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A Christmas Present from siptel for Woking YMCA - giving those less fortunate a Christmas dinner

Here a siptel, we're keen to do our bit to give back to the local community like many others of you out there.  Regular readers of our blog will have guessed that CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is central to our work and in our last blog entry, we looked at the donations made and charitable work that we'd offered throughout 2011.  Since writing, there's now one more to add to the list for December, when we gave visitors to the YMCA in Woking a Christmas Dinner.

The Woking YMCA does really valuable work, existing to serve the needs of the local community and to help young people build a future.  The local charity also runs a housing project for young people with low support needs and puts on events around Christmas.  Whilst for most people Christmas is a time to get together with family and friends, to enjoy lots of great food, not everyone gets the same opportunity.  With that in mind, we clubbed together and gave a specific donation to the YMCA so they could serve the less fortunate with a delicious Christmas dinner.

We will be continuing our CSR efforts throughout 2012 and offering support to the local community.  For more information on the Woking YMCA please visit the Woking YMCA website.  For more from siptel on CSR please read some thoughts from our Director, Steve Rasmussen - CSR: Company-wide employee engagement - the key to making it work.

Happy New Year to all, from the siptel team! 

03/01/2012

Taking time to reflect on a good year and giving a little back, now roll on 2012!

As 2011 draws to a close and the weather starts to turn wintery, here at siptel we've taken some time to reflect on what has been our best year yet since the Company opened for business back in 2003.

Back then, we were a small team, but now as we move into 2012, it has grown to a larger team and our turnover has continued to grow year after year.  We posted a blog in the summer to take stock of how 2011 was going; at this point, we'd completed some great new deals, secured some considerable repeat business from existing customers and also picked up some awards for Sales, Customers Service and Innovation.  Since then, things have continued to go from strength to strength.  The autumn saw us secure our biggest contract to date ... which meant we posted our best years results ever in our 8 years of trading.

Since day one, our main objective here at siptel has been to continue to grow at the same steady rate, whilst maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction, operating in an ethical and environmentally way and pursuing local activities and initiatives to support the local community.  However, after our sustained period of organic growth, we know that it's time to move into a new phase - we're in a strong position to start seriously considering company acquisitions - even despite the economic problems and constant talk of a second recession!

2011 has not just been all about growth and increasing turnover though.  We're in a position now where we can give back and this year, we've donated a lot of our time and resources to local causes.  We've donated equipment to the Guildford Sea Cadets Charity, donated prizes to Woking charity Link Leisure for their fund raising event and we've also joined a scheme with Job Centre Plus to provide work experience placements for young people.  Next year we're looking to continue with these CSR efforts, put even more equipment into local schools, where we can, and continue to operate as environmentally friendly as we can with our 'green' partners.

To all our customers, suppliers, and partners we'd like to say thanks for all your help and support this year, and wish all a very Happy Christmas and all the best for 2012.

The siptel team

01/12/2011

The future is fibre, Part II: Encouraging a level playing field across Europe

The ability to bring fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) will play a vital role in levelling the playing field and enable UK business to compete with global competitors already reaping the benefits of super-fast internet.

When we wrote in our previous blog on this topic, by taking fibre optic cable all the way to a company's actual office, ie bringing fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), UK businesses could potentially receive broadband at speeds of up to 100Mbps and greater, nearly 20 times the average broadband speed in most European countries.  And although it's still early days, a small percentage of Internet users in Europe have already proven that this kind of speed is indeed possible.

The UK needs to act to stay competitive with EMEA
Unfortunately though, according to some surveys, the UK is now ranked 33rd in the world when it comes to broadband speed, with an average that is nearly five times slower than South Korea.  At the moment, the country with the largest number of FTTP connections is Lithuania, with 18% penetration.  Sweden, Norway and Slovenia are above 10%.

However, despite all the UK government's doom-and-gloom spending cuts, broadband Internet actually looks set to receive some investment after Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, outlined the government's plans for greater access to super-fast broadband by 2015.  The government has already earmarked £530m for the scheme, with some of this money coming from funds given to the BBC to pay for the switch to digital TV.

The EU's digital agenda commissioner has long stressed the importance of the role that Europe's telecommunications groups will play in rolling out a superfast broadband network across the continent, especially as the Internet economy is expected to grow to EUR800 billion or 5.8% of Europe's gross domestic product by 2014, according to the EU Commission.  As such, the EU Commission wants broadband connections of 30 megabits a second to be available to all 500 million EU residents by 2020.

The Future
Despite these exciting developments across EMEA, there is still a way to go for the UK.  A recent study by the regulator Ofcom revealed that less than 1% of UK homes currently have a super-fast broadband connection (ie at least 24Mps).  Likewise, although the government's plans will extend fibre connections to 66% of the UK, only a quarter of this would be FTTP according to a report published by the BBC.  The rest would follow the slower Fibre-To-The-Cabinet (FTTC) model, similar to the government's "digital hub" plans, which does not guarantee a super-fast fibre connection all the way to a person's home or business.

Even so the government seems genuinely committed to improving the UK's record in this area, and the future looks bright.  After all, it's important to remember that web sites like YouTube didn't even exist six or seven years ago, and many SME's were still using dial-up Internet at the time.  Today nearly every business uses YouTube, either as a tool for posting videos online to promote products and services or simply to view content.  Since then, the need for greater and greater bandwidth has continued to expand beyond all expectations - and so why should the next 10 years be any different?

For all of these reasons, the message again for SME's is simple.  Businesses that want to stay one step ahead of the competition need to start asking questions and preparing for FTTP now, as it won't be long before these all-fibre networks will be an essential requirement for accessing the next generation of business-critical applications.

01/11/2011

How work-experience placements and apprenticeships can really help SME's like us

Here at siptel, we've been working with JobCentre Plus and have just taken on our first young person for an eight-week placement.  We're an official Work-Experience host, and provide on the job and office experience to young people looking to develop a career in the IT and technology industries.  A lack of understanding of the working world can act as a barrier for young people finding jobs, so the placement like the one we've offered helps to increase their employment prospects.  There's a clear benefit for the young person taking the placement on, but what about those offering the work placement?  Here are some thoughts from us for SME's on the benefits of work-experience placements and apprenticeships.

Find new talent
By taking on apprentices or work experience students, SME's can potentially access a hidden pool of talent.  Skills shortages are still one of the biggest threats to the UK business and young people can bring fresh eyes to a business, giving You ideas and a new perspective on what you're doing.  If it works out and you're happy with the apprentice or student, you may even choose to keep them on by offering them a job at the end of their placement.

Give back to the community
By supporting your community by providing local people work experience or signing up to take part in schemes such as the one we have with JobCentre Plus, where we've become a Work-experience host, you're able to help those that are struggling to get a job.  In light of the financial crisis that still lingers on, there are real struggles today for young people to find good jobs with career prospects when they leave school, college and now more than ever university courses.  By offering work experience placements or apprenticeship opportunities, SME's are able to contribute to a more sustainable economy.

Develop your current staff
When taking on a student or apprentice, you will need to provide them with supervision in the workplace.  This means that having the student or apprentice around is a useful training process for current members of staff.  Skills leant like good management and leadership, plus delegation and training are essential for those looking to progress in their careers, and can provide real long term benefits for SME's with lower staff turnover rates.

Raise your business profile
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is about understanding your impact on the wider world, and like we've said, taking on apprenticeships or work-experience students is a great way to help the job market and contribute to the economy.  But CSR is also recognised widely by awards committees, potential clients as well as potential employees.  By raising your profile through CSR, you provide a more rounded view of your company, making you a more appealing business to work with overall.

So, when you're thinking about whether to take on a work experience student or apprenticeship, remember it's not all about them - you're getting a lot from it too, and it doesn't need to be hard work to set up.  If you're an employer wishing to find out more about Work Experience and how your business can help young people, please visit JobCentrePlus 

01/10/2011

The future is fibre ... so what exactly is FTTP and why all the fuss?

Although high-speed fibre optic cables often provide the primary link between the telecommunications network and the customer that alone isn't enough to deliver a super-fast Internet connection.  The ability to bring fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) will play a vital role in bringing next-generation business-critical applications like web-based video to businesses, levelling the playing field and enabling them to compete with global competitors already reaping the benefits of super-fast Internet.

Hi-speed fibre optic cables are often used to provide the primary link to the network, and this "last mile" between the network and the customer's premises also has a vital role to play.  Why?  Because bringing super-fast broadband to a particular home, office or any other building is largely dependent on the last mile connection.  By taking the fibre optic cable all the way to the company's actual office - also known as bringing fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) - providers will be able to eliminate the interference and instability associated with copper cable.

In addition, by laying optical fibre from a central location (known as a switch) to a termination point (whether a home or a business), FTTP could potentially deliver broadband at speeds of up to 100Mbps and greater, which is nearly 20 times the average broadband speed in most European countries.

To illustrate what the boost in speed would mean consider this: a 100Mbps connection would make it possible to download an entire album in five seconds, a television show in thirty seconds, and a high-definition movie in just seven minutes.  Although it's still early days, a small percentage of Internet users in Europe have already proven that this kind of speed is indeed possible.

FTTP has enormous potential for businesses in key areas like SIP, Unified Communication (UC) - voice, data and video, Web 2.0 and Cloud based/Hosted solutions - areas that business are relying on more and more to promote products and services online to a global customer base.

FTTP for small-to-medium businesses (SMEs)

The world is moving towards higher bandwidth applications all the time.  According to figures released earlier this year, global IP traffic has already increased eightfold over the past five years, and will increase fourfold over the next five years.  For SME's in particular, FTTP will provide more robust Voice Over IP (VoIP) services (and associated features), as well as massive bandwidth for a wide variety of data and video applications.  It will also help to pave the way for the new broadband products and services that are simply not possible with today's communications infrastructure.

As 'cloud-based' applications continue to expand and develop even further, SMEs are going to require much greater bandwidth than what is available right now.  At the moment, fibre is the only transmission medium that will be able to satisfy these future demands.

In addition to super-fast broadband Internet, FTTP will provide SME's with the chance to develop highly interactive online content for their customers, as well as audio/video on demand.  SMEs will also be much better placed to share information and communicate with their home and remote workers via this new super-fast network.

FTTP for web-based video or Video over IP

With so much potential on offer, FTTP is expected to provide a "blank canvas" for technology innovators, which may prompt them to creat FTTP-based solutions that will totally revolutionise the way in which businesses use the Internet - especially in the area of web-based video, also known as Video over IP.

According to the findings from the latest market study Infonetics Research believe that enterprise video conferencing and tele-presence system sales will double by 2015 hitting the $5billion mark having already grown by 18 per cent in 2010.  Already, business videoconferencing traffic is growing much faster than overall business IP traffic, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41 per cent.

Clearly, web-based video is set to grow exponentially with companies all over the world adopting tools for web conferencing for regular meetings with their remote workforce, since applications like these can combine the power of video conferencing with the convenience of the web.

By using FTTP to deliver super-fast video over IP, companies like these can use detailed visuals, delivered over the web, to get everyone up to speed very quickly.  This approach can also be useful for brainstorming, since a company's most creative employees may also be based in different locations.

As FTTP reaches more businesses, this approach could even be used to present sales pitches.  Sales people could simply prepare an online sales presentation and then link up with potential customers all across the globe, in real time, via an online video link.  Shareholder and other senior management meetings could be tackled the same way, as FTTP will make it possible to host video conference calls online, add graphics (including charts and graphs) to the presentation, and even field required questions via an interactive Q&A session

For all of these reasons, the message for SMEs is simple.  Businesses that want to stay one step ahead of the competition need to start asking questions and preparing for FTTP now, as it won't be long before these all-fibre networks will be an essential requirement for accessing the next generation of business-critical applications.

01/09/2011

CSR: Company-wide employee engagement

The key to making it work - thoughts from Director Steve Rasmussen.

With ideas such as tree planting or effective recycling, it's become much easier for companies to understand and feel like their eco actions are making a difference, and therefore giving direct benefits to staff and stakeholders.

Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR is a term that touches every part of our lives today so selling the concept to your team shouldn't be an issue.  What companies need to ensure though, is getting everyone's buy-in, as it's a long term commitment that needs to be adopted fully, not just paid lip service to.  In 2010 we undertook an independent carbon audit to see how we were doing and the results were good.  This was shared amongst the team who are proud that they are all making a difference every day.  In showing staff the results of everyone's efforts this reinforces the good behaviour so people want to continue and get even better scores next time!

In addition, we've introduced our green credentials into our sales cycle.  We make the company's environmental commitment and status clear to all potential new customers at a tender stage.  With this approach working, our sales teams are converting more sales, which to them mean bigger commissions!  But they are also getting intrinsic rewards as they are helping our customers be greener in the process, and these customers are then helping their customers to be greener ... so the multiplier effect ensures this becomes a very powerful and motivating factor for our staff.

We're a technology business, and are always happy to offer assistance to customers to manage any redundant kit correctly through a WEE recycling partner.  If any kit is deemed not suitable for recycling, we look to donate surplus equipment to local schools and charities.  Our staff help to choose these, so there is the opportunity that their own children's schools could benefit, which is a big motivator.

In reality for CSR to work within your organisation you need to involve all stakeholders that your company deals with on a day-to-day basis - suppliers, customers etc - to really ensure you're hitting the mark.  Management leadership is important when developing higher levels of employee engagement, and vital to kick things off, but it shouldn't be essential throughout if you get it right.  Like when trying to introduce anything new you need initial leadership and motivation, but something like this can't just be top down - you need company-wide employee buy-in right from the start - it has to become an ethos and thought of as important as saving time and money!

Extracts of these comments from Steve featured in the August issue of the magazine aimed at small businesses, Making Money magazine http://www.makingmoney.co.uk/

01/08/2011

siptel beats off the 'big players' to land large global customer deal worth £3.5 million over 5 years

The siptel team is very pleased to announce that it has recently signed a new deal with a large, multi-national organisation to implement a solution within a large contact centre with 3,000+ contact-centre agents and supervisors across many countries in EMEA.

The initial roll out of the solution is over the next six to nine months, with a five year managed support contract.  siptel will be deploying leading-edge contact centre technology, an area in which siptel have specialised for many years.

"The value and longevity of the contract is yet another achievement for siptel", said Steve Rasmussen, Director at siptel.  Rasmussen continued, "The selection process was lengthy and rigorous, but siptel's tenacity and expert skills paid off.  We won against many usual names in the tender process, such as BT, Cable & Wireless and OBS, as well as manufacturers directly such as Genesys and Aspect.

01/07/2011

Six months into 2011 and it's already looking like another good year for siptel .....

2011 is again proving to be a good year for us all at siptel.  A major project completed with the Royal Navy, multiple award nominations with a couple of wins to boot plus we've just secured our biggest contract to date, a deal that's worth £3.5 million to us over 5 years - more on that in next month's blog.

Having secured major contracts from top global companies and Public sector organisations in Education and Healthcare last year, siptel has just completed its fourth project implementation with a successful international leisure travel group operating in more than 50 countries and employing 80,000 people globally.  On top of this, siptel was chosen to work with Atlas Electronik to provide a new efficient new communications system for its ships at the Royal Navy.

In addition, the second quarter has seen siptel short-listed for a number of business awards, recognised the company's excellence in delivering its customers with solutions that help improve their business.  Recent award successes include being short-listed as a finalist for the "UK Reseller of the Year" award at the Comms Business Awards 2011, a finalist for the National Sales Awards, a finalist in The British Excellence in Sales & Marketing Awards 2011 (BESMA) and also for the Customer Experience Awards 2011.

Commenting on siptel's string of recent award nominations, Steve Rasmussen, Director of siptel said, "It's fantastic that we've been recognised across the board again this year for our customer service, sales and most recently as one of the UK's leading resellers.  It's a real boost to the whole team that the work we are doing to help our customers' businesses is acknowledged.  The awards, plus the recent customer wins we have achieved really demonstrates the standard of excellence that we are delivering to all our customers across multiple business sectors,"

01/06/2011

Want to go green? You don't have to be a big business to make a difference ...

Here at siptel, we feel strongly that businesses should be responsible for their impact on the environment, whatever its size.  As an SME ourselves, we have taken significant actions to reduce our carbon footprint and become more conscious of our impact on the environment.  Last year, we partnered with Carbon Managers, taking pro-active steps to become more carbon conscious, and we're also working with RCS Recycling, taking on board their legal responsibility to ensure Waste, Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.

So how can you go green?  Here are some ideas for SME's that want to be more environmentally friendly.

Begin to change habits and mindsets
Businesses need to change their outlook to become conscious of their responsibility for their impact on the environment.  Simple measures like turning off unnecessary lights, PC's/printers overnight and recycling old equipment are a great place to start.

Find new opportunities
Companies such as Carbon Managers offer cost effective tree planting where offset can be based on the company size, thus making this a viable option for SME's.  With ideas such as tree planting or effective recycling, it's become much easier for companies to understand and feel like their eco actions are making a difference, and therefore giving benefits to staff and stakeholders.  Its a way of giving something back to the world, whilst providing a green strategy.  We help new and current customers deal with redundant kit correctly through our WEEE recycling partner, and if deemed not suitable for recycling, we look to donate surplus equipment to schools and charities which supports our CSR and community responsibilities as well as our environmental ones.

Get everyone involved.
By involving stakeholders and staff members in the process of going green, everyone can become more aware of the way in which companies and their employees interact with their local communities and the environment.  It's a long term commitment that everyone can and should be involved in.

Spread the word
Tell people about the steps you're taking and promote the achievements through your website and marketing material.  Make it clear to your customers; our Sales Team introduce the company's environmental commitment and status to all potential new customers at a tender stage.  Discussing the environmental options helps them know how they could be involved.

17/05/2011

siptel provides communication solutions for global equity firm's new German office

Extension of IP facility from London to Germany helps improve speed and cost efficiencies.

siptel has provided a leading growth equity firm with a communications solution for its new office in Germany.

The leading growth equity firm which provides capital and strategic support for growth companies, realised that communications across the sites was becoming increasingly costly, so siptel has supplied a more cost-effective, efficient system.  siptel already maintains and supports one of its offices, after project managing the London office relocation project for over 50 employees.  siptel was selected to assist with the German office installation, which had a legacy Siemens system in place.

"siptel's reputation proceeded them. having successfully installed a new IT system during the London office relocation and then supporting the IP network", said the firms IT Director.  "siptel's IP experience and consultative approach meant that they always had our business objectives at the forefront grasping immediately what was required.  The IT integration between sites has saved us a lot of money and it has also simplified business processes."

siptel replaced the legacy system and extended the Avaya Communication Manager IP facility of the London office to include the German office.  By installing  a data MPLS network to deliver a local survivable processor (LSP) from London's main switch to Germany, siptel enabled continuity throughout the firm in the event of the local area network failure.  This solution is also much cheaper than buying a whole new system as it uses London's licensing for a centralised switch.  Modular Messaging is now operating in London and Germany and there is also IP trunking back to the US.

"We are really pleased to be working with this firm again" said Steve Rasmussen, Director of siptel.  "As a huge firm with a global reach, it's essential that their IT system doesn't let the staff down and that the sites still function if faced with a crisis.  By having the same IP facility in both offices, they now have one efficient operation across the firm as well as on-going maintenance and support from us across both sites."

Due to the installation of the LSP, the Company no longer needs any administration staff in Germany and log-in access is fully integrated.  This means that employees can access the system in the same way, whether in London or Germany.

siptel project managed and engineered the IT solution for the Germany office, co-ordinating with siptel's local German partner.  siptel provides remote Tier 1 support and remote Tier 2 software support with escalation to Manufacturer Tier 3 and Tier 4 support whilst the local partners engineers provide onsite and hardware replacement locally.  siptel has been asked to provide a 3 year maintenance and support contract to the German office, just as it does for the London office.

01/05/2011

siptel's engineer completes the 2011 London Marathon and raises well over £1,000 for a great cause

The London Marathon is the largest annual fundraising event on the planet - runners have raised over £500 million for good causes since the race began in 1981.

Matthew Stone. one of the expert engineers at siptel, felt his initial challenge was to get fit to run the 2011 London Marathon, however he soon realised that having a goal to work towards would help him to stay 'on track' with his training sessions.  He decided to combine getting fit with raising money for charity, and chose the British Heart Foundation - a well-known and very worth charity.

Founded in 1961 by a group of medical professionals wanting to fund extra research into the causes, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of heart and circulatory disease.  Their vision is to live in a world where people do not die prematurely of heart disease.  They carry out vital pioneering research and prevention activity, as well as ensuring that as many people as possible living with heart disease get the quality care and support they need.

Matthew completed the gruelling 26.2 mile course in an impressive 4 hours and 31 minutes, also managing to raise well over £1,000 for the British Heart Foundation.  Steve Rasmussen, siptel's Director, commented, "siptel are delighted to be able to sponsor Matthew for such a worthy cause and congratulate him on his great achievement".

30/04/2011

SIP Trunking - What's all the fuss about?

Here at siptel, we're involved with SIP trunking installations on a daily basis, but as a relatively new and unknown technology, SIP trunking can be confusing if you're not that familiar with the term.

SIP trunking has been around for some time now and enterprises are starting to adopt it more and more.  With the right quality SIP trunking platform and set-up of the network, it's a proven technology.  But why is SIP trunking any better than its alternative solutions?  And what is it, Exactly?

According to good old Wikipedia SIP trunking is

"a VoIP solution based on SIP protocol.  This solution allows ITSP (Internet Telephony Service Providers) to give Voice Services and unified communication via IP access to business customers (companies) equipped with a private infrastructure generally based on IP-PBX (Private Branch eXchange technology in IP)."

Sill not clear?  Here are some thoughts from siptel Director, Steve Rasmussen, to explain the advantages it can offer:

It's cheaper

Rental is significantly less and you get free calls between sites with SIP trunking.  There's also no remote call forwarding charges and billing can be consolidated to one SIP provider.

It's more flexible

In a disaster situation, trunks can be increased really quickly, eg 1-30 in about 30 minutes, however with ISDN it could take hours.  You could also get flexible numbering, a countrywide business can all be represented by an 0207 London number, for example, regardless of specific location.

It's smarter

With intelligent routing, you can get call divert to any site or location almost immediately.  Sticking with ISDN means that all DDIs just go to one fixed number and it can take many hours to implement.

It's simpler

SIP trunking allows numbers to be moved from one site to another with very little programming, and it can also be changed online.

It gives you more options

There are many inbound services on SIP like automated attendance and voice recording that you can get whatever the location.

Things to remember ....

SIP trunks across the internet can be trickier to use - and you may often lose out on the quality of service.  So, in order for it to work, companies in the enterprise market can connect their own MPLS or Ethernet so that they can control not only the Quality, but also the Class of Service.

SIP trunks need a structured network to effectively replace ISDN services; ie multiple gateways, multiple soft switches at network level and multiple network links in organisation connectivity.  It's still sensible to keep a small percentage of ISDN to get an additional element of resilience.

01/03/2011

Moving Office? Don't tear you hair out - here are five stress-relieving tips to help you plan moving your IT and Comms equipment

Planning an office move, even if it is a seemingly simple relocation, is a pretty daunting task and nowadays it isn't just solely the office/operations manager's job to sort out.  You think that moving house is stressful, what about moving a whole communications system; internet, phones, server, PC's, let alone other things and most importantly, your team .... And what if it goes wrong - no phones or email for days, weeks, months?  We're all so dependent on our technology and with staff members working remotely and a "work anywhere" philosophy to maintain it's essential to get the communications part of an office move right, especially when it involves reconfiguring and often upgrading IT & Communication infrastructure.  Operations need to run smoothly and efficiently, and getting the communications (servers, phone lines, remote access etc) part of the office move is the most critical part, but can often be the most challenging.

IT and Communications are the lifeblood of any company today, so if communications systems are not working and phones are not ringing in your new office, then you can't operate, and you certainly won't be getting any new business and quite possibly will lose, or risk your existing business.  So, getting this aspect of your move wrong (ie delays and downtime) can have dire operational and financial consequences for your business.

Here are some points to mull over:

1. Relocation Planning and Preparation - Start planning early and get a member of the IT team involved so that all data is backed up etc.  Then, inventory all equipment and service agreements, work out what else you need, what else needs replacing etc.  You don't want to move old kit, that's on its last legs, but you don't want to get rid of anything you still need.
   
2. Site visit and detailed checklist - Go and check out how many phones it has, how many ISDN lines?  What's the broadband speed?  How many servers does it hold/do you require? etc.  Go and look at the new place thoroughly (more so than if it were a new home) and work out where everything's going - power outlets, telephone and computer points.  And take photos.
   
3. Consider what your Telephone, IT & Data requirements will be - Contact service providers to keep old phone numbers, work out what needs to be installed.  Make plenty of back-ups of all data and create a detailed Continuity Plan, including plans for admin and finance operations, so there are as few hiccups as possible.
   
4. Preparing for the big move - Clearly label all equipment including phone lines and cabling.
   
5. Testing, Testing and then more Testing - Triple check everything is where it should be and everything's worked out correctly, checking with staff members for feedback and then check again before you reopen for business.

01/02/2011

It’s now just as important as ever to keep investing in your business and your team…

Although looking back 2010 will be seen as a tough year for most businesses of all sizes across most sectors, in our view, it’s even more important than ever to invest in improving your business and the way you operate. Companies will of course be looking at ways to trim costs and streamline operations where possible especially in such a tough economic climate, but at the same time they should also be looking to provide customers with the best possible solution and the best customer service. At siptel, this is no different, and with the company growing significantly with turnover increasing exponentially each year, and the employee headcount increasing too, we went back to basics and asked ourselves some simple questions:

What are our Business Aims for this Year? What Skills do we need to support these aims? and What is the best framework for achieving these aims?

Having gained significant new customers, extended our relationships with existing customers, and picked up some Awards too, we started to look internally at how we could improve the way we ran the company and develop the team, and with that the service and the increased business. First off, we identified the “Investors in People” (IiP) standard as one which would help us to both to measure and improve our business performance further and address any challenges now and in the future. The IiP accreditation is a valid benchmark for SME's in that it commits you and to your team as a whole to measuring and setting targets both for your business performance and for your staff, and that tied in nicely with our company ethos of Communication, Trust and Vision. It’s a fairly rigorous process, particularly for a smaller firm and does need an initial commitment in terms of time and resources, especially given the focus we have on our customers 24/7, but it’s been well worth it, was well received by the team and has helped us to identify ways of raising siptel’s performance as well as providing a practical and reliable framework for continuous development for the business and our people.

Following quickly on the heels of the IiP, we also put ourselves through the ISO 9001 standard – this is the internationally recognised standard for the quality management of businesses for its processes that create and control the products and services. With many advantages to implementing a Quality Management System, including staff motivation by defining key roles and responsibilities, as well as cost savings which can be made through improved efficiency and productivity, getting this standard shows that we at siptel are committed to the quality of our work, our customers and staff, and is a testament to our commitment to work towards improving efficiency for the benefit of our customers.

Additionally, during the year we partnered with Carbon Managers to take proactive steps to become more carbon conscious and improve our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and have also started working with a recycling partner, RCS Recycling.

Finally, in order to maintain steady growth, and support all the internal work that we’ve done, we’ve actively increased our Marketing and PR activity to get siptel’s name and message out to a wider audience of decision-makers.

So all in all, it was a pretty busy 2010, but a vital one in terms of our business and planning for the future and our continual improvement and growth. We’ve chosen to re-assess our business and invest in the team and develop our processes and service with that, as opposed to sitting tight! We’re very proud that in doing so we’ve generated the energy, motivation and confidence in the business that will be the key tools in keeping us competitive in a recession and we are on target to grow again in 2011.

Happy New Year to you all!

01/01/2011

Cisco TelePresence

Cisco TelePresence meetings incorporate high-quality spatial audio and life-like video at low latency in a specially tuned environment. The experience is as good as actually being in the same room with the other participants.

Cisco TelePresence systems provide compelling, innovative, and easy-to-use collaboration applications, a secure, reliable architecture and a low total cost of ownership. They use the latest standards and technologies, including:

• Native 720p and 1080p high-definition cameras and encoding/decoding
• H.264 video codecs to offer the highest quality and lowest bit rate
• Session Initiation Protocol
• Low-latency architecture and low-bandwidth utilization
• Wideband advanced audio coding with low delay (AAC LD)
• Multichannel spatial audio with echo cancellation and interference filters to eliminate feedback from mobile devices
• Optimized environmental conditioning to provide the best audio and video and overall user experience
• Full media and signaling encryption with no discernable latency to the Cisco TelePresence call for up to 48 segments.
• High-definition video recording to deliver rich, immersive messages
• Interoperability with standards-based H.323 video conferencing systems and other standard-definition and high-definition (HD) endpoints

01/12/2010