It’s not often I’m impressed enough with a shop to actually write about them, however Orkney PC came to my attention recently and I’m pleased to say that they were friendly and efficient…
The story was that I’d been asked to set-up a new broadband connection for a relative who lives in Orkney - that’s a group of islands off the north Scottish coast from those who don’t know. I’m based in Devon which is down in the South West of England. We’re about 1000 miles apart.
The connection was duly provided by Entanet, who I resell - not without hassle as BT hadn’t updated their post-code database, and there was a pending cancellation from Orange on the line, however the last thing required was a router… Normally, I’d buy one locally and take/post it to my customers, however something a bit quicker was required here…
Enter google and a quick search of PC shops in the Orkneys, and Orkney PC in Kirkwall came to the top of the list. Their website is just a single page right now, but it had 2 important details on one - one was their phone number, and the other other a statement saying that they program routers for their customers. So a phone call and an email later and there’s now a Netgear Wi-Fi router, with the right information in it and a WPA key set on the Wi-Fi and it’s all ready to plug in and go!
Now that’s what I call a good local computer shop.
So on Tuesday I ran the first training course aimed at resellers on how to install and use my DSX PBX system.
Four people attended, although two were from the same organisation.
The day seemed to go rather well - a bit too quick, even, but everyone seemed happy at the end of it all, and went away with a lot more knowledge of the installation and set-up process - and probably a head full of acronyms and buzz-worlds that they probably feel they could have done without! (Not to mention the strawberries and cream!)
And I’ve now got a head full of ideas for things to put into future releases of the software too, so all in all, it’s been quite a good experience…
Anyone else want to sell my lovely VoIP PBXs ? Just drop me an email 
You might see a few companies (especially BT!) offering deals in return for a “Rolling one year contract”, but what does this mean, and how it it different from an ordinary “One year contract”.
Well, in simple terms it’s a lock-in from the supplier of one year, (just line any other one year contract), then at the end of that year, it’s a another lock-in for another whole year, and so on.
Traditionally, we’re used to taking out a contract with a telephone company for one year, then after that it’s on a monthly (or sometimes quarterly) basis after that. Not so with the latest deal from BT…
But is it worth it? That’s for you to decide - there’s usually an incentive from the supplier (but not always - check the small print!) In BT’s case, the current incentive is free evenings and weekend calls if you sign up for a rolling contract.
So always read the small print and make sure this is what you really want to do before signing up for one.
Further to my recent post about call recording, I’ve been looking about for places where you may have to record calls.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) looks after the general rules and regulations for running any sort of money services companies such as money lenders, banks, mortgage companies, insurance brokers and so on, and they have produced a code of conduct in which they make recommendations about call recording. You can download consultation paper here, and the section we are most interested in is chapter 19: “Telephone Recording – recording of voice conversations and electronic communications”.
A relevant extract is 19.4:
19.4 We propose firms be required to record telephone lines used for voice conversations that involve the receipt of client orders and the negotiating, agreeing and arranging of transactions across the equity, bond and financial commodity and derivatives markets, and to retain electronic communications relevant to these activities. The term electronic communications has wide application and includes fax, e-mail, chat and instant messaging – but, obviously, is not limited to those.
So if you’re in the financial business then make-sure your current or next telephone system has the capability to take call recordings. Drogon Systems would recommend that you take call recordings in any business where you take orders, or deal with clients over the telephone.
Something that’s asked frequently is the legality of call-recording….
Well, the good news (?) is that in the UK it’s perfectly legal to record your own telephone calls, and you don’t even need to tell the other end that you’re making a recording. As long as one party of the call is aware that the call is being recorded (and that can be you!), then there isn’t an issue.
If you want to publish the recording, then you may have issues, however a written (or typed!) transcription is normally perfectly usable - E.g. in a court of law, and in that instance you can always back it up with a copy of the recording if you are challenged.
So feel free to record your calls! There are numerous devices available for traditional analogue phones, and most VoIP systems have the facility to record if required too.
But beware - now when you call someone, you should always be under the assumption that the call is being recorded. Every financial institution does it, as do all the utility companies. “Calls may be recorded for training purposes” they’ll tell you - and while this may well be true (it generally is when talking to “sales” people as their supervisors will want to check up on them and give them praise or a bolocking, depending on their success rate!), it’s really done for their protection, so they can sue the pants off you if you get abusive to them or claim you lied to them.
for a change, I thought I’d write about an installation I did recently in a local independent school…
They wanted a small system to replace an ancient Panasonic PBX. Their existing set-up comprised of what might be considered fairly “normal” for a lot of small businesses - 3 standard analogue lines, a Panasonic PBX and a dozen desk phones.
Features they they were looking for were primarily a voice mailbox facility for most members of staff, (up to 70 staff members), even if they don’t have a phone on their desks. Additionally, they are looking at remote phones - they have a rather odd 2-site set-up (administration building separate from the main school with independent broadband connections) and wanted to link both sites over the Internet to save phone bills, and look at placing outgoing calls via the Internet in the future to save of call fees.
From my point of view, it was all fairly straightforward - I was able to do the installation during half-term break, so the school was quiet, then come the following Monday morning when we’d gone live, I was on-site to guide them through the new system. (They had a new receptionist too!) Everything went well on the morning, I was able to make some “tweaks” to the system for them and talk to them about what was important for them - pupils being late or absent was one area where things get very busy in the morning with parents calling in, so we’re looking at a time-based automated system to manage that. Tracking down absentees - automatically phoning their homes is another thing we’re looking into.
An immediate advantage was the ability to install the desk phones anywhere where they had existing Cat-5 Ethernet cabling. Moving an existing phone had always proved troublesome as it was done using standard telephone cabling back to the existing PBX - structured cabling hasn’t quite made it into the administration building of the school yet - but they did have a rather good Ethernet network already in-place and working. The phones we chose had 2 Ethernet ports and acted as an Ethernet switch, so could go in-line with the desktop PCs, and working to a budget, we chose a nice console type phone for the receptionist and more basic phones for everyone else. An inexpensive ATA was used to make an existing analogue DECT phone work.
Job done!
Or are we? Not quite - Looking to the future, we’re lookiing to migrate them over to a pure VoIP solution in the fullness of time - I’ve been monitoring their broadband usage for a few weeks now to make sure it’s going to be suitable, but the plan is to migrate them to a good business quality ISP with a router which can manage QoS/Traffic shaping, then we can migrate outgoing calls over the Internet connection (Incoming still via their BT lines), then once we’re confident it’s all working, port their number into the VoIP platform and we can then cancel the BT lines.
One thing I noticed almost right away was that their existing 3 analogue lines do very occasionally become all busy - especially in the mornings, so already we’re putting excess outgoing calls over the Internet, but migrating their ISP will give them a much more resilient connection to place all their calls over.
Will they save money? Interstingly, I’ve never sold VoIP on money saving, but rather on features and benefits, but in this case; Yes. Even if the call costs over the Internet were the same as they pay BT, what they’ll save is the cost of 3 BT phone lines, so £35 a month (approx). Not a lot, but in the long-run it’ll mount up. Of-course call-costs over the Internet are generally quite competitive with BT, so there will be savings to be made there - especially calling the teaching buildings of the school using their Internet connections rather than the PSTN.
When it’s going through the “Spook Call” service, of-course…
So this is a company, setup with the intention of letting you place a telephone call, but fake your caller ID number to the far-end. Not only that, but they’re offering a voice disguise function too.
Is this good? I don’t think so. It completely de-values caller ID, meaning that when someone calls you and you see their number (which might even go into your system and produce a name or even be integrated with your address book, or CRM system and produce more details), you can now no-longer rely on that number being who it says it is, and in todays world where we’re all fighting against identity theft, spam, and other nuisance phone calls, this is just too much.
A lot of people PAY BT, etc. for the privilege of receiving incoming caller-id too - are these people going to carry on paying for something that’s now a joke?
Fortunately “something’s being done” or at least it’s being brought to the attention of the press, MPs and so on.
For more reading, have a look at The Registers take on it, but for now, trusting incoming caller ID is going to be somewhat tricky now 
Update: Friday 13th June
It looks like the Spook Call company have turned themselves off. Hurrah! (or words to that effect 
Why, to India, of-course….
And what happens when they get there?
Well - have a look below …
Imagine going into a pub and asking for “Up to a pint of beer”. If the landlord gave you a thimble-full, would you have course to complain?
But for the past few years, we’ve been sold on the “Up to 8megabits” broadband connection.
Now, from a technical point of view, this is correct - the speed that we can get is dependant on the technology which depends on the copper wires connecting out premises to the local BT exchange, and the longer these wires are, the slower the speed. 8Mb is the maximum speed you can get with an ADSL+ product, but how many people actually get the full 8Mb?
Not that many - of-course it really depends on where you are… A recent survey suggests that if you live in a city then you’ll get faster speeds, than living in a rural location - What can I say to that? How about (to use an americanism), “Well, Duh”… It’s patently obvious and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to work out why - Cities have a higher population density, therefore more telephone exchanges, therefore the chances of you being closer to an exchange is higher.
Back to the point. Ofcom is now asking ISPs to be more up-front with their advertising and numbers. They’re also asking them to be honest (what, an ISP lie to you? Never!) when they use terms such as “unlimited”, and so on. (And what do you think “unlimited” means?) It’s very hard these days to get a truly unlimited Internet connection - well, actually, it’s not that hard, but no-one is willing to pay for it!
So if you’re getting or changing your broadband connection, READ THE SMALL PRINT! and use the various checkers to give you an estimate of the maximum speed your line will support. A very good one is the Sam Knows site. Get your phone number and postcode handy, then jump in, so some research, ask friends and neighbours, pester your local ICT geek, and go for it!
In my last posting, I talked about BT owning all the kit in the exchange. Well, this isn’t strictly true - sometimes when you look for an Internet company, you’ll appear to have a choice of several companies, with BT being just one of them… What to remember is that via BT, it’s the BT Wholesale network, and through that, you have a choice of over 100 resellers of the BT wholesale network products, and BT Internet is just one of those resellers.
But what about the others? These are companies who’ve put their own equipment into the BT exchanges. They rent space off BT, they pay BT to connect the copper wires from the exchange to your premises to their kit instead of BTs kit, then provide your Internet connectivity directly through their network, from the exchange back to their own headquarters, rather than through the BT wholesale network.
LLU means Local Loop Unbundling. The “Local Loop” is the fancy name for the copper wires that go from the exchange to your premises. These providers “unbundle” the copper and take them off BT and into their own network. The local loop is sometimes called the “last mile”.
There are two levels of LLU - the first is simply piggybacking their Internet service on-top of the BT telephone service, and the second level is taking over the Telephone service as well. What’s best for you? Well, who knows, but lets’ put it this way… Here in Drogon Towers, we have a standard BT line which we pay BT for every month. We buy our Internet through Entanet (which we’re a reseller of, so we’re obviously prepared to put our money where our mouth is!) Incoming calls come via BT, but outgoing calls go out over the Internet line via our own VoIP service. This costs us the bare minimum BT charge (We pay a little extra for the privilege of having incoming caller ID), the ADSL broadband costs us £25 + VAT and then there’s the call charges on top of that. OK for a small business? We think so!
