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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

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,

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

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,

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,

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

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

If your organization is thinking of switching to a hosted cloud phone system, then you certainly have a list of questions that our team will be delighted to answer. However, to give you the information you need even faster, we’ve put together a list of Frequently Asked Questions that we’ve received over the years. Ideally, the following will answer some of your questions, and our team will do the rest! Question: What is the number one reason that organizations switch to a hosted cloud phone system? Answer: Every organization is unique, and has specific need priorities, objectives, risks and opportunities.

Across the country, an increasing number of law firms — from solo practitioners and smaller partnerships, to large multi-practice areas and multi-site enterprises — are making the switch from a conventional landline phone system, to an advanced and innovative hosted business cloud phone system. And since lawyers as a breed are trained to be highly skeptical — which is a good thing! — it’s not surprising that the reasons that they’re making the switch has nothing to do with marketing hype, and everything to do with pragmatic advantages and benefits. Below are the 3 most important: 1. Dramatically Lower Costs

In the past across most industries and sectors, remote workers were the exception (and we’d all hear them brag at parties about their glorious office-less job). However, these days remote working isn’t just trending, but it’s the norm! 3 Out of 4 Workers Will Be Mobile by 2020  According to research from IDC, the number of mobile workers in the U.S. will grow to a staggering 105.4 million by 2020, at which time approximately 3 out of every 4 employees will work at least part — if not all — of the time away from the office. Given the surge

Across the country, hundreds of thousands of businesses — from small firms to large enterprises — have upgraded from a costly and limited on-premises PBX phone system (a.k.a. landline system), to an advanced, feature rich and future-proof virtual PBX system (a.k.a. hosted cloud system). If your organization is eager to join the ranks of your counterparts — and your competitors — who are reaping the rewards of a virtual PBX system, then you may be holding off until after a scheduled office move is complete. Here are three reasons why the delay is unnecessary, and even counter-productive: 1. Moving the

As the temperatures outside (finally) start to climb and the days get increasingly longer, organizations are gearing up to face an annual challenge: managing calls during the holidays. While customers usually tolerate hearing a “Thank you for your call, our office is closed today…” message during Federal holidays such as Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Columbus Day, they are much less impressed when they are forced to leave voicemail after voicemail — or stay on hold for excessive amounts of time — because employees are on vacation. Fortunately, this is where a hosted cloud phone system bridges

Some businesses are led to believe — typically by smooth-talking vendors — that they can reap the rewards of a hosted cloud phone system for a fraction of the cost, merely by purchasing a cheap in-house PBX phone system and adding (relatively) inexpensive SIP lines. However, as we’ve discussed previously this configuration doesn’t add up to a legitimate, feature-rich and enterprise-grade hosted cloud phone system. Instead, it leads to endless configuration obstacles, greater business continuity risks, severely limited feature options and integrations, and one other problem that never goes away: an excessive burden on in-house IT teams. Here’s why: vendors who

The importance of business continuity cannot be underestimated; especially for small and mid-sized businesses. Going “off the grid” for even a few minutes — let alone a few hours or even days — can convince unimpressed customers to head for the exit, and straight to a competitor.  However, often without their consent or awareness, many businesses are at risk of losing both current and future customers — not because of anything that they’re doing wrong, but because they’re saddled with a premise-based PBX phone system.  Here is why: a premise-based PBX phone system essentially connects businesses to the phone company

A growing number of organizations are saying goodbye to their conventional analog premise-based PBX phone system, and hello to a cost-effective, feature-rich, and future-proofed hosted cloud phone system. Here are the key reasons why they’re saying farewell to their premise-based system — and not looking back: Excessive up-front costs: premise-based PBX systems are expensive to purchase, install and maintain. For many small and mid-sized businesses, the CapEx burden is prohibitive, and for larger organizations it’s unjustifiable. No cost certainty: the cost of operating a premise-based PBX system is based on usage (regular calling along with long-distance costs). As such, it’s

When it comes to making wise investments, organizations need to borrow a page from the consumer playbook and “get the most for the least.” This doesn’t necessarily mean getting the cheapest price. It means that organizations need to assess their needs, conduct marketplace research, evaluate potential solutions, and select the one that delivers the most long-term value. However, just like consumers, sometimes organizations can mistakenly head in the other direction: getting the least for the most. And since this unfortunate fact doesn’t come to light until after a purchase decision is made, organizations in this situation are forced to absorb

A few decades ago, fax machines roamed freely on the business landscape: and it was good. Actually, it was groundbreaking. The idea of transmitting an exact facsimile of a document to anyone in the world — and within a matter of seconds — was incredible. Indeed, if you build a time machine and head back to circa 1988, you’ll be greeted by an orchestra of screeching fax machines (don’t worry, it’s a screech of joy, not of pain).  Well, here we are about to enter the third decade of the 21st century, and traditional fax machines are few and far

In today’s hyper-competitive business landscape, satisfying and impressing customers — both prospective and current — isn’t just important: it’s essential. In fact, a study by Walker Information concluded that by the year 2020, customer experience will be the number one brand differentiator in the minds of customers — surpassing traditional factors such as product and price. In other words, within a couple of years the vast majority of customers in both B2C and B2B spaces will knowingly, willingly, and happily pay more for something from a business than they could from its competitors, provided they feel as though they’re getting

In life, there are signs that alert us to potential trouble — and if we’re attentive and wise, we heed these warnings and avoid bigger problems in the future. For example, our car may be sluggish and sputtering, and pleading with us for a tune up or some preventative maintenance. And our bodies often tell us through various aches and pains that we need to dial things down and take a break — or else a break may be thrust upon us. Now, what does this have to do with telecommunications? It’s this: businesses also receive warning signs that their

While they have different missions and mandates, today’s government organizations and education institutions share key objectives. For example: They face increasing pressure to be more efficient, more cost-effective, more innovative, and essentially “do more with less.” They need to enhance communication among team members, while making it easy and fast for remote users, partners and other stakeholders to connect and collaborate. They must ensure security, compliance, and system-wide continuity at all times. That’s where Carolina Digital Phone’s cloud hosted phone system enters the picture, and ticks all of these mission-critical boxes. Affordable, Scalable, Secure & Easy to Change Unlike conventional

Let’s start with this: telecommunications fraud isn’t new. Since phone systems were invented centuries ago, there has always been a very small — but not insignificant, and certainly not harmless — segment of the population that has sought to exploit them, in order to benefit improperly or illegally. Growing Costs   However, what has changed in recent years is the growing cost and prevalence of telecommunications fraud. A recent survey by the Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA), a not-for-profit global education organization, pegged worldwide telecommunications fraud losses in 2017 at $29.2 billion. The CFCA also listed the top 10 methods

On today’s worsening cyber threat landscape, security is a top-of-mind concern — and cloud business phone systems are fundamentally designed to be part of the solution. To that end, here are 8 best practices for making cloud business phone systems more secure against data leaks, malware attacks, and other threats: Use Network Encryption The voice/data network should use both WPA-2 encryption and WPA password security, and all employees who use the cloud phone system through their desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone should have strong encryption protection.  Deploy a Next-Generation Security Gateway Appliance Next-generation security gateway appliances can be configured as

One of the most critical objectives for all businesses — regardless of whether they are dynamic new startups or large established enterprises — is business continuity. That’s because productivity grinds to a halt when workers cannot instantly connect and collaborate, and customers who fail to reach their desired party — or who do not receive a prompt callback after leaving a message — are likely to head to a more responsive competitor. Business continuity is not just an important priority: it is a mission critical objective. Fortunately, that’s where cloud phone systems enter the picture and make a transformative difference.