Whether you’re managing a handful of employees or wearing a multitude of different hats in your business, tasking can be a long and often unorganized process. The first step in the process is deciding where to start– which is the most difficult of them all. Do you send an email? Buy an app or service? ... Read more

Managing a team can often seem nothing short of chaotic, especially in a thriving office environment. Whether it’s strategizing, task assigning, file sharing, or just simply organizing– you do it all. But it doesn’t have to be complicated. With Office 365, you can do all this and more in one place. Here are the three ... Read more

It’s time to make appointment scheduling simple– for both you and your customers. Microsoft Bookings is one of the quickest and most convenient tools for any business. With Bookings, there’s no need to spend extra time or money on complicated online schedulers. It’s already included in Office 365. Here’s what makes Bookings so spectacular. Simplicity ... Read more

Introduced in 2017, Microsoft Teams provides a platform that combines workplace chat, meetings, notes/attachments and calendaring to Office 365.  For current subscribers, Teams is incorporated into the office productivity suite that includes Office and Skype.  While Teams is currently limited to Office 365 subscribers, Microsoft plans to expand the capabilities to include outside organizations. So, ... Read more

As a business owner or consultant, you may have asked yourself many times whether an application or platform is worth the cost. While everyone has their own unique filtering criteria, we would like to share some of our thoughts based on the deployment of Office 365 across organizations large and small. Does Office 365 make ... Read more

What is productivity? Productivity (pro·duc·tiv·i·ty) is the effectiveness of productive effort, especially in industry, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input. It used to be that productivity was tangible.  One could see how many cars were produced a day in a given manufacturing plant in Detroit.  If 800 people ... Read more

So what’s the deal? As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you may find yourself constantly trying to achieve balance between your everyday work and personal life. In today’s modern business world, the use of social media has made it more difficult than ever to reach an equilibrium point. Because of this, it’s often thought ... Read more

There are a variety of Office 365 plans. Some are for single users while others are for business. It can be difficult to know which would best fit your needs. Thankfully, Microsoft has made it easy to compare one to the other. The link below (Office 365 Subscription Plans) will enable you to view all ... Read more

Why are so many businesses moving to the cloud? When it comes to managing and coordinating all aspects of communication in your business, simplicity can seem far from achievable. It is often more easily said than done when having to deal with multiple providers — including services for telephony, conferencing, and instant messaging, paying high ... Read more

The economic realities of cloud are real. Today, how cloud is changing voice communications?   Businesses are seeing the value of what cellular technology and mobile phones have brought to consumers and are now wanting that same technology applied to business. From an economic perspective, the following advantages of cloud-hosted PBX solutions.   Operating Expense ... Read more

New business practices are developing daily. Today, how is cloud transforming economics of IT.   How is the cloud transforming business economics?   Cost of ownership. Remember when buying infrastructure, software, almost anything in IT, also carried with it a stream of continual costs? Cost to support, cost to maintain, cost to re-license, etc. The ... Read more

Last time we answered the question. Yes, the cloud is both evolutionary and transformative. Today, a look at examples.   How is the cloud revolutionizing business practices?   New paths to new business models. Business in the cloud can happen anywhere, at any time, by anyone. No geographic “location” to lease or buy as a ... Read more

Yesterday, we looked at the numbers. Today, the answer to the question: Is cloud technology revolutionizing or transforming the way we consume IT?   YES!   For some organizations, the cloud is an evolution. Taking existing capabilities and changing how they are delivered. A great example are the capabilities traditionally delivered by Microsoft. Email, Office ... Read more

Yesterday it was a question of “what is cloud?” Today, what are the impacts and specifically, how many people are moving capabilities to the cloud?   Back on the late 80’s, personal PC’s became cool. What a change in how people related to machines at work and at home. Then comes the 90’s and the ... Read more

In this series I will be discussing the question of, “Is cloud technology revolutionizing or transforming?” This question was raised at IngramMicro’s cloud summit a few weeks ago and it stuck in my mind; so much so, I decided to speak on this topic at an upcoming technology show in May.   As an introduction, ... Read more

I, too, lost close friends during high school to car accidents – two in one accident.  I see a lot of promise in this technology.  Won’t bring back lives, but can save them going forward.  Sebastian, we hope your dream comes true.      

Simple. Management. Two words that mean a lot when paired with each other. For those who oversee IT, they are a match made in heaven. One of the biggest costs for an organization is managing IT and, for many, those cost are not easily identifiable, buried in the complexity of salaries, software cost, etc. With ... Read more

One of the more popular shows on cable television is about people who hoard – some one particular thing, others everything. In the IT world, if we dare to admit it, people do the same. You know them (or may be one of them), the person who has a copy of every e-mail since the dawn ... Read more

A few years ago the idea of “on-line” meetings was, well, not readily accepted. This meant going out and finding a third-party provider (Webex, etc.), a monthly cost commitment (whether you used your minutes or not), and the complexity of setting it up and using each time. Today, times have changed. On-line meetings are a ... Read more

There are words used in business that I marvel at their selection. Who thought of naming  _______  [fill in the blank] … ?  One of those for me is Microsoft Office. Office.  Kind of says it all in one word.  Think of all the things that happen within an office that make business work.  Naming ... Read more

What is the difference? Last week we discussed this topic and definitions, today we’ll decide … Is it hosted VoIP or hosted PBX?   It is hosted PBX (really).   As VoIP stands for “Voice over Internet Protocol” and refers to the protocol, the means by which the information is traveling across the internet. Hosted PBX, on ... Read more

    Fascinating pictorial of our world, known but mostly unseen … you’ll have to watch to understand,  Fascinating.      

What is the difference? I hear these terms used interchangeably almost every day but are they the same? Let’s look at definitions.   What is VoIP?   VoIP stands for “Voice over Internet Protocol” and refers to sending communications across an IP-based network vs. the traditional proprietary voice network of yester-year. Starting in the early ... Read more

A great dissection of the debate around net “neutrality.” Post by Stu Burguiere.

Have you heard about the latest proposals from the FCC on “net neutrality?” Do you care? If you don’t, you should.   One of the false promises, in my view, of the proposed regulation is that the FCC Chairman says that the proposal will not impose rate regulation or tariffs on Internet services. What about ... Read more

Have you heard about the latest proposals from the FCC on “net neutrality?” Do you care? If you don’t, you should.   The concept of net neutrality sounds very noble and, in some aspects, it is. The concept, coined by Columbia University law professor Tim Wu, states that:   “Network neutrality is best defined as ... Read more

Soteria is proud to introduce our new site for all-things cloud PBX – uconnect.soteria365.com.  What will you find on the site … let’s explore.   Title: uConnect is a play off the words “Your Connection”, which is what cloud-hosted PBX is all about. Your connection: to anyone, on any device, at any time, anywhere.   ... Read more

Music that is location aware.  No mp3 you can buy … you have to be there.   TED Talk Friday.      

Last night there was a Facebook thread from a friend explaining that someone had the audacity to request they send a fax. A fax? “Who uses a fax, let alone have a fax machine,” she exclaimed. If you are using cloud communications fax is easy. (Even though you may not use it very often.)   ... Read more

    Super Bowl commercials.  Typically, they are one of the highlights of the “Big” day but his year, however, I would say was an exception.  No one commercial really hit a broad appeal and created something that went “viral.”.   I did find one humorous, however, and that was the BMW commercial with Bryant Gumbel and ... Read more

Is America’s favorite pie apple? Hmmm.   A TED talk by Kenneth Cukier, Data Editor at the Economist, will give you some insight on that questions AND challenge you to look at data different. TED-talk Friday.          

  Back in 1997, Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly wrote an article that I still ponder today – “New Rules for the New Economy.” While the “New Economy” of the time faltered and died a few years later, most of the concepts lived on. One of them being costs moving to zero.   The Law of ... Read more

This week we will be looking at data storage. The term “storage” has many connotations in the world of IT and our goal this week it to provide answers to the dilemma of, “how do I deal with all the data being generated?” Important question and we have answers.   Collaboration is “the action of ... Read more

This week we will be looking at data storage. The term “storage” has many connotations in the world of IT and our goal this week it to provide answers to the dilemma of, “how do I deal with all the data being generated?” Important question and we have answers.   In the world of information ... Read more

This week we will be looking at data storage. The term “storage” has many connotations in the world of IT and our goal this week it to provide answers to the dilemma of, “how do I deal with all the data being generated?” Important question and we have answers.   There is probably no greater ... Read more

This week we will be concentrating on the question of “How can changing to a hosted PBX solution for your telephony needs help your business?” Important question and we have answers.   On Day 5, a summary of Soteria’s uConnect offering. When you boil all the advantages of cloud-hosted PBX, they can make a substantial ... Read more

This week we will be concentrating on the question of “How can changing to a hosted PBX solution for your telephony needs help your business?” Important question and we have answers.   On Day 4, we are exploring reliability. Having a phone that is unreliable is like having no phone at all. When people call, ... Read more

This week we will be concentrating on the question of “How can changing to a hosted PBX solution for your telephony needs help your business?” Important question and we have answers.   On Day 3, we want to explore how simple it is to manage your cloud-based telephones. For starters, it is graphical, intuitive browser-based ... Read more

This week we will be concentrating on the question of “How can changing to a hosted PBX solution for your telephony needs help your business?” Important question and we have answers.   On Day 2, we want to explore how you get from an on-premise to a cloud-based telephony solution. Simply put: it’s a hands-off, ... Read more

This week we will be concentrating on the question of “How can changing to a hosted PBX solution for your telephony needs help your business?” Important question and we have answers.   The first way is that it requires no (or very little) capital investment. Unlike on-premise systems, almost all of the headache of ownership ... Read more

Today, we are continuing our focus this week on how we have assisted businesses in moving away from on-premise PBX system to the cloud. Today we highlight The Christensen Group, an entity in Boise, Idaho that manages the most technologically advanced buildings in Idaho – The Banner Building. A real story, with real people and ... Read more

We are continuing our focus this week on how we have assisted businesses in moving away from an on-premise PBX system to the cloud. Today we highlight Camp Rainbow Gold, a non-profit in Boise Idaho that helps families deal with childhood cancer. A real story, with real people and real-time application of cloud-hosted technology.   Situation: ... Read more

  Today, we are continuing our focus this week on how we have assisted businesses in moving away from on-premise PBX system to the cloud. Today we highlight Boise First Community Center that has activities happening in their building 7 days a week. A real story, with real people and real-time application of cloud-hosted technology. ... Read more

This week I want to spend my blog time talking about our most valuable asset – our customers. How they are utilizing our services – especially hosted VoIP – tells a more complete story than just talking about features and capabilities. Real stories, real people, real application.   Situation: existing on-premise Avaya PBX, older, out ... Read more

I was pondering this morning about how important “any-to-any” communication is for voice communications – me connecting with someone somewhere on any device. The opposite of that would be to imagine that only Verizon users (or substitute your mobile carrier of choice) could talk to Verizon users. Or, iPhones could only call iPhones. Would make ... Read more

“The Telephone purports to transmit the speaking voice over telegraph wires. We found that the voice is very weak and indistinct, and grows even weaker when long wires are used between the transmitter and receiver. Technically, we do not see that this device will be ever capable of sending recognizable speech over a distance of ... Read more

  At the advent of the telephone, connecting two parties was a manual process. A wire would run from each home to a central office, and when a party wanted to talk to another, the Operators would “make a connection.”   Later, machines would take over this function, replacing rooms of operators with rooms of ... Read more

  Above my hometown of Boise, Idaho there is a ski area known as Bogus Basin (aptly named for a miner who thought he had discovered gold but, in reality, had only found “fool’s” gold.) Each morning during the ski season they recorded a message of the coming days’ snow conditions.   The fun part, ... Read more

con·nec·tion  (kəˈnekSH(ə)n/) “a relationship in which a person, thing, or idea is linked or associated with something else.”   In the new world of technology I am increasingly convinced that our ultimate destination can be summed up in one simple word: connection. In the business of Soteria, we provide connection. Whether it be through voice ... Read more

    Having been involved with many disaster recovery and business continuity projects one things was always clear: complexity.  Not that the complexity was clear, far from it, but that the reality that any DR/BC solution includes many moving parts: servers, storage, software and automation, network, and skills and services to implement and operate in ... Read more

At Soteria, we have found one virtualization product to stand-out heads above the competition – Veeam.  Built for virtualization environments, Veeam takes the complexity out of managing virtual environments.  With over 73,000 customers and over 4,000,000 virtual machines under management … they are doing something right! Read more about their amazing product, including the ability ... Read more

Leveraging cloud-based solutions is great … if you can get to the cloud.  And once there, understand how to protect, manage and shape that web-based traffic is critical.   At Soteria, we have standardized on one product – Cisco Meraki.  This product line was developed by a group of PhD students at MIT specifically for the ... Read more

Want to implement a Hosted VoIP Solution but need to integrate existing applications/adjuncts currently connected to analog station ports from a legacy PBX?  Well you can with an ATA device as going with hosted VoIP does not necessarily require you to toss out prior investments in self-service IVRs, VRUs, workforce management, image/fax and even voice-mail ... Read more

The “Tele” of things … Aesop, in his fable of “The Fox and the Lion,” is credited with the idiom “familiarity breeds contempt”.  I think the same can be said of the English language, as we often don’t know the origin, or even the meaning, of certain words.  Case in point for me recently, the ... Read more

If your organization is typical, your on-premise phone system is tucked away (often NOT neatly) in a spare closet along with the mop bucket and the half-empty bag of sidewalk salt.  And, from a business perspective, odds are that being in the closet reflects the sense of value placed on the telephony system.  After all, ... Read more

Cloud vs. On-Premise Cloud-managed networking vs. an on-premise network management is the difference between proactive vs. reactive when it comes to ensuring the availability of a hosted cloud solution.  Taking systems management from an on-premise console to a web-based browser gives several advantages to companies that want to ensure availability of their cloud applications while ... Read more