21C Data Solutions

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Tony Sansom

Getting a fast and reliable data solution can give your business a competitive edge. It enables you to take advantage of the latest technology, both in IT and telecoms, to make your business more flexible and agile.

With 21C Telecom you are not limited to one product and can utilise a number of different connectivity services to provide a complete solution.

Data products available

The most basic data product is ADSL broadband. The A in ADSL stands for Asynchronous which means the upload and download speeds are different. Typically the download will be 5-10 times faster than the upload.

For small businesses a standard broadband service will suffice for a few users accessing email and internet. Download speeds will vary depending upon time of access etc.

Where there are more users or extra services using the data connection, such as VoIP or hosted IT/telephony, a faster and more reliable product is more appropriate.

EFM (Ethernet First Mile) is the next step in connectivity. It uses a combination of copper and fibre optical cabling to provide a dedicated broadband connection offering a guaranteed speed for both upload and download.

We offer a range of EFM packages with guaranteed speeds from 2MBps to 20MBps to suit small and medium sized businesses. This is an actively managed service for both the EFM and router, giving greater reliability.

EFM is becoming more affordable for small to medium sized businesses and is a better option than broadband where data is business critical.

After EFM the next step up is a leased line. Ethernet leased lines are delivered using fibre optic cables all the way in to your premises and offer a guaranteed service. These high availability reliable circuits can deliver speeds from 2mb all the way to 1gb of 1:1 uncontended bandwidth to the internet.

For large businesses an MPLS service (Multi Protocol Label Switching) allows you to link multiple locations together in a secure and private network. You can use any of the above connectivity products for each location and can mix and match depending on your requirements.

You may need a 1:1 high availability Ethernet leased line to your head office, ADSL broadband to your branches and a Co-Location facility to host your servers. You may need none of the above and want to link two home workers to your head office.

Putting together the right data solution for your business is where we excel and can bring maximum value. Investing in the best data connectivity available will bring you real rewards moving forward.

Posted in Broadband, Data Solutions, EFM, Ethernet, Hosted Services, MPLS, Mobile Broadband, Solutions, Unified Communications | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Derby business phones

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Tony Sansom

For those that don’t already know we have opened a new office at Pride Park, Derby. This represents a considerable investment for the company with 13 new employees, mostly focused on sales and generating new business.

Our field sales team are spending a lot of time canvassing businesses around their Derby base and throughout Derbyshire offering a free review of any of their phone services (mobile, landline or data connectivity).

As well as looking at cost reduction we are also keen to sell solutions to problems that local Derby businesses often face and to put together bespoke telecoms packages that you won’t find elsewhere.

Providing local companies with cutting-edge technology enables them to increase productivity and empower their workforce with flexible working options. Combining mobile, landline and data to work as a seamless communications channel will give your business a competitive edge in its sector.

In addition to standard landline and mobile contracts we are seeing a lot of interest in VoIP and hosted solutions. These are definitely the future and, if planned properly with the appropriate data connection, they can offer many benefits over traditional telephony.

Reviewing your business phones

If your business is based in or around Derby then it is likely one of our representatives will be in your area soon to talk to you about how we can help provide you with a better (and cheaper) telecoms service.

Don’t wait for us to contact you, give us a call on 0115 944 8977 to arrange for a free review.

All we need from you is a copy of your latest bills, some background to your business and details of any problems you are experiencing with your current supplier or set up. From this we can prepare a detailed report showing you savings and improvements.

The whole review process doesn’t have to take long or disturb you running your business. It can be undertaken at any time during your contract as it sometimes makes good financial sense to buy out your current contract to move to one on more favourable terms.

Posted in Business Phones, Cost Reduction, Derby, Derbyshire, Flexible Working, Landlines, Mobiles, Solutions, Tariffs, Telecoms | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

Reduce your business landline bills

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Tony Sansom

Of all of the services we offer, our business landline tariffs can provide some of the best savings against your current provider. All we need from you is your latest bill in order to provide an analysis and prepare a cost saving report.

We will look at your current call destinations (local, national, international, premium rate etc.) and the number of minutes to each and feed the information into our dedicated analysis software to produce a comparison between your current payment and our best rates.

Because we have our own billing engine we can tailor tariffs to your specific requirements meaning that it is likely we will be able to beat your current supplier. These savings can amount to considerable sums for larger spending customers.

Don’t take our word for it, give it a try by sending us your latest bill. The service is free and entirely without obligation. It is open to businesses large and small throughout the UK.

Send your bill:

We look forward to hearing from you and saving your business money on its landline bills.

Business Landline Services we offer

We offer a full range of landline services to business including:

  • Line rental (analogue PSTN and digital ISDN)
  • Call charges
  • Phone numbers (geographic, non-geographic, memorable/golden)
  • Phone systems and handsets
  • VoIP
  • Hosted telephony
  • Call management and call recording

A free landline review can just look at reducing your call costs or encompass any or all of the above services.

In addition to looking at cost savings our landline review will also focus on areas where communication can be improved, particularly via the use of new technology. Combining your fixed and mobile systems together can provide much more flexible working for your employees.

This will drive productivity higher and make your business more competitive.

Posted in Business Calls, Business Phones, Cost Reduction, Landlines, Small Business, Solutions, Tariffs, Telecoms | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Reducing telecom costs in 2012

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Tony Sansom

Make 2012 the year that your business improves its communications and simultaneously reduces its costs. Start the new year with a full review of your telecoms infrastructure encompassing a full range of products and services:

  • Mobile phones
  • Landline costs
  • Call management
  • Phone systems
  • VoIP and IP technology
  • Broadband & data
  • Vehicle tracking
  • Employee management

Our free review will look at your current telecoms usage, how you would like to improve your communications (both internally and externally) and offer advice and guidance with regards to new technology which could advance your business.

Benefits of a single supplier solution

Do you currently have different suppliers for each strand of your communications? This could leave you paying more overall for your services, not to mention being more complicated in terms of administration and particularly problem resolution.

It also means that the individual products supplied may not be the best options to work together and provide you with an overall communications solution.

At 21C Telecom our mission is to get you the best deal in terms of price on the products you need, to provide you with the best package to meet your requirements now and in the future. Flexible and scalable solutions mean that your business can expand at its own rate without having to worry about its telecoms.

Independent help and advice

Telecoms technology is moving at such a pace and there are many new and different products, particularly IP and hosted services, which make choosing the right one much more difficult.

Rather than focus on specific products we focus on delivering an overall solution that works, as well as being reliable and cost effective.

Because we are not tied to one supplier or product type we can offer you a comparison of the different options available to you, where appropriate, and give you independent help and advice.

As converged communication providers we can provide end-to-end solutions which ensure optimum delivery. Our knowledge of business telecoms, gained over the last 15 years, gives us the expertise to put together the ideal packages for businesses of all sizes across any sector.

Posted in Business Calls, Call Management, Cost Reduction, Tariffs, Telecoms | Tagged , , | Comments Off

A new website for Christmas

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Tony Sansom
  • Is your current website looking tired and in need of a facelift?
  • Is it performing up to expectations and providing you with extra business on a regular basis?
  • Or have you yet to take your business online?

Treat yourself to a new website for Christmas and start 2012 with a fresh look and the right structure to get your business new customers.

Christmas is the ideal time to take a look at your website and how it’s performed over the year. For many businesses outside of the retail sector Xmas is a quiet time and this will allow you the time to put together new content and ideas to make 2012 more profitable.

What type of business needs a website?

The answer is that ALL businesses need a website in this day and age. They are not just for trading online but they give your business credibility and a properly designed and optimised site WILL get you more customers no matter which sector you occupy.

Getting your business online does not need to be complicated or expensive, we have a range of packages starting from £12 per month with no up-front fees. We just need you to provide us with a little content and we’ll do the rest.

At £12 per month it is an incredibly cost-effective form of advertising when you consider your new website will be available worldwide 24/7 displaying your products and services.

Is your current website performing well?

  • Is it meeting expectations?
  • Do you know how it is performing?
  • Do you have access to statistics to show you how many visitors are coming to your site and how they are using it?
  • Is it generating business/leads/enquiries?

A facelift for your website aimed at turning more visitors into enquirers can be done quickly and cost effectively. You will also get access to a comprehensive stats package to show you how the improvements made are impacting your business.

Ongoing promotion for your business is available via various packages of search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). These can be tailored to your requirements and budgets.

Want a new website for Christmas? Contact us on 0115 944 8977 for pricing, free help and advice.

Posted in Website, Website Hosting | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

Business Benefits of SIP Trunking

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Tony Sansom

Compared to ISDN, a SIP Trunking solution is cheaper on a per channel basis, more flexible in terms of what telephone numbers you can have and where you can have them, is quicker to install and offers a very robust business continuity service that ensures your business never loses calls.

The service can support connections ranging from two channels for businesses with small PBXs to no limit on the number of channels that can be supported for large enterprises and contact centres.

SIP Trunking Benefits

Flexibility with your phone numbers: allows you to move office and keep your same geographic number without any ongoing call forwarding costs and costs associated with new company stationery.

Business continuity: if your office has to be temporarily relocated in an emergency, this can quickly and cost effectively be achieved with SIP Trunking.

Line rationalisation: for businesses with multiple sites, SIP Trunking provides ISDN line rationalisation options and reduces the number of PBXs you need to maintain – all with full control of the numbers associated with your business.

Save money: IP connectivity costs less than ISDN with lower call costs, free internal calls between extensions and offices (including international calls) and lower line rental costs for multi sites. Also, no expensive call-forwarding costs are required should you relocate or need to divert calls in the event of a disaster.

Resilience: a phone service that will cope with any situation and give you 100% up time on your telephony. Whether you need to keep your business running without expensive call forwarding costs in a disaster or emergency or you need to load balance your calls between sites during peak hours, SIP Trunking delivers.

Premises or cloud based?

Your PBX can be located either at your company site or housed within a managed co-location centre provided by your service provider where you do not need to be concerned about space, power or support engineers to look after your PBX. Either scenario is possible, and for added resilience and flexibility you may wish to use a combination of both support models.

Multi-site rationalisation

Does your business have multiple sites? Do you have an ISDN connection into an individual PBX at each site? Using SIP Trunking you can reduce the number of ISDN connections that your business requires and also reduce the maintenance costs on all of your various PBXs. At the remote sites you are left with just the cost of an IP connection and the handsets that you need and you can then pull all the telephony traffic back into your centralised PBX.

Added to this you are also increasing your resilience because you can build into your communications strategy for lines and calls an automatic fail over system should your main site go down. With SIP Trunks you can instantly centralise and distribute the calls somewhere else, to another site or to home workers for example.

Posted in Business Phones, Call Management, Communications, Landlines, Phone Numbers, Phone Systems, SIP Trunks, Solutions, Systems, Telecoms, Unified Communications, VoIP | Tagged , | Comments Off

Horizon Unified Communications

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Tony Sansom

Easily control your fixed and mobile telephony

Horizon is a hosted telephony service for business that provides an extensive range of fixed and mobile telephony capabilities via an easy-to-use web portal. The service allows you to easily manage your environment whilst enabling your employees to maximise their productivity.

The service has lots of clever features and an emphasis on control and administration through the web that takes the burden away from your IT team. For administrators, you can quickly configure the system according to your organisation’s changing requirements, while your employees can manage calls easily and effectively.

With only a minimal capital outlay required, a reliable and proven service, and a jargon free approach to telephony and communications, Horizon is suitable for any sized business looking to improve their productivity and image.

The benefits of Horizon

Features you can easily control – Horizon puts you in complete control of your phone system and is provided with an extensive range of call handling and management features, all operated through an easy-to-use web interface

Empower your staff with ‘one number anywhere’ – Horizon conveniently integrates your fixed and mobile capabilities so that you never miss a call. Callers dial one number to reach your desk phone and mobile phone simultaneously; you can move ongoing calls seamlessly from one phone to another without hanging up and both phones share a single voicemail box.

An on-demand service with no hidden costs – As Horizon is hosted on your behalf, you only pay for what you need on a simple per seat basis. As you are not buying a PBX, there is no major hardware investment and there are no financing costs to consider.

Lower call costs – All the cost benefits of IP Telephony including free site-to-site calls (even across international boundaries) and cheaper call rates. If you use Horizon together with our mobile services you benefit from incredibly competitive rates for calls between your fixed and mobile devices.

Enables flexible working – Horizon helps businesses become more efficient by enabling flexible work environments through hot-desking, home working, and extending the service to mobile devices.

Number choice – You have total flexibility with the numbers you want to use. You can keep your existing numbers or get new numbers. Extend your business reach and use any local area number no matter where you are located. Have a London number in Leeds!

A business continuity solution – Unexpected events such as snow, floods or strikes won’t disrupt your business. Because Horizon sits in the “cloud”, the service provides business continuity features that allow your organisation to carry on making and taking calls.

Posted in Business Calls, Business Phones, Call Management, Cloud Computing, Communications, Flexible Working, Hosted Services, Landlines, Mobiles, Phone Numbers, Phone Systems, Solutions, Telecoms, Unified Communications | Tagged , | Comments Off

Top 10 tips to reduce roaming charges

Posted on November 1, 2011 by James Eyre

When roaming abroad, please follow the 10 tips below to keep charges to a minimum: 

1)      Avoid making and receiving unnecessary phone calls

2)      Keep necessary call lengths to a minimum

3)      Avoid calling premium rate numbers (0844, 0845, 090, 118 etc.) – these cost even more than usual when roaming

4)      On smartphones, disable data roaming, or individually bar applications from using data in the background (the method for doing this varies from handset to handset, however, on most phones, to disable data roaming, the option can be found under network settings, application settings can usually be found either in the applications themselves or under applications in settings)

5)      Avoid sending large volumes of SMS messages, as these are usually charged out of bundle at a more expensive rate when roaming

6)      Turn off push email and set to fetch manually instead, so that emails can be picked up when a Wi-Fi connection is available (this can be done within the email settings, for each account. On some phones this falls under the settings for sync or reconciliation)

7)      Use Wi-Fi networks where possible for picking up emails, updating apps or web browsing. Many restaurants, coffee shops, bars, airports etc. have free public Wi-Fi

8)      Don’t allow friends, family etc. to use your SIM in their smartphone (they may not realise they have background applications that may use data)

9)      If it is essential that you access websites using your mobile data connection, use the mobile versions where possible (on some phones this is an available browser setting, most websites will load the mobile site by default however)

10)   Avoid opening large attachments on emails whilst using mobile data (wait until connected to a Wi-Fi network for downloading attachments to avoid high data charges)

Posted in Data Solutions, Mobile Broadband, Mobiles, Roaming | Tagged , | Comments Off

A free website for your business

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Tony Sansom

Getting your business online need not be complicated or expensive. For small businesses we are offering a free business website – no up-front costs, you only pay for monthly hosting and email.

Free business website hosting and email prices start from £12 per month. For this you will receive the following:

Your own .co.uk domain name

It’s incredible how many businesses are still using hotmail and similar addresses instead of having their own identity. Emails sent to and from addresses @yourbusiness.co.uk give you credibility and increase trust with potential new customers.

A new business website

A professionally designed website can generate more business for you. One of the first things many people do when looking at who to do business with is to try and find out more about them online. Your website can provide them with all of the information they need as well as pointing them towards making an enquiry to you.

500MB of webspace

The space needed to store your web pages. Most small websites (1-20 pages) will be OK with 500MB. More space may be needed for video/large file storage.

500MB of bandwidth

Data traffic from your site. Small websites with an average number of visitors will be OK with 500MB. Larger traffic sites may need more.

Email for 1-10 users

Email hosting for up to 10 users – eg. sales@yourbusiness.co.uk, accounts@yourbusiness.co.uk, yourname@yourbusiness.co.uk.

In addition you can choose extra services such as SEO (search engine optimisation) and managed pay-per-click marketing. We have packages to suit most budgets.

As websites vary widely we quote individually for every project. For a simple 1-page website with all of the above the cost is £12 per month with no up-front costs.

If you are already online but unhappy with your current website, either in terms of design or results, contact us for a tailored quote to take over the website hosting, make any necessary changes and promote it for you to generate more visitors, more leads/enquiries and ultimately more sales.

Posted in Small Business, Website, Website Hosting | Tagged | Comments Off

Measuring your business success

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Tony Sansom

Ultimately, the profit your company makes is indicative of your level of success. However, could you be making more profit? Do you have the necessary information to hand to be able to make the right judgement calls to streamline your operations?

Telecoms is one area where you could be saving money by obtaining the best tariffs. In addition, with the use of new mobile and landline technology, you are better able to monitor and measure key business metrics and drive efficiencies and savings.

For instance, do you have systems in place to measure the number of missed calls? Every missed call could be a missed sale or opportunity.

Are the calls you receive always routed to the best person to deal with the problem in question? Getting the right person to answer and solve the problem first time eliminates wasted time in transferring calls and taking messages.

Answering all calls and improving response times will lead to greater customer satisfaction and retention.  This in turn will lead to repeat business and new opportunities through recommendations.

Cost/benefit analysis

Whilst the benefits of improving your communication structure can be huge, the costs don’t have to be. In fact for many businesses the use of new technology can still be incorporated into a package that SAVES them money each and every month.

The speed of technological advancement in the telecoms sector is rapid and competition is driving prices down, making features that were once only the domain of corporates affordable for small and medium-sized businesses.

For instance, fully-featured phone systems would involve considerable up-front cost in terms of purchase and installation. As an alternative a hosted VoIP solution will give you all of the features but with no up-front cost or ongoing maintenance. You only pay per user for the features you need.

There are also an increasing number of products aimed squarely at small business users. Take Vodafone’s One Net Express, for instance, which is ideal for a single user who spends a lot of their time out and about working.

For larger businesses, telecoms advancements make flexible and home working easier and can empower your mobile workforce. Data solutions encompassing all of your sites and providing fast, resilient connectivity can give you a future-proof (within reason!) network.

To ensure you get the very best advice relating to new telecoms technology you should consider a free review of your current telephony. Certainly if you are coming to the end of either your mobile or landline contract you should look for alternative quotes, but even if you are still in contract an alternative solution can be put in place.

If you are dealing direct with a mobile network or landline provider such as BT you are unlikely to get an overall telephony view or integrated communications strategy proposal. This comes from an independent consultancy dealing with a full range of telecom products and services such as 21C Telecom.

Our aim is always to enhance your current business success through the use of new technology and the best package options for your business.

Posted in Business Phones, Call Management, Communications, Solutions, Telecoms, Unified Communications | Tagged | Comments Off