How to select a telecom provider without regretting it
The Business Journals by Joe Cogliano, Senior Reporter
It's an all too common story: a vice president of sales loses a big deal because of a dropped phone call or missed voice mail then storms into the office of his company's owner to blame the phone system glitch for missing quota that month.
Now the owner is ready to switch telecommunications providers.
Every business has working phones and computers so it takes some sort of pain — like that big deal gone out the window — before most business owners will even consider switching telecom companies, said Dan Baldwin, executive director of Telecom Association, which publishes BusinessPhoneNews.com.
In the past, the question of how much static is on the line and how expensive is the bill were about the only two issues that might make a business look at switching providers. These days telecom systems are infinitely more complex, tied to computers and software, so the process of selecting a new telecom provider should take a lot more consideration.
The Growing Cloud-Computing Market for SMBs
Ramon Ray & the Smallbiztechnology.com Team
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The results from a Zoomerang survey taken earlier this year found that many small and medium-sized business owners are confused about cloud computing, what the term means, and what the technology could mean to them. Specifically, the survey found this trajectory for the SMB market on cloud computing:
Have already deployed a cloud-based system: 10%
Not familiar with the technology: 47%
Have heard the term but don't know what it means: 25%
Only another 2 percent of those surveyed are actively planning a cloud conversion, doing so for data storage, email and customer service. The cloud services market at the end of 2010 for small and medium-sized businesses at $8.6 billion, which included hosted infrastructure, web hosting, and collaboration. Small businesses were the foundation of this market, accounting for over 80 percent of the total market spending.
With cloud services, small businesses reap the benefits of not having to deploy a physical infrastructure like file and email servers, storage systems or shrink-wrapped software. This means less time and money is spent managing the technology. Plus, the "anywhere, anytime" availability of these solutions, means hassle-free collaboration between business partners and employees by simply using a Internet browser. A lot of small business needs can be met with cloud computing services, if the information just gets out there on what this technology is and how to take advantage of it.
Cloud computing market: $241 billion in 2020
By Larry Dignan
April 22, 2011
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The global cloud computing market will grow from a $40.7 billion in 2011 to $241 billion in 2020, according to Forrester Research. On the way to all of this growth are a few notable nuggets from the report.