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.

Major Technology Merger Creates Excitement and More Options For Clients and Partners

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

St. Louis, MO – June 22, 2021 – WheelHouse Solutions, a leading IT consulting and managed services provider and Clarus Communications, a leading technology broker, both based in St. Louis, Missouri, have announced a merger with TDM (Telecom Decision Makers) of Louisville, Kentucky. WheelHouse managing partner, Chris Torbit, will assume the role of Managing Partner of the newly-formed organization, working alongside TDM’s Jeff Mead who will focus on revenue growth and managing the enterprise sales organization. Current TDM CEO, Robert Bowling, will serve as CEO of the combined companies.

For over 20 years TDM has provided data, traditional voice, UCaaS, cloud migration, wireless solutions, network design, procurement, and vendor management to large national companies. TDM’s solutions also include Resolve; full, ongoing, live-person support with 24×7 coverage. Resolve provides customers with a single point of contact for any type of support related to their services or equipment providers.

“TDM brings a considerable amount of national account expertise, as well as global clients to the newly-formed organization,” said Chris Torbit. “Collectively, we are a force to be reckoned in the IT and telecom space.”

Since 2001, Clarus Communications has been successfully helping clients make the best decisions regarding their phone service, phone systems, wireless, and data needs. After the merger is complete, Clarus Communications will continue to provide agent support, as well as pursue agent recruitment for all three brands. The combination of all three companies has over 750 agents nationwide.

“After working closely with Clarus and Wheelhouse the past couple years, it was clear that merging the three companies would strengthen TDM,” said CEO Robert Bowling. “Our customers will see the benefit through more solution offerings and improved service; our team members, agents, customers, suppliers, and prospects all benefit in this deal.”

WheelHouse Solutions provides outstanding sales and support to clients utilizing cyber security, managed IT solutions, cloud services, IT consulting, telecom solutions, and Microsoft products. Since 2000, WheelHouse Solutions has played an integral role in helping customers achieve standards compliance and maintain the integrity of their IT infrastructure.

The goal of the merger is to capitalize on synergies and to expand the breadth and depth of services offered to enterprise clients. All three companies will maintain their individual brand identities but serve different markets. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

For more information about WheelHouse Solutions please visit www.wheelhouse.solutions; Clarus Communications  please visit www.clarusco.com; and TDM please visit www.tdm.cc.

Contact: 

Tommi Davis
Director of Marketing
WheelHouse Solutions 

(314) 433-4819

The Evolution of TEM (Technology Expense Management)

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Previously known as telecom expense management, TEM has evolved as telecommunications have evolved. Instead of being focused solely on managing wireline and wireless telecommunications expenses, Technology Expense Management now includes all manner of a company’s networking technologies and services spend, including managed services, maintenance, hosting and cloud services. The complexity of these technologies has also increased the complexity in managing them. As these technologies become more complicated and expensive, many enterprise users have availed themselves of third-party TEM services, such as those provided by WheelHouse Solutions, to help manage some or all of these expenses.

TEM services can help an organization to order, provision, support and manage costs of large-scale corporate communications, associated IT services and their inventories. TEM services change as often as the company’s needs evolve, with fixed (voice and data) and mobile devices increasing and the incorporation of other services and communications-related asset tracking. These offerings include inventory tracking of cloud/consumption-based services; other IT-related services, such as unified communications and collaboration (UCC); voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP); and IoT expense management. They can also include software licenses, computer and Mobile equipment, desktop and mobile applications, managed services, online hosting, and cloud services.

Enterprises are seeking third party providers as the most cost-effective way of managing their technology costs. TEM Providers have structured their service capabilities in the following areas: Sourcing, Procurement and Vendor management; Ordering and Provisioning Management; Inventory Management; Invoice/Contract Management; Usage Management; and Dispute Management. These capabilities can be applied to Wireline Voice and Data, Mobile, Cloud, UCC, IoT, and other services.

Enterprises are moving toward outsourcing their TEM services to providers that use cloud-based TEM applications to provide fully managed services. They are also showing interest in vendors’ that can use a single platform to track services, costs and inventories associated with XaaS, Cloud storage, IoT and other digital technology assets. Data collected from our TEM service application can be used with advanced data analytics and business intelligence to perform strategic and tactical business decisions relating to an enterprises’ technology ecosystem. This includes investments, budgets, inventory contract negotiations, and process improvements. As more companies automate their services, this may also include Artificial intelligence and Robotic Process Automation.

Several factors are of paramount importance when selecting a TEM vendor. Among those factors are Pricing and Savings Guarantees; Performance, Delivery Capabilities and Service Level Agreements; System Scalability; Vendor’s prior experience; Service Delivery; Platform Evolution; and Merger & Acquisition.

WheelHouse Solutions is committed to providing our customers with the right mix of tools and services to, accurately and efficiently, manage their telecom and technology spend. If you’d like more information on Technology Expense Management, fill out the form on this page or give us a call at (314) 806-0622and we’ll arrange a demo to discuss how TEM can benefit your organization.

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.