neither haste :: nor waste

If the Customers Not Ready to go All the Way with VoIP (Voice over IP)

August 31, 2008

Voice over IP (VoIP) is a new technology that is enabling converged voice and data solutions amongst early adopters and reducing long distance transport costs for service providers. Yet as we speak, resellers are replacing tired TDM equipment at enterprise customers with new TDM equipment, albeit with some form of data integration. However, VoIP is not irrelevant to the bulk of the enterprise market and resellers ignore at their peril today’s new upsell potential and the opportunity to gain a strategic foothold in tomorrow’s converged market space.

If you believe what you see on the television, it will not be long before your enterprise customer’s are running their accounting software on their telephones. While the power of such a proposition is debateable, the fact is that since the dawn of the information technology revolution, people have become used to making phone calls on one device and recording and processing information with another. We have been doing it this way for the past 40 years and while there is some momentum behind fully converged solutions among early adopters, it will be some time before the bulk of the market makes the move.

Having developed its VoIP gateway technology with service providers, VegaStream is now offering enterprise channels the ability to provide their customers with an opportunity to move into the VoIP world, at a sensible cost level, that enables the customer to retain its existing telephone infrastructure, and, indeed, to improve its ROI beyond the original business case.

VegaStream gateways can greatly reduce, and in some circumstances completely eliminate, intra-company call costs including line rental on multi-site, digital or analog enterprise networks. With the Internet as bearer of intra-site calls, the company’s sites can be round the corner or across the globe yet the costs and quality are no different.

The proposition is that simple and that powerful. The customer need not trash existing valuable infrastructure and re-invest. The customer does not need to change telephone numbers or current service provider. The customer does not need to retrain its users. Emergency service and geographic information services are not compromised, and if for any reason the IP network fails, the voice traffic reverts automatically to the TDM system using VegaStream’s unique pass through features.

As the customer becomes more comfortable with VoIP, there are opportunities to sell connectivity to one of the new breed of Internet telephony services and to open up the potential for sales of hosted applications and other managed services.

The greatest challenge to the reseller channel is finding new ways to up sell into its existing customers, and equally importantly, to secure new customers. The VegaStream gateway proposition is easily communicated and readily understood. The successful reseller can even avoid talking about VoIP altogether, and offer the customer simply the ability to save money for a modest capital outlay and zero disruption to existing operations. In a recent implementation, a VegaStream customer identified a 100% ROI within twelve months!

VegaStream has made a strategic commitment to building and educating a strong reseller community. The company offers a low risk, low cost entry into the VoIP space for reseller and customer alike. This entry point comes with a powerful, proven argument to reduce the TCO of voice communications today.

For more information please visit www.vegastream.com

Formed in 1998, VegaStream is one of the most experienced players in the industrial VoIP market. The company supplies gateway CPE to both traditional telecommunications carriers and the new generation of Internet telephony service providers. VegaStream also serves the enterprise market through a global network of distributors and resellers supported by regional offices in the UK, USA and Australia. VegaStream is a non-listed UK company. Investors include the management team, Pace Micro Technology PLC and MTI Partners. http://www.vegastream.com

HTC S710 - Fantastic!

July 22, 2008

Compared to some of the more popular products by HTC the S710 is boring. The S710 is basic but functional for the price. The styling of this handset is not what we would expect from HTC.

In terms of the the display the phone is fitted with a 2.4 inch screen, which, if you look at other phones you could get for the price is an average display. The display is a TFT, 65K colors. The S710 has support for 2G GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 . The S710 has an integrated 2 MP, 1600×1200 pixels, video camera. A WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML (PocketIE), browser allows this phone to be used for mobile Internet access. The HTC S710 is equipped with Polyphonic, MP3 ring tones along with a vibration alert. If the colour of your handset is important to you, you should be aware that this handset can be bought in, Black and Silver. With regards its size the HTC S710 is small and easy to carry. Weighing in at 120 g this phone is pretty light. This handset is bluetooth enabled making a great deal of devices compatible. A Li-Po 1050 mAh, battery is supplied with the HTC S710. On to battery cell usage the HTC S710 has 7:00 talk time and 175 hrs standby charge. There are also a number of additional features included with the HTC S710 such as, Built-in handsfree, Video/audio album, Voice memo, Java MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC player and Pocket Office(Word, Excel, Outlook, PDF viewer).

Although this is a pretty new model, the HTC S710 is up against numerous rival products. Because of this it is relatively easy to pick up a great deal on this phone. Due to the rise of the Internet it has never been faster or cheaper to buy a mobile phone. Ordering online can save you a significant amount of money, surprisingly, it is possible to get 12 months free line rental contracts on the HTC S710 , which may not cost anything to run.