BYO...D??

We’ve all seen the acronym BYOB (if you’ve ever gone to a party, chances are you know what it means), but there is a new kind of Bring Your Own expectation being practiced more and more by businesses when it comes to telecommunications needs – bring your own device, or BYOD.

As companies are incorporating unified communications technologies in to their workplace, there is becoming less of a need for employers to supply their employees with company mobile devices for times that they are away from their desk handset. With mobility-enabled UC services, employers can now have their employees use their own smart phone or tablet.

With products like the Mitel Unified Communicator Mobile, users are provided with a single phone number and voice mailbox for both their handset and their mobile device. The process of linking the two devices under one phone number is called “twinning.” Here’s how it works:

“An incoming call will simultaneously ring both your extension and the twinned device. The device that you use to answer the call establishes a voice path and the other device will cease to ring… Even though you are not at your desk but on the road, you can call and communicate as if you were in the office.”

For employers, the BYOD phenomenon (which, today, is really more of a common practice than it is a unique trend like it was from 2008 to 2010) is incredibly helpful. According to Galen Gruman, blogger for InfoWorld, adopters of BYOD are seeing real ROI and an increase in employee productivity, particularly in customer service and client relationships. Companies that ditch the practice of purchasing mobile devices for each employee and turn to mobile-enabled UC services save 30-40 percent on their monthly communications costs on average.

What’s even better for employers utilizing BYOD practices is that their employees are using app-savvy devices that they actually want and will pay for out of their own pocket for personal use, anyway. According to Gruman, other employers are even paying for some of the mobile usage costs “to encourage more employees to adopt iPhones, iPads, and Androids than otherwise would – to grow the pool of highly connected, highly effective information workers.” Even so, the subsidies these employers provide cost much less than the purchase and upkeep of addition mobile phones for each employee.

At Maverick Networks, we’re seeing a steep increase in mobility application purchases from our customers and clients. Some are even converting to mobile usage only, ridding their desks of the traditional handset equipment. Recently, we had a ShoreTel Mobility Router installed, allowing our own employees to utilize mobility applications over the company’s Wi-Fi network (instead of their own service providers that might not have the best service indoors). So, not only do we now have the option to go completely wireless in-office, personal cellular charges are considerably decreased as we use our phone at work.

Our shiny, new ShoreTel Mobility Router!

Still don’t quite get it? Imagine your work phone – you can send and receive phone calls, listen to voicemail, transfer a call to another person, call multiple people at once for a conference call, set numbers to a speed dial system so that you only have to push one button to reach them on the line they’re currently using, and probably a lot of other useful and (we think) awesome things to help make your phone interactions swifter and less complicated. Well, imagine being able to do all of that, but from your smart phone. That, friends, is the beauty of mobility, and the reason so many businesses are turning to BYOD protocol.

So if your company is in the market to upgrade your phone system, maybe it’s time you think about chucking out some of those bulky black boxes with the curly chords and letting your employees’ personal devices do the same job. Visit our website to talk with a sales rep about how we can help you get to where you want to be with your telecommunications system: http://www.mavericknetworks.net/.

For some helpful tips on how to manage BYOD phone usage within your company, click here.

Geeking out over VoIP-enabled toys

If you work in the telcommunications industry, you’re probably a tech geek of some sort. You might not consider yourself one if you’ve just joined the industry, but if you stick around long enough to learn about the technology available and can successfully sell telecom products simply based on the passion you exude for what you’re selling (call recording and mobility applications, anyone?), chances are somebody, somewhere, will think of you as a geek.

At Maverick Networks, we definitely have our geeky moments. For instance, our marketing and PR specialist, Jennifer Leslie (@JennMariePR), shed a few tears this week because she wasn’t at the 2012 International CES tradeshow. Fortunately for her, her obsession with social media allowed her to get constant updates via Twitter from accounts such as Pete Cashmore of Mashable,

CNET  and TechCrunch.

So, when she stumbled upon an article by Adam Bunker of Electricpig about some of the weirdest gadgets at CES 2012, we couldn’t contain our geeky excitement over the VoIP LEGO, a version of the LEGO Mindstorms NXT line. According to the article, the vehicle/robot can be controlled via Skype, enabling users to “call” it and control it from anywhere in the world.

What we can’t decide is what’s more intriguing about this production – the fact that VoIP technology can be used to control a LEGO robot, or the fact that the creator of the project is only 14-years-old! For the sake of our blog’s content, we’ll speak on the technology rather than his age (but really… 14-years-old and making headlines at CES with his knowledge of web code, screen sharing, and Bluetooth connectivity. We sure are impressed!)

Leon, the pre-teen mastermind behind this creation, explains how the robot works on his blog, World of MindStorms:

“The webpage is fairly simple – it’s got three arrows (one forward, two to the sides) and a start and a stop button. Clicking the start arrow will begin a Skype conversation with my computer, after which the user should share their screen; the NXT standing in front of my computer (called 'Jeeves') can then “see” the webpage the user is viewing.

That’s where the cool part kicks in – when the user clicks any one of the arrows or the stop button, the page will change to a different shade of gray. This shade of gray is then picked up by Jeeves, who turns it into a Bluetooth message for the other NXT (called 'Alfred'). The car then drives in the direction the user tells it to, while remaining within a fenced off area where the webcam can see it.

So, the user can drive a LEGO Mindstorms NXT car, from the comfort of his or her home, without having to install any kind of software (provided that they have Skype).”

You can also watch the robot in action on his blog, as well.

Although the idea is fairly simple and there is only one robot able to be controlled, this kid’s ease with such a common video conferencing source likeSkype shows that advances in telecom technology is moving faster than ever, and reaching younger and younger audiences.

We’d like to think of Leon as a maverick, as well. By thinking outside the [LEGO] box, he's found a way to use such a common tool and turn it in to something that may actually be of use one day for many businesses. Sure, the U.S. government has far more advanced technologies to control devices like a drone, but who knows what use companies will find for VoIP-controlled devices modeled after Leon’s LEGO Mindstorms NXT car?

All we can say is geek on, little man, and keep up the hard work so that we may be able to sell your technology one day.

"Resolving" business communications

It’s the beginning of a new year, which means it’s time to work on those New Years resolutions. Maverick Networks might be able to help.

While we can’t promise to help you to lose weight or trim off bad habits, we can help your business become more efficient, save money, retain employees (even those at a distance) and decrease its carbon footprint by employing unified communications within your company.

Need a better understanding of what unified communications means? We can help with that, too.

Unified communications (UC) is the convergence of real-time communications services (such as instant messaging, video conferencing, data sharing, etc.) with non-real-time communication services (such as e-mail, SMS and fax). It allows users to send a message from one medium and receive the same message through another medium over Internet protocol (IP), often at a much faster speed than through the public switched telephone networks traditionally used.

For example, Jack leaves a voicemail for Jill. Jill, however, is in an important business meeting and cannot pick up her phone to listen to the voicemail. Instead, Jill can open her e-mail from her smartphone or tablet and be able to read the message that Jack has left. If Jill wants to respond, she can write her response via e-mail to Jack, who can receive the message through his e-mail inbox, or listen to it from his voicemail.

Sounds pretty cool and technological, right? We think so, which is why we’re so passionate about what we sell.

We know that when a company employs UC within their workplace, their work efficiency increases. People no longer have to wait around for important responses, which can delay progress, and employees can all be better connected around the clock.

While our country is slowly but surely climbing out of a recession, cutting costs is still crucial to keep a company afloat. But, instead of having to decrease workforce because of lack of space or lack of resources, businesses can use converged communication technology to keep employees even more in touch than ever, even if they’re working from home or out of other, more distant offices.

Another perk of utilizing UC? Travel time and commuting expenses are cut, which not only helps businesses to save time and money, it also contributes to keeping their CO2 emissions down. Services like video conferencing over IP can allow Jack, who is located in Portland, to meet with Jill, who is located in Los Angeles, without having to leave the office.

Through mobility-enabled UC services, users can have phone calls seamlessly rerouted from their office phone to their own mobile device, for any important calls that may come in while that person is in the field or in transit. Users can even make calls from their mobile device under their office number (known as single number reachability), so their personal number doesn’t have to be revealed (or, even cooler, the person on the other end of the line doesn’t have to know that the user isn’t at his or her desk).

So, even if you end up dropping your personal New Years resolutions by Valentine’s Day, through unified communications, you can ensure that your business’s “resolutions” can remain fulfilled for years to come.

Product Demonstration: VMWare vMotion

Ever wondered how VMWare technology can move running virtual machines from one physical server to another with no impact to end users? Phil Ouellette of MITEL shows you how:

Product Demonstration: VMWare vMotion

Fixed Price is a Lie

Here is a great blog post from Richard Sheridan of Menlo Innovations, a fellow Inc. Magazine's 5,000 Fastest Growing Private Companies Award winner:

Fixed Price is a Lie

As a company focused on customer satisfaction in converged communication sales, we believe it's important for customers and clients to understand where the numbers come from when shopping for the best price in telecommunications and VoIP services. Sheridan hits the nail on the head when he says: "Herein lies the power of agile: fixed budget projects that focus on scope management in order to achieve the highest possible business value within a budget and time frame. What does it take for this to work? A real and authentic relationship between the technical team and the business team."

A little about Maverick Networks...

A little about Maverick Networks, Inc. for our first blog:

As you probably have guessed, we are not Tom Cruise, nor are we in any way affiliated with him or the blockbuster classic, "Top Gun." However, our company shares something in common with the 1986 film, which is that we are all mavericks.

The story goes like this: Maverick Networks CEO, Aaron Lee, was considered a “Top Gun” (i.e. – a successful sales rep) at his previous telecommunications employer, but left the company in October of 2003 to start his own telecom company from the ground up. Lee decided to use the name Maverick because it gave a sense and persona of what our company truly is in its industry – one that stands out from the crowd. It’s a cultural symbol and name that we stand behind and believe in every day.

We have always taken the stance of being different than what our competitors do for their prospects and customers. It's what has allowed us to achieve the awards we have received over the last few years (Fastest Growth in SF Bay Area List, INC 5000 in 2009, to name a few). Our beginning was like many startups, working out of the home office. Shortly after launching, we moved into a small warehouse space at a friend’s office in Hayward, Calif., and finally into a real corporate office space in our current location in Pleasanton, Calif.

It’s been a fun ride along the way as our customer base has grown with Pure VoIP Telephony solutions, and as we have established our distinct flair for being trusted advisors for voice solutions.

Our logo was created by combining a maverick mentality (horns) and networks (rings) circling a sphere (our home, Planet Earth).

Our goal began, and continues to be, extreme customer focus and satisfaction. We do this by providing innovative ideas and solutions to companies looking for voice convergence solutions. So, if your company is looking for a VoIP Converged Solution and have a need for a Top Gun or Maverick look no further and contact us for a free consultation.