TMCnet www.tmcnet.com announced the winners of its Fifth Annual Unified Communications Product of the Year Award. Avaya IP Office was among this year’s elite list of winners.

The TMCnet 2011 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award distinguishes those companies that brought ground-breaking advancements to UC technologies in the past year. Unified communications is the wave of the future, and 2011 was an explosive year for new products.

“The winners which were selected to be a part of this elite list of the Product of the Year Awards have demonstrated that their products or services have gone the extra mile to help improve unified communications solutions for both the customer experience and the ROI for the companies that use them,” said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. “Congratulations to all the winners and I look forward to seeing continued technological advancement in the coming year.”

Winners of 2011 Product of the Year Awards are published in the March 2012 issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine, www.itmag.com  INTERNET TELEPHONY is the leading publication dedicated to IP Communications.

Remember AT&T ?
On September 30, 1996 through the demerger of the former AT&T Technologies business unit of AT&T Corporation, Lucent Technologies was formed. One of the primary reasons AT&T Corporation chose to spin off its equipment manufacturing business was to permit it to profit from sales to competing telecommunications providers; these customers had previously shown reluctance to purchase from a direct competitor. Bell Labs brought prestige to the new company, as well as the revenue from thousands of patents.

On October 1, 2000 Lucent Technologies Inc. spun off their telephone system, unified communications, and call center businesses to a new company called Avaya (like Papaya). Since 2001, the company has sold, and acquired several companies to support its current product set and further it’s global leadership position. In 2004 Avaya began aggressive expansion in Europe and in Asia.

Avaya is a company spun off from Lucent Technologies, itself a spinoff of AT&T, Avaya continues to sell and support telephone models for businesses that were made popular in the heyday of the Bell System, including the 2554 wall phone, and the 2500 series desk phone, both popular Western Electric models. Much of Avaya’s product and customer set today can be traced back to its AT&T legacy where it formed part of AT&T Network Systems.

Market position
Avaya is recognized globally by industry and technology experts as the world leader in the following areas:
#1 in Worldwide Small Business Telephony
#1 in Worldwide Unified Communications and Enterprise Telephony
#1 in Worldwide Contact Center
#1 in Worldwide Enterprise Messaging
#1 in Worldwide Audio Conferencing

The customer has four locations throughout southern Oregon that have different key telephone systems that are 10-15 years old.  They have no voice integration or functionality between offices. The customer asked ECS to review their existing telephone line costs to see if we could help them reduce their monthly operating costs. And, oh by the way, if we could find enough savings to pay for it, they would like to install a new integrated telephone system solution that allowed them to call extension to extension between offices for free, transfer calls between extensions like they worked in the same office, show the proper caller ID when placing outbound calls, etc., etc.

Here is the information that we asked for from the customer for analysis:
1)     List of locations/addresses
2)     Copies of all existing bills for internet access and telephone lines
3)     List of telephone lines at each location and what each is used for
4)     Quantity of telephones at each location
5)     Pictures of existing systems, telephones, etc.

After we received the information from the client, we researched and analyzed various technology solutions for the client and recommended the following:
 Migrate from Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) Analog lines to SIP Telephone Lines provided over their internet access.
Existing Monthly Costs – $1,646.16
Proposed SIP – $564.69
PROPOSED MONTHLY SAVINGS – $1,081.47
PROPOSED ANNUAL SAVINGS – $12,977.64
PROPOSED 3-YEAR SAVINGS – $38,932.92

 Install a new Avaya IP Office IP500V2 system at the host location with SIP Telephone Lines & IP Phones at all locations. (now all four sites operate like they’re in the same building on the same telephone system)
36-Month, $1 Buyout Lease = $860.68

SUMMARY: The customer was paying $1,646.16 per month for out-dated services, with no efficient interaction between offices. We provided $1,081.47 in monthly savings which the customer is using to pay $860.68 per month for a 36-Month, $1 Buyout Lease Payment for a new Avaya IP Office system that provides complete seamless inter-operability between all four locations, AND, still leaves $220.79 in monthly savings.

On Hold Marketing!

Most of us are obviously familiar with music on hold playing through phone systems. Playing generic “Music” only or embedded music provides something for callers to avoid irritating silence.  However, often times our customers prefer to have an on hold program created specifically for their own company.  This is usually referred to as “On Hold Marketing”.  Having customers hear on hold “marketing” has numerous benefits and might not be as difficult or expensive as you would think.  Recently an independent survey was conducted for the “On Hold Messaging Association”.  This survey questioned customers that currently have custom on hold marketing messages playing for their callers put on hold.  Over 1,500 individual companies responded.

HERE ARE SOME SAMPLES OF THE RESULTS:

 From a pure marketing perspective, which of these statements best describes how you feel about the role of your On Hold Messaging Program in your overall marketing mix?

It’s a useful marketing tool that adds value 85%

Why did your company purchase On Hold Messaging?

To build image and professionalism  74%

To promote the sale of products/services  72%

To avoid silence on hold  58%

To provide callers with entertainment or useful information while waiting  56%

To prevent callers from hanging up  31%

Clearly, users of on hold marketing feel this is an important part of their business and can see the benefits associated with a custom on hold marketing program over a standard music only option or worse, silence on hold.

ECS Launches New Website!

ECS is pleased to announce the launch of our newly designed Web site, which went live on September 5^th 2012 in conjunction with our 7 year anniversary. The site is still located at www.ecsolutionz.com The site features a fresh look, easy navigation and more focus on customer needs.

The site’s homepage welcomes visitors with bold graphics, a clean uncluttered design, and rotating images with featured content focused on our mission to provide our clients with exceptional voice & data products & services.

The new site is divided into six main sections: ABOUT, PRODUCTS & SOLUTIONS, RESOURCE CENTER, SUPPORT, PARTNERS, & CONTACT. By moving to a more client-centric layout, we allow visitors to access information based on their own choice rather than sift through everything to decide what is of interest to them.

Our current and prospective clients will find detailed information about the products and services we offer in the PRODUCTS & SOLUTIONS section, while the PARTNERS section shares information on the industry leaders we represent and work with on a daily basis. The CONTACT section provides detailed information on our three locations: Seattle, WA metro area, Portland, OR metro area, and the North OR/SW WA Coast area.

The website will be updated on a regular basis, with news of events, product launches and new content. We encourage our clients to contact us through the website, via our Service Request & Sales Request links on our CONTACT page.

With the addition of our blog, we are able to help inform and educate our customers on important voice/data technology information.

If you experience any problems using the new website or if you have any suggestions, please contact us at: sales@ecsolutionz.com

Coming soon, Online Catalog for parts pricing & ordering!