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www.binfo.co.uk
Kingswood Media launched its two
lead titles
Business Info
and
Pen To
Paper
in 1998, and since then has
added
PrintIT
,
PrintIT Reseller
and
Sustainable Times
to its portfolio.
In addition, we regularly publish
Buyers Guides and supplements to
help directors and managers of SMEs
make informed purchasing decisions,
as well as a variety of bespoke printed
material for clients.
Like many modern organisations,
Kingswood Media is geographically
dispersed, with a sales office in Kent,
editorial department inWinchester and
a number of contractors throughout the
South-East that we use for everything
from database management to design
services. Directors and employees spend
much of the week in the office, but also
work from home and ‘third locations’
when travelling to see clients.
For such a loose structure to work, it
is vital to have efficient communications,
so when we opened our new sales office
in Sevenoaks, Kent, the first priority was
to install a telephony system that was
affordable and easy to install, with full
PBX functionality and the flexibility to
support modern working practices.
Hosted IP
After considering various options, we
selected a hosted IP telephony solution
from Broadfire Technology based on a
Natterbox hosted PBX.
As Broadfire Technology network
engineer Fraser Munro explains, this
doesn’t have the upfront cost and
maintenance charges associated with
conventional systems; can be quickly
scaled up to accommodate new sales
people; and provides free-of-charge
internal calls from any location using a
smart phone, PC or IP phone.
“Natterbox enabled us to set up
individual lines served by a single
external telephone number, with all
transferring of calls done via the
front-end i.e. the VoIP phones
themselves. A management
dashboard enables us to configure the
service quickly and add handsets as
required, which means an IP PBX is not
required at the customer’s premises.”
Fraser adds: “It is a reliable system that
works very well and provides good call
quality, which is why we recommend it
for smaller enterprise users.”
For his part Kingswood Media director
EthanWhite says he was looking for
something that was simple to install
and could be up and running almost
immediately: “As publishers of technology
magazines, we knew that as our building
already had broadband, IP telephony
would provide a much quicker solution
compared to the pain and heartache of
dealing with traditional providers. You can
often wait weeks to have a system put in
and set up!”
It helped that the supplier chosen,
Broadfire Technology, is based in the same
building as us and already provides each
of the managed offices with a high-speed
25Mbps un-contended broadband service.
As a provider of IT and communications
solutions for SMEs, Broadfire understood
our requirements and was able to install
a solution that fully met our needs in less
VoIP
No more manual dialling
How snomVoIP phones are supporting
business growth at Kingswood Media
than half a day.
“We’d looked at IP telephony in the
past, but were unsure of the call quality,”
says Ethan. “Broadfire assured us there
would be no degradation in quality
and that it would be easy to install the
phones and connect us straight into the
local network. They would supply us with
the call minutes and give us the numbers
we wanted and we’d be up and running.”
Snom phone
Each sales person and administrative
assistant has a snom 821 business VoIP
phone, featuring a high-resolution TFT
colour display for showing call lists,
phone directories and caller information;
an integrated XML browser; wideband
technology that captures more than
double the frequency spectrum of a
standard handset for crystal clear audio;
and rich business functionality, including
five-way conferencing, a Class D amplifier
to suppress interference when the
speakerphone is in use and up to twelve
SIP identities.
“We already knew the market and
had looked at a few options that were
good contenders, but we plumped
for the snom handsets because this
was the brand that jumped out at us,”
explains Ethan. “We wanted quality
handsets offering a range of functions,
such as being able to transfer calls
amongst ourselves, being able to put our
directories into the phones and setting up
an additional member of our sales team
who works remotely.With the snom
phones we could simply get his phone
configured and it worked seamlessly with
the rest of ours. It also meant he could
use the same telephone number.”
For Ethan, one of the main attractions
of the snom handsets is their ease of use,
from transferring calls to programming
phones with speed dials.
“Transferring calls on the snom phone
is really easy, the display is crystal clear
and the user interface is simple to grasp
and intuitive. It’s great to have your
directory to hand so all you have to do
to make a call is scroll down through the
alphabetical list of numbers. It may be
almost imperceptible, but it has made us
more efficient and once you’ve entered
the numbers you don’t ever need to dial
manually again.”
www.snom.com
...we selected
a hosted IP
telephony
solution from
Broadfire
Technology
based on a
Natterbox
hosted PBX.
magazine
30