As we continue to look at ways to save "green," let’s take a moment to look at the business telephone system. Yeah, I know most people don’t get real excited about telephone systems, until they stop working, but I do! Having sold, installed, maintained, and repaired phone systems for the past 22 years, I’ve seen quite a few changes. The past few years have brought some enhancements that can save many businesses some money, while making things more convenient for the customer.

One of the business telephone systems we sell at North Florida Communications is the LG iPECS VoIP system, formally marketed in the USA as the Vodavi Telenium. The iPECS differs somewhat from a tradition telephone system in that it has a fully distributed architecture, which simply means you can have different modules in different buildings on a campus, or in different cities. While the iPECS is a fully blown VoIP phone system, you can also purchase gateways for analog or existing digital phones.

Here’s a few ways to save some green with the iPECS telephone system:

1) SIP Trunking. Many businesses rely heavily on their business telephone system, and consequently have a very large bill each month from the telephone company. SIP Trunking allows you to route some or all of your calls through an Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP) via the internet. ITSPs are typically much more economical than your local exchange carrier. However, many LECs and CLECs are getting into the SIP business.

SIP Trunks also provide the ability to have DID numbers, for a very small cost each month. With DIDs, each employee or department can have their own phone number, helping to reduce the need for a receptionist to route calls, as well as speeding customers response time.

DID numbers can also be used to gauge a marketing campaign’s response and effectiveness. You can place one number on your web-site, another number on your newspaper ads, and yet another number on direct-mail pieces. Each time someone calls, your phone system will tell you what number their calling into.

There are many more uses for SIP Trunking, but those will have to wait for another day.

2) Unified Messaging (UM). Since I spend a good amount of time out of the office, I’ve called in thousands of times over the years to check messages. Fortunately, I no longer have to do that. My voice-mail messages are now forwarded to by email. I can access them from home, from my laptop, or any place else there is internet access. Even more convenient is that they’re automatically picked up by my web-enabled cell phone.

UM also allows me to receive faxes via my email account. While faxes are not used nearly as much as in the past, we still get a few. Again, it doesn’t matter where I’m at, the fax will be emailed to me and can be viewed on my cell as well.

3) Multiple Offices Operate as One. One of the features of modern VoIP telephone systems is the ability to tie multiple offices together via the internet, or an existing IP network. So, if you had an office in Gainesville, Florida and one in Ocala, Florida, you could tie both office phone systems together. This would eliminate toll charges for calls between offices, and allow employees in Gainesville to dial out through the Ocala lines and vice-versa.

Additionally, office staff at one location would be able to answer calls coming from the other location. Perhaps you don’t need an operator/receptionist at both locations. You could have one person in Gainesville to answer all calls, and Ocala callers would never know the difference. Don’t need to staff the Gainesville office every day of the week? No problem, the calls can be answered in Ocala. Someone calls Ocala wanting AR, but they’re in Gainesville? Just transfer them!

4) Remote Users. A few years ago a client of ours had a key employee move from Gainesville to Montana. Our client wanted to keep the employee so he had us install a VoIP telephone system and send a phone to Montana. This valued associate worked for our client for several more years taking calls every day from her home in Montana using a normal DSL internet connection. No one ever knew the difference, unless she told them.

A remote VoIP phone can allow employees to work from home, making it more convenient for them AND saving the cost of expensive office space. Working from home also helps the environment by keeping more cars off the road.

Do you travel a lot but still need to connect to your office telephone system? A soft-phone can be installed on your laptop. Just connect to the internet, put on your headset and start talking. You’ll be able to make and receive calls to your coworkers and clients, just like you would use your standard office telephone. The iPECS even has a built in "web-phone" that allows you to connect from any web-browser in the world.

There are other ways that a modern telephone system can help you organization operate more efficiently while increasing customer service and I’m sure we’ll discuss those in the future. The level of services achieved from a telephone system, like all sophisticated business electronics, has as much to do with the installing company as it does the equipment. Please call me if I can help, (352)224-3033.

Larry Nazworth

Want a few more suggestions on cutting your IT power bill? Think about these:

1) Server Virtualization. In most small to medium businesses, servers are only utilized between 5 and 20% of their available computing power. While IT has to be reliable, it is often easy to gain some efficiency, while maintaining reliability and security, by using virtualization.

What is server virtualization? A simple definition is: Virtualization is a method of running multiple independent virtual operating systems on a single physical computer. It is a way of maximizing physical resources to maximize the investment in hardware.

If you’re able to use less servers you’ll save not only the cost of the hardware itself, but also on the power that was used by the extra servers, as well as the cost to cool the computer room. Less servers, less heat, less demand on the air conditioning, less power needed.

2) Check the temperature of your Data Center. In 2008 the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) changed their guidelines for temperature ranges in Data Centers. The maximum allowed temperature actually went up 3.6 degrees from 77°F to 80.6°F.

There is no reason to have your Data Center freezing cold (unless you’re also using it to store meat), but you want to make sure components don’t over heat. Take a look at the 2008 ASHRAE Environmental Guidelines for Datacom Equipment and compare it to the temperature in your equipment room. Perhaps you can bump that thermostat up a little and save some green.

3) Put your office computers to sleep. If possible, consider having everyone power down there PC’s when they go home. If that is not practical, configure each desktop to go in “standby” mode after 15 (or so) minutes of inactivity. Desktop PC’s can use 200 watts or more of power in full operation, but that number can shrink to 3 watts when switched to standby. Don’t forget those monitors.

Larry Nazworth

True costs of IT

When we think about the cost of typical office technology, we often look at just the bottom line, in other words the price tag. We neglect to think about the amount of money that it cost to operate and service the machines.

Small servers usually draw 250+ watts of power. Now, that doesn’t sound like much, especially if you compare it to the hair dryer that you have at home which can draw 1500 watts. But, what would happen if you left that hair dryer on all day? It would quickly produce enough heat to raise the temperature of the room considerably.

How many servers does your business have? How many workstation PC’s, monitors, printers, faxes, scanners, etc . . . They all need power to operate, and they’re often left on 24/7. What does that power consumption look like now? Quite a bit more?

There is more to consider. When figuring the power needed for a data center, or equipment room, we generally add the power required for each component that will be in the space, add room for expansion and then multiply the sum by 2.5. Why, because it usually takes as much power to cool the room as it does to power the devices. In other words, a server that takes 250-watts of power, will require about 250-watts of AC to keep it from burning up. The extra .5 (50%) allows for power loss from UPS’s and associated equipment, and also give a little wiggle room.

Now looking at office technology from the bigger picture, we can see the true cost is much bigger than the price tag. You may purchase a low price piece of equipment that uses a lot more energy than a slightly higher priced unit, but you’ll pay more to operate the machine and the savings will quickly be gone.

So, what are some easy ways to save some green?

1) Look for workstation PC’s that come with the Energy-Star certification.

2) Configure servers to run at peak performance, not under-utilization.

3) Decide if all devices need to be left on 24x7. Does everyone’s PC need to be on all of the time? Can Copiers, scanners, etc. be turned off after hours?

Larry Nazworth