So, you’ll have to make the transition to an all-IP service at some point between now and 2025. But there’s a carrot as well as a stick here. It might sound like just another problem you have to solve, but look at it another way and the ISDN switch off is a fantastic opportunity to make your business more effective.

If you want to improve communications and collaboration in your business, there are good reasons to embrace the change. VoIP is a significant upgrade on ISDN and PSTN, and the sooner you move the sooner you’ll start to see its benefits. Here are some of the benefits:

VoIP is perfect for homeworkers

If you’ve got employees working from home during the pandemic, and if you intend to retain an element of flexible or hybrid working when it ends, VoIP is the right solution at the right time. All-IP communications let workers take their work phone number wherever they go. Using softphones on computers and smartphones (even BYOD) saves on equipment costs and gives staff access to the same smart call handling features wherever they are.

If you choose to integrate VoIP with a Unified Communications (UC) solution – which combines voice with video, chat, SMS, conferencing and more – employees effectively take the office home with them. UC offers a range of sophisticated communication and collaboration tools, and makes them available to anyone with a suitable internet connection.  

VoIP is two solutions in one

VoIP can benefit your business in a number of ways. Most obviously, it’s two solutions in one, delivering voice and data on the same network. It can help simplify your infrastructure, and with it the time you have to spend on maintenance and administration. Some VoIP solutions – like Hosted Voice – do away with on-premise equipment altogether, eliminating a significant security, storage and maintenance headache.

VoIP is flexible

You can create the VoIP service that is exactly right for you. For example, a Hosted Voice solution enables organisations say goodbye to on-premise infrastructure altogether, but that might not be the best choice for everyone. If you’ve recently invested in new telecoms equipment, the switch to IP won’t make it obsolete. Just choose an IP solution, like SIP Trunking, that will combine with existing phones and your on-premise PBX to work as before.

And VoIP is flexible in another important way, too. It scales up and down easily to meet your business needs. In fact, many VoIP services let you add users at the click of a mouse through a self-serve online portal. With cloud-based solutions, adding or taking away features and permissions is just as simple.

VoIP is cost-effective

That flexibility has another advantage: it’s part of what makes VoIP so cost-effective. There’s no need to invest in extra capacity to make sure you can cover future growth or peaks in demand. Simply add or take seats away as the needs of your sales cycle or expansion plans dictate. Never pay for capacity you can’t use.

The use of cloud infrastructure and softphones also takes away equipment purchase and maintenance costs, and call charges are often lower with VoIP than with ISDN or PSTN. And in many cases, a standard per user per month charging model cuts the overall cost of communications and simplifies budgeting.

The ISDN alternative that’s right for you

As you can see, there are plenty of reasons to switch from ISDN to All-IP telephony. At the same time, not all VoIP services are the same. To get maximum benefit you need to choose the right type of IP telephony for your business needs.

That’s where we come in. We’re a BT Wholesale partner, so we offer a full range of IP telephony solutions, covering the requirements of every business size and sector. We can also advise you on the connectivity you need to ensure the smooth and efficient running of your VoIP service.

With VoIP, you don’t have to take a one-size-fits-all solution and hope for the best. If you’re a sole trader or start-up, basic IP telephony bundled with reliable broadband may be the best fit. If you’re a larger organisation – from SME to enterprise – the flexibility of hosted voice or SIP Trunking, combined with sophisticated call handling features and UC compatibility, could give you a competitive edge. The great thing about many VoIP services is that you can upgrade features as soon as you decide you need them.

So, whether you want a basic service or something you can build a full suite of features and integrations on, the benefits of IP telephony far outweigh the inconvenience of switching away from ISDN. That’s why many organisations are acting now, rather than waiting for 2025. If you want to start enjoying the benefits of an agile, efficient and cost-effective VoIP service ahead of your competitors, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Simplification should always be on the agenda for businesses. No one is calling out for ways to make work more complicated and less efficient. And that’s why unified communications are so important – they bring multiple communication and collaboration technologies into one easily manageable solution. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. But what are the business benefits of adopting unified communications? Read on to find out.

What are unified communications?

Unified communications combine several solutions into one. They include video conferencing, phone calls, instant messaging, file sharing and more. Examples of unified communications include Wholesale Hosted Communications (WHC), Cisco Webex and Microsoft Teams.

The benefits of unified communications

There are many reasons why you should consider using unified communications in your business. Here are just a few of them.

Enable remote working

Using unified communications as a service (UCaaS), you can work from anywhere. This is because UCaaS solutions are hosted in the cloud. That means users can access their phone line, video calling and other tools from any device with an internet connection. They can even have the same number across all devices, providing a seamless experience for customers and colleagues.

Improve productivity and collaboration

Giving people a single place to put all their work and communications helps them keep things in order. And by providing shared spaces and other collaborative tools, you can improve teamwork and make sure everyone is on the same page.

Simplify your supply chain

Why have separate solutions and suppliers when you can have one? One supplier for your phone services, video calling, file sharing and so on. Not only does it simplify your payments and save you time, it means you only have to deal with one supplier when you need support. 

Keep costs down

Unified communications may be cheaper than paying for separate solutions. Certainly, UCaaS solutions are more cost-effective than legacy technology like analogue phone lines. You also don’t need to maintain expensive on-site hardware.

Avoid compatibility issues

If you use separate solutions from different suppliers, you run the risk of compatibility problems. But that’s not an issue with unified communications, because they’re made by one developer and are built from the ground up to combine several technologies.

Make it easier to contact you

Because unified communications allow for flexibility, your customers can still contact you even if you’re working remotely. They don’t even have to use a different number. That’s good for you too, because it means you won’t miss opportunities when you’re not in the office.

Better understand what’s happening in your business

Many unified communications solutions include analytics features. These allow you to look at various statistics related to your business, in easily digestible charts, so you see what’s happening. For example, you can see how most customers contact you and at what times. Or work out if you’re losing business due to missed calls.

Benefit from automation and integration

As well as helping with compatibility, having everything in one place means those systems can work together more effectively. You could, for example, automatically have important instant messaging chats forwarded to your email. Or you could click on a person’s name in your chats to see all your previous interactions with them, including emails, phone calls and shared files.

Which unified communications solution is right for you?

You certainly have plenty of choice, but we recommend starting with WHC. It’s a cloud-based phone solution that can be customised with a wide range of add-ons. One of the best is Cisco Webex, which adds high-definition video calling, instant messaging, file sharing and shared spaces.

Or, if you’re already using Microsoft Teams and want to expand its abilities with phone calling, we recommend WHC Teams Direct Connect. This allows you to access WHC calling from within Teams.

If you’re unsure which is right for your business or if you’d like to discuss your options, please get in touch. Contact us at 01553 776937 or info@rlscomputers.co.uk.

For the past few years, the world of work has been dominated by something so small it can’t even be seen with the naked eye – yes, we mean coronavirus. Thanks to the pandemic and the lockdowns that came in response, businesses have had to embrace remote working. Video calling apps like Zoom and Teams have quickly become household names. And many people have had an extended taste of working from home.

But now that vaccination programmes have been established and restrictions have been eased, is remote working simply going to fade away? Will everyone ultimately return to the office and go back to normal? Or is there now a new normal, which includes remote working?

To give you some insight into this topic, let’s look at what industry experts and businesses were saying about remote working at the height of the pandemic and what they’re saying now.

Past predictions

In the early months of the pandemic, experts were already predicting that remote working could be here to stay. In November 2020, McKinsey Global Institute published an analysis that suggested, “Hybrid models of remote work are likely to persist in the wake of the pandemic”.

Research firm Gartner published similar findings in July 2020, which showed that 82% of business leaders were planning to let staff continue working from home. 47% said it would be a permanent arrangement.

Similarly, in October 2020, a survey of 1,000 businesses by the Institute of Directors showed that 74% of managers planned to maintain the increase in remote work.

The European Commission, meanwhile, confidently declared in September 2020 that “Teleworking is here to stay”. It suggested, as many did at the time, that the pandemic had accelerated a trend that was already happening. And it pointed to the potential cost savings from remote working – including the fact that many employees would happily take a pay cut to work from home.

The remote working picture today

Fast forward a couple of years, and what are people today saying about remote working? Are businesses still enthusiastic about letting people work from home, or has the opportunity to meet people face to face again lured them back to the office?

Writing for Barron’s in January 2022, economics professor Nicholas Bloom says remote working is going nowhere – with hybrid working being the most popular flexible arrangement. He predicts that in future, 50% of employees will work fully in-person, 40% will work hybrid, and the remaining 10% will be fully remote.

Indeed, support for flexible and remote working still seems to be high. A survey by the Chartered Institute of Management in February 2022 showed continued adoption of hybrid working – with more than 80% of managers working flexibly.

Recent research by PwC, however, suggests there might have been a slight drop in support for remote working. Of the businesses it surveyed, 43% said they now offer hybrid work opportunities. And 30% say they’ve made remote working permanent for roles where it’s possible.

Regardless of whether remote working is more or less popular with businesses than it was in 2020, it’s clearly still seen as a permanent fixture by many. In a round-up of expert opinions, Forbes makes the bold prediction that, “Remote working is here to stay and will increase in 2023”.

So what next?

As predicted, remote working has stuck around – particularly in the form of hybrid working. Many businesses are open to the idea of letting their employees work flexibly, but there are some jobs and some tasks that simply cannot be done remotely.

Businesses that reject remote work completely do so at their own risk. Not only will they miss out on potential cost savings, they may find they’re unable to attract the best candidates. The majority of workers want more flexibility, and many employers are responding to that desire.

Doing remote working the right way

Despite the potential benefits, remote and hybrid working should be approached with a plan in mind. Organisations need to balance the pros and cons of allowing people to work from home. It shouldn’t be implemented just for the sake of it.

Businesses also need to have the right infrastructure in place to support remote working. If employees are working remotely, they need to be able to communicate and collaborate effectively with their colleagues. 

Technology is the key to making this work. As well as video calling apps, workers can use instant messaging, cloud software and shared spaces to stay in touch with each other and work on projects together. And thanks to cloud-based phone lines, they can make and take calls from a single phone number, no matter where they are or which device they’re using. That provides a seamless experience not just for a businesses’ employees but their customers too.

If organisations get these things right, they can reap the rewards of remote and hybrid working while keeping staff happy. Although face-to-face work will continue to be important, the last few years have opened the door to the benefits of remote working – and now everyone has seen what’s behind that door, it’s unlikely to close again.

Need help going hybrid?

We offer a range of solutions that can help. Our cloud-based phone solution Wholesale Hosted Communications (WHC) makes it easy to embrace remote and hybrid working, allowing you to access calls from anywhere, on a variety of devices. You can even make WHC calls in Microsoft Teams using WHC Teams Direct Connect. Or if you need a whole new video calling and collaboration tool, you can add Cisco Webex into the mix. Call us on 01553 776937 or email info@rlscomputers.co.uk, so we can discuss your needs and find you the right solution for your business.

If you are torn on the idea of picking up a new PC because yours is getting old and slow but don’t want to spend the money on a brand-new computer just yet, another great option is looking at some physical upgrades for it.

SSD Upgrades

Our most popular improvement is an SSD upgrade. This is taking the old hard drive (HDD) in your computer, where everything is stored, and transferring it to a new solid-state drive (SSD). Almost every new computer you buy will come with an SSD and now we are able to bring your computer up to the same level. On paper it is 2x faster than your old HDD, but we have recorded improvements of over 3x the speed on booting up and opening applications, and with prices starting at £80 for a 500GB SSD, including data transfer and fitting, this is the first upgrade we suggest to people when their computer is running slow.

RAM Upgrades

Another enhancement we have seen performance benefits from are RAM upgrades. We often see older computers with 2GB-4GB of RAM which is fine when they came out but with applications becoming a lot more resource intensive, we suggest 8GB as an adequate amount. The price of RAM has dropped over the years as well, so prices start at £60 (fitted) for 8GB of DDR4 RAM which makes this a very low-cost solution to an out-of-date computer.

Health Checks

If a physical improvement is not necessarily what you are looking for, then maybe a health check would be better. This includes a full service of the computer, diagnostics, updates and clear out of unneeded system files. Bringing your computer in for a service doesn’t just speed it up though, it will keep it clean, up to date and give it an extended life as well. But not every computer comes in for its service and then straight back out, just like your car, there can be issues we find with the computer, but the service gives us the opportunity to catch it before anything catastrophic happens like a failing hard drive. Just having a chance to look at the computer will allow us to spot any problems starting to arise and can either fix them or suggest a replacement before it’s too late and you end up with all your data lost. With Health Checks costing £48 it is worth contacting us and getting your computer in, so you can browse with the confidence that your computer is healthy and secure.

Still time to buy a new computer?

If none of these options interest you and you have still got your heart set on that new shiny PC, we can also help you out there. We sell new and renewed computers so if you tell us your needs and budget, we will be able to find you a PC that fits you perfectly. Whether you need a fancy custom-built PC, a new Fujitsu laptop for work or a renewed* HP computer for home use we supply it all and if you buy through us, we move your data from the old machine to the new one for free.

*Our new ‘renewed’ range of computers are really showing their worth at the moment, not only are they a fraction of the price of a new computer but they are also more eco-friendly by keeping the amount of tech trash down and creating a new life for these computers. If you would like to find out more about these watch our YouTube video here explaining what we have on offer.

Contact us

If you are interested in any of these services and would like to book in a time to upgrade, or even if you would just like some more information on it, call us on 01553 776937 or email support@rlscomputers.co.uk

Before getting into the comparisons, there are a few technical words that you need to be aware of.

• 2 factor authentication (2FA)– This is quite a new concept but has taken off very quickly and your more than likely already using it. 2FA is the process of typing in your password and then still having to do something else on another device or account, the most common one is entering a code you got as a text.

• Biometric login– This one is pretty simple, this is using your fingerprint and facial recognition to login, most smartphone have this built in nowadays.

Now below are some of the best password managers for the web, that we have evaluated and are available to the public. These are the first ones you come across if you’re looking for password managers, so they have been broken down and tested so you don’t have to.

Dashlane

If you are looking for password managers, then Dashlane is one you will come across straight away. Overall, it is a very good option with few setbacks, If you pay for the premium experience then you will have unlimited access to all the features but the free version is definitely not to be over looked.

Pros

• 2FA
• Biometrics login
• compatible across all devices and browsers.
• Bulk password changer to enforce regular changes.
• Easy to use
• Importing of old passwords
• Dark web monitor to check if any details have been involved in a breach (premium)
• Ability to save bank cards, IDs and notes as well, all securely.

Cons

• Free version can only be used on one device.
• Premium is $3.99 (£3.46) per month per person or $5.99 (£5.19) for 6 users
• Had issues receiving 2FA email

Summary:

After using Dashlane for a little while, I can see its uses. However, it can be a bit over the top with wanting to save details. The prompt to save passwords will come up quite a lot, even when you haven’t logged into anything, and I have also had it make some mistakes saving details with the 2FA number I put into the website. Despite this I could see Dashlane as a password manager I use permanently in the future.

1 Password

1 password is another safe bet when it comes to password managers. There is no free version, however there is a 14-day trial so this isn’t the end of the world as the premium is still at a very reasonable price compared to its competitors’. With costs being $2.99 (£2.60) per month per user or $4.99 (£4.34) for 5 users. It has a few more features than Dashlane as well, which are listed below.

Pros

• 2FA
• Lots of security features
• 1GB of secure document storage
• Compatible across all devices and browsers.
• Unlimited devices
• Password Sharing

Cons

• No free version
• User interface not as easy to use compared to other password managers

Summary:

After some use of 1 Password, I have found it is not as easy to use as other password managers, the user interface in the site dashboard is a lot harder to use and navigate to find your passwords. It also has no free version, so a 14-day free trial is all I got. The prompts for entering and saving passwords are nowhere near as big and in your face which I like, however I wouldn’t say this makes up for its outdated look.

LastPass:

LastPass is another good option despite its recent security concerns, where no passwords were compromised according to the verge. It is easy to use and has complete sync across mobile and desktop devices.

Pros

• 2FA
• 1GB of file storage
• 1-to-1 sharing
• Unlimited passwords
• Compatible across all devices and browsers

Cons

• Security reputation
• Only available on one device on free version
• Premium $2.60 (£2.23) per month per person or $3.40 (£2.91) for 6 accounts

Summary:

LastPass was relatively easy to use, it had a better user interface than 1 Password, however I did have some issues using the links to websites from in Lastpass. Some wouldn’t work and some took me to the wrong websites. This isn’t the conventional way of getting to websites so I wouldn’t worry too much but it may be an issue when it’s trying to find passwords for certain websites.

Browser Managers

Browser Managers are ones that you will be using every day without realising. When you sign into a new site on the internet you sometime get a box come up asking if you’d like to save the password, this is your password manager.

Pros

• Completely free to use
• Most modern browsers have them built in
• Can be used in that browser no matter the device, as long as your logged in
• 2FA (depending on browser)

Cons

• Passwords saved in one browser can’t easily be used in another
• Not as secure as actual password managers

Summary:

I have been using browser managers for years now and have never had a problem with them however they are very simple. You get no special features that tell you if your password needs changing or if it has been compromised but if you’re looking for something quick, simple and free, they are the way to go.

Overall Summary:

In summary all the password mangers have pretty much the same features, what is comes down to is the price and the ease of use. I have used them all to find the one I prefer, and I would suggest you do too, all have some kind of free trial so you are able to find the one you find easiest to use.

Hopefully, this has helped you understand password mangers and how to get the most out of your IT. If you need any further advice, please get in touch. 01553 776937 or email support@rlscomputers.co.uk

*Prices correct at the time of publishing

Software Links

https://www.dashlane.com/ – Dashlane

https://www.lastpass.com/ – Lastpass

https://1password.com/sign-up/ – 1 Password

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95606?hl=en-GB&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop – How to find and mange passwords in Chrome

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/password-manager-remember-delete-edit-logins – How to find and mange passwords in Firefox