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 pay for...

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 about situations where...

[caption id="attachment_4210" align="alignleft" width="143"] Nicky Smith, DigitalPhone.io Founder and CEO[/caption]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 CustomersI have said this before, and...

We are thrilled to announce that we are now giving all of our customers enhanced voicemail-to-text for FREE!In case you are unfamiliar with this incredibly useful calling feature, as the name suggests voicemail-to-text automatically transcribes voicemail messages into text messages, which are then sent to recipients via email or SMS.Key benefits of Voicemail-to-Text include:In many cases, employees will save time glancing at transcriptions vs. listening to long voicemails — especially if they are complex and have a lot of detail.Employees can pick up transcribed voicemail messages anytime and anywhere on their smartphone.Employees can prioritize responses to optimize customer experience. For...

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 (finally) goes...

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 get much...

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....

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 cloud...

Since we launched our company almost 20 years ago, one of our guiding principles has been to give back to our community. It is very rewarding to know that we are making a positive difference in people’s lives — one that will have a lasting impact on their future, and the future of their family.Recently, we had the opportunity to give back and make a difference by helping the Interactive Resource Center (IRC), which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Greensboro, NC. The IRC provides a wide range of services that help individuals experiencing homelessness reconnect with their lives...

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. callers hang...