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Questions? Call 1-888-300-6600 or email us.
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Business Communications News June 2006
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News you can use every month…
Keep up with technology,
telecom and networking. Learn about new ways to communicate with your
customers, partners, and customers.
This month, get tips on how to prepare for
the Hurricane Season and Bird Flu, and we update you on Universal
Telecommunication's new address after Wilma! Learn about VoIP phone systems. We
also introduce you to an easy-to-use conferencing toolbar for Microsoft Outlook.
Phil Liberty, pliberty@universal-tel.com
Christine Maly, christinemaly@universal-tel.com
Marilyn Goldberg, mgoldberg@universal-tel.com
Mervyn Gervis, mgervis@universal-tel.com
With hurricane season upon
us, it’s time to focus on the things you need to do before, during and after a
storm.
Before the storm…
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Have a traditional wireline telephone with corded handset available in case your power goes out. The base of a cordless phone requires commercial electricity and will not work in a power outage.
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Designate an employee outside the storm area as a central contact. Plan for everyone in your firm to communicate with that person to relay status and location information.
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Ensure that your business is equipped with the proper telephone services to re-route communications in the event of a service interruption. BellSouth offers products like Voice Mail, CrisisLink, Remote Access Call Forwarding, Call Forwarding Don't Answer, Call Forwarding Busy Line and PRI Overflow.
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If you subscribe to BellSouth’s analog line service and have ISDN PRI, you can have the 24th PRI channel set up so that calls go to the analog service. In a disaster situation where the PRI is down, calls rollover to the analog line.
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Make sure your cordless and wireless cellular phones all work properly and are charged and that you have extra batteries and car chargers available.
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Program all emergency contact numbers into your cell phone. Make sure that everyone in your company has the home, work, and cell numbers of managers with whom they will want to communicate. Send this information out now.
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Consider downloading new tools that will give you the latest weather forecasts and traffic updates. Cingular, for example, offers tools such as My-Cast Weather to help you stay up-to-date over your wireless device.
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BellSouth posts emergency information on its web site. During a hurricane or other severe storm, BellSouth updates the site with status information about the BellSouth network.
During the storm…
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Consider short/text messaging service (SMS) as a communications alternative. Sending a text message requires less signal strength and can be a fast and effective alternative to voice calls during an emergency.
After the storm:
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You may encounter delays in getting calls through because of high demand for service; be patient and keep trying. It is still a crisis situation -- keep your calls short to allow emergency calls to get through.
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The quickest and easiest way to report a problem with your phone service is to contact BellSouth on the Web at http://www.bellsouth.com/repair.
Need help preparing
your business for hurricane season or recovering from a storm? Contact us at
(888) 300-6600 or email
info@universal-tel.com.
**Forward this email to friends and colleagues who can benefit from this
information.**
Like many of you, we have
completed a full recovery from Hurricane Wilma.
We decided to move into a building of our own because the damage at our previous location was so extensive. We are now located in Deerfield Beach on Hillsboro Blvd. just west of US Hwy 1 on the North side of the street. If you happen to be in the area, stop by and say hello to Mervyn, Phil, Chris and Marilyn.
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Universal Telecommunications, Inc.
811 E. Hillsboro Boulevard
(888) 300-6600 |
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If you’re moving to a new location, by choice or as a result of catastrophe,
please call us or email
info@universal-tel.com. We can help you through all the steps in getting
your phone system or data network fully transitioned to a new location… we’ve
been there.
Our partner for
conferencing solutions, Premiere Global Services, has introduced the
ReadyConference Plus Toolbar for Microsoft Outlook, making your audio
conferencing service easier to use than ever.
Once you install the toolbar, you can do the following with just one click:
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Schedule an audio conference call just like you would any meeting on your Outlook Calendar
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Access your online conference call controls
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Access your replays (conference call recordings)
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View your conferencing activity reports
With ReadyConference Plus, you get all the tools you need to manage your teleconferences and online meetings, including these features:
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Dedicated dial-in number, pass code and Web link for every meeting you conduct.
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Low, per-minute rate - pay only for the minutes you use.
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Manage your meetings directly from your desktop – mute, unmute, adjust individual volume controls and more.
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Easily share slide presentations on your conference call and create your own presentation library.
To download the toolbar, go
to the Premiere Global Services website at
https://ww4.premconf.com/NAMOTDownload/ and enter your Client ID and Web
password. We like it and we know you’ll like it too.
When you need assistance selecting an audio, video or Web-based conferencing
solution to fit your requirements, call us at (888) 300-6600 or email
info@universal-tel.com.
Noting that Florida is a hub of international air and cruise ship travel, Gov. Jeb Bush expects Florida to be among the first states impacted when a bird flu pandemic spreads to the United States.
If so, VPNs could be your best asset when the bird flu hits hard…
Unlike other disasters that might destroy the building where employees work
every day and where recovery involves having an alternate work site, recovery
from an epidemic would involve keeping people away from each other until the
threat of infection is past.
Remote access may be the key to keeping businesses going during an outbreak,
and VPNs will be an important security component of that arrangement.
Among the things to consider is whether an epidemic would trap more workers at
home than the VPN can handle. You should have a network assessment
performed to determine the need for more capacity. As an added precaution,
you might consider having back-up access lines available to provide extra
bandwidth on demand.
The key here is to act now to get a plan in place. Find out more about VPN and
remote access solutions, call us at (888) 300-6600 or email us at
info@universal-tel.com.
IP phone systems have become very popular among businesses of all types and sizes, and are on track to replace the traditional PBX or key telephone system in many offices. IP systems send voice calls over data networks using the Internet Protocol (IP) – the same technology standard that moves text and images around the Internet.
As many businesses have discovered, new Internet voice technologies have the potential to lower local and long distance bills and provide far greater functionality than older phone systems.
VoIP technology includes many benefits that may improve your business operations:
All communications – voice messages, faxes and e-mails – are stored in a universal mailbox that can be accessed anytime from the telephone or PC. Remote telephone access can be used to play back voice messages and reroute fax and e-mail messages to any person anywhere. Some systems enable users to listen to e-mails with text-to-speech technology.
If you manage a phone system, you may have grown accustomed to the expense and hassle of working with a vendor to take care of common moves and changes. IP phone systems make it easy and economical to move people around. It's often as easy as plugging the phone into a wall jack at another location – many of today's IP systems will recognize the move automatically.
Many businesses find it difficult to get at the information their phone systems generate. With a click of the mouse, you can access the IP system's browser-based management reports. In addition to being able to track calls and improve customer service, this kind of reporting can quantify the cost savings supported by the IP phone system.
That's just the beginning of a long list of new capabilities you may gain with premises-based IP PBXs. To learn more about bringing the power of the Internet to Voice, contact Universal Telecommunications at (888) 300-6600 or email us at info@universal-tel.com.
Check out our other products & services…
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SPREAD THE WORD!
If you know of any colleagues who would be interested in receiving business communications information they can use, please forward this email to them. Have questions, suggestions? Contact us! (888) 300-6600.
Phil Liberty
Christine Maly
christinemaly@universal-tel.com
Marilyn Goldberg
Mervyn Gervis
Want to reach customers with your own message? Contact Ascent Solutions Group or call (410) 551-3504.