Ok, we might be overstating it a bit, but given the current and future need for people and businesses to operate from home, communications technology is more critical than ever. The right phone system solution (or Internet access or network management service, etc.) can help with social distancing and allow us to be productive. In the early stages of the quarantine, there was a rush by businesses to adapt their communications technology to remote work as fast as possible. By now, we're all pretty familiar with how to use services like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, and Google Hangouts. You have also probably figured out a way to make and receive business calls at home, either using mobile or hosted phone platforms. Now, that the dust has settled and remote work is becoming the new normal, it's time to take a deeper look at the systems and processes you have in place and make sure your solutions can work for the long term. Things like scalability, security, flexibility, and overall cost, need to be considered and City Communications can help. With access to over 150 providers nationwide and nearly 20 years of experience, we are uniquely suited to help businesses of all sizes. It is free, and there is no obligation to get started. 1. Fill out a Technology Assessment 2. Call us at (602) 266-3100 Either way, we will be happy to talk with you about your current situation, as well as your future plans for the business.
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Since 2001, we have been in the business of helping organizations with their technology needs. Most of our new customers come from referrals from customers, word-of-mouth, or referrals from our Independent Business Partners (IBPs). Typically, our IBPs are companies or individuals in related industries with customers who use the products and services we sell like: hosted phones, internet connections, SD-WAN, contact center, etc. Over the past five years, that group has expanded to include other companies or people that are not directly involved in technology, but instead have customers who might need help with one of the following:
Our partners refer those customer over to us. We work closely with the customer and if they end up working with any of our 150 solutions providers, then the partner is paid a commission. Partners don't need to be an expert in what we do, but instead need to have relationships and the willingness to ask those people if they need help. This formalized referral program empowers our partners with supplementary monthly income while providing outstanding results for their customers. We are currently accepting applications for a handful of new partners across the country. If you are interested, get started today by completing a no-obligation Partner Application below. We look forward to helping you and your customers with all of their technology needs!
If you lived on an island that had only one bridge that connected you to the mainland for all of your food, water, and supplies, you would want find backup solutions in the event that the bridge was knocked out of service. You might get a boat, or a plane, but the most stable solution would be a a second bridge that connected you to another island. With SD-WAN and a second internet connection, we are basically doing the same thing.
Five years ago, only large business and enterprise customers had redundant networks and internet connections, because the monthly cost and the equipment and service was way to high for small and medium-sized businesses. Now, all of that has changed, and we recommend that all of our clients consider implementing SD-WAN and a second internet connection regardless of size. SD-WAN makes your business more resilient With the rise of Office365, Google G Suite, and everything other cloud-based services you're using in your business, it is more important than ever to have have strong and reliable connections. SD-WAN allows you to have multiple Internet connections, ideally from two different providers, managed by modern SD-WAN routers that don't require you to do anything. SD-WAN is the safest, most reliable, redundant, disaster-recovery-enabled Internet-access management scheme for business. We help our customers find solutions that make their business more efficient and/or more resilient to interruptions in business. We with within our client's budgets, which sometimes means we recommend dual, less-expensive broadband Internet connections rather than one expensive connection, or finding savings in other areas to beef up your internet reliability. SD-WAN budgets are within your reach Typically we see SD WAN pricing from a number of providers start around $130/month and business internet connections (cable, DSL, etc) around $100/month. So for under $500/month, you could have redundancy and reliability that will allow your business to operate, even if there is an issue happening with one of the providers. You can self-manage SD-WAN without being an expert One of the neat things about SD WAN is it is pretty much plug and play out of the box. We set it up, you plug in your internet connection(s) and the box does the rest. It will automatically route traffic across the best path, so that you don't have to touch anything. You can be notified when a connection is down (or having issues), so that it can be reported to the carrier, but most likely your users won't be impacted. This is huge for businesses that need to have everything up and working all the time, like medical offices, sales organizations, or...just about every other business that is out there. I have only one small office, why do I need it? If your office uses services on the internet such as hosted phone service, accounting, video conferencing, or any other web service that you need access to throughout the day, then the internet is your lifeline. If that lifeline is cut, you are left calling into customer service and hoping that they aren't having a larger issue that is affecting multiple customers. Because when that happens, customers calling in about problems with their $80/month service do not get the highest priority. It is better to plan redundancy across different carriers and across different types of Internet connections. Should I just buy SD WAN from my phone company? We evaluate the options on a case-by-case basis. In general, we like the idea of having multiple connections from DIFFERENT service providers, using DIVERSE transport connections (such as copper, coax cable, fiber, or wireless). If you have two connections, both coming into your building on the same copper cable and riding in the same conduit, provided by the same carrier, you haven't really bought yourself any redundancy. If you would like to talk about implementing SD-WAN and a second internet connection, or anything else we offer, please schedule a virtual meeting below.
We have heard from businesses across the country complaining that their internet connections at home and the office are horrible during the quarantine. Poor internet access is affecting their ability to communicate with customers and be productive while working from home. Salespeople and technicians from competing providers are quick to tell you that if you switch to their service, everything will be better. However, depending on the CAUSE of your issues, switching providers may not solve the problem. City Communications is here to help you get to the root of your issues and implement a real solution.
What Problems Are You Experiencing? Internet Bouncing Up and Down
Poor Call Quality
Poor Video Conferencing
If you are having any of these issues with your business or work-from-home employees and would like our expert help, schedule a FREE Virtual Meeting below with one of our specialists. With solutions available from our over 150 providers, we can help you alleviate the issues for good. Contact us today to discuss your situation. Avaya's Cloud Service division offers SIP service in a burstable, pay-only-for-what-you-use model. Is this a visionary low-overhead and high-availability way to provision SIP trunking in your communications network? On a call with Avaya a few weeks ago, they told us that in order to empower developers to turn up and turn down applications using their CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) product quickly, they had purchased and integrated a SIP carrier into the platform. The most interesting aspect of this carrier SIP service was that they sell it on a metered, per-minute basis. Meaning, you don't have to contract for fixed, standby SIP trunks to connect your communications application to the outside world. You pay for SIP channels and minutes only as you need and use them. We then learned that this dynamic SIP service was available as a stand-alone offering (you didn’t have to be a developer to have a dynamic SIP account). Which begs the question; could our clients leverage Avaya's burstable (dynamic) SIP to gain greater bandwidth, network redundancy, and cost savings for their communications networks? SIP trunks (channels) are a critical piece of communications infrastructure. You cannot make or take voice calls on your business phone or contact center system without them. A correctly-engineered communications system will contain a ratio of SIP channels to system users so employees and customers will not encounter the dreaded fast-busy signal. Maybe that ratio is 8:1 (1 SIP channel for every eight system end-points). Or maybe it’s 10:1. Whatever. The art of communications-network design is getting that ratio right. Most systems are overbuilt and have too many SIP channels available. You pay for all those trunks regardless of whether you use them or not. You’re burning money when these resources are idle or unused. So if you need SIP, and the two ways SIP is currently sold favors the carrier, Avaya’s new pay-as-you-go pricing be a more efficient way to manage the phone calling demands of your business. It’s worth doing some analysis to find out. Some companies have a drastically changing need for carrier services throughout the year. Operate a seasonal business, and the resources you need at peak could be a huge factor greater than the network you need off-season (we even have customers who completely shut down for periods of time every year). Launch a big marketing or advertising effort, and your call volume jumps significantly (for a while). So how do you manage a communications system for a business that may need a hundred lines of SIP access in July, but only one in January? Most of our seasonal clients contract for all the lines they need for the peak, and simply leave them idle for the off-peak need (and amortize the cost across their annual budget). Others constantly turn up and turn down services trying to capture those savings; navigating the logistical minefield of contracts, minimums, and fluctuating pricing. Dynamic SIP solves for both problems. With a dynamic SIP connection in place, your system can open channels for calls up to an almost unlimited quantity (bandwidth and provisioning permitting), anytime you need them. And if the service sits idle, the nominal costs are negligible. Clients bring us challenges all the time that no existing cloud-based phone or contact-center system can solve. They may want a unique call-flow, need multiple systems to integrate with each other, or want contact center data managed in a very specific way. In most cases, to get the job done, we either contract with the professional services group from one of the major companies to modify or integrate their products to give the customer what they’re after, or work with a developer to design an application in a development environment like Twilio. Both approaches can be costly and tricky to execute well. Avaya’s dynamic SIP sits inside a development environment. Because it’s designed as a service to help developers create new applications for communications systems, you get access to powerful new carrier-level features and services beyond traditional SIP. These services – carrier-level metadata and text capability at the trunk level, for example - means if your phones and underlying phone system are capable, you could add powerful new dimensions to your call-routing and system management. It depends on your specific application and will take educated analysis, but yes, we believe that dynamic SIP is a vital new tool to help customers optimize their carrier networks. For customers paying for SIP channels that sit idle much of the time, or who buy channel/minutes bundles and have standard business usage, there is likely a cost saving. High-volume contact centers and clients with technical needs can gain access to rich carrier metadata and build amazing new workflows and applications. And clients with seasonal, or widely-varying SIP needs, can leverage the service to scale their voice networks up and down dynamically. Do any of these scenarios fit you? When you're ready for the best in technology consulting and management, reach out to us at City Communications. We can provide both experience and expertise on a wide range of topics. We'll help keep you in the game, no matter what your reason for calling in help may be. Drop us a line when you're ready for that little extra help in keeping your operations up and running
If you are building a medical or dental practice, or any other business, you know what it means to be busy. So you don’t have time to negotiate with voice and data carriers. But how do you ensure you get the best rates for phone, Internet and data services? After all, you would have to consider dozens and dozens of alternatives. The answer is CityCom.
CityCom Negotiates with over 60 different carriers.CityCom negotiates with over 60 different carriers nationwide to get the lowest possible rates on voice and data. We consider your needs, find the best providers, do all the negotiations, and then get you the best deal. There is no cost to you and no markup. No Kidding. You get the best pricing. It is that simple. We provide our service to you free because telecom carriers pay our fees. At CityCom, we serve companies in every businesses sector. We work with dentists, doctors, law firms, manufacturing companies, builders and retailers. That means we understand business owners just like you, so we can find the right services and the lowest possible voice and data fees. That’s because we know their needs and can lower costs with our sourcing and negotiations. Get Started Right Now.First of all, get the process going now by completing a simple online technology audit. Just click here. Once you finish the audit, we will follow up and then begin negotiations that will start lowering your costs. Next, we’ll assign a City Communications Project Manager to your business. They ensure your services are installed correctly and on-time. Your Project Manager will coordinate everything with your carriers. They will also communicate as necessary to your staff. With CityCom, you can check and make sure you are saving money every month. We can send you free billing audits. It’s like getting a free checkup at the dentist with no copay – or pain! Start your savings now!Take a couple minutes right now and complete the audit of your current service and providers. Then sit back and relax while we take care of everything. Get started paying the lowest rates now! Today I can either stomp out disease or compare voice and data rates. CityCom is the cure.1/23/2018 You are busy. And besides – who wants to take the time to try to save money by finding a new voice and data provider. You would have to talk to dozens and dozens of carriers. Get to know CityCom.
Are you like the people we know? They have medical practices to build. They have law offices to run. Some have dynamic growing consulting practices to stay on top of. And, we know a lot of busy franchisors who have a lot to worry about. CityCom negotiates better voice and data rates for businesses – like yours.The CityCom team negotiates with over 60 carriers nationwide. As a result, we know more about voice, data, and Internet than your average Joe. In fact, we consistently get the lowest possible rates for our customers on all the services we negotiate. We guarantee it. Not only that, we work with just about every type of small business. That means we have experience with a workplace just like yours. We can have a quick discussion about the nuances of your business, and then we’ll get to work saving you money — and improving the service you receive from the carriers you rely on. CityCom negotiating services are free to you: Our fees are paid for by carriers.And here’s something you probably can’t say about your business – all the negotiating we do on your behalf is paid for by voice and data carriers. That means CityCom saving you money doesn’t cost you any. As a result, we help lot’s of people with businesses just like yours get the lowest possible cost. And, it’s easy to get started. First, you send us copies of your latest voice and data carrier invoices. Then, we’ll take it from there. You can get back to saving lives. Keep busy defending clients. Spend your time building business. Devote 100% of your work day to helping customers. Meanwhile, we will be working for you. By making sure you get the lowest costs. Finally, if you need help jumpstarting the process. Just make a quick phone call to (800) 289-1828. We’ll dig right in to the project. And you can get right back to work. You can get more information here. Windstream and City Communications moves an enterprise-class contact center to a CCaaS solution in the cloud for major energy services provider.
As one of the largest retail providers of electric, natural gas and home services in North America—with its parent company based in Europe—a major energy services provider processed approximately 1.3 million calls per month for sales and customer service. The Company views every call as an opportunity, either to win a new client, or provide great customer service, and has set a goal of rst call resolution as a top priority. To deliver on its goal, it came to Windstream for an advanced contact center solution. A long-standing relationship and multiple successes deploying Windstream network services with City Communications secured the motivation to move forward. Windstream just announced their top partners for 2016 and City Communications was ranked number two for 2016. City has consistently been a top partner of Windstream in large part to growing business within the UCaaS/CCaas, MPLS, and Contact Center segments. City also completed a number of large implementations with key customers such as Direct Energy, Empereon, and Preferred Homecare to round out the year.
City has worked closely with Windstream on a number of their initiatives such as UCaaS, CCaaS, SD WAN, MPLS, and fiber to bring complete voice and data solutions to businesses of all sizes across the country. Part of the success is due to the fact that City believes offering their customers choices from a number of different carriers and allowing the customer to make the best choice for his or her business. To set up a free, no-cost consultation, click here. Representatives from City Communications be at the IAUG (International Avaya User Group) conference in Orlando, FL June 5-9th, 2016. John Casas will be appearing on a panel representatives from Windstream and also Direct Energy to discuss leveraging CCaaS/UCaaS for Corporate Growth. City is currently working with a number companies interested in leveraging both of these options.
What is UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service)?UCaaS is a delivery model where a variety of communications services and applications are delivered to the customer over an Internet connection by a third-party vendor. What is CCaas (Contact Center as a Service)?CCaaS is a delivery model where a your communications services, applications, and equipment needed to run your contact center are provided by a third-party vendor typically over the Internet. It allows you to quickly open and grow your contact center while only paying for what you need, rather than incurring large capital expenses. Schedule a Breakout SessionCity will also be available for breakout sessions following the presentation. Contact us to reserve some time or schedule a separate call to discuss your needs. Visit Booth #355We will be at the Windstream booth #355 at the conference throughout the day on June 7th. Stop by or contact us. |
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