Communication has always been key to the success of any business small or large. Businesses need to be agile and respond to customers quickly and efficiently to deliver the high level of service you strive for. In order to do this employees need to be equipped with the right tools which allows for both seamless internal & external communication. By effectively connecting people, applications and clouds you can transform the way information is shared which in turn increases productivity and customer satisfaction.

Hosted phone system provider Gamma have now released Horizon Collaborate bolt on which offers instant messaging, voice, video, file sharing all in one application both mobile & desktop. It is fully integrated with your hosted phone system therefore supports all the functionality/features of the telephony service for a perfect unified communications experience. This integration also allows you to utilise your included call minutes therefore no longer paying for expensive conference numbers.

Does the traditional meeting need a makeover?

A survey showed half of all employees think meetings are a total waste of time. We all know the importance of meetings, you need to keep everyone informed, connected and working towards the same goal. Collaborate is looking to help solve this problem of meeting fatigue by making it easier to set up as well as engage in.

Step 1 is to give everyone their own ‘meeting room’! Traditional phone conferences can be clunky every step of the way, do you know your dial in code? Have you mistyped your access code? Even once you’re on the call you cannot share your desktop or even facial reaction which eventually leads to boredom where you start to multitask and lose focus. Thankfully collaborate addresses all these issues with one ‘click to join’ link. You can video conference up to 15 people and share applications and files on demand.

Step 2 is to get everyone using the mobile app! You can control your availability but can experience conferencing just the same on the go. An extra feature is if you are using your personal mobile you can still display your business phone number when you join a meeting which is handy.

Step 3 is to set up collaborative work spaces! You can set up different work spaces for different departments, job roles or projects which allow you to drag and drop files as well as easily message/call work space members.

It’s an exciting service with great potential especially with boasting phone system integration, so please feel free to get in touch if you think this could add value to your business. If you are an existing horizon customer, we can add the bolt on free for two months for you to trial.

We’re delighted to announce that Yellowcom have been awarded Gold Partner status with Gamma. Furthermore as the only Gold Partner in Northern Ireland and one of only three in Scotland it’s testament to how Yellowcom have supported our customers over the years.

Yellowcom have been a Gamma partner since 2011 primarily as a mobile reseller and have transformed into a fully unified comms provider now offering Hosted, On Premise, Data and MPLS solutions. Additionally, having been an early adopter of the Horizon platform we have over 1500 live users and that’s set to double this year.

The criteria set for the Gold Partner status is high and Yellowcom have proven to be a highly deserving partner. The Gold Partner Programme opens up further exciting benefits to Yellowcom including marketing development funding, face to face marketing consultancy, premium feature access to the Gamma partner marketing portal and a managed service for design and campaign management.

The Problem

We approached Yellowcom to our become our telecoms provider after our new supplier let the business down by fitting a flawed VOIP system. After installation, the system’s poor performance impacted our company’s essential day to day operations and our new supplier was unable to identify the cause of the issue.

The Solution

We arranged an appointment with Andrew at Yellowcom to attend our premises and investigate the issue. Within minutes Yellowcom could establish that our broadband connection was the underlying problem and not the phone system itself. After resolving our broadband and phone system we instantly switched those services across to Yellowcom due to their superior industry knowledge.

As well as fixing our broadband and phone systems they upgraded our services to manage our phone system through an online portal that allows us to manage call traffic, run daily reports, and pick up calls on the move.

“We have built up a great working relationship with the Yellowcom team over the last 10 years, not just with Andrew but with the office staff too.  We started off by moving our VOIP services across to fix our initial problem. Now they service our mobile account, phone system, broadband and Office 365 account which is the best recommendation I can give. We have experienced the true benefits of having one supplier for all our telecom needs.” Managing Director, Voltair

Get in touch

Hosted telephony has long been perceived as a communication solution for businesses that operate across multiple sites. Quick and easy set up and the limited equipment required is perfect for businesses with multiple offices and limited time to manage their communication infrastructure.

However, there are multiple benefits to having cloud based hosted telephony installed in a single site premises and our blog today will explore these benefits.

Future Proof your System

Upgrading your current phone solution is a strenuous task for both the channel partner and the customer – and sometimes it appears the expenditure is not worth the rewards. However, many businesses fail to consider that keeping a older phone system in place can be just as costly.

Moving your telephone system to the cloud has the appeal of moving with the times and many businesses do so without fully understanding the full benefits of their newly installed system. Unlike the physical alternative, a cloud system can be updated instantly with new features and applications to ensure you develop your communications infrastructure as your business grows – adding to or upgrading your system as the technology advances.

Reducing your company’s downtime

Although single-site businesses are less susceptible to downtimes associated with extreme weather conditions they are not completely protected. Snowstorms and floods, for instance, can take the standard phone system down. The advantage to hosted is that it doesn’t require any physical infrastructure on the user’s end. This means little or no downtime for the customer and fewer repairs for the channel partner.

Grow Your Business Without Limitations

Single-office businesses with significant strategic development plans are always faced with a growth dilemma not because they lack customers, but their telephone infrastructure constrains them. With hosted, however, that’s a thing of the past. You can switch to a package with more lines, more options, and more features in no time. Not to mention the savings associated with the initial setup, constant upgrades, and ongoing maintenance.

If you would like to find out more information about hosted telephony or would like expert advice on how you can improve your telephone system get in touch today.

Recently, the SIP trunking market has seen a high increase. Clients are now more informed about the cost advantages of the technology; channel retailers must target its additional benefits to provide real value.

For resellers, offering extra overlying services provides additional worth to SIP Trunking and gives better margin opportunity, for instance, combining SIP with inbound call control. Overlaying extra services helps you to build on your outstanding product value and deliver enhanced client satisfaction. Below is how overlaying extra service helps you build your product value.

Better call estate management

Your clients know that data analysis forms the bedrock of all business decisions and telephony is no different. When you include call control behaviour to SIP Trunking, everything can be tracked and analysed. From call patterns to call behaviour, time to answer and caller detailer – this information can be captured and analysed to provide insights to improve future performance.

Clients can also use this data to acquire insight into their operational planning. By understanding when phone calls are busy, they can guarantee they have got the appropriate amount of personnel available and adequate telephony capability to manage all inbound calls.

No more missed opportunities

With a call control system, email alerts can be posted in the event of a missed call. This guarantees your clients are always informed of any unanswered calls and can be perfect for sales focussed businesses who are focused on lead generation.

Missed calls can offer perceptions about how current systems are functioning. Whether as a result of lacking staff, or regularly busy lines, these figures can help paint a picture of possible missed business opportunities and help present a case for increased resources or functional change.

Improved customer service

The idea of ‘normal’ working hours is now a thing of the past. Today, the Internet has increased everyone’s customer services expectations with many expecting around the clock servicing. This can be difficult for smaller companies to implement.

However, with the appropriate telephony, businesses can still provide a positive customer experience even if there are no staff available to answer the phones. Call routing can be planned ahead of time to match business hours, while customized voicemail can prompt clients to leave information about an ideal time to call again.

Business continuity

Phone outages can arise for many reasons – whether it’s due to damage or a natural disaster, these exterior forces tend to be beyond anyone’s control. However, a business continuity strategy can perpetuate connectivity. Call management systems redirect inbound calls when required. By immediately recovering the last call plan, businesses have a dependable solution that instantly preserves business continuity in case of an office evacuation.

A SIP trunk call management system allows your clients to understand the advantages of SIP technology completely. This self-service potential indicates they can regulate and control their telephony estate to provide the freedom to concentrate on building your client base.

1 in 4 children are living in poverty.

We’re asking you to buy an extra present that we can give to a disadvantaged local child to make their Christmas morning special. We need new and unwrapped gifts suitable for children and young people aged 0-18 years, and you can donate at our Glasgow and Belfast Offices from the 14th November.

Donate Cash

If you are unable to donate a present cash donations will be used to purchase gifts for age groups where we’re short on donations, and if there’s any left over after Christmas it’ll go towards our next grant round to support local disabled and disadvantaged children.

Get in touch with Diane McColm at d.mccolm@yellowcom.co.uk for payment instructions.

Donation Offices

Belfast Address
Yellowcom Limited
22A Stockmans Way
Belfast
BT9 7ET
Telephone 0289 560 7600

Glasgow Address
Yellowcom Limited
200 Bath street
Glasgow
G2 4HG
Telephone 0141 882 4563

For small to medium-sized companies, any specific benefit over a rival can be crucial. Margins are tight, functioning expenses matter, and staff resources are limited. Therefore, enhancing a business-critical service such as telecoms can have a huge impact on performance and profitability. This post examines three ways an impressive telecoms service can boost your performance.

1. Staying Connected

Ensuring business continuity and minimising downtime are essential to business success. However, it stands to reason that there will be occasions when systems don’t work precisely as they should. Service makes a huge difference at this point.

Many suppliers take a reactive approach, waiting for customers to notify them of any service problems or upkeep issues, others suppliers proactively monitor clients accounts and notify them of any irregularities in data usage or network traffic. It is highly unlikely that there will be any issues but a proactive approach ensures that any potential problems are rectified to ensure continuity and minimising downtime.

2. Versatile finance

Naturally, frequent billing is essential to suppliers, but should not be prioritised over a customers needs. For this purpose, flexible payments are now inherent with superior telecoms suppliers providing clients with the capability to access expenses online and set up dashboards to gain a holistic view of usage and spend. Furthermore, it eliminates the one-size-fits-all, payments choices of the past.

3. Telecoms administration

Today’s businesses are tech-reliant, with an enormous and varied choice of devices and systems, with the intention that staff have the flexibility to work efficiently at home, in the office and on the road. This creates a requirement for an experienced IT employee to service and maintain mobility device management, software upgrades, and requires businesses to have the functionality to remotely administer staff permissions.

Many small businesses can’t afford a full time IT employee which is acknowledged by superior telecoms suppliers who have committed account supervision teams to help manage updates, staff permissions, and bolt-on solutions to meet client requirements.

Maintaining your client first

Businesses looking for a quality telecoms service should keep in mind that not every telecoms company can offer the same level of service. High standards rely on ‘customer-first’ mindset that drives a proactive approach to network infrastructure, support, and billing analysis to ensure continuity, minimal downtime and billing efficiency. Getting a company with all of these features can lead to huge business benefits, both on the frontline and in the back-office.

Yellowcom is a leading UK mobile and landline provider who has been delivering services to businesses from their offices in Glasgow and Belfast for over 10 years.

If you require expert advice on how to improve your business’s telecommunications infrastructure, please get in touch for free advice.

 

Yellowcom is delighted to announce the signing of a sponsorship agreement with Crumlin United U13s for season 2016/17.

The sponsorship has enabled all fifteen Crumlin United players to be supplied with and wear high performance Nike kits for away matches. As part of the sponsorship deal the shirts worn by the U13s team will showcase the Yellowcom company logo throughout the season until May 2017.

Crumlin United coach, Sean, has been enthused by the support and commented “It’s a real boost for football club, that we’ve had this early support from Yellowcom.”

Photo shows Yellowcom director, Andrew Laing, with the team before their 4-0 win over Antrim Rovers on Saturday.

Apple launched the new iPhone 7 this month alongside its latest operating system, iOS10. Today’s blog will run through 10 significant changes to the software to improve productivity.

Messaging

Thanks to the new release, Apple now has an improved built-in Messaging option to compete with Whats App and Facebook Messenger. Apart from sending stickers, transitions, reactions and larger emojis, Apple now offers you the opportunity to experience emojification functionality too.

Notifications

The most notable change integrated with iOS 10 is its improved notification system coupled with quick reply option. Because of this feature, you can access media like videos and images without opening the apps; it is a matter of tapping or force pressing the notification accordingly for a quick response.

Lockscreen

With the improved notification feature, the Apple’s lockscreen has improved functionality. There are some useful widgets in this screen which can be accessible when swiping right including quick access to your schedule, favourite apps, weather info and headline news.

Delete stock apps

Apple now gives you the option to delete most Apple apps allowing you to free up valuable space on your home screen for your most used apps. Although it is not a complete deletion process, it prevents the apps from appearing on the home screen.

Control Centre

Control Centre now comes with two panes. One shows the regular quick controls while the other pane shows music. This second pane comes with controls related to music; it is exceptionally useful when you use the hands-free functionality.

Better 3D experience

With the new improvements, iOS10 supports more 3D features now. The entire system is compatible with more gestures for the pressure-sensitive screen of the iPhone 6 and

Apple Photos

Apple Photos has become even user-friendlier and now it has the features of competitor apps such as Google Photos. It comes with built-in features for facial recognition, smart grouping and many other options.

Apple Maps

With the latest upgrades, Apple Maps now offers traffic and faster route notifications and suggestions for places nearby. Now, the interface of the Apple Map looks simpler and cleaner. Although it doesn’t overdo sophisticated Google Maps, Apple Maps is showing clear progress.

Apple Music

Apple has looked to improve Apple Music’s functionality, which was criticised at launch. However, with iOS 10, Apple has addressed these issues. With the recent update, music is easy to access, editing is made easy and overall manipulation has become more convenient.

Siri

Yes, iOS 10 comes with major improvements to Siri. Now it supports virtually any Apple App. With the new features, Siri shows more intelligence when performing different types of tasks. Also, it is now integrated with the QuickType keyboard for additional productivity.

Overall, with iOS 10, Apple is making major advancements to enhance the daily tasks and challenges of its users. iOS10 now comes preinstalled with the new iPhone 7 which is available to new and existing clients from Yellowcom. Get it touch.

Whаt is Vоір telephone ѕуѕtеm?

Intеrnеt tеlерhоnу technology соmbіnеѕ thе іntеrnеt with a voice саllѕ. Thіѕ ѕеrvісе is аlѕо rеfеrrеd to аѕ VoIP (Voice оvеr Intеrnеt Prоtосоl) and is already bеgіnnіng tо rерlасе trаdіtіоnаl telephones іn mаnу homes аnd businesses.

Hоw dоеѕ Voip Work?

VоIP allows customers tо make tеlерhоnе calls аrоund the world without hаvіng tо pay hіgh сhаrgеѕ оftеn levied by lаndlіnе ореrаtоrѕ for international аnd mоbіlе саllѕ. Tо ѕtаrt еnjоуіng VоIP ѕеrvісеѕ аll уоu need is a broadband іntеrnеt соnnесtіоn and a VoIP provider.

IP phones are normally used to connect to the network which are often supplied when using a hosted system.  Alternatively, along with old digital phone systems, you can connect via an on-premies system although these usually have substantial upfront costs.

The technology works by converting speech into data packages, the same used by computer networks.  This data is sent via the interent before connecting to the fixed-line telephone network or mobile network where it is then converted back to speech.

Historically VoIP systems suffered from poor call quality due to the slow interent speeds accessible during the 90s and early 2000.  Since fast internet speeds are now widely available VoIP is able to surpass the call quality of older telephone systems.  Some providers also offer a guaranteed minum number of concurrent calls.

Bеnеfіtѕ of Vоір fоr businesses

Whеn lооkіng fоr a VоIP ѕеrvісе рrоvіdеr, reliability, еxсеllеnt customer ѕеrvісе аnd hеlрful technical support ѕhоuld be tор оf уоur аgеndа. Yоu саn uѕе VоIP оn almost аll іntеrnеt ѕеrvісе рrоvіdеrѕ.  Although reliable and stable internet is critical to guarantee good call quality – the maximum speed is less important as good VoIP services do not use a lot of bandwidth.

Once you have purchased your VoIP service the opportunities are endless.  You can opt not to have a physical phone and use a softphone on your computer and make calls from anywhere you have an internet connection all while using the same landline number.

For a ѕmаll business оr someone that works frоm hоmе, VоIP саn provide functionality thаt is either impossible or impractical uѕіng traditional services. Cоnfеrеnсе calls, call fоrwаrdіng, аnd number presentation are juѕt ѕоmе of the fеаturеѕ available tо VоIP uѕеrѕ. Cаll waiting, саllеr ID and three-way calling аrе also аvаіlаblе.

Lаrgе buѕіnеѕѕеѕ аrе аlѕо еmbrасіng VoIP services tо create іntеr-dераrtmеntаl phone nеtwоrkѕ between sites, еvеn across borders. Calls wіthіn these ѕресіfіс networks аrе оftеn free of сhаrgе. If іt’ѕ nоt free, running соѕtѕ are substantionally cheaper thаn fоr lеаѕеd, рrіvаtе сіrсuіtѕ.

If you’re оut thе соuntrу, thеn you саn still еnjоу VоIP services. Thе hаrdwаrе саn be unрluggеd from уоur hоmе оr оffісе аnd tаkеn with уоu. Sіmрlу рlug іt іn wherever уоu are and уоu’ll have cost еffесtіvе calls tо соllеаguеѕ аnd loved оnеѕ bасk hоmе.

The use оf VoIP ѕеrvісеs are very соѕt еffесtіvе. If you shop around, ѕеvеrаl companies offer unlіmіtеd саllѕ tо domestic lаndlіnеѕ fоr a flаt fee, аnd reduced rates for оvеrѕеаѕ саllѕ аnd mobile calls. Some providers also offer free mobile calls. Multiple рhоnе lіnеs can bе іnѕtаllеd аt a competitive rаtе. Instructions аrе provided оn hоw to іnѕtаll аll software, whіlѕt ѕеtuр аnd rental соѕtѕ аrе muсh lower than traditional рhоnе lines.

Benefits of Hosted Vоір

Hosted VoIP just mеаnѕ thаt уоur саll саllіng сараbіlіtіеѕ sit оn уоur ѕuррlіеr servers аnd will require аn Intеrnеt соnnесtіоn tо ассеѕѕ thеm. Yоur ѕuррlіеr wіll hаndlе аll ѕоftwаrе upgrades аnd mаіntеnаnсе ѕо no expensive setup or maintenance fees for your company which will allow you to relax in the knowledge that these will be handled with no interruption to your services.

Find out more about the Voip packages available from Yellowcom.