As we emerge from the COVID-19 lockdown, millions of people are preparing to return to the corporate office (and many have already started the migration). However, we are likely to see a significant shift in the workplace landscape: the popularity of hot desking.What is Hot-Desking? Hot desking refers to a layout in which employees don’t have assigned workstations or offices. Instead, when they’re in the corporate environment (as opposed to their home office), they simply sit at any available desk and start working. It’s similar to hotel business centers or shared workspaces like WeWork, Impact Hub, etc.Post-Conavirus Hot-DeskingBefore the pandemic,...

On the educational landscape, typically students fear getting an “F” on an assignment or test. However, an eye-opening new study reveals that most school districts around the country are not making the grade during the coronavirus pandemic.The study carried out by the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CPRE), looked at the policies of 477 school systems across the U.S. and discovered that only 33% of districts expected teachers to remotely provide instruction, track student engagement, and monitor academic progress for all students. The gap was especially pronounced in economically disadvantaged communities. As the study’s lead researchers soberly concluded:“This spring, it...

Since the beginning of recorded history, communication has been an essential part of everyday life. From individuals to major corporations, hospitals, and schools, being able to share information is critical. But we’ve come a long way since cave drawings, the adaption of the modern alphabet, and smoke signals.A communications revolution began with the invention of the telegraph in the 1840s and the telephone around 1876. It wasn’t until well into the 20th century that we began to move away from the analog telephone. With the creation of ARPANET in 1969 and the internet in the 1970s, a new communications era...

As businesses worldwide begin coming out of their coronavirus induced hibernation, the world is a very different place. Having a plan for reopening your business is imperative. Also critical is having a plan to communicate with your customers what to expect. Even before they walk in your door, your customers are faced with a laundry list of do's and don’ts. They must be made aware of any services you may have (temporarily) modified or discontinued as well as precautions you are taking and procedures they must adhere to.It’s not enough to make sure your business has taken the necessary steps...

Learning from our own mistakes is smart. But learning from the mistakes of others is wise — and also a heck of a lot less painful, tragic, awful…you get the picture. If your business has decided to switch from your conventional landline phone system to a cloud phone system, here is the biggest and costliest mistake that others have made, but that you can wisely avoid: underestimating the importance of OUTSTANDING SERVICE. Don't ignore factors like features, functionality, scalability, and price. But without a doubt, service is going to determine more than anything else whether your investment will be rewarding or regrettable. What...

Cloud migrations have been increasing rapidly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, companies have been moving more data, services, and applications to the cloud as a means to become more streamlined and productive. Businesses migrating information to the cloud is not a new trend. The move toward cloud adoption, however, has been picking up steam during the worldwide lockdown with some interesting results:A major shift to remote workingReduction in capital investmentInnovative business models adapting to a major shift in consumer habitsWelcome to the CloudWorldwide demand for cloud services is swelling as more people have shifted to telework and...

Many municipalities were caught off-guard when the COVID-19 pandemic required them to make a swift change to remote work. Businesses at all levels, but particularly in local government, were forced to address a host of concerns from a shortage of secure infrastructure and increased risks of cyber-attacks to untrained staff managing critical information without the help of their IT team. Let’s take a look:InfrastructureWithout pre-planning for a teleworking-friendly structure, many offices were ill-prepared for the stay-at-home orders at the outset of the pandemic. Lacking reliable communication and collaboration tools like VoIP or a committed hosting platform, many didn’t even have...

Now that it has been a few months since the COVID-19 pandemic forced many of us to change our daily routines, it’s time for a refresher course in video conferencing etiquette. If sweatpants have become your new office attire, and your daily commute has moved to a stroll from the bedroom to the kitchen to the sofa, you don’t want to let your guard down. Even though we may have become accustomed to working from home that doesn’t give us a pass from looking presentable for the onslaught of web meetings we still must attend on a weekly and often...

Carolina Digital Phone is proud to be a locally owned Greensboro NC business. We share in the struggles of our neighbors, friends, family, and community as a whole. While we welcome peaceful protesters working towards a change, we will never welcome violence and hatred. Randomly attacking local businesses that are already struggling to stay afloat only causes more injustice. We are posting these images to show support for our hometown businesses and the community affected by a few random acts of destruction and looting during otherwise peaceful protests for change. These businesses are not just our customers. They are our friends....

The global demand for cloud-based communication has been increasing at a rapid pace recently. It is estimated that the global cloud PBX market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 13%, reaching a value of 6.36 billion dollars by 2027.If you don’t switch to cloud communications, your competition will have an advantage. Many organizations have either already switched or are beginning the move to cloud technology. The benefits of switching your business to cloud include increased flexibility, improved performance, and lower cost. Nevertheless, there are still businesses that have not taken the final step to convert to...