a viable enterprise-level Microsoft Exchange alternative, which has lead to the proliferation of e-mail server software today. With Exchange on the back end and Microsoft Outlook on the client end, Microsoft has managed to capture a lucrative sixty-five percent of the enterprise messaging market.
But that may all be about to change, for all the other software out there continue to improve as they compete to be the one leading Microsoft Exchange alternative. One such top scorer in many an independent review is Kerio Connect (formerly known as Kerio MailServer), which offers a good combination of multi-platform interoperability in addition to a good end-user experience. Of course, Outlook integration is solid.
If you’re sick of the unreliability, the bloat, and the incessant upgrading associated with Microsoft’s products, it’s high time to consider the alternatives available. In fact, a whole range of software exists that can wean you off dependence on Microsoft, from office suites and photo editors to web browsers and more. By using these alternatives, you would be joining the growing movement that seeks to support choice and innovation in the software industry alive.
Okay, okay; so you just want software that works and helps you do business, not get involved in some kind of cyber-activism. Fair enough. But consider how the present environment has hamstrung your range of options, and how that’s come into being as a result of Microsoft’s dominance. Isn’t it time to think outside the box instead of maintaining the status quo to your own inconvenience – if not outright detriment?
Why are we still talking about “double opt-in?” It has been discussed, debated and explained by the industry leaders over and over again. Yet, it is still considered by many to be the highest standard of email permission.
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against double opt-in. My reservations are for the illusion that has the industry believing that it is the highest standard of email consent. In reality, the double opt-in method is a tool that allows email senders to segment subscribers who are excited about a program and are willing to take another action by clicking on the link to ensure they remain with the email program.
But does that mean the subscribers using a double opt-in method are clear as to what they are opting into? Maybe, and maybe not. The answer lies in the disclosure language of the consent. I suggest we put more focus on the disclosure at the time of consent and less focus on the double opt-in method.
But first, when is double opt-in a good idea? If you run a community website and users are required to sign up to be a part of this community site, then why not use the double opt-in signup method to collect emails? Similarly, if you are sending a diabetes newsletter and your audience includes patients seeking education, you have an energized audience excited enough to confirm subscription. Double opt-in is also recommended for companies that are capturing emails through co-registration programs so they can confirm the true owner of the email address.
Conversely, if users navigate through your site during comparison shopping and sign-up to receive your messages, why would you initiate a double opt-in and risk missing out on the chance to communicate to all of them? If you are only mailing to a double opt-in list, you may be missing out on marketing to a huge segment that would like to receive your communication but was not excited enough to opt-in for it twice. That’s the biggest drawback to double opt-in – lost opportunities.
Regardless of where you stand on double opt-in, do not confuse it with permission levels. Generally, senders that restrict subscriptions to double opt-in adhere to the highest standards. (This could be why the double opt-in signup method has gained a reputation as the highest standard of email permission.) The knee-jerk implication is that single opt-in methods cannot maintain the same standards. That is simply not true. You can still maintain the highest standards of permission levels!
The health of the email program does not lie in whether you use a single or a double opt-in method. If you want to positively impact the health of your email program, focus your attention on these key areas: signup disclosure, relevance and frequency.
Signup Disclosure – Signup disclosure is incredibly important to your list health, but is often given the least attention. When creating a signup process, focus on aligning user expectations with the communications you plan to send. Make sure the process is clear and conspicuous. Set the right expectation regarding frequency and content at the very beginning. Many senders are reluctant to disclose frequency at this point in the collection process. Later, they find themselves struggling with elevated complaints. You can avoid, or at least diminish, this problem by using words such as periodically, frequently, weekly or daily.
A clear and conspicuous signup process also means that disclosure language cannot be in fine print or hidden in the privacy policy. Instead, it should be present at the point of collection. A preference center is a great way to capture interests and set the right expectation on what subscribers can expect to receive after signing up. A welcome message is another way to reinforce these expectations.
Frequency – Most senders struggle to find the optimal frequency for their subscribers. They are either too afraid or don’t have the technical ability to give this control to users. My advice? Stop trying to guess the right frequency for your list. Once, twice, three times a week? Who can tell?
Instead, improve frequency governance by shifting the controls from list level to user engagement levels. Set frequency based on where users are in their lifecycle. If they are actively responding to your communications, then it is likely they are happy with the frequency and content. If they are not responding to your communication, then allocate more resources to improving your content and making it more relevant.
Relevance – You can have the best signup and consent process and the best preference center in the world, but unless you can keep your message relevant, your subscribers will disengage over time. Segmentation through demographics and interests is a successful method for ensuring message relevance. Plus, it is generally easier to execute. If you segment based on user preferences, then it is important to frequently encourage users to update their preferences since these can change over time.
Behavioral – targeting is also a great way for you to keep your messages relevant, especially through predictive analytics. With predictive analytics, you can study user behaviors and model them against other users with similar behaviors. This can be a powerful tool to keep messages relevant over time. Making simple adjustments in your program can translate into increased performance.
Remember, opt-in is important, but if you want to make your list – and profits – soar, focus on signup disclosure, frequency and relevance.
2012 Email Marketing Predictions by David Daniels, CEO The Relevancy Group
In the column, “Innovations in Email,” I highlighted advancements that impacted the email industry in 2011. This time around, I’ll showcase trends and predict what the email marketing industry can expect in 2012.
1. The Mayan calendar ends, but email continues to show signs of life. As I have pointed out in previous columns, email’s death has been greatly exaggerated. Email will continue to be the top text-based communication tool that more than 90 percent of all Americans will use every day. Email marketing will remain a highly profitable activity for organizations. As a marketing tool, it shows no signs of slowing down.
2. More email marketers will embrace behavioral segmentation. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior and the marketer’s ability to digitally understand customer’s desires and actions begins with segmenting audiences based on click-based engagement. Our consultancy found that in 2011 more email marketers embraced segmentation than had done so in 2010. While click-through-based segmentation adoption increased only five points to 42 percent during this time, adoption of demographic-oriented segmentation jumped 12 points year over year to 61 percent. Overall, email marketer sophistication will continue to increase, placing more competitive pressure on what gets noticed in the inbox.
3. Cross-channel attribution and scrutiny on success measures will dominate our attention. The sheer fascination of launching social marketing campaigns will subside and the focus will rightly turn to the return on investment of those social efforts. Marketers will place more focus on the channel that drives the desired customer behavior and will weigh the value of the discreet email and social spends. For the last decade, email marketers have placed great emphasis on reporting and analytical features of their email marketing applications. In 2012, some vendors will reward their marketer clients with sleek new tools to measure campaign attribution across channels. Still others will turn to an emerging crop of ROI calculators and financial planning tools from email marketing agencies. For example, FulcrumTech just launched ROI-Goalsetter, a useful financial modeling tool for email planning and measurement. Email marketers will also become more focused on determining the value of their subscribers, but this will continue to be challenged by the lack of cohesive and standard success measures that we use as an industry. I expect and hope that we will see greater adoption of the Email Experience Council’s support for standardized metrics or the S.A.M.E project, and that more email service providers will participate in this measurement accuracy initiative.
4. Security, breaches, and legislation will increase in 2012. Unfortunately, 2011 was memorable for some high-profile data-breaches within email marketing and other industries. The sophistication of data hacking attacks is increasing. Unfortunately, there will be more incidents and they will be greater in scope. Congress will continue to give attention to national cyber-security and trusted identities legislation works its way through Washington. 2012 is an election year and I expect cyber-security will become an important and easy issue for politicians to get behind. Marketers should become involved in the dialogue and understand what is at stake, as security is everyone’s job. There are several excellent resources and non-profit groups focused on these issues including the Online Trust Alliance and government agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission.
5. Marketers will understand the penalty of mailing to dormant addresses. It’s no secret that large ISPs hate when email marketers blanket an array of dormant dead email accounts. As financial belts further tighten at legacy webmail providers such as Yahoo and AOL, there will be greater focus on blocking careless senders that mail to dormant accounts. Sending to dormant accounts is increasingly viewed as a cost center to these ISPs. Removing subscribers that have not demonstrated any behavior in over a year is not a best practice – it’s common sense. Marketer reputation will increasingly be measured by inbox placement; inbox placement is and will increasingly be determined by the sender’s list hygiene – active to non-active complaint rate. This may be the year when marketers become less focused on list size and actually prioritize lists based on the value and ROI they deliver. Regardless, if marketers get on board with cutting dead weight or not, the signs are clearly there from the receiver community that they have had just about enough of getting blasts to the cemetery of long-dead mailboxes.
I’ll check back around this time in 2012 to see how close these predictions came to becoming true. The key to finding success in email is developing a plan that incrementally increases your relevance with your audience, the sophistication of your own marketing skills, and following the data and measures that define your high-value subscribers. Best wishes for a successful 2012!
Millions of searches are conducted each day on popular search engines by people all around the world. What are they looking for? A number of major search engines provide a way to glimpse into the web’s query stream to discover the most popular search keywords or topics. These are:
AOL Hot Searches: Top current queries, or see those in the last hour, last day and within particular categories.
Dogpile SearchSpy: Choose to see either a filtered or non-filtered sample of top, real-time search terms from this popular meta search service. Sister site MetaCrawler offers a similar MetaCrawler MetaSpy service.
Google Trends: Allows you to tap into Google’s database of searches, to determine what’s popular. View the volume of queries over time, by city, regions, languages and so on. Compare multiple terms, as well. See our review: Google Trends: Peer Into Google’s Database Of Searches.
Google Zeitgeist: What people are searching for at Google and its associated specialty services in a variety of categories. There are versions for various countries, as well.
Lycos 50: Long-standing service showing top searches at Lycos each week.
MSN Search Insider: Top 200 queries on MSN Search (annoyingly in random order), top “movers” in TV, sports and music, and a “duels” feature pitting top queries in a race against each other.
Yahoo Buzz Index: Shows you what’s hot and what’s not in terms of search topics at Yahoo.
Google AdWords Keyword Tool: Enter a term or terms, the use the drop-down box to see the popularity of terms and popularity over time.
Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool: Formerly called the Overture Keyword Selector Tool and the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool before that, this free service is primarily designed to help advertisers who wish to select terms to target with ads on the Yahoo network. But you can use it to see how popular particular terms are.
Researching Keywords: For Search Engine Watch members, this provides an annotated rundown on key tools useful for search marketers needing to perform search research for their campaigns.
Search Term Research and Search Behavior: These categories of Search Engine Watch’s Search Topics area compile articles on the subject of how people search from across the web and stretching back to 1997. Available only to Search Engine Watch members.
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Small, medium and large businesses are keeping closer tabs on expenses today. Unexpected costs wreak havoc on even large budgets. Many enterprises are opting for the convenience and predictability of email hosting for business.
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