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Navigating the Future of Work: Mobility with Webex in Hybrid Environments

Navigating the Future of Work: Mobility with Webex in Hybrid Environments

Hybrid working has emerged as a transformative paradigm for businesses and organisations, ushering in a new era beyond the confines of traditional office spaces. This novel approach to work is redefining the way we operate!

Harnessing the Power of the Cloud for Seamless Communication

In the dynamic landscape of modern workplaces, the demand for dependable communication technologies has never been greater. These technologies are the linchpin of effective collaboration, irrespective of whether your team is on-site or operating remotely.

Enter Webex, a game-changing platform that leverages the cloud to facilitate virtual meetings effortlessly, regardless of your device or location. It is the perfect solution to maintain operational efficiency in a world where workplaces are constantly evolving!

Let’s delve into what sets this tool apart and makes it ideally suited for the hybrid work environment.

Unmatched Flexibility & Mobile Accessibility

  • Webex can be installed and used on any device – PC, Mac, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones!
  • Make and receive business calls and messages using your business phone number via the Webex mobile app!
  • Work with your team from any location.
  • Access the same tools and resources from any device no matter where you are working.

Embracing VoIP & Wi-Fi Calling

  • Be connected from anywhere that a mobile device is connected to the internet.
  • Mobile accessibility ensures teams can collaborate on the go, without having to be tied to their desks.
  • Make and receive calls using VoIP or Wi-Fi while roaming to avoid high roaming charges.

Unwavering Security

  • Webex delivers robust security features that protect your data to ensure your conversations remain private. With features like end-to-end encryption, password protection, and data encryption, Webex ensures that your data is safe and secure.

Seamless Video & Audio Conferencing

  • Webex provides high-quality video and audio conferencing capabilities that are essential for hybrid teams.
  • With features like virtual backgrounds, screen sharing, and real-time whiteboarding, it is so easy to collaborate effectively, no matter the location.

Integration with Productivity Tools

  • Webex can integrate with other tools such as Microsoft Teams making it easy for collaborators to access the resources required to work effectively. For example, Microsoft Teams users are able to access Microsoft files, calendars, and emails without having to switch between Webex and Teams platforms.

An Ever-Growing Arsenal of Features

  • Webex is in a constant state of evolution, driven by user feedback. As a result, it offers an extensive and ever-expanding list of messaging, call, and meeting functions waiting to be explored. To truly grasp the incredible capabilities of this versatile tool, we encourage you to request a demonstration and witness its power firsthand. Experience the future of hybrid work with Webex!

Request a demonstration of this incredibly versatile tool so you can see its powerful capabilities for yourself.

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Virtual Receptionists Increase Productivity

Virtual Receptionists Increase Productivity

Any business can benefit from a virtual receptionist. No matter your industry, business size or budget, a Virtual Receptionist can reduce the costs of hiring call centre staff, and save your staff time by answering and directing your calls, taking messages and even scheduling appointments!

Low cost for a small business

Low Cost, 24/7 365-day Service

A Virtual Receptionist can deliver an excellent and proficient customer service experience that offers 24/7, 365-day service. A Virtual Receptionist costs a fraction of the cost to hire and train a traditional in-house receptionist.

No Call will go unanswered

Virtual Receptionists can be customised to suit specific company and industry requirements and can also speak different languages.

The most advanced Virtual Receptionist solutions can request customer information and simulate an actual conversation.

Virtual Receptionists can execute some business administrative tasks such as taking messages and scheduling meetings at any hour of the day.

Savvy Customer Support

Customers will not have to wait to receive assistance with common topics because Virtual Receptionists can perform a range of basic customer service tasks and also offer more evolved customer support through other channels, such as live chat. They can chat with potential and returning customers on social media channels and on the website. They can also direct tickets to the right customer agent, saving time and reducing staff workloads.

Lead Generation

A Virtual Receptionist with marketing skills can help in your lead-generating campaigns. Whenever they talk to new leads, they can add their details to your CRM so you can walk them through the steps to converting them into customers.

How to Get a Virtual Receptionist

To get started with your very own Virtual Receptionist, an established and trustworthy phone system provider can help you set up a reliable virtual receptionist. The provider will likely have subscription plans to choose from that will vary in price depending on your call volume and size of business.

The provider might ask you a few questions to understand your business model to help them understand your business’ call flow.

Small Business Technology, Skills and Training Boost

Small Business Technology, Skills and Training Boost

On March 29 2022, the Morrison Government announced it will support Australian small businesses and encourage them to invest in digital technology, skills and training. The new measures are subject to decisions from the new Government.

Small Business Technology Investment Boost

The boosts are for eligible businesses that have less than $50 million in annual turnovers. Suitable businesses can claim eligible tech spending, of up to $100,000, until June 30 2023, in their 2022-23 tax return.

Small Business Skills & Training Boost

The Skills and Training Boosts will give small businesses access to a further 20% deduction on eligible external training courses for upskilling their employees. The Skills and Training Boost will apply to costs incurred from March 2022 until 30th June 2024, delivering $550 million in tax relief.

What can be claimed?

Claim on expenditures and depreciating assets that support digital uptake. Budget documents suggest SMEs will be free to claim the cost of

Scenario where a plumbing company has 100 employees and an annual turnover of $40 million. Employer purchases 50 laptops costing $90,000, creates a new website for $20,000 and pays $200,000 for training for his employees. At tax time, the company is able to deduct an extra $62,000 and reduce their tax bill to $15,500

Buyer’s Guide to Business Telephone Systems

Buyer’s Guide to Business Telephone Systems

A Buyer’s Guide to Choosing a Business Telephone System

If you’re in the market for a new business telephone system, there are a few questions you should ponder to lead you on the right track. In this article, we’ll go over these questions and help you answer them. The questions you should be asking yourself are:

  1. Do you need physical phones on your desks to operate? or would your employees get by using a virtual phone number on their mobiles?
  2. If you do need desk-phones, what kind of service would suit you best? You could choose a traditional business telephone system, provided by a telco or a dealer company such as ourselves. Alternately, you could choose a VoIP system which you can get from a number of suppliers.
  3. If you’re opting for VoIP, do you want it kept on the property (on-premises) or hosted by your service provider (cloud-based)?

We’ll help answer these questions in the article, but if you’d like to speak to an expert about this click here. Later in this article, we show you how to apply those questions to choosing between these types of business telephone systems:


Traditional Business Telephone Systems (Landlines)

In this case, we refer to traditional business telephone systems as landlines. They are typically supported by telephone companies, though if you are a Brisbane based business, you should contact us to see how we can improve your experience! Landlines or public switched telephone networks (PSTNs) are analogue systems that run over normal telephone lines. To run a traditional landline system, you’ll need an on-site PBX (private branch exchange). This piece of hardware provides support for internal extensions and call transfers. There are some landline systems that are actually hybrids, partially utilising VoIP. In these systems, the phone line is connected to the business’s data network, which in turn connects to the individual phones. It is worth noting that traditional business telephone systems are being phased out by telcos and may eventually go the way of dial-up internet.

  • Pros: They’re reliable, have stood the test of time, and are what most companies are most comfortable using.
  • Cons: Most providers are moving away from this solution, meaning it can be difficult to get them repaired or serviced.
  • Advice: These systems are suited to larger companies with the budget to pay for the hardware as well as IT consultants who can service them. They are also a necessity if your business doesn’t have a high speed internet.

VoIP Business Telephone Systems

These systems run over your internet connection rather than traditional phone lines. They boast a feature set that previously required expensive top of the range PBX hardware. This includes automated attendants, call queues and integration with computers. This computer integration allows calls to be sent to email inboxes and allows you to use your computer as your business phone. VoIP also gives remote workers to access the business phone system from their mobile devices.

  • Pros: VoIP provides an advanced phone system with all the features of a large corporation’s landline service. They’re cheaper than regular landlines and significantly less painful to configure.
  • Cons: These systems rely on a stable internet connection. If your internet connection drops out, so will your phone system.
  • Advice: These systems are great for smaller businesses that want to have the same level of functionality for their business telephone system as a larger corporation, or who have remote workers that need access to the phone system. Make sure your internet connection is reliable before committing to this option though.

If this is the option you’re going for, the next decision is to determine how it will be hosted. Read further for advice on this.


Virtual Business Telephone Systems

These systems are the most basic type of VoIP system. They are essentially an extensive call forwarding system that routes calls from the main business line to either the employee’s mobile or home phone. These systems can work well for home offices with a decent internet connection, but be careful if you live with other people outside of the business. These systems still provide a variety of features, however, including automated receptionists, voicemail, call forwarding, call screening and more.

  • Pros: These services allow businesses to present a professional image, even when working offsite.
  • Cons: Virtual phone systems aren’t full fledged phone systems, and since they work by forwarding calls, you will be paying for calls on your home or mobile phone, as well as the virtual phone line.
  • Advice: If your business has workers that work offsite most of the time or you’re a home office, then this solution may be for you.

Cloud and On-Premise VoIP Systems

On-Premises VoIP

With on-premises VoIP, the hardware used to run the system are kept (as you’ve probably guessed) at the business premises. This arrangement requires a large upfront cost since you’re purchasing the equipment that runs the VoIP connection. Because of this, you only pay a one time fee for the hardware, but you will still have to pay the ongoing costs of SIP trunking which allows you to make and receive calls with it. With this solution, your IT staff are responsible for maintenance, repairs and updates.

  • Pros: You control your service, so you are only relying on yourself to keep it going. You can also configure it exactly the way you’d like.
  • Cons: You will pay a significant upfront cost for the hardware. You also need to have IT staff capable of maintaining the system.
  • Advice: This solution is suited to those who have an in-house IT staff and are hoping to have total control over their system with immediacy.

Cloud VoIP

With a cloud based system, you don’t have any maintenance or expensive hardware to worry about. The service provider houses maintains and updates all of the PBX technology for you. The cloud makes growing your business easier by alleviating the headache of needing to upgrade your PBX hardware or add new lines manually. For this type of service, businesses generally pay a monthly fee on a per-user basis.

  • Pros: You needn’t purchase or maintain the expensive hardware that is otherwise a necessity. In fact, you don’t even need a desk phone (although that certainly is an option), you can set up your computer to work as your desk phone.
  • Cons: You’re not in control of the hardware. If the system has an outage, you need to trust that the service provider will bring it back up in a timely fashion.
  • Advice: This system is well suited to grow businesses that are on a fixed budget and that don’t have an in-house IT team to maintain and operate the PBX hardware. It is also a great option for businesses who want a stress-free setup of a new phone system with all the features of that of a large corporation.

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Business Phone System Installations in Brisbane

Business Phone System Installations in Brisbane

Looking for a Business Phone System?

Key Technologies specialize in the latest phone systems for Brisbane businesses of all sizes

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  • VoIP Phone Systems
  • PABX Phone Systems
  • SIP/IP Phone Systems

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  • Reliable service and best technology
  • On Time Solutions
  • Telstra accredited Partner

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Whether it be a phone systems for small office or a larger organisation, Key communications can help you get to the best solution for your business.

Key Technologies is a Brisbane based Phone supplier and installer. We are also a Telstra Accredited Dealer. Our Business Development Managers can show you how to maximize the services for the spend budget you allocated for your most valuable component of your business – Communications.

Continuity of services is vital for new and upgraded business phone systems installed for our Brisbane clients, that where our in-house tech team can help.


Phone System Terminologies

PABX Phone Systems

PABX

PBX is short for Private Branch Exchange, which is a company’s private telephone network. Users of the PBX phone system share a number of outside lines for making and receiving external phone calls.

PABX is the most widely used phone system.

When you want to upgrade your old phone system to a new system there are a number of Internet Protocol (IP) based solutions that are available to small business.


VOIP Phone Systems

VOIP

Voice over IP

You need an IP-based private branch exchange – a VoIP friendly version of the PBX phone systems that many offices use to route your calls to the appropriate phones on your network.


SIP / IP Phone Systems

SIP

SIP Phones are also called VoIP Phones or Softphones.

These are telephones that use VoIP technologies for making calls over both an IP Network or the traditional PSTN networks.

The differences between VOIP and SIP are discussed in details in this article.


Contact us
Let our team make your choices easy with on-site assessment and recommendations.

On-Premise vs. Hosted IP PABX Phone Systems

On-Premise vs. Hosted IP PABX Phone Systems

Business owners are initially attracted to VOIP by the low call costs, but once they understand what an IP Phone System truly offers their business they start to get really excited.

Chances are, if you are reading this article you have been doing your research and want a better understanding of the differences and benefits of Hosted IP PABX Phone System vs. On-Premise IP PABX Phone System.

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IP and PABX terms explained…


On-Premise vs. Hosted PABX IP Phone System Comparison

on-premise pabx ip phone ssystem

On-Premise IP Phone System
hosted pabx ip phone system

Hosted IP Phone System
What’s the difference?
On-premise IP Phone Systems are operated and maintained by your company (usually supported by your equipment providerHosted IP Phone Systems are operated and maintained by your company’s VoIP service provider
Requirements
ip system neutral
Phone system hardware
Software
Handsets (Phones)
And your choice of carrier
ip system neutral
Selected carrier
Carriers software
Carriers range of supported handsets (phones)
Hardware Requirements
ip system neutral
PABX and supporting trunk cards
Supporting extension cards
I.P. Handsets
Note: Can integrate with majority of existing handsets
ip system neutral
IP Handsets – Limited to your selected carriers supported handset range
Your business may also require a router
Upfront Costs
ip system con
Higher initial equipment costs,
Higher setup costs
ip system pro
Lower initial setup costs,
Lower setup costs
Ongoing Costs
ip system con
Higher long term maintenance costs
ip system pro
Lower on-going monthly cost after system is paid for
Ability to SIP trunk with VoIP provider to get low cost calls
ip system pro
Lower to no maintenance costs
ip system con
Ongoing monthly service fees
Fee increases can be charged and/or cancellations fees
Scalability
ip system pro
Complete access and control allowing you to adjust, create, delete users, extensions and turn on or off feature sets
Add / change users from unit
Additional features (open source) added without license fees
ip system con
Additional users managed by your carrier
Will incur both the cost of hardware (IP phone) and potentially additional service plan costs
Flexibility and Upgrades
ip system pro
On-premise systems offer unrestricted access to your systems interface for managing users, call settings, and features
Greater customisation options for integrating with business applications like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Contact Management software such as Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Outlook
You decide what handsets you want and you can add surveillance equipment as well
It’s all DIY. You’ll enjoy tight control over your system and know it inside and out. You’ll also dictate how quickly new features or upgrades are implemented
ip system con
System flexibility is limited – With a hosted system your provider will implements solutions across the board for all customers. This can be time consuming, and you’ll be left waiting to be serviced
Customization and new future feature additions can be slow or non-existent as providers unlikely to customize for a single business
Redundancy
ip system pro
You can incorporate traditional lines in case of data or power outages
On-premise systems are not carrier specific, so if your carrier goes out of business you are free to shop for an alternative provider
ip system con
Loss of Internet or power will result in loss of phone service
You are without a phone system if your provider goes under
Your phone solution isn’t custom built to suit the specific demands of your business
Quality of Service (QoS)
ip system pro
On-premise IP PABX solutions will prioritize your data traffic
ip system con
Connections (signaling) and voice quality are directly related to your Internet connection
Security
ip system pro
No concern of anyone listening to your calls
ip system con
Be sure to check selected carriers privacy policy
It’s Your Choice
There are Pro’s and Con’s for both Hosted and On-Premise IP PABX Phone Systems, the benefits of an IP Phone System should not be ignored though. In our experience the choice for business owners generally comes down to available budget and the age of the business. If you need a hand to weigh up the best option for your business – we’re always available

VOIP Phone System Benefits

Benefits that are common to both hosted and on-premise IP PABX Phone Systems
  • Call cost savings
  • Abundant, interesting and useful features
  • Phone portability
  • Service mobility
  • Cheaper hardware
  • Flexible network layout
  • Integration and collaboration with other applications
  • Administrative interface for simple management and customisation
  • No geographical boundaries
  • Simple to conference
  • Fax over IP

Deciding on the right IP PABX Phone System option…

Although expanding and reconfiguring an on-premise IP PABX phone system will cost more than a hosted system, the clear advantage is the level of access, scalability and customization available to your business. You can also implement changes when it suits your business best. You enjoy ultimate flexibility.

Keep in mind that with an on-premise system, you bear all the risk and aggravation associated with expansion and growth, so good support should be considered. If you’re absolutely sure of your communication needs won’t be changing, then investing in equipment may make sense.

Due to low upfront costs and minimal management, most small businesses can benefit from a hosted IP PBX phone system. But every small business has its individual needs. If you’re a small business owner trying to decide between a hosted and an on premise IP PBX phone system solution contact the team at Key Technologies.


On-Premise IP PABX Phone System

More affordable than you think – plus we offer low cost maintenance.

Panasonic IP PABX Phone System
Installed, Inc. Trunk + Extension Cards, Conference + Voicemail Functionaility and 4 x Panasonic IP Handsets

To get pricing  – call Key Technologies on 1300 755 615

 

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