Welcome to our News Blog!

From How-To’s and Tips, to Inspiring Stories and Solution Guides, and more – the Carolina Digital Phone blog has it all!

Blogs, Insights, and Announcements from Carolina Digital Phone

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Nicky Smith

Hosted Cloud FAQ: What Happens If We Lose Our Internet Connection?

To dramatically lower costs and take advantage of advanced Unified Calling features (e.g. instant messaging, paging, call screening, etc.), a hosted cloud phone system shares the same network infrastructure that is used for connecting to the internet, browsing the web, sending and receiving emails, transmitting files, and so on. As a result of this integration, if the power goes out — such as during a storm — then provided that you have back-up power supplies, you can continue using the hosted cloud phone system. This is because a hosted cloud phone system uses a geographically dispersed cloud-based infrastructure. In simpler

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network bandwidth for hosted voip
Nicky Smith

Hosted Cloud FAQ: “How Much Bandwidth Do We Need?”

Unlike a conventional phone system that requires a separate voice network, a hosted cloud phone system uses your business’s existing data network — i.e. the one that your team uses for emails, transferring files, connecting to the web, and so on. By eliminating the need for a voice network, you not only significantly reduce CapEx and maintenance costs, but you also unleash Unified Communications (UC) features such as video conferencing, instant messaging, call screening, integration with CRMs and ERPs, etc. Avoiding Traffic Jams  Of course, to make all of this work and to reap the full benefits, you need sufficient

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Discover How Our Browser Extension Makes Your Employees MORE PRODUCTIVE

Organizations in different sectors — private, public, non-profit and academic — have various mandates and visions, but they all share one core objective: they constantly need to find better ways to make their employees more productive. And that is where our innovative browser extension makes the difference! KEY FEATURES Designed to work seamlessly with our hosted cloud phone system solution, our browser extension enables your employees to do all of the following from their desktop or laptop: Make calls directly from their browser simply by typing in the number. For employees who make multiple calls a day, this saves a

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memorial day
Nicky Smith

Memorial Day Remembrance and Thank You

On behalf of everyone in the Carolina Digital Phone family, we would like to honor and salute the fallen American soldiers throughout our history who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms and keep us safe. We are forever in their debt, and they are always in our hearts. We would also like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude and support to the men and women who currently serve in our Armed Forces. Your patriotism, dedication, bravery and loyalty are an inspiration to us all. We thank you for your service. God Bless America!

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Working to Combat Robocalling

Update May 21, 2019 In 2018, the FCC issued an order (FCC 17-151) that allows service providers to block calls originating from numbers that are not valid under the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). As of May 21, 2019, we have started, exercising our right to block outbound calls from invalid numbers in a continued effort to combat robocalls. We are going to begin at the NPA level only (and a small handful of NPAs to start). Any domestic originating calls that contain an invalid NPA will be blocked with an ISUP 21-Call Rejected or SIP 403-Forbidden. Overview of Carolina

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Porting phone numbers to a hosted VoIP phone system
Nicky Smith

Hosted Cloud FAQ: Can We Keep Our Phone Numbers?

For many businesses, the idea of being forced to change their phone number when they upgrade to a new hosted cloud phone system is not just a concern: it is a deal breaker! This is certainly understandable. After all, the last thing that your business wants is for past, current and prospective customers to hear a “we’re sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service” recording, or get routed to another business — and maybe even a competitor! The good news is that when you upgrade to Carolina Digital Phone’s advanced hosted cloud phone system, in most cases your

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e faxing
Nicky Smith

Hosted Cloud Phone System Frequently Asked Question: How Does e-Faxing Work?

While much of the discussion about cloud phone systems focuses on things like cost savings, business continuity, mobile worker productivity, and advanced calling features, there is another aspect that is important to many organizations: e-faxing. Benefits of e-Faxing  There are many benefits of e-faxing, including: It is more secure than scanning and attaching a document to an email. There is no need to purchase and maintain a fax machine or a separate line. It doesn’t take up any space in the office. Employees can send/receive faxes from anywhere, at any time. Detailed reports are available through a secure web-based portal.

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dice with digital options
Nicky Smith

Hosted Cloud Phone System Frequently Asked Question: “What Kind of Support Do You Offer?”

One of the most important questions that any organization must ask before they purchase a hosted cloud phone system is: what kind of support do you offer? Indeed, while hosted cloud providers claim to offer post-sales support, this does not mean that all support is the same! Some providers offer superficial support that is basically useless. Of course, you’ll only find this out after spending hours (or days) going back and forth with various so-called technical support representatives. Many providers offer average support. It’s not useless and frustrating, but it’s definitely not great. They may even farm out support to

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worst buy
Nicky Smith

7 Reasons Not to Buy Your Hosted Cloud Business Phone System from a Big Box Retailer

There are times when it makes sense to hop in the car and head to your nearest big-box retailer, such as when your kids (read: you) want the latest PS4 or Xbox One video game, or when you need to pick up a flash drive to store pictures of your “bucket list” dream trip to Augusta National (wait until you get to the glorious  13th hole). However, there are also times when big box retailers don’t have the solution you need — in fact, they will add to your problems. And this is definitely the case with a hosted cloud

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voip video conference
Nicky Smith

Hosted Cloud Feature Spotlight: 7 Reasons Your Business Will Love Video Conferencing

One of the most popular and useful features of a hosted cloud system is video conferencing, which allows employees to connect and collaborate face-to-face, regardless of where they are located. Here are 7 reasons why your business — and your employees — will love hosted cloud video conferencing, and wonder how you ever managed to survive without it: 1. Dramatically Reduce Travel Costs Business Travel News’ Corporate Travel Index study reveals that the average cost of business travel in the U.S. — including meals, car rentals, hotels, and incidentals — has climbed to a whopping $325 per day. And this

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Virtual Numbers VoIP Business Phone System
Nicky Smith

Hosted VoIP Feature Spotlight: 7 Reasons Your Business Will LOVE Virtual Numbers

An old movie from the 1950s informed us that “love is many splendored thing.” Well, at the risk of offending all of the romantics out there, we suggest that “love is many virtual numbers.” Admittedly, it’s not the most lyrical turn of phrase. But if you’re a business owner or executive who needs to lower costs, increase productivity, and improve the bottom line, then poetry isn’t on the agenda: getting a hosted cloud phone system with virtual numbers is! Here are the 7 reasons why your business will LOVE virtual numbers, and why your employees will wonder how they ever

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9 Principles of Quality Customer Service

The quality of customer service is the key differentiator between good, bad and indifferent companies. Good quality customer service keeps customers coming back; bad customer service drives customers away, taking their friends, family and workmates with them. All else being equal, good quality customer service gives the edge over competitors. Regardless of industry, here are the 9 key principals of good customer service that always make business sense. 1. Attracting new customers costs more than retaining existing customers A satisfied customer stays with a company longer, spends more and may deepen the relationship. For example a happy credit card customer

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user getting angry
Nicky Smith

How Automatic Failover Helps Some Business Avoid Losing $5,600 a Minute

So it Begins…  It’s the kind of nightmare scenario that sends chills up and down the spines of even the most unflinching business owners and executives: without warning the network goes down and takes the phone system with it, along with wireless connected devices including computers, laptops, tablets, printers, and smartphones. Operations grind to a screeching halt. Customers cannot get through to buy solutions or get support, colleagues cannot connect to move the needle on projects and programs, and everyone sits around hoping — and praying — that someone, somewhere, reconnects a wire or flips a switch. Indeed, according to

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voip phone systems are perfect for marketing teams mad men
Nicky Smith

10 Ways that a Hosted Cloud Phone System Drives Marketing Success

Unlike the Mad Men era, today’s marketing professionals are not enjoying “3 martini lunches” while they look over color samples and stock photos, or flip through their rolodex. Instead, they’re pouring over mountains of analytical data and market research, so they can optimize campaigns, increase brand visibility, establish competitive advantage, expand marketplaces, and populate the sales funnel with qualified leads. And that’s why one of the most valuable tools in the marketing world today is a hosted cloud phone system. Here are 10 ways that a hosted cloud phone system drives marketing success: 1. Get Customized Local Numbers Businesses can

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man with phone
Nicky Smith

How a Cloud Telephone System Solves 3 Key Mobile Worker Challenges

We are well on the way to a work landscape where remote and mobile workers won’t be the exception, but instead will be the norm. Here are some of the eye-opening statistics: 55% of workers now telecommute full-time. (Source: AND CO) 90% of mobile workers plan on working remotely for the rest of their careers. (Source: Buffer) By the year 2020, 72% of the workforce will be partially or fully mobile. (Source: IDC) 48% of workers don’t think traditional offices will exist by 2021. (Source: com) Employers save an average of $2,000 in real estate costs for each mobile worker.

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5 Reasons Your Business Will Fall in Love with Softphones

We’ve all heard of soft skills, software, softball, and of course, everyone’s favorite: soft serve ice cream. But softphones? For many people, this term is not part of their vocabulary — yet. For starters, no, this is not some kind of Nerf-inspired phone that people can use to make calls one minute, and kick across the room the next (although the inventors out there might want to take a run at this, because it would be a bestseller). Rather, softphones are software apps that let people make and receive calls on the cloud phone system network across various devices, such

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why a voip business phone system is a smart investment
Nicky Smith

12 Reasons Why Businesses Should Elevate their Phone System to the Cloud

Just how dominant has the cloud become across the business landscape? Here are some statistics that confirm beyond any doubt that the on-demand delivery of computer power, database storage, apps, and other IT resources through the cloud is here to stay, and will continue shaping and transforming the future of work for years to come: 83% of workload will be in the cloud by 2020. (Source: LogicMonitor) 85% of enterprises keep sensitive data in the cloud. (Source: Vormetric) 74% of Tech CFO’s say that cloud computing had the most measurable impact on their business in 2017. (Source: Forbes) Spending on

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voip game plan
Nicky Smith

Thinking of Upgrading to a Cloud Phone System? Here’s Your Game Plan

If your organization is planning an upgrade to a cloud phone system, then you’re definitely on the right path. Across the country and around the world, organizations of all sizes — from small dynamic start-ups to large established enterprises — have said goodbye to their costly, inflexible and restrictive landline phone system, and hello to a cost-effective, agile, scalable and future-proofed cloud phone system. However, before you rise to the cloud and reap the benefits, you need a plan that dots all of the i’s and crosses all of the t’s — otherwise, instead of enjoying a successful implementation, you’ll

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steps for hosted voip phone system implementation
Nicky Smith

7 Best Practices for Implementing a Hosted Cloud Phone System

If your business has decided to switch from a conventional PBX phone system to a hosted cloud phone system, then you’re definitely on the right track! That’s because: Hosted cloud is now the #1 phone system choice among U.S. businesses. Hosted cloud is the fastest-growing industry in the world. The total number of hosted (mobile) cloud users worldwide has topped 1 billion. Conventional phone companies are losing a whopping 700,000 landline customers per month.   Here are 7 best practices to ensure that your implementation experience is smooth, streamlined and successful:   1. Analyze and optimize network bandwidth.  One of the

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New Year's Resolutions Hosted VoIP
Nicky Smith

5 Business-Related New Year’s Resolutions for 2019

2019 has arrived, and we are looking forward to many positive developments and continued growth here at Carolina Digital Phone. It’s also that time of year where many of us celebrate an annual tradition: making New Year’s Resolutions. Now, the bad news with New Year’s Resolutions is that, according to research, about 92% of us don’t follow through on our promises. That’s a pretty grizzly statistic (unlike these statistics about the hosted cloud industry, which are inspiring). However, there is some good news, too! That’s because here at Carolina Digital Phone, we can help you make and keep 5 business-related

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2019 to 2020 plans
Nicky Smith

5 Business-Related New Year’s Resolutions for 2020

2020 has arrived, and we are looking forward to many positive developments and continued growth here at Carolina Digital Phone. It’s also that time of year where many of us celebrate an annual tradition: making New Year’s Resolutions. Now, the bad news with New Year’s Resolutions is that, according to research, about 92% of us don’t follow through on our promises. That’s a pretty grizzly statistic (unlike these statistics about the hosted cloud industry, which are inspiring). However, there is some good news, too! That’s because here at Carolina Digital Phone, we can help you make and keep 5 business-related

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hosted VoIP statistics
Nicky Smith

By the Numbers: 10 Statistics that Show Hosted Cloud is Booming

The legendary journalist Harry Reasoner once said that “statistics are to baseball what flaky crust is to Mom’s apple pie.” While this is certainly true (and a slice of Mom’s flaky apple pie would be delightful right about now), there is another discussion where statistics are also a major part of the story: the one that shows, beyond any doubt, that hosted cloud is flat-out booming. And so, we invite you to grab some pie, pour some coffee, and allow us to present 10 hosted cloud statistics that every business owner and executive should know: Cloud is now the number

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santa clause
Nicky Smith

HO HO HO: Why a Cloud Phone System is the Cost Saving Gift that Keeps on Giving

As the holidays quickly approach, our thoughts turn to spending quality time with family and friends, and of course, hunting for ideal gifts. Well, if you’re an executive or business owner, there’s one special gift that you can give to your company that, financially speaking, will keep on generating ROI year after year: a cloud phone system. Here are 10 key reasons why a cloud phone system is the financial gift that keeps on giving: There is no costly PBX to purchase or trunk lines to rent. The phone system is located 100% off-site, which means you don’t have to

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pinnochino liar
Nicky Smith

5 Truths Your Landline Phone Company Won’t Tell You About Hosted Cloud

There are basically two ways to tell a lie. The first way, obviously, is not telling the truth. But the second way — which is less obvious yet just as deceitful — is to withhold the truth from someone who needs and is entitled to the full story. No, we’re not talking about how spouses eventually learn that it’s sometimes the better part of wisdom (and self-preservation) to keep their mouths shut. For example, answering the question “does this make me look fat?” with anything but a fast and firm “heavens no!” is asking for trouble. But we are talking

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happy thanksgiving graphic
Nicky Smith

Message from the CEO: What I’m Thankful For

Dear Friends: When I was a kid, Thanksgiving was about eating lots of food, watching plenty of TV, and of course the most glorious thing of all: a day off school! But now that I’m older (or “of a certain vintage” as they say), I understand that Thanksgiving is truly about being grateful, and appreciating all that has been given. Well, in that spirit, this Thanksgiving I would like to take a moment and share some of the wonderful things that my family and I are grateful for: Our Customers I have said this before, and I will say it

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keep calm our phones are down
Nicky Smith

How a Cloud Telephone System Avoids the High Cost of Phone System Downtime

What’s the most terrifying word in the business vocabulary? For most organizations, it’s not churn or recession. It’s downtime. Indeed, “going off the grid” and having no phone system access for any length of time — even a few minutes — isn’t just an inconvenience. It’s a major threat that triggers high costs across four areas:  Productivity Loss: Employees cannot collaborate with each other or serve customers, which not only reduces productivity — sometimes grinding it to a virtual halt — but it creates a massive backlog of work that must be tackled when power is restored and the phone system

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hosted voip voicemail to email
Nicky Smith

3 Reasons Why Voicemail-to-Email Often Ranks as the Most Loved Hosted Cloud Feature

For business owners, there are plenty of reasons to love a hosted cloud phone system — and not surprisingly, the most important and compelling have to do with dramatic annual cost savings. As we have highlighted previously, businesses that deploy a hosted cloud phone system typically save anywhere from 25-50% (and sometimes more) compared to a conventional landline phone system. Heck, it’s enough to make even the most stoic and hard-nosed CFO crack a smile — which is pretty hard to do. However, if you ask employees what they love most about a hosted cloud phone system, you probably won’t

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digital network system
Nicky Smith

The 5 Most Important Benefits of a Cloud Business Phone System

The rewards of some business investments are difficult to nail down. They sound like pretty good ideas in theory, but do they really translate into greater efficiency, more competitive advantage, high customer satisfaction, and a healthier bottom-line? Who really knows.

Then there are business investments that don’t need a hype machine or spin doctor to convince anyone because the benefits are straightforward, easy to understand, and as down-to-earth as it gets. A cloud business phone system is definitely in this category.

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voip in the cloud
Nicky Smith

How a Hosted Cloud Business Phone System Drives Business Agility

In the past, business agility was primarily viewed as a project management methodology in the software space (e.g. “agile development”). The essential idea that instead of working in a structured way towards a clearly defined objective or outcome, teams would collaborate, self-organize, iterate and adapt to meet emerging needs and developments. However, these days business agility is not just a project management methodology. It is a paradigm and an approach to all kinds of work, because being flexible and adapting to change is not just important for success, but it is critical for survival. And that is where a hosted

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digital communication system
Nicky Smith

Why Hosted Cloud’s Voicemail-to-Email Feature is a Business Game Changer

When voicemail first arrived on the mainstream business landscape, it was greeted with massive excitement and enthusiasm. In fact, people used to call their own voicemail to leave reminders and notes. It was glorious. But that was then. Today, voicemail is viewed by some employees as a liability instead of an asset. And the biggest reason for this isn’t the few seconds it takes to pick up a voicemail.  Rather, it’s because most of the time, there is no message to pick up at all. Indeed, CRM.com has found that businesses experience up to 75 percent voicemail abandonment — i.e.

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franchise diagram
Nicky Smith

Starting or Running a Franchise? 10 Reasons why Cloud Based Telephone Systems are a Smart Investment

A growing number of people are choosing to start a franchise — and for several good reasons: instead of launching a startup from scratch they can plug into an established brand, take advantage of training and support, benefit from their chain’s buying power, get financing help, and more. However, ask any hands-on franchise owner — and there are hundreds of thousands of them across the U.S. — whether being at the helm of a franchise is “easy money,” and they’ll burst out laughing. And then they’ll start crying. Possibly after that they’ll do both at the same time. Running a

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failure success sign
Nicky Smith

5 Signs that Your “Old School” On-Premise Phone System is Holding Your Business Back

On today’s relentlessly fast-paced and hyper-competitive business landscape, there are only two directions: forward towards growth, or backwards towards…well, we all know how that horror story unfolds. To say the least, it ain’t pretty. It goes without saying that every business — whether it sells jet engines or coffee cup lids — needs to head towards success, and away from failure. This is so blatantly obvious, that they don’t even teach it in business school. (At least, we hope they don’t need to teach this.) Yet despite this truth, many businesses are held back from achieving their full success and

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yealink phone with camera
Nicky Smith

4 Ways to Make Calls on a Cloud Telephone System

One of the most beneficial aspects of a cloud telephone system, is that employees and all other authorized system users (e.g. consultants, contractors, remote workers, etc.) can easily make calls in not just one, but four different ways: IP Phone  An IP phone (sometimes called a VoIP phone) is designed for placing and transmitting calls over an IP network, instead of a conventional landline public switched telephone network (PSTN). Among the most popular, trusted and recommended IP phones are those in the Yealink T5 Media Phone series. Installing an IP phone is extremely simple. Simply turn them on, plug them

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entering startup sign
Nicky Smith

Startups: Hit the Ground Running with a Cloud Telephone System

What do Apple, Amazon, Disney and Google have in common? Yes, they’re massive multinational enterprises that employ hundreds of thousands of people, including an army of accountants to keep track of their billions in annual revenues and profits. But there’s something else that these companies have in common that is the stuff of entrepreneurial legend: they were all born in a garage. If you’re at the helm of a dynamic new startup, it’s important to dream big. After all, if Apple, Amazon, Disney and Google can go from concept to unicorn, why not your company? Yet at the same time,

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fall through drywall
Nicky Smith

A New Twist on Some Old Wisdom: You DON’T Get What You DON’T Pay For

We’re all familiar with the wisdom that “you get what you pay for.” Frankly, there probably isn’t anyone out there who hasn’t learned this lesson the hard way, whether the situation involved a car repair, home improvement project, and the list goes on. Sometimes, we even KNOW that we’re headed towards disaster, but we just can’t help ourselves. We silence that little voice in our heads that says: “Are you seriously going to do this again?” Alas, we end up spending more money, wasting more time, and suffering more stress. So basically, we hit the trifecta of purchase-related misery.  However,

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usa jobs
Nicky Smith

Message from the CEO: Why Our Customer Support Has Always Been — and Will Always Be — Based in the U.S.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog to celebrate what is probably my favorite day of the year: the Fourth of July. Since then, I’ve received some nice feedback from our customers and partners, and I wanted to say thank you. Patriotism is about principles and pride, and it runs very deep in our company. And that brings me to another topic that has come up over the years that is along the same theme: why our customer support has always been —and always will be —based in the U.S. instead of outsourced to an offshore call center, even though it

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non profit heart
Nicky Smith

5 Reasons Why Nonprofit Organizations are Switching to a Cloud Telephone System

Ask anyone who works in (or volunteers for) a non-profit organization (NPO) what they need more than anything else to fulfill their life-changing — and in some cases, life-saving — mandate, and they’ll basically give you the same answer in a variety of ways: THEY NEED MORE TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES. NPOs: Not Just Important — but Essential The notion that nonprofit organizations don’t need the same advanced tools as private businesses is simply not true. In fact, it’s arguable that nonprofit organizations need technology resources even more urgently, because so many people in the community are counting on them each day.

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free coffee
Nicky Smith

How a Hosted Cloud Phone System Makes an Unlimited Vacation Policy Work

Sometimes on the business landscape, there are ideas that at first thought — and often second and third thought as well — seem like impractical fantasies instead of viable strategies. No, we’re not talking about providing free coffee or ultra-fast wifi — which according to some employees should be enshrined in the Constitution. We’re talking about unlimited vacation policies. In theory, an unlimited vacation policy isn’t truly unlimited; kind of like an all-you-can-eat buffet really isn’t all-you-can-eat (at some point, diminishing marginal returns kick in and one more scoop of mac and cheese could lead to a 911 call). Basically, an

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Nicky Smith

Google Voice for Business? Sometimes, Google Isn’t Your Friend

We’re all familiar with the phrase “Google is your friend.” It’s what we say when someone has a question that could easily be answered by a quick Google search — everything from up-to-the-second baseball scores, to Tom Keen’s real job on “The Blacklist” (BTW he’s a covert operative). However, sometimes Google isn’t much of a friend. And for proof, all you need to do is ask businesses that have tried — and failed — to use Google Voice as their VoIP business phone system solution. What is Google Voice? Google Voice is Google’s cloud-based telephony platform that provides call forwarding,

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american usa flag
Nicky Smith

Message from the CEO: Happy Birthday, America!

Birthdays are associated with parties, cakes, and gifts. But at the heart of every birthday celebration — small or big — is an expression of something very powerful and special: gratitude. That’s because we aren’t just saying “happy birthday” to a family member, neighbor, friend or colleague. More importantly, we’re also saying THANK YOU for being a part of our lives. Well, today on behalf of the Carolina Digital Phone team — including our family members who support us each day — I’d like to take this opportunity to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY and THANK YOU to the United States of

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fake news
Nicky Smith

Fake News: What Conventional Phone Companies & Carriers Don’t Want You to Know About Hosted Cloud

Regardless of what side of the political spectrum you fall — or maybe you think the best political party is no party at all — we can all agree that if there’s one thing we should learn from what’s happening in Washington, D.C., it’s that you can’t trust everything you hear or read. Of course, “fake news” isn’t a new idea. It’s been around for decades (or make that centuries). And it’s certainly not limited to politicians, commentators, and talking heads. Some businesses have made plenty of money generating fake news. Take for example the myths, half-truths and outright lies

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the grass isn't always greener
Nicky Smith

4 Questions You MUST Ask Before Switching Your Current Hosted Telecommunication Provider

Many times in our professional and personal lives, we believe that the “grass is greener on the other side” — only to discover after making a change, that the grass isn’t greener at all. In fact, sometimes it’s not even grass, but the painted carpet stuff that they use in some sports stadiums. The reason we bring this up, is because some schools, businesses, and government agencies that are quite happy with their reliable and affordable hosted telecommunications provider, get seduced by a competitor that promises all kinds of benefits and extras — and for an “amazing low, low price.”

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hold button
Nicky Smith

Cloud Phone System Best Practices for Music On Hold

Cloud phone system features, most of the spotlight shines on things that end users fall in love with, and can’t imagine working without (or how they managed before). We’re talking about features like voicemail-to-email, live call forwarding, automatic call distribution, and so on. However, there’s another member of the cloud phone system feature All Star team that sometimes gets overlooked, even though it’s a game-changer compared to what existed before: music on hold. Below are 3 best practices to help businesses exploit this opportunity, and transform placing callers on hold from a risk into an advantage: 1. Choose Soothing Music

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laundry detergent
Nicky Smith

3 Reasons Why a Business VoIP Phone System is FAR Superior to Video Conferencing Apps

New video conferencing apps (and often with perky laundry detergent-like names) seem to be popping up all the time. And while these apps offer some nice features, they are categorically not on the same level as an enterprise-grade business VoIP phone system. Here are the key reasons why in the showdown between a business VoIP phone system and video conferencing apps, it’s VoIP for the win every time: 1. Better Quality Video conferencing apps are notorious for choppy audio and lag. To be fair, this isn’t (usually) due to defects in the apps themselves. Rather, it’s that businesses don’t have

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ultatel
Nicky Smith

The Market Value of VoIP Predicted to Skyrocket; ULTATEL Advises Businesses, Analyzes Trends

(24th May 2018) The researchers have claimed that the VoIP market will shoot up with a forecasted value of $206.9 billion and 350.6 million users by the year 2022. According to a report, the market of VoIP is expected to touch the sky with a value of $140.87 billion by the year 2022, but according to a second market report, the potential for reaching the sky will become greater as the predicted value according to this report is $205.9 billion. This forecasted growth shows that the subscriber-based service is about to grow a long way since 2013. The CEO of

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1987
Nicky Smith

VoIP Phone System Advanced Features: This Ain’t Your Parents (or your Grandparent’s) Caller ID

The year was 1987. An odd cartoon called The Simpsons made its debut. The average cost of a new house was $92,000. The Ford Escort was the #1 selling car. Millions of moviegoers flocked to see Lethal Weapon, Robocop and Dirty Dancing (“nobody puts baby in a corner”). Baggy dresses were all the rage for women, while a disturbing number of men donned suspender pants. And one more thing happened in 1987 that is more monumental than all of the above: a new telephone feature dubbed Caller ID arrived on the mainstream, and has been with us ever since.  However,

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qy research group
Nicky Smith

QY Research Group is adding Business VoIP Market Research Report their Database

(SATPRNEWS, May 16th, 2018) To improve source-to-contract cycle performance in the Worldwide business VoIP market, the report provides actionable insight. It helps sourcing professionals develop better category strategies, understand supplier, enhance savings, market challenges, and best practices implementation. This report provides an in-depth research about the condition of global business VoIP projects and market and an overview of its overall growth in the market. It also provides the important elements of the market and across extremely important global regions in detail. A number of primary and secondary data has been carried out, just to collect data for concluding this specific

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cloud telephone system quality assurance
Nicky Smith

How We Ensure Cloud Telephone System Quality

At Carolina Digital Phone, we’re proud and proven cloud phone system solution specialists. And that means “one-and-done” customer relationships don’t fit with our business plan. For us to succeed and grow — which we’ve been doing for nearly 20 years — we need our customers to succeed. It’s not an option for them, and it’s not an option for us. And one of the ways that we ensure that our customers get full value from their cloud telephone system is by implementing a comprehensive quality assurance (QA) framework. Here are some of the best practices that drive our QA approach

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Don't DIY a Business VoIP Phone System
Nicky Smith

Thinking of a “DIY” VoIP Phone System for Your Business? Think Again!

The strongest and most successful businesses aren’t those that out-spend their competitors. Rather, they out-smart them by knowing when taking a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach makes strategic and financial sense — and when it’s a really bad idea. What does this have to do with cloud phone systems? It’s this: there are some mass market cloud phone system vendors in the marketplace that want businesses to think that a DIY cloud business phone system is easy, smart and cost-effective. However, if you ask an overwhelming number of businesses that have been misled by this hype, you’ll discover that the experience is

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acme
Nicky Smith

The Key Benefits of a VoIP Phone System Auto Attendant

Cloud phone systems offer many enterprise-grade calling features such as voicemail-to-email, video conferencing, live call forwarding, direct-inward-dial, and the list goes on. However, the one that most businesses instantly fall in love with — and wonder how they managed without — is auto attendant. Here are the key benefits: 1. Full Customization An auto attendant is more than just an answering machine. It’s a functional and customizable 24/7 digital receptionist that lets callers quickly connect with the right individual or team, instead of having to go through a live operator or run the risk of getting “bounced around” because someone

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cloud telephone systems drive sales results
Nicky Smith

5 Reasons Why Sales Professionals LOVE Cloud Telephone Systems

It doesn’t matter whether a business sells professional services, cool gadgets, delicious meals or anything else: while all employees have an important role to play, the fact is — and always will be — that the gateway to organizational success is sales. Indeed, without sufficient revenues, businesses cannot achieve their objectives or targets. And while sales numbers typically rise and fall due to cycles and other marketplace variables, a sustained drop in revenue inevitably — and terrifyingly — leads to layoffs, scale-backs, and in extreme cases, bankruptcies and shut downs. Given the importance of sales, it makes sense that successful

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GL Communications announces the new Voice Recorder Emulator for VoIP Air Traffic Control

(GL Communications Inc. 3rd May 2018) The GL Communications Inc. announced today its new ED-137 Voice Recorder Emulator software also known as MAPS ED-137 Recorder Emulator. The CEO of the company Mr. Vijay Kulkarni said, “Air traffic control centers need to provide continuous ground/air and ground/ground voice communication recordings along with replay, flight release data, air traffic incident, audits, chronology, training, and statistics. The new ED-137/4B shows inter-operability standards for the advance generation VoIP Air Traffic Recorder. The advance generation recorders are designed for all local and international control towers to simplify the recording, playback of voice communications, archiving. He also

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voip phone systems for financial advisory firms
Nicky Smith

Why Financial Advisory Firms are Switching to a Business Cloud Phone System

In an article for the New York Times, Craig Pfeiffer, CEO of the association representing the investment advisory solutions industry noted that: “the financial advice profession is under pressure to continue to move aggressively from a sales- and product-driven focus to a more comprehensive, advice-driven model delivering a personalized, streamlined experience to investors similar to what is happening in other industries.” As with disruptive shifts in any field — such as legal or healthcare — some financial advisory firms are successfully navigating this new client-centric landscape, while others are struggling. And it’s not surprising that many firms that see the

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Business Continuity

Is Your Business Expecting the Unexpected? While email and chat are increasingly becoming preferred communication channels, many of today’s customers insist on being able to pick up the phone and get in touch with a business — whether it’s to ask questions about a potential product or service, get support for a prior purchase, or for any other reason. But what happens in the event of a power outage caused by a disaster, or even a shorter — but certainly noticeable — brownout resulting from the country’s aging and over-burdened utility infrastructure? Well, if you have a conventional phone system

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cloud telephone systems make your small business look big cat shadow lion
Nicky Smith

4 Ways that a Cloud Telephone System Makes Your Small Business Look BIG

Being at the helm of a large multinational enterprise has its perks, like incentive stock options, zipping around in a corporate jet, and team building getaways to an executive dude ranch (we’re not kidding). Yet with this being said, it’s also a great time to run a small business; especially since they account for a whopping 99.7% of all businesses in the U.S., and have provided two-thirds of all new jobs since the 1970s. So yes, big businesses get featured on magazine covers, but small business are — and always will be — the economic engine of the nation. However,

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tom cruise mission impossible
Nicky Smith

How to Get Your Boss to Switch to a Cloud Telephone System

It’s not quite Mission: Impossible and you’re not expected to use your computer while dangling in mid air or wear scanner contact lenses. However, you know from experience that convincing The Powers That Be in your business to invest in a new solution can be a challenge — or a struggle. To be fair, it’s (probably) not that your boss delights in saying no, or enjoys borrowing a phrase from the universal parents playbook: “we’ll look into it at a later date.” It’s a lot more pragmatic and down to earth than that. Simply put, smart bosses — which are

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net neutrality and voip
Nicky Smith

VoIP and Net Neutrality: Recent report on Net Neutrality rule and Americans’ Stance

The new repeal order published on January 5, 2018, to cancel December 14, 2017’s Net Neutrality Protection rules has clauses that can affect various businesses including VoIP industry. Federal Communications Commission of America (FCC) is responsible for monitoring communications on an international and national level by imposing laws for wire radio, television, cable, and satellite. The 50 states of America, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia comes under this monitoring. Whereas, VoIP technology is advancing to surpass regular phone calls and make quality communications. On February 26, 2015, FCC published a new code of practice for the equal and

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milennials cloud telephone system
Nicky Smith

How a Cloud Telephone System Helps Your Organization Recruit & Retain Millennials

Millennials — the people born from around the early 1980s to the late 1990s — now comprise the largest segment of the U.S. workforce. And by 2019, they’ll be the biggest adult population overall, surpassing Boomers and Generation Xers. Given this seismic demographic shift, it’s not surprising that businesses across all industries — from small startups to large enterprises — are aggressively trying to recruit and retain the millennials they need to drive today’s success, and lead tomorrow’s growth. If your organization is vying to onboard talented and high-potential millennials, then you’re well aware that competition is ferocious. But what

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advanyages and disadvantages of voip
Nicky Smith

Possible Effects of Using VoIP in your Business

Though VoIP technology is the talk of the town in the business world and it is been a decade since this technology took its baby steps still many entrepreneurs think twice before incorporating in it their business. To clear away the confusion, here is a sorted list of possible negative and positive effects VoIP can do to your business, collected through various testimonials and experiences of companies. The one positive effect of VoIP that can’t be ignored is the considerable reduction in cables and wires. Hence cloud-based connections cause fewer maintenance expenditures and stress for installing wires appropriately. Services from

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Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and VoIP Service

FCC and its years of stance for VoIP services and VoIP service providers in the United States of America. FCC has been involved in controlling and monitoring various VoIP services and as well as VoIP service providers from years in order to assure secure and authentic communication for the people of America. Federal Communications Commission of America (FCC) is responsible for controlling international and national communications by imposing laws for wire radio, television, cable, and satellite. This implies not just in all 50 states of America but also in U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. It is an independent

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