For just over a year now, I’ve been training for a cross-country cycling adventure that starts mid-August. I will ride 3,750 miles in 42 days with only three rest days. A daunting challenge for sure, especially for someone in their mid-50s. Getting the most out of my “legacy physical infrastructure” has been tough. New training technologies have made the challenge much easier by enabling me to strengthen the capabilities of my existing “infrastructure.” Therefore, I can increase the efficiency of workouts, which is important because I still have a day job.

Call One has the privilege to serve the small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) that face that same challenge. How can SMBs leverage existing telecommunications infrastructures to take advantage of the greater functionalities and efficiencies of new technologies? That challenge, like mine, may seem daunting, but the payback can be substantial. SMBs can now have enterprise-level networks at the same or lower costs of their existing networks. Like me, many SMBs do not have the ability to switch out their current infrastructure. What’s really great about these new technologies is that a total swap is no longer necessary. Call One can design customized solutions using new technologies to strengthen and enhance that existing infrastructure, therefore providing substantially increased functionalities.

That’s exactly what Call One has done for Athletico, one of the nation’s leading fitness and rehabilitation service providers. Athletico’s mission is built on providing exceptional, progressive and cost-effective personalized care for its clients. Call One’s mission is similar for the telecom services we provide. Working together with Athletico, Call One was able to strengthen and enhance the capabilities and efficiencies of Athletico’s existing telecom infrastructure, consistent with both Athletico’s and Call One’s missions.

Getting greater efficiency, flexibility and capabilities from legacy infrastructures through new technologies, is working for me, is working for Athletico and it can work for your business, too. Read more about how Call One call help your SMB enhance the functionality and capabilities of your existing network infrastructure at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-wynn/ceos--cfos-do-better-with_b_9738160.html

Call One, one of the leading technology solutions innovators in the market today, can simplify and streamline your business UC applications thanks to a powerful addition to the to the ShoreTel product portfolio. 
The all-new, virtual ShoreTel Connect Edge Gateway single handedly eliminates the need for a VPN concentrator, complex firewall configurations and advanced routing to support remote users.  
Prior to the emergence of the Edge Gateway, full feature functionality and connectivity at remote users was a complex task.  Remote phones (limited to a few of the more expensive models) could be configured using the VPN concentrator, but to use your Communicator client or conference bridge add-ins required running a VPN connection back to the corporate office.  Softphone features also needed that same VPN connectivity.  Advanced routing needed to be configured at all entry points to ensure that the remote device would communicate with all elements of the voice network.  Functionality could be a problem in many situations. 
The ShoreTel Connect Edge Gateway simplifies that situation. As a remote access solution offering to ShoreTel ONSITE customers, the Connect Edge Gateway makes it possible for remote users to easily become part of your business ShoreTel network by using an endpoint such as the 400-series IP phone or the  Connect client.  All that is needed is an active internet connection.  
The Connect Edge Gateway is deployed on the business premises and does not require a third-party VPN client. It can be accessed and configured through Connect Director, a single administrative interface to manage the system.  And in the near future, Mobility clinets will be managed through the same device, eliminating the cost and complexity of Mobility hardware.  Call One's sales engineers and project management teams are well versed in the best application and implementation solutions.
No more complex VPN and Firewall Configurations. elimination of the VPN concentrator and the expertise of Call One, one of the leading international ShoreTel partners.  The ShoreTel Edge Gateway/Call One solution facilitates Remote Phone, Connect Client and Softphone functionality all in a single appliance. 
 
UC Solutions SIMPLIFIED.  Welcome to the Leading EDGE. 

Business competition in today’s economy is fierce. Your customers expect the highest level of customer care, and you and your staff need to be reachable, professional and customer focused at all times – no matter where you’re located.
If that’s your business model, is your phone system serving you like you serve your customers?

Connecting Relationships

Today I was privileged to attend the Chicago Charity Challenge Award ceremony. What the Cha Cha (as the Challenge is affectionately known) teams were able to accomplish this year is simply amazing. Double the dollars and hours from last year, totaling an amazing 14 million dollars and 46,000 volunteer hours!

As I listened to the award winning teams of charities and Chicago businesses describe the impact they’ve made here in our community, it wasn’t the dollars or hours—as impressive as those are—that hit me. What struck me was something even more important that the challenge has achieved: creating and building “connecting relationships.” What are “connecting relationships”? They are the deep, personal relationships between individuals formed through mutual trust and respect, coming together to achieve a common purpose. Whether it was Mesirow Financial engaging personally with residents of the Brighton Park community to help achieve a better Chicago or rookie participants Astellas and Deloitte who worked, respectively with Have Dreams and the Anixter Center to personally engage with individuals with challenges to provide opportunity or just companionship. The common theme through it all was connecting relationships, and what makes these connecting relationship particularly compelling is that the benefit was two way—benefitting both the corporate and charity participants.

The ability to be a part of these connecting relationships is the one thing I love most about the privilege of working at Call One. Every day, we form and foster those connecting relationships with our customers, and our employees. It’s not just about delivering products that meet our customers’ needs or providing a great employment environment and great benefits for our employees. It’s about the connecting relationships we form on an individual and personal level with our customers, and with each other at Call One, that makes the difference, just like the connecting relationships the Cha Cha teams have formed that make Chicago such an exceptional place to live and work.

Congratulations again, to all of the 2015 Cha Cha teams and sponsors, for all of the connecting relationships you have formed and continue to grow. And, thank you, Call One employees not only for your sponsorship and support of the Cha Cha, as well as the connecting relationships you form with our customers, but also for the connecting relationships we’ve formed and continue to grow here at Call One.

1996 was a momentous year for telecommunications, my career and personal life. First, I was the relatively new General Counsel of Ameritech’s wholesale business unit when we became the focal point for implementing the new federal telecommunications law. Second, my wife and I also learned we were expecting our 4th child, who was due on the one-year anniversary of the Act. (Spoiler alert: fortunately, she was born a few days later—or I never would have lived that down at work or home!)



Almost twenty years ago today, on February 8, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 created a regulatory, government-driven telecommunications revolution. The act increased competitive alternatives to AT&T local monopolies—including alternatives Call One could offer to our customers. 


While not tied to a specific date like the aforementioned Act, 2016 will also be an important year in evolutionary, market-driven changes to telecommunications. For small- and medium-sized business customers (SMBs), these changes are likely to be exceptionally significant. In particular, there will be an intensified focus on the “cloud” and data security. The “cloud” (which is nothing more than third-party off-site storage and processing of data) will become the enabler of the Internet of Things (IoT) and business-focused apps. IoT and business-focused apps will exponentially increase the efficiency and productivity of SMBs. Security, which has been an increasing hot topic as a result of data breach events in the intervening 20 years between now and 1996, will also become increasingly more important. Fortunately, SMBs will have available comprehensive services to help provide sophisticated security solutions.



Call One has experience and expertise in delivering advanced telecommunications solutions, including cloud-based and security services. Our services are specifically designed to enable our SMBs to take advantage of the continued evolution we’ll see in telecommunications in 2016. Happy 20th Anniversary to the Telecom Act of 1996 and cheers to the changes 2016 will bring to help increase your productivity and efficiency! Now if you don’t mind, I have to go get my daughter’s birthday present!

Read more about telecommunications predictions for 2016: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-wynn/2016-telecommunications-t_b_9078948.html?utm_content=25887118&utm_medium=social&utm

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Are the daily changes in your business making it challenging to meet your clients’ needs?

Like with many things in life, the one constant associated with business technology is change. Today, that change comes in a virtual blink of an eye, making a long term investment like a phone system even more of a challenge to figure out.

A properly designed PBX is key to both internal and external communications, the beating heart of your business as it pumps information to your employees and your clients.

So, how do you choose a contemporary system that provides a feature set that can expand the present while not limiting the future? Hybrid was, as is, the answer.

For perspective, consider what Hybrid meant way back in 2000. VoIP was the new buzz word. But infrastructure upgrade costs made the prospect of a wrong decision daunting, to say the least. The stepping stone that lessened that fear was a Digital-VoIP Hybrid system. It allowed the flexibility to use existing voice cabling for digital phones while exploring VoIP where it was feasible.

Today, those buzz words are Cloud, Mobility, SIP, Hosted, Premise. VoIP is the standard in the business world of today, but what blend of this new palette does your business need and at what cost?
The answer is ShoreTel Connect, the flexible Hybrid system that allows your business to upgrade at its own pace. With ShoreTel Connect, your system can be 100% Premise, 100% Hosted or somewhere in between. For instance, does your workforce need a mobility solution but the investment seems too steep? Subscribe on a per user basis. Try it out and make sure it is a fit.

ShoreTel Connect defines the modern Hybrid. It provides the right technology where and when your business needs it with minimum risk and maximum availability to future enhancements.