Emerald City Law Jason's contract with their existing carrier had expired and the old T1 based service was expensive and the 1.5Mb of bandwidth was inadequate. The new high speed intent service will be based on Integra Telecom Broadband DSL which can provide up to 20Mb download speeds. The total savings is over 50% or $300 per month.

“I'm looking forward to consolidating all of these services into a single provider. Saving money, improving bandwidth and consolidating email and web hosting is something we've wanted to do for some time”, said Jason Anderson, owner of Emerald City Law Firm. “With an experienced partner like Caisson brokering the deal I feel confident the benefits proposed will be realized.”

“I'm always excited to work with small businesses and help them take advantage of the faster internet services and lower prices that are continually becoming available in the market place”, said Brian Wade, President and Lead Consultant for Caisson Technologies. “Helping firms like Emerald City Law drive productivity and improve their bottom line is our mission at Caisson.”

In the current slow growth economy small businesses are looking to create efficiency's and become more productive. New unified communications hardware and faster, cheaper connections to the internet can often be combined to produce higher output per employee and monthly savings that drop straight to the bottom line. As they say, “a penny saved is a penny earned.”

The ultra-competitive telecommunications marketplace can be a confusing place to navigate for small business owners and office managers.

Through March 31, 2012, phone and Internet business customers can take advantage of low promotional rates on Integra Telecom's flagship 10M Ethernet or popular T1 combinations, as well as dedicated data T1s.

As additional incentive for customers, you can offer a signing bonus, applied as an upfront service credit, for signing a 3-year term before March 15.

New Customer Promotions include:

Great news for northwest small and midsize businesses in need of phone and Internet services. Business phone and Internet provider, Integra Telecom just announced that it will offer its Business Connect Bundle promotion through February. Call us to jump on this.

Bundle includes:

• 4 - 8 voice channels
• T1 or Ethernet Solutions access bandwidth (contact us for pricing)
• Up to 50 DIDs
• Feature Package Plus
• ISP Package
• 250 voice conferencing minutes
• Up to 3 Toll Free numbers

How to deploy VoIP correctly

1. Choose a managed network. Integra Telecom has one of the best VoIP solutions in the Seattle area because they provide the phones, the Internet connection and the hosted PBX. They own all three of the components in the solution. With this control, they manage their network very well and trouble shoot quickly. Their solution is not cheap, however, and not catered to people with less than six lines and ten phones. Call me for more details: (206) 420-0140

2. Use VoIP as backup. Businesses decide to buy Integra's VoIP solution because they want a redundant (secondary) solution. Some choose it because they don't want to buy, manage and maintain a phone system. In both cases, the decision to purchase VoIP is based on operations, not cost.

In summary, businesses should not buy VoIP solutions or hosted PBX solutions that are delivered across unmanaged networks. It will be a frustrating experience. Instead, aim for products and services that help you sound bigger than you are, safeguard your professional image and boost productivity. Therein lies the power of telecom for business.

If you would like advice on the right solution for you, give us a call: (206) 420-0140. Or visit our Contact page.

Taxes. They're the bane of telecom pricing. Often an unexpected cost, they vary depending on your area. Here's how to lessen your tax exposure and direct more of your telecom dollars to your actual service.

Pipe voice services across the Internet

In telecom, voice services are taxed. Internet services are not. So, if you design your solution to deliver voice services across an adequate Internet connection, such as T1 lines or Ethernet Over Copper (EoC) you can lower your taxes by 50 - 70%.

Frank Catalano in his Geek Wire column this week, implies the importance of telecom to the acceleration of children's education in the U.S.

He explains that "digital technologies are changing K-12," and "in some cases education has leapfrogged consumer and business" [in this arena]. He writes that web-based education programs are among the list of technologies in this trend. And goes on to say that "existing limits of bandwidth" are a concern.

I asked Frank if by existing bandwidth limits he meant funding limits (i.e. schools with not enough money to get the bandwidth they need). His response was revealing: