Tag: hosted-pbx

  • Junction Networks Announces 10,000th Account

    Junction Networks has announced that MBLM NYC has become the company’s 10,000th customer of its hosted VoIP services. Following a merger, the New York-based branding firm chose to deploy OnSIP Hosted PBX service to "quickly deploy a complete communications solution and save on upfront investment."

    "When we merged with a larger company and needed to quickly deploy an additional 16 workstations, we decided to move from a PSTN Gateway service with Junction Networks to OnSIP, in order to save on upfront cost and get up and running quickly," said Olaf Kreitz, Partner, MBLM NYC.

    "We love that the service was easy to set up and also offers such a robust feature set. We did a lot of shopping around and found OnSIP to be the best value. The My.OnSIP feature has also become a fast favorite for us, as it allows each individual employee to manage their extension in so many ways," he added.

    OnSIP is available at an industry low average cost per user monthly of under $20 and offers a complete Unified Communications solution: hosted HD calling and conferencing, voicemail-to-email, instant messaging, presence, and more.

    "The addition of our 10,000th customer is a tremendous milestone for OnSIP and Junction Networks. OnSIP is quickly becoming the go-to hosted VoIP service for small businesses because it’s simple to use, a cinch to set up, and extremely cost effective," said Michael Oeth, CEO of Junction Networks. "We will continue to increase our service offerings and keep costs down to provide small businesses the benefits of an enterprise phone system for a fraction of the cost."

  • Hosted VoIP Solutions Provider Aptela Works with ClearSight to Resolve Network Issues


    Hosted VoIP solutions provider Aptela has announced that its working with ClearSight Networks’ Network Time Machine (NTM) to diagnose problems on customer and carrier networks.

    Matt Smith, vice president of technology and client services at Aptela, said the solution allows them to quickly and easily maintain network uptime and stave off unexpected outages.

    Since Aptela works with so many customer and carrier networks in addition to its own network, it used to be nearly impossible to pinpoint specific issues and their origins.

    He said NTM works like a metal detector for finding needle-in-a-haystack problems across all points within the network.

    "Now, with ClearSight’s NTM, we can take retroactive network data, pull up metrics on any call, and identify the source of the problem.

    "We are able to resolve issues and performance bottlenecks for our customers and carriers faster, more accurately and with less overhead."

    As a hosted-PBX and VoIP service provider, Aptela routes customers’ voice and data traffic via the Internet.

    For SMBs with limited IT resources and budgets, this method provides the benefits of a scalable and powerful VoIP system without the associated price tag.

    However, it also means that Aptela does not have visibility into the network hardware at each customer location. Smith said that using ClearSight’s NTM and pre-established metrics, the company now has greater insight and better visibility into any VoIP call, fax, email or phone registration over the network—and may quickly identify possible causes of latency, jitter and other call quality problems.

    Hosted VoIP services are on a strong growth trajectory, with a recent Infonetics Research report showing that the VoIP services market grew 33 per cent to USD $30.8 billion in 2008.

  • VoIP Solutions Provider Cypress Communications Expanding into Europe and Middle East

    INTERVIEW: Frank Grillo, Cypress Communication’s executive vice president of marketing, speaks to voip-biz.news about the company and its move into international markets
    voip solutions
    One of the US’s largest providers of VoIP solutions, Cypress Communications, is to announce shortly that it is expanding operations into Europe and the Middle East.

    After more than 20 years providing managed communication solutions to clients across the States, the Atlanta, Georgia-based company is to extend its network internationally.

    Frank Grillo, Cypress Communication’s executive vice president of marketing, told voip-biz.news that more than 80 per cent of its revenue and customers come from a very focused base.

    This comprises law firms and businesses in the financial services, commercial real estate and professional services sectors.

    voip solutions, frank brillo, cypress communications
    Frank Grillo,  EVP Marketing, Cypress Communications

    Grillo said the decision to move into Europe and the Middle East came as a result of a new client – a large US law firm of a similar size to Cypress’ anchor tenant, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.

    The full details are expected to be released by the end of March.

    He said a data center is to be established in London, which is to be the initial anchor point in Europe.

    But the expectation is that the expansion will continue.

    "We are extending the Cypress network into other markets," he said.

    "We will initially be marketing to our US customers and serving their needs in Europe and the Middle East."

    Targeting US customers

    Grillo, who was recently, announced as the winner of the voip-biz.news’ Person of the Year award, said focusing Cypress’ initial marketing push on US customers made sense since many existing clients, such as law firms, had offices in Europe.

    The company’s business model is to be modified in the new markets, with more reliance placed on partners.

    In the Middle East, that is likely to be as a network manager rather than as a true end-to-end provider.

    Grillo added: "But from the customers’ perspective, it will be the same."

    As a provider of managed communication solutions, Cypress supplies technology that includes:

    * IP Communications (managed VoIP)
    * unified communication
    * digital and IP phones
    * unlimited calling
    * business-class Internet connectivity
    * firewalls
    * security and VPN solutions
    * audio/Web conferencing solutions

    Grillo described Cypress as a "fairly unique creature", firstly because its experience of hosted PBXs stretches back to the mid-1980s.

    "One of our biggest core strengths is that we get what it’s like to manage desktop phones," he said.

    The second reason was that Cypress’ core customers are high-value employees that depend on a quality phone service for doing business.

    So Grillo said a lawyer charging a client USD $400 per hour expects excellent service when using the phone for an important call.

    "Our clients are people using the phone as their primary tool for doing business," he said.

    Leap of Faith

    Last month, Cypress announced that an existing client, Ascensus, was making the move to IP communications.

    Grillo said this was an example of how customers are willing to put their faith in new systems because of the creditability Cypress has generated in over two decades in the industry.

    In Ascensus’ case, putting its trust in Cypress’ hosted VoIP and hosted unified communications solution, C4 IP, extends to nearly 1,000 associates from six offices — including a 300-person call center.

    C4 IP offers features such as integrated audio and Web conferencing, multimedia collaboration tools,presence, chat and Microsoft Outlook integration.

    "While the technology was new, we were not new," said Grillo. "We were a trusted provided."

    That’s not the case with every provider in the industry, according to Grillo.

    He said the hosted VoIP marketplace has been damaged in the past by providers that he describes as nothing more than "two guys and a truck looking to make some fast money with a bare bones product and the appearance of low cost".

    He said there were only a few providers that offered the reliability and quality required – one he was happy to name was M5 Networks.

    However, Grillo said the current state of the economy meant that those providing poor service were unlikely to fare well.

    "There’s only so much appetite in the market for bad VoIP," he added.