Pilothouse Communications » CJ Carlson

Hosted Phones form Star2Star, like no other!

CJ Carlson — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:52:30 +0000

Have you been looking into Hosted yet? I mean for your business phones. If you have what you probably didn’t know was that most of the providers out there are actually selling the same product. Yup, everybody or rather almost everybody sells a solution made by Broadsoft. What they do is they by a Hosting phone system made by Broadsoft with software made by Broadsoft, they put it in there office, they buy dial tone from a carrier and then resell it to Businesses like you! Sounds great right? WRONG! Most of them have only one carrier one phone system, one location! What happens if any part of that fails? You’re dead in the water that’s what! What happens if you want a custom feature? They have to hope Broadsoft will come up with it! The scary part this is true for most of the options out there!

Now all that being said there is hope! Star2Star hosted! They are an INC 500 company. Ever heard of them? Some big companies in the USA have! Dollar General has put it in all 10,000 locations. Quantum Airlines & Pizzahut use it for their call centers, Lowes has been converting their home improvement stores to it, & the US Postal service is testing it in a dozen locations, just to name a few! Many small businesses across the country as well. Now your probably wondering what’s so different about Star2Star right? First they are not on a Broadsoft platform, they built their own! They don’t host from a single office, they have 6 data centers located in “Level3″ data centers around the country! They have multiple carriers and the carriers use the same data centers so they are co-located! They have a great feature set including call center technology. You want a custom feature, well Star2Star is the MFG so there is no middle man. The way the equipment is connected is different as well. I don’t want to get Geeky here suffice it to say that they use an onsite unit that allows the phones to work more efficiently.

There is a lot more to tell you but your busy so I’ll save it! Sounds good doesn’t it? It is , that’s why we offer it to our customers. Want to know more? Check out www.star2star.com or contact us at Pilothouse Communications.

Should I stay or should I VoIP?

CJ Carlson — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:31:09 +0000

Are you considering changing to VoIP? What I would ask is do you know why? VoIP is a category of technology not just one thing, so when you say you want to change to VoIP, what is it you want to change? VoIP can be the type of phones you have in your office and the PBX that runs them. VoIP can be the type of carrier services you receive from your Telco. VoIP can be the technology used to allow a remote worker to communicate with the office, or the ability to connect to locations together so they can operate as one! Lastly there is the cloud based VoIP option, this is when you get both your PBX and your Telco from a service in the cloud using VoIP.

So when you ask your self Should I stay or should I VoIP, the real question is what do I want to accomplish with VoIP! Most people consider VoIP because they think it will save them money. This can be true but it usually requires and up front investment. When researching a new phone system consider a VoIP PBX, or a Hosted solution. Experts say that five years from now all new phone systems will be VoIP only! Technology is moving that way. AT&T has asked the FCC to allow them to stop delivering analog lines know as (POTS) by 2014, when that happens all of their services will be delivered via VoIP!

Confused? don’t be there are plenty of experts available to guide you and your business int o the VoIP world, and VoIP is not for everybody despite everything I have already written here! Many organizations have infrastructures that don’t support VoIP are not ready to make the leap! For them there are options that allow for what is known as a blended solution that will allow them to add VoIP when there are ready! Should I stay or should I VoIP? Maybe both!

A Hundred and One Uses of Video Surveillance Cameras

CJ Carlson — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 17:36:19 +0000

Video surveillance began in 1969, when police cameras were first installed in the New York City Municipal Building near City Hall. They were seen as a line of defense against any criminals or corrupt officials. Since then, the use of the video camera has greatly expanded, becoming more effective than ever in being applicable to a wide range of environments, from school campuses, offices, to even homes.

Nanny Cams

An increase in both parents working in this decade also has increased the use of nannies to take care of the kids while they are away. And with the increase in the use of nannies has led to the increase in Nanny cams, surveillance cameras which record the actions of a child care provider as a way to keep the parents knowledgeable of the ongoings in their house while they are away. These cams are helpful in gathering evidence about supposedly wrongdoings or just alleviating the parents’ worry. A definite advantage of the NannyCam is that those that are digital can be viewed from anywhere with an internet connection, allowing the worried mother to check in on her baby simply from her work desk.

Business Environments

Video surveillance can be useful in offices, especially those in urban areas, if business must often deal with intruders coming in during lunch hours and stealing belongings from desks. A camera system that monitors lobby activity is one way to help control this problem. Keep security cameras in your lobby area and other public spaces, however, and out of cubicles, offices, conference rooms and lunch areas, which are deemed private.

College Campus

College campuses are trusted for their ability to provide a safe haven for the thousands of students living in them. Video cameras, therefore, can help maintain secure facilities, watching for suspicious behavior and unauthorized access. They can also serve as a visual deterrent to crime such as theft or break-ins. Vandalism, a common threat among school properties, can be greatly deterred through proper video surveillance. Surveillance cameras can even be used to monitor campus activity, working to ensure that school policies are properly followed.

Those are just a few places video surveillance cameras have appeared since 1969.