Source: www.voip-news.com

Costco Members now can purchase a combined business phone service and business phone system package from the AccessLine Division of Telanetix. The system is designed for businesses with less than five employees.

“At Costco, we are constantly looking for ways to provide to our members the best combination of value and quality,” said Jon Zweig, Costco Senior Director. “Working with Telanetix’s AccessLine division will enable us to supply members with a simple yet powerful business phone service package that meets this goal.”

AccessLine Digital Phone Service comes with all the needed phones and the phone service.

“Costco’s decision to provide their members this service opportunity is another example of our growing success in the small business segment,” noted Doug Johnson, President and CEO of Telanetix. “This segment has a strong need for the feature-rich yet cost effective solution that our VoIP phone services can provide. With the Costco decision, we are clearly taking our success in this growing portion of the business communications marketplace to the next level.”

Source: www.voip-news.com

Milk, butter, eggs . . . VoIP?

Costco.com, the online division of the warehouse club, has begun selling Microsoft Response Point. Well, not exactly. Actually, it’s carrying Syspine Digital Operator Phone System, which has Response Point software.

“A small-business owner does a little of everything — CEO, accountant and IT trouble-shooter — all before lunch,” said Richard Sprague, senior director, Response Point at Microsoft Corp. “Costco.com’s easy online purchase process, combined with Response Point’s easy setup and intuitive magic blue button for voice dialing, gives the small-business owner another easy way to gain a powerful communications tool to help grow his or her business.”

According to Microsoft:

The Syspine Digital Operator Phone System with Response Point features a powerful voice-recognition system that can be linked with a company’s internal phone directory, as well as an individual’s Microsoft Office Outlook address book. Syspine includes a base unit appliance with a four phone-line analog telephone adapter, four desktop phones and Response Point phone system software. Businesses can add up to 50 individual Syspine IP310 business phones to create a complete, integrated small-business phone system with no additional licensing fees.

“The Syspine Digital Operator Phone System has been a real hit with small businesses, and this new relationship with Costco.com will offer prospective users yet another easy purchase method,” said Mike Yang, Vice President of Quanta Computer, Inc. “We are very pleased and fortunate to be associated with such a respected and reputable company like Costco.”

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

TECHtionary.com, a Web-based source on the latest technology, and XO Communications, a leading provider of telecommunications services for businesses, recommend how to implement Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to business owners who are considering VoIP but are unsure of how or where to begin. This paper outlines a systematic, ten-step process – from identifying needs to considering future options – and includes handy checklists to help streamline the implementation process.
Here are some of the “hottest” benefits and features:

• Lowers Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) – TCO is the overall cost benefit and savings coming from one-time or Non-Recurring Charges (NRC) and ongoing or Monthly Recurring Charges (MRC), which includes network, local and long distance usage, management of services, maintenance of equipment, as well as soft-dollar savings in the form of productivity improvements.
• Enables Personal Administration of Service and Features – Moves are a breeze. You don’t need a Telco tech; the Office Manager and end user can make changes themselves.
• Simplifies Billing – Bundled voice and data services are all on one bill from one provider.
• Enables Unified Messaging and Integration with Microsoft Outlook – Enables users to receive voicemail as email, for example.
• Supports Multiple Sites – Transfer calls seamlessly between offices to workers at other branches.
• Improves Audit Trail – Log all communications for improved "bill back" audit trail.
• Reduces/eliminates the concept of “local” versus “long distance” and variable per-month charges – Receive one flat monthly charge for all calling.

If there is nothing on the list above that appeals to you, then stop reading now and re-evaluate VoIP in another year. Why? Because one thing is certain: The technology will change to meet your needs. Should you wait? Here’s what one VoIP customer from XO Communications recommends:

“VoIP, maybe a few years ago, might have seemed a little mysterious but, at this point, it’s a proven technology. It works, it’s easy, the install is easy, there is no question, there is no reason to wait; the sooner you do it, the sooner you start saving, the simpler it gets." —Jasch Hamilton,
Founder & President of Diamond Organics,
Moss Landing, CA

Download the paper here!

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Two research reports sponsored by IBM argue that Linux is less expensive to buy and operate than Windows or Unix.
Robert Frances Group study, titled "TCO For Application Servers: Comparing Linux With Windows And Solaris" and commissioned by IBM, compared the cost of acquiring, implementing, and running an application server on Linux, Windows, and Sun Solaris, it found that Linux is 40% less expensive than a comparable x86-based Windows server and 54% less than a comparable Sparc-based Solaris server. The Linux server’s costs were $40,149, compared with $67,559 for Windows and $86,478 for Solaris.
Pund-IT’s conclusions are based on lengthy research with three companies: Alliance UniChem, Boscov’s Department Stores, and Zahid Tractor & Heavy Machinery. Alliance UniChem CZ s.r.o. is part of Alliance UniChem plc., Europe’s second-largest pharmaceutical wholesaler, its third-largest pharmaceutical retailer, and the fifth-largest international player in its industry. The company began its SuSE Linux deployment in 2002 with a data warehouse and logistics system project designed to replace the existing Windows-on-Intel infrastructure.

Boscov’s, headquartered in Reading, Pa., and operating more than 40 department stores and outlets in five Eastern states, claims to have saved more than $2 million since its first Linux deployment on an IBM zSeries z900 server in 2001. Zahid Tractor, based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is a supplier of heavy and industrial equipment used in construction, manufacturing, shipping, the oil industry, ports, airports, steel works, and transportation that began its Windows-to-Linux migration in 2002 as part of an open-source strategy to improve IT flexibility, reliability, and security, the Pund-IT report says