Bright Activity

Said Business School of Oxford University and the Department of Applied Economics of Spain’s University of Oviedo recently carried out a survey on behalf of Cisco Systems to understand the broadband capacities of different nations across the world. A total of 66 countries were part of the study, and the results showed that Romania was better equipped to face the future of broadband technology when compared to the UK.

The study divided the countries into four categories, namely, ready for the future, comfortably placed at present, barely meeting present requirements, and below par even for today’s needs. Surprisingly, the study placed the UK in the twenty-fifth position, and it was placed in the category of ‘barely meeting present requirements’.

The study based its analysis on the available data regarding upload and download speeds, together with the extent to which broadband has penetrated within a country. Japan got a highest rank, as fast and high-speed access is available to all in the country. However, countries where speeds are slow or where a majority of people are without internet access came lower in ranking status.

Another factor considered for ranking countries was its preparedness for the future, in terms of allowing video and TV streaming for the population. Surprisingly only nine out of sixty-six countries formed the core group of highly prepared countries. Countries like South Korea where the government is planning to achieve 1 Gb speed by 2012 scored high, while the UK, still trying to get 2Mb speed by 2012, scored low.

Cisco Systems has stated that the current study shows better results and rankings than the one conducted last year. It has also concluded that today’s internet matters the most rather than that of the future.

Broadband Genie’s comparative table of UK broadband providers includes an analysis of the products and services from all the internet service providers. So, take a look at their website; click on your provider, mine’s AOL Broadband and check out the latest on broadband UK.

Irrespective of warnings from internet service providers in the form of letters, more than half of illegal file sharers would continue with their file sharing activities without any fear or moral scruples. This is the verdict of a recent study preceding the final publication of Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report. The study is the outcome of the combined efforts of PaidContent:UK and media lawyers Wiggin.

The Digital Entertainment Survey found warning letters alone would not intimidate the habitual offenders found guilty of copyright violation. However, if they received, along with such warnings, a serious threat of broadband disconnection, then 80 per cent of them would stop illegal downloading instantly. This is a jump from the 70 per cent of respondents who said that they would cease and desist under similar conditions during the Digital Entertainment Survey conducted last year.

A logical explanation for this could be that respondents this year were asked to consider the possibility of a communication containing no clearly defined threat. Last year’s figure of 70 per cent can only be explained by an assumption by the respondents that the communication was a launch pad for further action. Undoubtedly, the government needs to take more goal-oriented and focused action if it wants to discourage file sharers.

Experts believe that forcing offenders to mend their ways by cutting off their broadband connection is hardly the solution. Last week, Charles Dunstone, the CEO of Carphone Warehouse told The Guardian newspaper that pirates will not yield so easily and if coerced or threatened, would try other sophisticated means to download copyrighted material so that their theft goes undetected. Click on Sky Broadband Review for provider reviews and news Sky and all the leading broadband service providers.

First of all, it was the first provider to offer free calls between its customers, then it was the first to offer free bundled broadband to its phone customers, now TalkTalk customers are being given the opportunity to make use of free local calls, anytime.

From the 1st May all TalkTalk customers will be able to benefit from the free call offer and shortly after, on the 2nd June calls will also be free to all 0845 and 0870 numbers.

According to TalkTalk, a large proportion of UK calls made by its customers are currently to local numbers, so the offer looks set to save its subscription base a far whack whilst giving them the freedom to chat without the worry of a hefty bill. Speaking on the offer, Wendy Becker, managing director of TalkTalk, commented: “At TalkTalk we’re always looking to give customers a better deal, especially in these uncertain times. Given that 70 per cent of all the UK calls that our customers make at to local numbers, making those calls free will give a significant boost to our customers who want to keep in touch with their neighbours, friends and local services.”

To balance out the offer TalkTalk has already confirmed it will be increasing the standard line rental charge to £11.25 a month although this price rise will only be in accordance with BT’s latest line rental increase.

First off what is spider friendly navigation? Basically it is how easily search engines can read your website. This ultimately depends on the search engine that is reading your site. Some have the patience to dig deep into your site and promise to follow every link. Others may get bored before they finish indexing a whole page. Carefully organize your page content and Web site to ensure that spiders index the whole thing – not just bits and pieces. Here are some tips that will help you to do this:

1. Use Keywords/phrases that best describe the target page.
2. Avoid using image maps, if needed make sure to add text links at the bottom of all pages.
3. Do not use long text; limit 40-50 characters in a text link
4. Avoid using JavaScript links
5. Create text links and use a common navigational menu for all pages
6. For best results try to limit the number of links per page to 20. (Only a recommendation)
7. Include a site map if you have more than 20 pages.
8. If you are using flash navigation, always have text links as a supplement to the flash
9. Try to use keyword phrases in the HTML and image file names
10. Keep your file names hyphenated (e.g. use this-page.html instead of thispage.html)

General Tips and Tricks

1. Make sure your website is completely finished, spell checked, online and all links are working before submitting to Search Engines’.
2. Try to include .robots.txt. to prevent spiders from crawling certain directories. (For more info, visit www.robotstxt.org)
3. If the site was designed in something other than HTML, make sure there is some static content for the spider to read.
4. Try and get on DMOZ if you are not already there.
5. Read each search engines. guidelines and follow them closely.
6. Use meta tags in all places
7. For getting proper keywords that are commonly used visit:
a) http://www.wordtracker.com
b) http://inventory.goto.com/searchinventory/suggestion/
c) https://adwords.google.com/select/m…=KeywordSandbox
8. For checking keyword density use the following sites:
a) http://www.keyworddensity.com/
b) http://www.ranks.nl
9. When using frames, make sure to include keyword rich content between the tags, on the main frameset page.
10. Keep all content in root directory if possible.
11. Make sure your home page can load within 8-10 seconds on a 56k modem
12. Try to use CSS data as an external file and call it using tag
13. Optimize your images and keep the page size low
14. Update your more important pages at a regular interval
15. Check your site for broken links periodically

Things to Avoid

Here are some things to avoid when creating your website:

1. Avoid strange color combinations, as this can make it hard to read for a viewer
2. Text that is too small to read will also cause the reader to leave
3. Unrelated Advertisements will distract viewers
4. Hidden text, which is text the same color as the background
5. Submitting your site to FFA sites
6. Duplicate pages, doorway pages and cloaked pages
7. Re-direction from the homepage to another
8. Automated submission to search engines
9. Submitting to search engines more than once a month
10. Use of tag in HTML page header
11. Using trademarks or company names other than yours in Meta tags.
12. Instance of 5 or 6 keywords being repeated in one row

Summary

Search engine optimization is the process of Internet marketing and is the most cost-effective means of marketing to your target visitors. 90 percent of the web users are turning to search engines to search information online, so it is very crucial that your website rank within the top 20 results if you want to be found. A successful search engine optimization will bring qualified customers and prospects to your website. So if after several months of your website’s position on the search engines result page has not improved, you might want to consider the services of a professional website optimization and search engine placement expert.

About the Author: Article written by: NerdLib Software Labs http://nerdlib.com

Source: www.isnare.com

“”"Big Blue”" Lives Up to its Name

When it comes to web hosting, “”Big Blue”" lives up to its name. IBM is a major player in the web hosting industry and has been achieving some significant customer wins. Some industry experts see large enterprise customers continuing to shift to firms like IBM, due in part, to their fiscal strength in an environment where hosting start-ups remain questionable for deploying business-critical applications.

On November 16th, IBM inked a deal with Dow Chemical to provide a five-year arrangement for the company’s end-to-end web hosting services. The contract covered all three stages of the Web production cycle – development, testing and production environments.

IBM’s strength in winning corporate customers is partially a result of the company’s large network of partners. For example, IBM has extensive relationships with telecom companies; some of which even compete with IBM for the same hosting clients.

Warren Hart, Director of Global Offerings in eBusiness Hosting Services for IBM says working with the Telco’s and network providers, instead of against them, is a win-win situation for IBM, it’s partners and their clients.

“”By having multiple network bandwidth procedures, it helps ensure availability and elevates services level performance,”" Hart said. “”We’re a huge fans of our [Telco] partners, but the advantage of IBM working alongside them goes to our customers who have a business focused on their needs.”"

IBM’s differentiation factor is that it brings to the table not only a solid infrastructure; facilitated in part by partners, but also extensive online business practices. IBM has developed applications for many large-scale events and companies. Few in the technology industry would question IBM’s grasp of the technological side of the hosting realm. Their deeply rooted technology-background is a unique attribute that provides IBM a competitive advantage over other hosts (including telcos).

Yet, IBM’s efforts in application hosting are shifting beyond the enterprise marketplace to the SME environment. As the upscale SME hosting market evolves, their remains a considerable battle ahead for marketshare. Some pundits have expressed concern that IBM may not be able to apply the same level of service offerings to the SME marketplace, due to the value-nature of smaller contracts. However, IBM is clearly positioning themselves to the contrary.

“”As a global organization we address more than the large enterprise,”" Hart stated. “”We have a great reputation and a strong track record in dealing with highly complex enterprise businesses, but there’s a substantial opportunity out there that reaches beyond the large enterprise.”"

IBM does have the advantage that the company can take software and services tried, tested and true for enterprises and scale them to meet the needs of SME hosting requirements. Obviously the average SME isn’t going to need the same hosting solutions as the huge corporations and eBusiness sites , but they do want the reliability, speed and trust that’s relative to the name IBM.

“”We’re increasingly focusing on the SME level,”" Hart said. “”We can lower our costs for the entry-level business. We’re more flexible, we can offer more attributes of self-services applications.”"

Paul Boulay, Program Director, Global Application Services for IBM Global Services notes that IBM is the one-stop-shop for SME, alleviating the hassle of having to go to different businesses to obtain the services they need.

“”Especially of interest in the small-medium business environment, where in the past the getting-started price tag was almost an automatic inhibitor, we’re able to go to that market segment now with a predefined offering allowing them to get up and running very quickly at very low starting costs,”" Boulay explains. “”Some of our entry-level offerings are priced well below $20,000 a month, which is extremely favorable for these types of applications.”"

IBM has over 200 data center facilities around the world and is reinforcing global reach, both for the enterprise and SME hosting marketplaces. However, with more than 67 discrete web hosting offerings, and the added confusion of application hosting, time will remain the determinant as to whether IBM can achieve simultaneous success in serving both the enterprise and SME hosting platforms.”

About the Author

Hosting Article Creator – Companies like ipowerweb.com, midphase.com, weblinkhosting.com, lunarpages.com.

Here is the situation. A laptop comes to us with a dead hard drive. Unfortunately, the user needs some files off the dead drive. After much research on the internet and a couple of data recovery quotes we decide to try and recover the information ourselves.

Luckily for us the drive won’t spin up at all. I say luckily because the usual problem is that the circuit board on the bottom of the drive went bad. That doesn’t mean that something else isn’t the problem, but replacing the circuit board is the simplest thing to try.

The first thing needed is another hard drive. That may sound easy but it isn’t. You need an identical hard drive, and by identical I mean the same model number, part number, firmware, everything. In our case we had a Hitachi Travelstar hard drive that had three numbers to match. The important numbers were the model number, part number, and MLC number. I believe the MLC number has something to do with the firmware revision but don’t quote me on that. After speaking with Hitachi I was referred to a company called CueTech. They specialize in finding “hard to find” or obsolete computer parts. The wanted to charge between $200 and $400 for the drive, which I thought was reasonable for the work required to find one. Instead of using them I decided to search on my own and after two days, still had not found another drive for sale that met my needs. We then started looking in house for similar laptops and found one that had an identical drive. Now we were in business.

Now that we had our drive, we needed to protect ourselves because the user wanted their machine back in working order. So before we started any kind of surgery we made a ghost image of their hard drive. After waiting the 20 minutes or so for the backup to finish we began the surgery. First we removed the hard drive from the working system and laid it on a static pad with the circuit board up. We then used a T-5 Torx drive to remove the screws securing the circuit board to the hard drive. Your drive may need a different size or style of screwdriver. We then repeated the process on the bad drive. We put the circuit board from the good drive onto the dead hard drive and placed it back in the laptop. It booted! As soon as we new it worked we then setup the system to make a quick drive image. After waiting another 20 minutes we had a drive image of the bad hard drive and our data was recovered.

To finish the process we had to put the circuit board back on the original good hard drive and verify that it was working correctly. Once that was completed and the laptop returned to its owner, we installed a brand new hard drive in the system that had the original issue. The last step was to restore the drive image to the new hard drive, verify that it worked, and give the laptop back to the owner.

Gary Higbee
http://www.greatnorthcomputing.com – A community for SysAdmins and Programmers.

“Why should you be afraid?”, I can hear you ask.

I just got an email from my friend Miche who said,

“My laptop is sick at the hospital. Hard Drive failure.
Am praying data can be retrieved.”

Her exact words.

Ohhhh : tremors of fear running up and down my spine!

Why?

Because … and I have to be honest … I haven’t *backed up* my laptop for ages!

Oh I can hear your derisive laughter, your looks of scorn … I can feel your disbelief.

Me – of all people – admitting this. My friends call me “TechieGirl”!

Well, the best part of my friend’s scary dilemma is that it’s forcing me into action!

I’m dusting off the cd burner and plugging into the power, plugging it into the USB slot – now how *hard* was that? I’ve got a stack of blank cds gathering dust on my desk … why not use them?

Hmm … why not do a *big* backup on the first of each month, and a *mini* backup every Monday [or Tuesday or Friday ... whatever works best for you]?

::::: Plan it! :::::

OK – stick with me here – open your online Diary or Appointments Database or hard-copy Diary and make an appointment *with yourself* – which part of the week could you devote say a half hour to, to do a quick backup? What about when you sit down to open the mail, or read a report, do your return phonecalls? If you work from home, why not start the backup as soon as you get out of bed so it’ll be done by the time you’ve had your walk, eaten your breakfast, and showered.

I can hear you saying, “Oh it’ll take too long … I’ll do it later … tomorrow … next week … next month …”. And then one day I’ll be getting an email or a call from you saying, “If only I’d backed up the computer …”

Imagine losing all your documents, projects, databases, passwords, software settings, names, addresses, phone numbers, email names, website links – YIKES! I’m scaring myself again!!!!

If I lost even *one* thing in that list above, I’d be in BIG trouble – REAL BIG trouble.

::::: What do I backup? :::::

Good question. The most important thing NOT to backup is your software.

You do have all the original cds, don’t you? And you made copies of those cds when you bought the software, right, as a *backup* in case the original cd failed? Didn’t you? Yeah, I thought so … no-one bothers to do that, but it’s the one thing which could save your hair from going white overnight after your computer dies.

MUST backup:

* LOGINS, ALL passwords, FTP access codes, banking details, etc. Where do you currently keep this info? Please don’t tell me it’s in a little book on your desk … oh so easy to get lost, to get put in someone else’s pocket, to go walk-about. You should have a password-protected spreadsheet or document, or even better – a password-protected database. I have a database which I open as soon as I create a new login, or add myself to a mailing list, or join a new news group etc – paste the info in *as* you create it, to ensure you’ll *never* forget it. Sure, you sometimes get confirmation emails with this data … but if your computer has *died* … get the picture? You can’t access the emails!

* CLIENT documents / projects / websites (if you’re a developer), in fact ANYTHING which could cause grief if you lost it or didn’t have a copy of it. If you’ve printed a lot of this stuff, what would you need if you had a *fire* and lost all your paper files? Think about that. Hard. Now make a list and maybe have a backup cd for each Client or group of clients, depending on your business.

* EMAIL software folder which should include ALL your emails. You do *keep* all emails don’t you? Please tell me you’re not one of those people who deletes emails as soon as you read them (business ones I mean). Have you ever considered that emails are a form of *database*? I can search my Eudora software for any word or phrase and in a nanosecond I have a list of emails relating to that item (all neatly filed in their email folders … but that’s *another* article!). I *love* Eudora’s features! Getting back to business, emails with historical information on projects are invaluable to see who said what and when they said it. It’s a timeline, tracking resource, for a project’s life.

* PHOTOS, personal, professional – unless you’re using them all the time, these can be kept on CDs on a regular basis. When you download from the digital camera, save to cd straight away and save space on your hard drive [note to "self" : follow own suggestion]. If you have photos related to a project or client, save them to the Client cd you created earlier, if there’s space.

* FINANCIALS. All your spreadsheets, MYOB or whatever other software you use to track financials. Every document which the tax department might one day want to see … for the past 7 years. Business plans, budgets, everything relating to your business which you’ll need to continue to *be* in business.

* FAXES – do you use online faxing like I do? Where every incoming fax comes into my inbox as an email? From now on, whenever one arrives, put it into a folder called FAXES or save with your client data. Faxes are also a record of what’s transpired – another form of database. Plus if you use this kind of fax service, you’re saving trees. >

* INSURANCE. Keep quotes etc on your computer? You’ll be needing these.

* DATABASES – all of them. A must. Trust me, you’ll kick yourself if you need one of these you didn’t bother backing up.

* COMPUTER DESKTOP. OK – what’s still sitting on your desktop which hasn’t be put away or filed yet? Probably a bunch o’stuff – clear this up before you backup, make your job that little bit easier.

* EXCEPTION to the SOFTWARE RULE above – if you’ve bought any software online, or downloaded any software or programs of any kind for which you did not receive a cd, then back it up. If you’ve still got the Installer file, save that – it’ll save time.

* BROWSER Settings – go through your browser Preferences screens, take snapshots (like printscreen) of those settings – it’ll save you a TON of time if you have to set up your email and ISP settings at a later date.

* PDFs : have you downloaded any pdfs or purchased any ebooks? Are they all in the same download folder, or in a PDF or eBook folder? You’ll want to save these.

Oh boy – I just looked at my hard drive – 222 folders of stuff – I need to do some serious sorting and computer *housekeeping* before I do a backup, otherwise it’ll take forever to sift through all that stuff! So here’s the list of things to do:

* tip : do it in bite-sized pieces, baby steps, little chunks each day

* make a list of things you want to backup – think about your client info etc

* do your computer housekeeping, put things away in folders, then put those folders in main folders to tidy up your own special filing system – do this on one day so it’s not too overwhelming

* on the next day, make sure you have spare cds – you might need a few, depending on how much filing needs to be done; go buy cds if you need to. Consider buying Read Write cds, rather than the regular cds – if you want to be able to add info to cds later.

* if you’ve got an internal cd burner in your computer, you’re a lucky dog – if you’ve got an external one, plug it in and make sure it works

* when you’re ready, start the software you need to backup (usually Toast or something similar)

* be prepared for this to take at least an hour, maybe more if you’ve got a ton of stuff, but *don’t * put it off! An hour spent now could save you *weeks* of worry and work in the future!

* when you’ve done the first *big* backup, pat yourself on the back, you’ve accomplished a very important business task!!!

While you’re feeling smug and proud of yourself, think about when you should do your next backup. How much work would you be ok about losing? One day’s worth? One week’s worth? How about a month of work? Whichever is the one you choose, make *that* the amount of time before you do your first *mini* backup. Don’t be afraid to set other backup procedures for times which suit you, your projects, your clients.

The main question you need to ask yourself is,

“How much work would it be OK to *lose* without it affecting me or my business?”

::::: DON’T FORGET :::::

Label your cds. How are you going to file them? In a cd box? Will they be in a hard plastic shell or sleeve? Where would it make sense to *see* the client name on the cover, when it’s in the box? How easily would you be able to find a cd in that box? You can write on cds with thick permanent markers, or if you’re really keen, you can print onto cd labels (available from many stationery companies).

Keep 2 backup copies.

If you don’t work at home, it might be worthwhile keeping a backup copy of the backup – one at work, one at home. Just in case.

Now that I’ve scared myself silly, I’m off to dust the cd burner and make a latte – don’t expect me to reply to your emails over the next few hours, I’m doing a backup!

© Teena Hughes is the Director of Build A Website Tonight, a website where you can build your own site online – with no skill – no fear – with no additional costs to update your site. Teena has been involved in the I.T. industry for over twenty years and has written many articles and ebooks, and loves to help people get their business started.

http://www.BuildAWebsiteTonight.com

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Stem cells are primitive undifferentiated cells that have the capability to form any of the 220 different types of cells in the human body. The embryonic stem cell is found in the embryo and develops into various cells that make a baby. This single cell is capable of forming or specializing to form any kind of cell. During embryonic development the first cell quickly divides to form three embryonic layers namely, the ectoderm, the mesoderm, and the endoderm.

Embryonic stem cell research and the method of cloning led to the development of the famous cloned sheep, Dolly. Cloning essentially involves the duplication of biological material. This is done through a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer. This method can create a clone as well as be used for producing an embryo from which cells called embryonic stem (ES) cells could be extracted. The advantage of embryonic stem cells is that they can be used to cure several fatal genetic diseases.

Embryonic stem cells possess two major characteristics that make them especially suited for cell therapy. Firstly, being extracted from a very new organism, these cells are at an early stage of development and can be more flexibly used to culture several different kinds of cells. Stem cells that have such a flexibility of development are referred to as pluripotent cells. Also, embryonic stem cells have the ability to remain undifferentiated for long and can divide indefinitely. This makes them self-renewable and they can be used for longer. If transplanted into a patient’s body, embryonic stem cells are capable of replenishing cells that have been destroyed by ailments like sickle cell anemia, thalesemia, and some forms of cancer.

Kevin Anderson is the owner and operator of http://www.cord-blood-resources.info a site developed to give users the most updated information, articles, and news related to the Cord Blood and stem cell research.

If you are reading this then there is a good chance that you are either very concerned or somewhat afraid of an Asteroid hitting the Earth and changing our realm of reality forever. Indeed, you are not the only one concerned and it is a real possibility.

Luckily as far as probability goes, it is not so likely yet plausible that if could happen in our lifetimes. Now eventually as science and the defense industry advances we maybe able to shoot down or deflect such an object heading toward us.

Did you know that in 2036 there is a chance that the Asteroid named “Asteroid 99942″ or “2004 MN4″ could hit our Earth? Did you know some of the most brilliant minds in our Nation are working on this right now, figuring out the best response to prevent it? In fact they are not taking this somewhat statistically remote chance any less seriously than if it were an inevitable and potential eventuality.

NASA tracks all NEOs Near Earth Objects and takes them all seriously. Their goal is to find and track 90% of all NEO that are bigger than 1 kilometer within the next two-years. And there are good chances there maybe more threats on the Horizon that we do not know of.

This same asteroid will do a near miss in 2029 and should be visible by the naked eye. So NASA scientists are wanting to stick a radar transmitter tracker to triangulate its exact path or perhaps put a device on the asteroid to change its trajectory completely so it will never get close. The more we learn about NEOs the greater our chances of dodging the bullet of catastrophe in the future.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is a term used to describe the transmission of telephone calls using a data network, rather than over traditional phone lines. It is a simple concept, but one that is having a very significant impact on the world of business communications.

VoIP is itself enabled by a much broader technological evolution, namely the convergence of multiple forms of communication, including voice, video and data, into a single network. This transformation is creating a revolution in the way communications works, and it has the potential to offer major benefits to your business. It can help your company grow by broadening your communications capabilities, it can save you money on your telecommunications costs, and it can enable more productivity, mobility and flexibility in your workforce.

Many small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) around the world are already benefiting from the advantages of VoIP systems, many of which are well suited to these kinds of organizations. Here are some examples of why VoIP is making a major impact on business communications for SMBs:

• It provides the ability to use an integrated voice and data network at a lower cost than the separate parts. • It offers the SMBs communications capabilities on a par with the largest of companies. • It can open the door to new services and applications that can drive additional revenue and help cope with expansions in customer demand. • It can lead to increased employee productivity by giving employees a more flexible means of communicating and allowing more mobility, while increasing the flow of information.

There are different ways for SMBs to take advantage of the benefits from VoIP. An upgrade to an existing phone system, when available, can allow VoIP communications between different locations, without any major disruption to the infrastructure in each office. Alternatively, a new VoIP system can be purchased to replace an old phone switch and open up new capabilities. Yet another option is to pay monthly for a Service Provider to provide a hosted VoIP system, without buying any capital equipment at all.

Small and medium sized businesses are often good candidates for VoIP systems, and have represented a majority of the early adopters of technology. While large companies have complex networks, with a multitude of different phone systems that can be difficult to integrate into a single converged network, small companies’ networks are more straightforward, allowing an easier transition to VoIP.

However, some companies have found that there are complexities or difficulties that get in the way of them maximizing the impact of the new technology. Lack of good advice, a misconceived plan or a deployment by inexperienced personnel can all led to problems.

The keys to a successful transition to a VoIP based network start with a clear understanding of the business case behind it and an implementation plan that best fits the company’s overall objectives.

There are certain circumstances, however, where the technology is likely to have a more significant impact than others. If your company is in one or more of the following situations you will tend to get a faster payback:

• expanding and need or likely to need larger offices • have a significant percentage of employees that travel on business or work full-time or part-time from home, using laptops • making acquisitions and need to integrate with other business • have international offices • have a growing volume of incoming calls • have not replaced or upgraded their phone infrastructure in the last 5 years • have a good penetration of Ethernet cabling and have communications equipment that is less than 3 years old • operate in an industry with dynamic competition where strong customer service levels are essential

Overall, VoIP based phone systems offer great potential for small companies and can help to keep costs under control while growing a successful business.