The Key Difference Between In-House and Hosted VoIP Solutions

A VoIP phone system, or Voice over Internet Protocol, uses your Internet connection instead of a landline connection, to transfer your voice to the recipient. Essentially, your voice is turned into data and transmitted along your Internet connection. This removes the need to pay for expensive long distance phone bills that might be holding your company back. Before even considering VoIP, however, you need to consider whether your current infrastructure can handle the demands of this new type of communication. Your VoIP runs off of your Internet connection, so it?s important to consider whether or not your connection can sustain heavy use. If not, you might experience connectivity issues and poor call quality. Still, if your business is keen on improving operations, one of the best things you can do is switch to a VoIP solution. There are several different kinds of VoIP providers out there, all with different solutions. Despite this, one of the consistent choices you?ll have to make is whether or not you want hosted or in-house VoIP. The Difference Between Hosted and In-House VoIPCompared to an in-house VoIP solution, hosted VoIP offers plenty of benefits. Basically, a hosted VoIP solution allows your business the ability to push the responsibility of monitoring and maintaining the VoIP server onto an outsourced IT company like White Mountain IT Services. These companies generally allow businesses to host the server off-site and out of mind, or in the cloud. This means that the third party is responsible for ensuring the upkeep of the system, which lets your company go about business as usual with one less expense to worry about. Due to this shift in responsibility, it?s simple and easy to implement. However, you might run into complications if you?re one of the more hands-on business owners. Outsourcing any aspect of your IT infrastructure requires a certain level of trust, so if you want to reap the benefits of outsourcing your VoIP to an IT vendor, you need to make sure that you?re willing to relinquish this control. What to Look ForOne of the most vital properties to look for in a hosted VoIP provider is reliability. If the server where your VoIP is hosted goes down, you?ll be in a bind. This is why one of the most vital properties to look for in a hosted VoIP provider is reliability. You can?t hope to accomplish much without it. Furthermore, you should look for those who have a long legacy of excellency in the managed services department. What you need is someone like White Mountain IT Services, with exceptional, proven expertise in the industry. With our technicians on your side, you?re sure to integrate only the best solutions out there. White Mountain IT Services?s VoIP solution is flexible enough to be hosted both in-house or remotely. This makes it a versatile solution that?s sure to meet the standards and requirements of your corporate structure. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 today to learn more and for help deciding the right solution for your business.

The Key Difference Between In-House and Hosted VoIP Solutions

A VoIP phone system, or Voice over Internet Protocol, uses your Internet connection instead of a landline connection, to transfer your voice to the recipient. Essentially, your voice is turned into data and transmitted along your Internet connection. This removes the need to pay for expensive long distance phone bills that might be holding your company back. Before even considering VoIP, however, you need to consider whether your current infrastructure can handle the demands of this new type of communication. Your VoIP runs off of your Internet connection, so it?s important to consider whether or not your connection can sustain heavy use. If not, you might experience connectivity issues and poor call quality. Still, if your business is keen on improving operations, one of the best things you can do is switch to a VoIP solution. There are several different kinds of VoIP providers out there, all with different solutions. Despite this, one of the consistent choices you?ll have to make is whether or not you want hosted or in-house VoIP. The Difference Between Hosted and In-House VoIPCompared to an in-house VoIP solution, hosted VoIP offers plenty of benefits. Basically, a hosted VoIP solution allows your business the ability to push the responsibility of monitoring and maintaining the VoIP server onto an outsourced IT company like White Mountain IT Services. These companies generally allow businesses to host the server off-site and out of mind, or in the cloud. This means that the third party is responsible for ensuring the upkeep of the system, which lets your company go about business as usual with one less expense to worry about. Due to this shift in responsibility, it?s simple and easy to implement. However, you might run into complications if you?re one of the more hands-on business owners. Outsourcing any aspect of your IT infrastructure requires a certain level of trust, so if you want to reap the benefits of outsourcing your VoIP to an IT vendor, you need to make sure that you?re willing to relinquish this control. What to Look ForOne of the most vital properties to look for in a hosted VoIP provider is reliability. If the server where your VoIP is hosted goes down, you?ll be in a bind. This is why one of the most vital properties to look for in a hosted VoIP provider is reliability. You can?t hope to accomplish much without it. Furthermore, you should look for those who have a long legacy of excellency in the managed services department. What you need is someone like White Mountain IT Services, with exceptional, proven expertise in the industry. With our technicians on your side, you?re sure to integrate only the best solutions out there. White Mountain IT Services?s VoIP solution is flexible enough to be hosted both in-house or remotely. This makes it a versatile solution that?s sure to meet the standards and requirements of your corporate structure. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 today to learn more and for help deciding the right solution for your business.

Tip of the Week: 5 Smart Productivity Tips to Slash Stress Levels

If you want to be truly productive, you need to work smarter and more economically. Don?t burn yourself out by working too hard. Instead, do things the right way, and you?ll never feel like you?re working again. Start a RoutineIf you are just haphazardly completing tasks one after another, you probably won?t be able to notice the difference between ?completing tasks? and establishing a routine. The difference is that a routine is optimized for efficiency and maximum production, where completing tasks is likely frantic and disorganized. Wake up at a certain time every morning. Spend a set amount of time checking your email. Try to keep your routine as consistent as possible. Create a To-Do ListOn a similar note, you should outline your days, weeks, and even months ahead of time, if you can. Assign large projects to particular days, and you won?t have any trouble remembering that they must be done. Having a solid schedule will also let you stay busy without overburdening one particular day to finish a project on a tight deadline. Prioritize TasksGoing along with the first few tips, look at what needs to be done and what is most important. You?re busy, and you know what tasks should be completed and prioritized. Hand off lesser work to others who are capable. This also promotes more teamwork and collaboration between departments, which can be beneficial in the long run. Set a Deadline, and Stick to ItThis is an absolute necessity for large projects, and even smaller projects. If you don?t tell yourself that you need to get something done, you won?t get it done. It?ll just sit there and collect dust until you finally set a deadline for it, and then you?ll scramble to get it done on time with subpar results. Instead, work on it a little bit every day with an overall deadline in mind. Set this deadline a few days before it is due to ensure that you come up with the best quality work that you can. Keep Your Work at WorkCentral to any successful smart working scheme is to separate your work life from your home life. While at the workplace, avoid distractions such as social media, text messaging, phone calls, and Internet browsing. You?ll find yourself accomplishing more in the workplace and relaxing more at home, away from the stress that the workplace causes. By sticking to these five rules, you?ll be able to drastically improve your productivity in the workplace, and cut down on stress. You?ll find yourself enjoying work and your free time more, all because you changed up the way you do things a little bit. For more tips and tricks on how to boost your workplace performance, contact White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.

Tip of the Week: 5 Smart Productivity Tips to Slash Stress Levels

If you want to be truly productive, you need to work smarter and more economically. Don?t burn yourself out by working too hard. Instead, do things the right way, and you?ll never feel like you?re working again. Start a RoutineIf you are just haphazardly completing tasks one after another, you probably won?t be able to notice the difference between ?completing tasks? and establishing a routine. The difference is that a routine is optimized for efficiency and maximum production, where completing tasks is likely frantic and disorganized. Wake up at a certain time every morning. Spend a set amount of time checking your email. Try to keep your routine as consistent as possible. Create a To-Do ListOn a similar note, you should outline your days, weeks, and even months ahead of time, if you can. Assign large projects to particular days, and you won?t have any trouble remembering that they must be done. Having a solid schedule will also let you stay busy without overburdening one particular day to finish a project on a tight deadline. Prioritize TasksGoing along with the first few tips, look at what needs to be done and what is most important. You?re busy, and you know what tasks should be completed and prioritized. Hand off lesser work to others who are capable. This also promotes more teamwork and collaboration between departments, which can be beneficial in the long run. Set a Deadline, and Stick to ItThis is an absolute necessity for large projects, and even smaller projects. If you don?t tell yourself that you need to get something done, you won?t get it done. It?ll just sit there and collect dust until you finally set a deadline for it, and then you?ll scramble to get it done on time with subpar results. Instead, work on it a little bit every day with an overall deadline in mind. Set this deadline a few days before it is due to ensure that you come up with the best quality work that you can. Keep Your Work at WorkCentral to any successful smart working scheme is to separate your work life from your home life. While at the workplace, avoid distractions such as social media, text messaging, phone calls, and Internet browsing. You?ll find yourself accomplishing more in the workplace and relaxing more at home, away from the stress that the workplace causes. By sticking to these five rules, you?ll be able to drastically improve your productivity in the workplace, and cut down on stress. You?ll find yourself enjoying work and your free time more, all because you changed up the way you do things a little bit. For more tips and tricks on how to boost your workplace performance, contact White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.

Despite Windows 10?s Approach, Windows 7 is Still Going Strong

According to ComputerWorld, two-thirds of all PCs in the world ran Windows 7 as of last month. They based this knowledge off of the statistics provided by Net Applications? monthly user share tracking. Here are the operating system?s statistics taken for the month of March 2015: 64 percent of users use Windows 7. 2 percent of users use Windows Vista. 18 percent of users are still clinging to Windows XP. 15 percent of users are using Windows 8 or 8.1. To be sure, Windows 7 is an excellent operating system that deserves some merit. Even though it was released in 2009, there?s still a massive user-base. Upon its release, it began to steal market share from the popular Windows XP operating system. In fact, its familiar user interface made many would-be Windows 8 users forsake upgrading just for the sake of efficiency. Surprisingly, Windows 7?s popularity is still climbing. It?s grown vastly more popular since the October 2012 launch of Windows 8, and since this February, it?s seen an increase of 2.6 percent. Similarly, Windows 8 and 8.1 haven?t grown significantly at all over the past four months. While Windows 7 users have little to fear for the next few years, support for the operating system will still expire come 2020; and considering the current trend, if Windows 10 fails to entice users to upgrade, the Windows 7 end-of-life event could be a repeat of the Windows XP end-of-life. If this happens, users around the world will be left without a supported operating system, and will be vulnerable to hacking attacks. This is why it?s always important to keep your operating system up to date and healthy with the latest patches and security updates. These patches fix major vulnerabilities that are revealed in operating systems and software as developers uncover them. Businesses utilizing Windows Server 2003, the next operating system on Microsoft?s chopping block, will be in a similar position, albeit for a different reason. For those who utilize Windows Server 2003 (which reaches its end of life this July), the idea of whether legacy hardware and software will be compatible with other, newer hardware is the primary concern. What?s your office?s current operating system situation looking like? Will you be able to keep up with the changes, or will you fall behind and run unsupported software? The answer should be clear; you can?t afford to fall behind. White Mountain IT Services can help your business keep up with the latest updates and patches, as well as consult you on how to move forward with upgrading both your hardware and your software to more recent (and more importantly, supported) versions. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to learn more.