8 Ways SD-WAN Improves Your Network

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SD-WAN securely connects multi-location businesses to enable high performance and reliable connections to cloud services for data centers and branch locations. SD-WAN aggregates bandwidth more effectively while providing greater control over the prioritization of applications at a considerably lower cost than traditional WAN solutions.

Here are 8 ways in which SD-WAN improves your network:

  1. SD-WAN gives essential applications, like VOIP services, priority over less important applications.
  2. SD-WAN saves money on access by tying together multiple low-cost bandwidth options and preventing downtime for users. A small business can lose a significant amount of money and large businesses even more.
  3. SD-WAN increases network security and data privacy with advanced included features.
  4. SD-WAN works across any combination of internet connections, allowing users to combine access types and achieve redundancy and increased bandwidth.
  5. SD-WAN dynamically optimizes traffic over multiple links. If one circuit is problematic, SD-WAN will automwatically use another, without interruption or requiring human intervention.
  6. SD-WAN gives you full control over policy decisions, like restricting access to certain websites and services, while ensuring bandwidth is available for business critical services.
  7. SD-WAN is fast and simple to deploy with zero touch provisioning. SD-WAN can be deployed in days, not weeks or months so your company can rapidly on-board new applications without the need for significant service updates typically required by MPLS.
  8. SD-WAN ensures uptime and redundancy and failover when using multiple access connections. It is simpler and more cost-effective than traditional WAN deployments.

SD-WAN solves connectivity challenges common to businesses everywhere, from poor application performance to outages. If you’d like more information on SD-WAN, fill out the form on this page and one of our representatives will get back with you quickly.

What Is Hosted PBX and Can It Save Me Money?

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Hosted PBX allows different small and medium-sized business to have a complex telephone system without spending any money on the telephone equipment. The hosted PBX is operated and maintained by the VoIP service provider. It empowers employees to work from anywhere such as their house, a hotel or even on a cell phone. Hosted PBX offers features such as the ability to transfer calls, have music on hold, set up conference calls or the phone can be answered by an automated attendant that can direct the callers to their desired department.

Hosted PBX has the capability of working with your existing telephone system or it can completely replace that system. It can be used with landlines, mobile phones, and VoIP services.  It provides the best telecommunication system for small and medium-sized businesses.  Hosted PBX not only provides the facility of routing calls but it also offers other enhanced communication features.  Apart from routing calls, it allows number sharing in an organization, meaning one business number can be used by multiple employees.  The Hosted PBX also takes care of the incoming calls that were not responded to immediately by the employees.  Additionally, Voicemail, fax, automated greetings, touch-tone menus, conference calls, call records, directory and automatic call distribution are all the amazing services provided by Hosted PBX systems.

Because it is a hosted system, you don’t need to spend extra money in the initial phase of buying the expensive hardware.  Similarly, you will never need to worry about the upgrade cost of this equipment. In contrast to traditional PBX services, hosted PBX makes this high-quality business technology available to even small businesses.

Hosted PBX phone systems are easy to operate and install, as well as being cost-effective for businesses of all sizes. From the one person independent home business that wants to appear to be large and prosperous to the corporation of thousands of employees that wish to make the most of the company resources,  implementing hosted PBX is the optimal solution. It provides all the necessary communication facilities to a business.

WheelHouse Solutions provides exceptional service to businesses of all sizes. Understanding how our clients’ businesses function, on a day-to-day basis, allows our team to design IT solutions that align with their vision and objectives.

We take pride in the many accolades we’ve received, from business owners, who are now thriving by utilizing technologies deployed by WheelHouse. It’s easy to recommend a technology solution, but WheelHouse stands behind our commitment to provide customized and scalable solutions that are as unique as each of the businesses we are proud to serve.  Feel free to contact us at 314-492-2506 or fill out the form on this page and we’ll work with you to develop a solution that will meet your needs now, as well as provide for future growth and flexibility.

Do You Have a Business Mobile Device Management Policy?

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In a recent article on mobile device management (MDM), CIO magazine makes the intriguing and pointed observation that “the mobile enterprise is the BYOD enterprise,” which may be the reason many businesses have been slow to implement comprehensive mobile device management policies. Unfortunately, a lack of such policies is unrealistic and fails to take into account the fact that employees are probably already bringing in their mobile devices, and using them, at work. The presence of such devices already brings possibilities, as well as security risks.

What Is Your Business Mobile Device Management Policy?

What is your policy on mobile device use in the workplace? Are your employees provided with company devices – and only allowed to use those devices while on the clock? Perhaps you allow limited use of mobile devices at the workplace, so long as they are not connected to the business network.  Be aware, that even such limited access can provide security risks, for example from employees using their cell phones to take screenshots or record conversations. Especially in light of ongoing security breaches, now is the time to be proactive.

What Should Your Policy Be?

Mobile device management refers to a number of software products currently on the market, which manage risk caused by the reality that people carry and use a variety of mobile devices. Mobile device management also includes an understanding on the part of employers that security and accessibility are reasons for concern – and the reason for possibility as well. Consider a policy of mobile device management which allows your workers’ maximum productivity, including the use of mobile devices for business functions, while minimizing your security risks.

Implementing Change

Change is hard, as they often say, but change can be good. When introducing a new mobile device management plan, or improving on the one you have in place, make sure to cultivate input from all levels of your organization. This way, you can better ensure acceptance and compliance, and maximize productivity by taking into account all the legitimate uses people have for mobile devices in your place of business.

Mobile device management means moving beyond acceptance, into the realm of actively utilizing mobile devices, with all the possibilities they can bring.

Making educated technology decisions defines business success in today’s competitive world. For larger companies, one wrong move can equal millions in lost productivity, hardware failure, and potential security breaches. For smaller businesses and start-up companies, technology guesswork is the fine line between closing the doors and establishing a creative edge in the market.

WheelHouse Solutions can provide the mobile expertise that your business needs. We have extensive experience planning and implementing complicated projects in a business environment. We’ll ensure that your project is managed effectively, analyzing and defining your needs and then creating a scope of work, including project goals and milestones. We’re experts at working with third-party vendors, to ensure that your projects are implemented flawlessly, on time and under budget.  Click here or call us today at 314-492-2506 for a free consultation.

5 Tips For Reducing Expenses In Your Organization

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Technology has become an essential factor in almost every business operation and now business owners are looking for ways to reduce expenses in their IT departments, in order to achieve greater efficiency for less money.

To do that, as a business owner, the logical action would be to cut back on your IT costs, but it’s essential to avoid sacrificing efficiency when reducing expenses.  With that in mine, here are the top five tips and tricks to reduce expenses in your business without compromising its efficiency and/or destroying value:

  1.  If you’re a small business owner, try to find alternatives to your traditional telephone service; if you’re using a land-line or a regular cell phone, you can switch to VoIP service and virtual phone lines. There are many options available that provide provide great flexibility and excellent value for the money, not to mention a serious cost reduction when it comes to communications.
  2. Use open source software. This is an excellent alternative to the commercial mainstream applications, especially if you’re a small business. The software related costs may cripple your business, especially in its inception phase, and open source software is very attractive, because it’s free.
  3. Use cloud services, instead of investing lots of money in hardware/software, especially if you’re a small business. Also, you should determine what you really need, the latest high-tech services is not always necessary and it may cost you an arm and a leg. And if you decide to perform an audit of your existing computers, you may find an answer about what’s really necessary for your line of business, hence reducing your technology expenses.
  4. You can try to negotiate with your existing IT contracts because IT services vendors desire to keep their clients happy and on board for as long as possible. Keep in mind that the competition in this area is pretty tight and you can take advantage on that. You can proactively ask for discounts, freebies, cost reductions or even negotiate a customized plan. In the end, it’s important to ask if you want to get any advantages.
  5. Reduce expenses with online business training. Being a small business owner, you can’t afford to travel the world in order to expand your experience, to participate in live training /educational conferences and the like. But, in the Internet era, you can use online business training for you and your employees. There are lots of free online business training programs and you can use them from the comfort of your office or even at home. With these options available for ongoing training, the possibilities for you and your business are endless, and your costs related to training will be significantly reduced.

If your business is looking for Managed IT, Cloud Services, Consulting & Support Services, WheelHouse Solutions has a staff of experienced professionals to deliver outstanding results. We provide cost-efficient managed IT Services, backed by a professional IT Staff, with experience in multiple disciplines. Whether you’re looking to augment your existing IT staff, or if your business wants to outsource all your IT services, we have a flexible solution to meet your needs.  Feel free to contact us at 314-492-2506 or fill out the form on this page and someone will get back with you.

What is SIP Trunking

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What is SIP Trunking is another question we get all the time.  Organizations of all sizes can save a fortune from this technology.  It is the protocol which makes VoIP work and provides dial tone for IP Phone implementations.   SIP trunking is a huge cost saver because it eliminates the need to buy expensive PRIs, local lines or gateways. It basically increases the effectiveness of VoIP and opens a new scope of establishing more advanced communication applications.

What is SIP Trunking

SIP Trunking is a process of directly connecting your organization with an ITSP (Internet Telephony Service Provider).  SIP Trunking is basically based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) which is a signaling communications protocol which rides down an internet connection. In addition to VoIP calls, SIP Trunking also offers other features such as desktop sharing, web conferencing, voice and video streaming applications, whiteboard sharing and much more. As many organizations already have an infrastructure for VoIP which has made the implementation of SIP Trunking easier.

How can I save money with SIP Trunking?

When it comes to SIP Trunking, you can buy SIP Trunks based on the number of concurrent calls across all locations.  For a multi-location customer, this could be a huge amount of savings.  Here is a quick example.  Say you are a retail organization and you have 5 locations with 3 local lines at each location.   So you have 15 lines total in your network.  However, you are really not on the phone that often.   You really only have 7 concurrent calls going on throughout your organization at any one time.  With SIP trunking, you can share and pool your lines to 7 SIP Trunks and cut your phone bill by more than 50% in local line costs!   This is one of the huge advantages of SIP Trunking. Expansion of SIP Trunks is dependent on bandwidth, which can easily be increased by adding additional capacity.

With SIP Trunking, you can get a virtual number almost anywhere in the country.  So if you are looking to expand, this could help ramp up the business in a new city.  Expansion of lines is dependent on bandwidth, which can easily be increased by adding additional lines.  SIP Trunking is used by IP-PBX’s or other SIP applications. Since a SIP Trunk goes directly into an IP Phone System, it can be achieved without using any TDM cards or other gateways. This saves a ton of money on hardware.

SIP Trunking can be a huge productivity gain as well as a huge financial windfall for organizations.  Make sure to safeguard that your setup is correct and with a reputable SIP Trunk provider.

If your goal is to save money and upgrade to SIP trunking, please visit our WheelHouse Solutions website or call us at 314-492-2506 to speak with one of our knowledgeable staff.  We would appreciate the opportunity to become your technology partner and help you find the best solution for you and your company.

Which Kind of Small Business Phone System Works Best For You?

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Finding the proper small business phone system for your own business isn’t necessarily a cut and dry process. If you want to upgrade to new phone technologies, you have to think of your own business structure and what you really need to help yourself grow. No doubt your small business is already on the cusp of growing exponentially, and you need the best telecommunications technology you can find.

 

Sticking with landline phones is frequently a big mistake at a time when even small business competition is intense. How can you expect to link up in real-time with all of your employees and customers if you rely on outdated equipment?

Owning physical phone equipment is already a major expense you don’t need. With the problem of setting it up, maintaining it, and upgrading, you’re wasting exponential time and money every year.

So if you’re convinced getting rid of landline phones and switching to an improved phone system is better, which one should you choose? Here at WheelHouse Solutions, we want to help your small business make a more educated decision on what can work for you.

Let’s look at small business structure examples and which small business phone system could help take your business up several notches in one day.

Helping Your Call Center

Maybe you’ve assembled a call center recently in your small business to accommodate phone orders for products. Yet, if you’re still using landline phones, you’re probably receiving big bills for all those calls, including international orders.

By using a VoIP system, you only have a flat monthly rate per month and can keep all phone data in the cloud for easy retrieval or usage. When dealing with customers, it’s vital and ultimately more job-friendly. Many of your call center employees can work in the field with mobile devices, or even at home thanks to the database being accessible anywhere.

Improving Communication on Business Projects

Having VoIP or even a hosted PBX system can help you immensely in your telecommunication capabilities with fellow employees. When you’re working on a time-sensitive small business project, having real-time communication with your team is vital to stay competitive. Both VoIP or hosted PBX options give you conferencing ability to connect in an instant, no matter where everyone is.

The best aspect is that with a hosted PBX system, you have continual monitoring to take care of issues. If you encounter a problem in the middle of a business conversation, you have quick support ready to help you.

Upgrades also don’t need doing because it’s taken care of automatically and remotely so you have the best security during calls. Your mobile employees in the field can additionally have some peace of mind when conducting business.

Integrating Landlines with New Technology

Technology like digital business phone systems can upgrade your existing landline phones when you want to keep equipment you have. This “one foot in the past and the future” mentality can work great for your small business when you expect to stick within a certain framework for the long-term.

When you start using cloud-based small business phone systems, however, scalability is quick and easy. You present a more professional edge as well that customers appreciate forming a new level of trust.

Visit us here at WheelHouse Solutions or call us at 314-492-2506.  WheelHouse provides reliable and cost-effective business telephone systems sales and service. We’ll work with you to design a business telephone system that will meet your needs now, and provide for future growth and flexibility.  We can help your small business make the right small business phone system decision for the coming year.