Our very own Steve Curtis, Managing Director, of Commverge was invited to appear on the early morning radio breakfast show to add a business perspective to that mornings news on Bristol radio station, Original 106.5 FM. Steve appeared on the early morning show on the 26th September and reviewed with the presenter four current news items. These ranged from Facebook, Ofcom views on Broadband and snakes found in beds! It was surprising to us all that Steve was as fresh and professional at 6:45 in the morning, as we know vast amounts of coffee are normally his first thoughts that time of the day.

In fact, Steve did an excellent job and has been invited back onto the radio stations for another early morning news review. Lucky for us the radio station has a podcast of the morning show - so we can review Steve’s news highlights and updates at a decent hour of the day

Will keep you posted on Commverges next appears on Original 106.5 FM early morning business news review.

Commverge are very aware of the changes that technology can offer to businesses way of working and the policies set to govern how that business operates. In fact, our own company policies are geared towards flexible and remote working. We have found that Work Wise , a non-profit initiative by the IT Forum Foundation, provide extensive advice, clear and concise case studies and a straight forward questionnaire, which shows you where you are, as a company, in adopting and deploying smarter ways of workings.

We recommend that businesses visit their website and take the Work Wise Adoption Ladder test. See for yourself what can and is being done to encourage flexible, home and remote working in the UK. What position is your company on the ladder?

Commverge can help businesses realise their Work Wise goals. We can integrate and implement telephony and IT technology into your smarter working strategies. We would be delighted to tell you about our own solutions and how we have helped other businesses attain their flexible, home and remote working solutions.

Work Wise UK provides a central information service for the UK workforce and champion the dissemination of key information and best practises. Organised by the IT Forum Foundation, the initiative will bring together UK society, including the public and private sectors, professional bodies and trade unions and support the broader use the smarter working as a modern day approach to working life.

Take the time to visit Work Wise UK website and learn more about Flexible Working, Home Working and Remote Working.

 The British Computer Society made a couple of interesting points last week about small businesses and the use of VoIP for their telecoms.  They state that:

“The take-up of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) among small businesses is currently rising at a faster pace than that seen for larger firms, according to one expert.

They were then followed by larger companies that have now realised VoIP is ‘here to stay’, he explained.

According to research firm In-Stat, worldwide VoIP subscribers could surpass the 55 million mark in 2009.”

This is good to hear, as it exactly matches our experiences talking to customers.

It’s far too common that many small and medium businesses struggle on with very old telephone equipment that most people wouldn’t even let in their house, let alone their business.  It just does nothing to help staff communicate and work together.

Our process of moving businesses to VoIP makes business owners look at their phone system and decide if their whole way of communicating to customers, staff, and partners could be improved.  More often than not, it can - and it is only this change that triggers people to step back and look at what they actually want to do with their telecoms - not what they were told they could do by BT all those years ago.

Its interesting how telecoms companies like to talk, but most often don’t like to listen - I hope we’re different and I hope by listening to customers we’ll help businesses of all shapes and sizes realise just how useful a change to VoIP can be.

All our mobile phones use the GSM standard for making and receiving calls, and twenty years ago today, the standard that lets us all call and text each other was born.

It all happened in Copenhagen when 15 telecommunications operators from 13 countries led to the development of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and a mobile communications industry that today serves more than 2.5 billion people across 218 countries and territories.

The ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ agreement of 7th September 1987 laid the foundation for the first Europe-wide digital cellular system, which soon became the world’s first global mobile system as used by more than 700 mobile operators and served by thousands of suppliers today. The agreement also triggered a technology evolution path that continues today with the roll-out of more than 120 mobile broadband networks in 61 countries.

“The 1987 agreement is widely regarded as the foundation of today’s global mobile phone industry and the birth of one of the greatest technological achievements of our age,” said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA, the global trade association for mobile operators. “The early vision of our industry created international cooperation on an unprecedented scale that has led to a socio-economic revolution benefiting people, businesses and countries throughout the world.”

“GSM is the single most important agreement in the history of telecommunications,” said Sir Christopher Gent, one of the original signatories of the agreement and former CEO of Vodafone and today Chairman of GlaxoSmithKline plc. “With 2.5 billion users around the world today, it has done more to bridge the digital divide than any other innovation, and is a tremendous example of global cooperation.”

Today, the GSM family of technologies makes up 85% of the global mobile services market, which accounts for about 1.6% of global GDP. Each year, mobile users purchase more than one billion new handsets, make more than 7 trillion minutes of calls and send about 2.5 trillion text messages(ii).

From basic mobile voice services, that have enabled people to connect to others for the first time in their lives, to the evolution of mobile multimedia, including internet access, information and entertainment services, the industry continues to innovate at a breathtaking pace. The arrival of mobile broadband, combined with the convergence of the mobile, entertainment, computing and financial service industries, is today forging new opportunities and services that will see the industry continue to evolve long into the future.

The GSMA, which also celebrates the 20th anniversary of its foundation through the agreement, plans to celebrate this historic landmark with a unique documentary film travelogue, the Mobile World, commissioned to explore the diversity of mobile use and innovation globally. A film crew is currently travelling across 20 countries of the world from South Africa, Kenya and Rwanda to China, Japan, India, South Korea, Europe and the US, to capture on film, the myriad of mobile services that are changing, enhancing and saving lives on a daily basis.

Check out more details at: www.gsmtwenty.com

Our lives now are dominated by the Green issue. It has moved from an alternative way of living into a huge industry. We have Green politicians on all sides of the government, petroleum companies selling green petrol, good old home grow organic vegetables and livestock, compulsory recycling to minimise the landfills, international government bodies meeting to set pollution emission limits and pop stars singing for a greener world.

It’s a subject wrapped in paradoxes that is becoming close to dogma and if we let it a subject that will be preached at us by the media, it’s very quickly becoming a corporate must have.

As a technology base company it’s very hard to promote your products as green. For one thing their housed in huge air conditioned buildings 24/7, constantly using power and built from components that are very quickly superseded and designed for a short batch run.

Personally I believe that we can only promote our own lifestyles and views / actions on the green side of business. One thing we can demonstrate is that technology coupled with a business green strategy will allow individuals and businesses to realise their own green ambitions. All sounds a little high brow but my point is that with a clear understanding of businesses goals, intertwined with its individual green objectives and the right choice of technology the combined goals will make it greener.

As a company we promote and work with businesses to enable staff to work whenever and wherever they need. We promote the use of hosted services be they voice, email or data sharing. We use these products ourselves to keep our work and home life balance.

We know through our own experiences that hosted solutions have reduced our office hardware requirements and home working equipment needs. Using laptops and/or smartphones combined with portable VoIP phones working from home or anywhere is simple – unplug from office then plug in at any web point to recreate the office.

This is turn has reduced our staffs travel times and expenses – as there’s no need to keep returning to the office to communicate or access our company systems.

We are aware that it’s a fine line stating that these hosted services help businesses with their green ambitions. But it does provide a means to meet them.

For an indepth and up to the minute review of Green Technology try this site.

Following on from our blog posting “What will become of 0870” I’m very pleased to say that our VoIP and Sales team have launched an alternative service to 0870 and 0871 numbers , called Call Manager. (Visit our VoIP Business Telephony Wiki for a comprehensive review of this new service and its surprisingly competitive rates).

In a nutshell, Call Manager has all the features and business benefits of a 08xx number, with the added bonus that you can choose from any of the 650 UK regional area codes. Plus the inbound call rate to the caller is that of any local UK geographic number. We strongly believe in promoting regional communications that encourage clients and callers to dial into businesses knowing that their call costs will be low, and their call is a business opportunity not a revenue stream.

Take a look- what your thoughts?

You may, or may not be aware that on 8th January 2008 Ofcom will force telecoms companies to change the cost of calling 0870 numbers for good. From 2008 it will cost the same to call an 0870 number as it will an ordinary national number.

Ofcom have also removed the revenue share element of calling these numbers. Operators receive a share of the income generated by calls to 0870 numbers which enables them to provide the numbers at either no, or very low cost. But, compounding the end to revenue sharing is the fact that Ofcom have stated that businesses will actually incur charges of approximately 3p per minute to receive calls to their 0870 numbers.

My feelings as a consumer? Great, now I’m not going to be charged for the privilege of calling my bank, hotel or call centre. In fact from 2008 it will cost them to receive my call - a 180 degree turnaround.

But it’s not that simple, businesses operating and receiving revenue from us calling their 0870 numbers need to migrate to other revenue generating numbers such as 0844 and 0871. And 0845 numbers are predominately charged at a call rate far higher than the advertised local rate.

What to do? A change in the importance of low cost access to business by their clients, customers and suppliers is paramount. The provision of a straightforward communication access as a high priority service will always be a discussion point when, as a consumer, you are selecting a business / product to work with. It’s the very reason why supermarkets do not charge us for parking in their car parks. Easy access encourages regular visits which equals revenue to them.

What will the large corporate do from 2008? Maybe it’s too early to tell. After all they have spent time and money promoting and marketing their 0870 number as their identity (and generate revenue from that number). No doubt many will migrate to other revenue generate numbers and others will adopt 0800 or normal geographic numbers.

What would I like? Businesses need to be encouraged to view their clients and suppliers as an opportunity to help them enhance their services and understand what’s needed - not as a means of a tiny amount of increased profit from some 3p a minute kick-back. Surely, quality services and good communication are value add elements of a business and not cost centre controlled.

For our part, as a communications company who promotes the use of normal geographic numbers, we are investigating what services as a VoIP provider we can provide to enhance and offer businesses large and small a way to transform their 0870 identity. By using VoIP, its possible to have geographic, international and 0800 numbers that replace 0870 numbers and help promote an image of clear communication with clients and suppliers.

We will be watching and reporting on the fate of 0870 and via our blog offering consumer friendly alternatives for the future changes.

(As an aside if you do not want to contact business via their 0870 or 0845 numbers visit www.saynoto0870.com for a comprehensive list of alternative geographic numbers to contact these business).

You can also find more information on Ofcoms decision here

Information on 0871 numbers moving to premium rate can be found here

As you will see from Steve’s picture on his introduction note that he was embraced remote working to the max. Like Steve I have worked in the IT industry for many a year. Cutting my teeth in the managed services sector and becoming a Service Delivery manager at a 24/7 phonebank environment and then focusing on project management and service design.

In 1999 I decided to set myself up as a consultant and focus on project management long term contracts and assignments. These were great years working for a variety of business sectors from Telecoms to Government bodies. A common theme and delivery for all these clients was access to information on the move, via VPN, Mobile or CallXpress. It seemed that the small business were missing out on these flexible tools which extend their ability to do business at any market place. Linking with Steve, who is a good friend with a common outlook on business and communications, Commverge was born. Now we are busy helping companies get what they want from hosted solutions that promote accessing information on the move. VoIP, hosted email and email to smart-phones are tools that have changed our own company and we know will do the same for others.

Commverge throw a wild west party to launch their new and improved website. And what a night is was. Invitees were a mixture of clients, suppliers, work colleagues and friends. Compulsory fancy dress set the scene with cowgirls, cowboys, gamblers, saloon girls and butlers in the buff - for the ladies. Water pistols provided late night entertainment with the aid of a few too many sherbet lemons! We’ve posted a couple of pictures for your amusement.

Launching any website for any type of business has it’s pit falls. For us it was based around what is our message and do we want to look and feel like a technology manual - which was no. Our message is simple “contact us and we will explain our products and services”. Websites can become a flat, barren message board if not kept alive with news, blogs and up to the minute information on a business products and services. We want the web visitor to be engaged and make that first move - contacting us by email or a call. I hope we are on our way to creating a website that visitors want to step through - contact the creators! But as all business are finding websites will always evolve and change, which is a good thing as they must live and reflect what you as a business are all about.

We have already commissioned a number of enhancements to the current site to improve clarify of text and add additional images to explain better what our products and services can do. Your comments and views on what we are doing are always welcome

It’s harder to introduce yourself on a blog than I thought. So here we go anyway..

I’ve worked in the IT industry for longer than I remember. This industry moves so fast its scary to think back at where we are now, and compare it with technology we worked with years back that felt at that time to be “cutting edge”.

Having had a good few years working as an IT consultant and Technical Project Manager for various IT Resellers, both big & small, the lure of self employment took hold. In the heady dot-com boom year of 2000 I decided to become an independent consultant so I could move away from hands-on techie jobs and into the business focused side of technology. That being the art of listening to customer issues, understanding how they got there, and helping work out the best use of existing and new technologies in the business as a long term plan.

Five years later, having worked mainly in the public sector and large business environment, I began to wonder why the small to medium sized business community seemed to be ignored by most technology companies and resellers. That wondering lead to the creation of Commverge, created with my friend and now colleague Rob Ley.

Today, we provide hosted Exchange 2007, VoIP Telephony and Mobile Email solutions to all manner of growing businesses from basket weavers to property developers. It’s exciting times, and its great to see these once big business technologies put to amazing use by smaller business. Because small businesses can grow, shrink and react to change more quickly its a great environment to provide hosted solutions - our advantage being that we also scale to customer demands instantly.

What will IT look like in another 5 years, who knows? But I hope it will be fun continuing to be involved with where-ever it may lead in the future. As always, feel free to get in touch with us at our Bristol office.

Hasta Luego,

Steve Curtis.