Are you getting all that you’re paying for on your business telecommunications bill? And, are you paying the right prices for your various telecom services?

If you’re like some companies, you may not know the answers to those important questions both because you haven’t audited your services recently and because your service providers are making things hard on you.

Atlantech Online has been a telephone company since 2005, serving the Washington, D.C. metro area. Over the years, we’ve heard dozens of horror stories about business telecom services. We’ll share some of those stories and how to avoid them to maximize your telecom investment below.

Robocalls driving you bonkers? What if I told you we could eliminate those annoying and costly time-wasters?

While their frequency increases, they're also adapting to our behavior. They use local numbers, so rather than us ignoring the call, we feel the need to answer because it's more familiar than an 800 number. And while you may not answer unknown callers on your personal cell, your business doesn't have that leisure.

In fact, some of these robocalls can commit toll fraud, costing your business thousands of dollars without almost no effort.

Fortunately, robocall protection is coming thanks to the SHAKEN/STIR protocol. It will be able to save your business from wasted time and money. And it won't take much to put it to use.

Location and Amenities. Typically, these are two the primary factors when choosing office space. Maybe I'm not objective, but in addition to those two factors, access to high quality telecommunications should also be one of the top priorities for companies searching for a new office space in Washington, D.C.

While having space for your extra-large conference room table is nice, without reliable Internet and phone service in the building, your company is at risk of losing customers and facing hindered growth.

Commercial buildings provide varying degrees of telecommunications capabilities, but if you know your requirements and how to prioritize them in your search, finding the right office space will become much easier.

Remember when there was only one phone company... Ma Bell? Many of you readers are probably too young to remember those times. Having MANY choices for phone service is the norm in 2019. As usual, more choices doesn't always result in the right kind of service that fits your needs. Some phone companies are new to the business and don't understand it completely. Others are experimenting with new technology... and you're their guinea pig. The right business telephone service can make or break your company so when selecting the right vendor, do your research. 

Imagine if you were constantly plagued with poor audio quality and/or dropped calls. What if you weren't able to actually connect with another party that you were calling? How would customers view your brand? How would your productivity fare?

We know these answers, and that's why we took time to sort out the best business telephone service providers in Washington, D.C. Now, you can find high-quality services that offer the tools you need to keep your company running strong.

Microsoft raised eyebrows when it unveiled it would be shutting down Skype for Business in favor of a new Office 365 integrated system called Microsoft Teams.

If you were like many, the potential of having the power of Microsoft acting as your PBX got you excited. It teased you with the promise of increased productivity and a more effective team.

Unfortunately, when Microsoft Teams Calling hit the market, it has thus far failed to deliver, keeping your Hosted PBX as the phone system of choice.

Many in business who are looking for the best price for a fully featured business handset are finding Yealink phones. Yealink is a Chinese company and they manufacture their phones in China. Despite recent increases in tariffs, we are finding that their pricing is tough to match. But, since Yealink is a relatively new company and most of their business thus far has been in Asia, customers and prospects often ask us lots of questions about Yealink. As a result, we thought... wouldn't it be great if someone put together a single resource which answers the big questions so that a potential business buyer can make an assessment quickly?

We'll provide answers to the big questions in this post so that you can know if Yealink phones deserve to be on your shortlist of office phone system options.

If you are in charge of your organizations contact center, you're probably constantly on the prowl for the best technology available to insure maximum productivity at the best price. You probably also want solutions that are both reliable and cutting edge, but without a steep learning curve for you or your agents. You also know the value of a trusted advisor--an expert you can lean on to get an objective opinion with your best interests in mind.

Hundreds of customers lean on us as a trusted advisor because we've helped a lot of small businesses implement phone services, including contact center solutions, over the years. Leveraging that expertise, we'll give you the top six options you should look into.

For over 40 years, Primary Rate Interface (PRI) ruled the business phone system market. But with tech advancements, PRI is dated, and most companies have moved to Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). If you haven't moved from PRI to SIP... you will be doing so, soon. 

So what happens when you've decided to update your business phone service to keep up with your competitors? How will you know when the time is right to migrate service when you're trying to operate your business as normal?

At Atlantech Online, we're constantly helping our customers with to answer their questions. You see, most companies aren't sure if the change will interrupt their business operations or if their users will adapt to the change. That's why we'll lay out the eight factors you need to consider before migrating from PRI to SIP. These will set you on the right track and clear up any doubt as to whether SIP is right for you.

10 years ago, our customers almost always purchased a premise-based PBX from Atlantech Online when engaged with us for a new PBX. Now, customers rarely elect for a premise-based PBX, choosing instead to go with a cloud-based private branch exchange (PBX). In our experience, customer satisfaction with either a premise-based or cloud-based PBX has centered on how the user feels about their handset. Though with a Cloud PBX you can work without a handset on your desk, most users, especially older members of our customer workforce, insist on having a business handset phone model that works well and feels good in their hand... or against their face... throughout the workday.

The number of handset choices is plentiful and there is a handset designed for almost any situation. So how do you find the best fit for your needs?

We've provided top-notch telecommunications services to businesses in the Washington, D.C. area for 20+ years, so we know what works best for cloud-based PBX. We'll share our lessons learned with you below.