Sunday, December 14, 2014

Complete business telephone solutions from Fortinet


Get complete business telephone solutions from Fortinet

With built-in features, flexible services and products that cover all office sizes and connection types, the Fortinet line-up of phone systems, phones and services does everything you need. 
Simple, powerful and affordable
Fortinet voice solutions give you everything you need to handle calls professionally, control costs and stay connected everywhere. Built for single or multilocation offices with up to 2000 phone users per location, FortiVoice can cost you significantly less than similar solutions from Avaya, ShoreTel, Cisco and others. With FortiVoice, there are no added licenses or components required to get up and running, and with DIY configuration of systems and services, you're not reliant on expensive technicians.
How affordable?
Hardware prices for a total FortiVoice solution in a typical 25-user deployment is under $6000, including phones for all users. A typical 50-user deployment is under $12,000. A typical 100-user deployment is under $21,000. These are all-in prices with a full feature suite and everything you need except the service. And we've got you covered there too, with FortiCall VoIP service starting at $24.95 per line per month for unlimited calling in the US and Canada.

How does your current solution stack up? Register now for a free phone system health check. We'll inspect your set-up and show you where you can save money. 

Ask us about special bundles for retail and education.



call 877.860.5831 for more information or www.bitxbit.com.

Why Hosted VoIP Makes Sense for SMBs | New technology will triple the speed of wireless charging



'Why hosted VoIP makes sense for SMBs' is succinct and well stated highlighting the fact that hosted services mean that SMBs' management can run the business with one less diversion from the management demands of core business. A babyTEL centric prediction is that 2015 is the year that Voice transcription to text and voice recognition will come of age driven by the latest generation of smartphones. Find yourself in the article on how famous execs run business. After you find yourself, check if others agree with your assessment. There could be surprises. 

Enjoy this week's selection of articles. 

Regards,
Steve Dorsey, CEO babyTEL

"The only thing worse than training employees and losing them is to not train them and keep them."

- Zig Ziglar
INDUSTRY
According to the RightScale 2014 State of the Cloud Survey, 94 percent of organizations surveyed are either running applications or experimenting with Infrastructure as a Service. One of the more common services that small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are turning to in the cloud is voice over IP (VoIP) for their unified communications needs. Cloud-based, or hosted, VoIP services provide SMBs with benefits that help equalize the playing field against larger businesses and move them away from the antiquated technology that runs most traditional telephone services.
TECH
Wireless charging is a convenient way of topping up your device's battery, and new technology is on the way to make it even better.
At the moment it can take quite a while to fully charge batteries via a wireless charger as the technology can only run at a rate of 5 Watts.
BUSINESS
Digitalization and the digital business are catalysts of change that are affecting the human-machine relationship and driving better customer outcomes. The top 10 predictions indicate that computer-based machines are taking a more active role in enhancing human endeavors, because the machines are more connected than ever before, they are sensing their surroundings, and they are becoming smarter. Because of this, they have an increased ability to supplement (or even supplant) human jobs and to reduce the cost of operations. All in all, the trends indicate a near-term future in which machines and humans are co-workers and, possibly, even codependents.
The top 10 Predictions are organized into three categories:
BONUS
Americans sit through some 11 million meetings every day - with the unproductive ones costing companies $37 billion a year.
We've already learned that meetings fall apart thanks to sloppy agendas, un-articulated ground rules, and other structural mistakes.
So we decided to look at how some of the most effective executives in history - from GM czar Alfred Sloan to Apple prince Steve Jobs to Facebook queen Sheryl Sandberg - run the meetings that invariably fill their calendars.


© Copyright 2014 by babyTEL. All Rights Reserved.

call 877.860.5831 for more information or www.bitxbit.com.


Every little thing you do. Better with these new features.


New feature spotlight: take a tour of Context & Work Chat



Mac Laptop
Say hello to Work Chat
Meet the new feature that lets you work together in Evernote more effectively than ever. Do the work, share the work, talk about the work—all in one place.
Read More
Context

Give your work Context
Introducing the feature that brings you the right expertise at the right time, as you work in Evernote. Upgrade to Premium to start using Context. Read more
Write on
You write every day. We've got tips on how to use the beautifully refreshed Evernote for Web for all of your words. Read more

Write On
call 877.860.5831 for more information or www.bitxbit.com.

Dropbox Issue fixed in OS X Yosemite





We're reaching out to let you know about an issue in Apple's new OS X Yosemite that may affect your team's use of Dropbox on Mac computers. Your users can resolve this issue by installing the OS X Update 10.10.1 on all of the Macs in your company running Yosemite. (If your company is not running Yosemite, you can ignore this email).

Apple's new OS X Yosemite may occasionally cause some programs to crash when users open, save-as, or first save a file. These crashes are rare but happen when an application, such as Dropbox, uses Yosemite's official Finder integration — and if that program crashes because of this interaction, unsaved changes may be lost. 

To fix this issue, Apple has released OS X Update 10.10.1. This update is available for free in the Mac App Store. Details on how to update your team's Macs are available on Apple's support site.

- The Dropbox Team
© 2014 Dropbox

Sunday, November 30, 2014

5 Infamous Online Scams


The Internet can be a dangerous place if you are not careful and cautious online. Many people fall victim to cyber crime and fraud because of greed, ignorance, and carelessness. To make you aware, this article reveals five common online scams that you should watch out for.

1. Nigerian 419 Scam
You may receive an email that asks you to help a "rich" Nigerian family transfer a huge amount out of the nation. In return, you will be promised a generous percentage of the transaction. The email will ask you to pay "processing" fees first. Delete this type of email to be on the safe side.

2.  Lottery Scam
This scam also plays on people's greed. You will be informed that you have won a lottery even though you never entered one in the first place. The email will request your financial details that are sure to be used for identity theft or fraud. Rein in your greed, delete the email immediately, and do not contact the sender.

3. Phishing Emails
"Phishing" is considered the most common online scam today. You may receive an email, allegedly from your bank, that links to a convincing but phony web page. You will be asked to enter confidential information about your account including your username and password. The scam email will entice you to part with the sensitive details. Ignore these phishing emails, and remember that your bank will never ask you for confidential information like password.

4. Disaster Relief Scam
Whenever there is a natural disaster, there is a flurry of relief activity afterwards to help the victims. Fraudsters make use of the occasion to appeal to people's emotions and ask for donations. They create fake websites that solicit online donations allegedly for the good cause. Another trick is to play the role of disaster victim and request monetary help. So, do your homework and make sure the charity is a genuine one before you donate your hard-earned money.

5. Work-at-Home Job Scam
Beware of any ad for a work-at-home job that promises to make you rich. Avoid the following work-at-home jobs as they are likely to be fraudulent: assembly jobs, data entry, multi-level marketing, online businesses, posting ads, processing claims, and stuffing envelopes. Ignore any job ad that asks you to make a payment.

Conclusion

Beware of the common online scams revealed in this article and delete suspicious emails immediately. Read articles on secure online browsing and banking, and implement the tips mentioned in them to keep yourself safe in cyber space.

www.bitxbit.com

Thursday, November 6, 2014

The Benefits of Hiring an Information Technology Consultant

 Your business reaps many benefits from modern technology. No longer do you need entire warehouses to store your paper files. Millions of pieces of information are available with a few keystrokes instead of being buried in filing cabinets in the basement. Your employees carry cell phones on the road and at job sites, which allows you to communicate with them at all times. Photos come on tiny flash drives, proofreading and spell checking happens instantly in your word processing suite, instant messaging and email smooth the flow of inter-office communication, and customers can shop on your website without ever leaving their homes.


Business technology is ubiquitous and powerful. You're not in a hurry to go back to using typewriters and whiteout, but the vast array of technology that your business relies on comes with its own set of challenges. Modern technology is more reliable than ever before, but failures do happen. Technology also moves quickly, which means it is difficult to stay on the leading edge in every category. For many businesses, it simply does not make sense to keep a dedicated IT staff on hand to handle occasional upgrades and rare failures. This is where information technology consulting enters the picture.


Information technology consultants are useful at all stages of applying technology to your business. From initial design, to maintenance, to emergency response for major technology crises, IT consultants have the skills and knowledge necessary to serve your business's hardware and software needs.


Before implementing a new technology scheme, it makes sense to seek the advice of a professional technology consulting team. Are you planning to upgrade your office LAN, or implement a VPN for your remote workers? Do you want to connect multiple offices with a WAN solution? Hire a consultant to ensure you are pursuing the right solution for your problem, and to guarantee the smoothest user experience and maximum uptime. Are you thinking of adding a local backup solution, or an inter-office messaging system? You don't have to fly blind, there are consultants who deal with these things on a daily basis.


Information technology covers everything from bar code scanners to smartphones. Whether you want to be sure that your mail server supports all your users' mobile devices, or centralize authentication for all of your servers and applications, or reduce your reliance on third-party hardware solutions, there are consultants with the know-how you require. With IT consultants, you only pay for what you need. Maintaining your own staff of technology experts with knowledge in every field can severely impact your bottom line, especially when dealing with niche subjects, or rare catastrophic events. It doesn't make economic sense to maintain the expense of an employee whose special skills may only be needed a few times per year. With IT consultants, you get the benefits of subject-matter experts without the expense of maintaining your own IT staff.



Business technology should make your life easier, not harder. The point of modern IT is to increase productivity, increase profit margins, and reduce headaches. If you find that this is not the case, you may need someone to look over your processes and infrastructure. Hiring a business technology consultant can be the key to getting your technology once again working for you rather than against you.

By Robert Blake

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Evernote Tip 1 of 5: Create Your First Note


Evernote
Quick tip #1 - Your first note
To start, click or tap the 'New Note' or '+' button when you open Evernote on your computer or mobile device. Type anything you want to remember later or save text, attachments, audio and more.

Start by adding:
Checkboxes for shopping and to-do lists
Photos of whiteboard notes, receipts, and business cards
Audio recordings of meetings and lectures
Web clips of online articles, recipes, and gift ideas
Put it all together: save text, attachments, audio and more, all in a single note.


Check out the Evernote Web Clipper

Save anything you see on your computer into your Evernote account with a single click. Install the Evernote Web Clipper  →

Evernote Tip 3 of 5: Accomplish More with Evernote Checklists


Evernote Tip 3 of 5: Accomplish More with Evernote Checklists

Evernote
Quick Tip #2 - Checklists & Reminders
Turn your notes into actionable Checklists and Reminders and get more done.

Try these examples:
1.
Get your home life in order. Create a checklist for errands and add a Reminder so you remember when to pick up the dry cleaning or take Fido to the vet.
2.
Tackle work projects. Make to-do lists so you can stay on top of tasks, whether you're on the bus, at home or in the office. Reminders help your team manage the various deadlines and deliverables along the way.
3.
Plan travel. Create a packing list or an itinerary to get the most out of your trip.