Editor's Choice Awards 2018

www.binfo.co.uk 19 Editor’s Choice Awards / technology reseller.co.uk 01732759725 SOCIAL MEDIA 38 Every professional using dictation devices has already experienced this problem: sudden and unexpected background noiseswhich impair the recording and render transcriptionmore difficult. As disturbances can never be completely excluded,users have always been prone to the risk that theirwords are falsely transcribed into text by speech recognition,or that the personwho has to manually transcribe the audio file simply has to omit incomprehensible passages. This problem is now solved: The "RecMic"Series byOlympus guarantees best speech recognition accuracy even in in noisy environments to ensure that typists get clear understandable recordings without disturbing background noises.This has been confirmed in several empirical tests by renowned international providers of dictation and documentation solutions. Noise Cancellation Technology for Optimum Speech Recognition Results The newRecMic IISeries is characterised by a unique two-microphone systemwith flexible alignment and an innovative noise cancelling technology. “The testswe conducted in noisy environments show peak speech recognition performance.The tolerance to noise can be adjusted in seconds, just by pressing two buttons on the microphone,which allows a switch from a quiet to a noisy environmentwithout any problem”,explainsRomain Koenig, Head of the Technical Team atDICMA,one of the leading providers of dictation and documentation solutions in France. “The technology provides optimum reduction of unwanted background noises and best results for transcription and speech recognition“,adds JürgSprecher, systems engineer atVoicepointAG, the market-leading provider of digital dictation systems, voice recognition software and dictationmanagement solutions based in Switzerland. Practical tests confirm: RecMic II Series offers best voice recording accuracy even in noisy environments The technology provides optimum reduction of unwanted background noises and best results for transcription and speech recognition The voice is precisely identified Consider this scenario:A clinician is sitting at the deskwith an openwindow and dictating amedical report into the device. Themicrophone is tuned to awide range, so all sounds and toneswithin the room are capturedwithout distinction. Speech recognition software converts thewords directly into a text document (Speech-to-Text).Suddenly a rescue helicopter lands in front of hiswindow. The recording is significantly impaired by the rotor noise and should be interrupted. Instead, the doctor can now activate the directional feature and due to the two omni-directionalmicrophones, theRecMic II focuses purely on the speaker the surround sounds are tuned out. In otherwords: The advanced noise cancelling technology is able to differentiate the sound signals.Thus, the voice of the dictating person is precisely identified,and disturbing noises – no matterwhether they come from outside sources like construction sites, traffic etc. or from people in the room talking loudly – are suppressed.“The record quality and the speech recognition of the test device are excellent, thanks to the highly sensitive microphones aswell as the effective suppression of ambient noises”,confirms TorstenHein,ManagingDirector ofDAZ Diktiertechnik,Germany – specialist of digital dictation technology. Meet the high demands of the users The combination of two omnidirectional microphones and the innovative noise cancelling technology revolutionises speech recognition accuracywhen dictating – even in extremely noisy environments.The new generation of the RecMicSeries provides the smartest andmost flexibleUSBmicrophone and therefore fulfils even the highest user demands. SebastianDahlen,EMEA Product Manager ofOlympusSDS,continues: “Due to our insights gathered during customer interviews,we know thatmany users of speech recognition did not rely fully on the technology,because it did not always deliver the expected results.The actual reason – though not directly recognized by the users –was that suddenly occurring background noise can lower the accuracy rates and frustrate the user.Thereforewe implemented the two-microphone technology so the user can feel prepared even under the nosiest conditions.You can rest assured that everything runs smoothly nomatterwhere youwork.” www.olympus.co.uk The RecMic II Series with brand-new smart two-microphone system and unique noise cancellation technology sets standards for professional dictation. EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARD OLYMPUS: RecMic II Series 39 @philjones40 Insider... Visiting a distributor who was celebrating their 40th year in business reminded me of the importance of relationships and relevancy. To stay in business for over four decades is no mean feat.Technologies change, trends change,people change, organisations and business models change.You only get to remain in the room if you continue to change with them.Yet change is not always easy. Recent times have shown that some of themost powerful businesses can go insolvent – evidence that awinning pattern of the past can quickly go out of date unless you constantly take time out to think about the future and your partwithin it. Relevancy is key.Staying close to your targetmarket, your buyers and your people. It’s as easy to run into problems if all your key people leave you as it is if your service offering falls behind.You have to stay on the ball,as a business owner, salesperson or stakeholder. Travelling down to themeeting gaveme a great opportunity to listen to an audio book, Oversubscribed byDaniel Priestley. In it,Daniel describesways to create new marketswithin yourmarket,how to attract new premium buyers to your product or services. In otherwords,how to stay relevant. I’d recommend you read it or listen to it. In such a dynamic external environment, the climate is changing quickly.Evaluating your relevancy and relationships should be something you review as often as your sales results, if you plan to be around for the long term. See you out there. Phil Jones MBE , ManagingDirector, Brother UK Social media a vital sales tool Sales people rely on LinkedIn and Facebook for information on sales prospects and stays relevant through their own practices.Of course, there is a fine line between gathering insight and intrusion, so information gathered via socialmedia should beworked into conversations strategically.” He added: “Sales reps need access to the best possible technology and systems to help them aggregate all the information they need frommultiple sources, to ensure theymake the best impression from the very start of a relationship.Time spent manually researching could be usedmore efficiently,andRelationship Intelligence technology can do this automatically and present all the information in one place.” www.sugarcrm.com Sales people on both side of theAtlantic are increasingly turning to social media to prep for meetings and to find out more about potential prospects,claims a new report sponsored by SugarCRM. The SalesTechReport fromCITE Research reveals that sales employees are increasingly turning to socialmedia channels for information on prospects, with53% of sales reps choosing Facebook as their research tool of choice. Evenmore popular is the business- focused network LinkedIn,which tops the list of preferred platforms formeeting preparation (64%), followed by company website (63%) andGoogle (61%).A third (34%) are also turning to Twitter to gain insight into their prospects’ likes and interests. Millennial employees raised on social media (18-34 year olds) aremore likely to use both Facebook (59%) and Twitter (41%),while older employees (55+ years) aremore likely to turn to LinkedIn (76%) and a companywebsite (83%). The report states that socialmedia has now become a part of everydayworking life for sales professionals,with72% spending30minutes ormore on it for research purposes.Nearly half (49%) use it for at least45minutes. LarryAugustin,CEO ofSugarCRM, said: “These new findings prove how intrinsic socialmedia has become to both our personal and professional lives. Consumers are engagingwith these channels every day, so it’s only right that the businessworld keeps pace BuildingBusinessRelationships Whenpreparing fora meetingwithanew customerorprospect,what w bsitesdoyouvisit to gather i formationabout thepersonyouwillbe meetingwith? Salespeopleuseamixof socialmedia sitesand ther internet sources (the companywebsit e,Google) toprepare formeetings withprospective clients. However, thismaybe trending toward an increase in socialmedia,as younger salespeoplearemoreoften using FacebookandTwitter to research clients. None Crunchbase Hoovers Dun&Bradstreet Zoominfo Twitter Facebook GoogleSearch CompanyWebsite Linkedin 0% 70% 2017 SalesTechReport LarryAugustin These new findings prove how intrinsic socialmedia has become to both our personal and professional lives DICTATION REMOTE SITE REMOTE SITE REMOTE SITE BRANCH OFFICE BRANCH OFFICE MOBILE WORKER HOME WORKER HOME WORKER MOBILE WORKER HEAD OFFICE v07 · 2017 www. technology reseller.co.uk THE MAGAZINE & ONLINE CHANNEL RESOURCE FOR VARS, IT RESELLERS & IT SUPPORT PROVIDERS Q&A What theAutotaskDatto mergermeans forMSPs PAGE 23 NOTEBOOKS PAGE 22 IP Telephony WhyDaisy thinks its hosted solution is perfect for IT resellers PAGE 33 HowMicrosoft ismaking hardware disappear and ideas come to the fore Innovative solutions and services keeping partners one step ahead businessinfomag.uk magazine 28 Everyprofessionalusingdictation deviceshasalreadyexperienced this problem:suddenandunexpected backgroundnoiseswhich impair the recordingand render transcription moredifficult. As disturbances cannever be completely excluded,usershave always been prone to the risk that theirwords are falsely transcribed into text by speech recognition,or that the personwhohas tomanually transcribe the audiofile simplyhas toomit incomprehensible passages. This problem isnow solved:The “RecMic”Series byOlympus guarantees best speech recognition accuracy even in innoisy environments to ensure that typists get clearunderstandable recordingswithout disturbing backgroundnoises.Thishas been confirmed in several empirical tests by renowned international providersof dictation and documentation solutions. NoiseCancellationTechnology for OptimumSpeechRecognitionResults ThenewRecMic II Series is characterised by aunique two-microphone system withflexible alignment and an innovativenoise cancelling technology. “The testswe conducted innoisy Practical tests confirm: RecMic II Series offers best voice recording accuracy even in noisy environments The technology provides optimum reduction of unwanted background noises and best results for transcription and speech recognition DICTATION environments show peak speech recognition performance.The tolerance tonoise can be adjusted in seconds, just by pressing two buttonson the microphone,which allows a switch from aquiet to anoisy environmentwithout any problem”,explainsRomainKoenig, Headof theTechnicalTeam atDICMA, oneof the leading providersof dictation and documentation solutions in France. “The technology providesoptimum reductionofunwanted background noises and best results for transcription and speech recognition”,adds Jürg Sprecher, systems engineer atVoicepoint AG, themarket-leading providerof digital dictation systems,voice recognition software and dictationmanagement solutions based in Switzerland. Thevoice isprecisely identified Consider this scenario:A clinician is sitting at the deskwith anopenwindow and dictating amedical report into the device. Themicrophone is tuned to awide range, so all sounds and toneswithin the room are capturedwithout distinction. Speech recognition software converts thewords directly into a text document (Speech-to-Text).Suddenly a rescuehelicopter lands in frontofhis window.The recording is significantly impaired by the rotornoise and should be interrupted. Instead, the doctor can now activate the directional feature and due to the twoomni-directional microphones, theRecMic II focuses purelyon the speaker the surround sounds are tunedout. Inotherwords:The advanced noise cancelling technology is able to differentiate the sound signals.Thus, the voiceof the dictating person is precisely identified,and disturbingnoises –no matterwhether they come fromoutside sources like construction sites, traffic etc. or from people in the room talking loudly – are suppressed.“The recordquality and the speech recognitionof the test device are excellent, thanks to thehighly sensitivemicrophones aswell as the effective suppressionof ambientnoises”, confirmsTorstenHein,ManagingDirector ofDAZDiktiertechnik,Germany – specialistof digital dictation technology. Meet thehighdemandsof theusers The combinationof twoomnidirectional microphones and the innovativenoise cancelling technology revolutionises speech recognition accuracywhen dictating– even in extremelynoisy environments.Thenew generationof theRecMic Series provides the smartest andmostflexibleUSBmicrophone and therefore fulfils even thehighestuser demands. SebastianDahlen,EMEA Product ManagerofOlympus SDS, continues: “Due toour insights gathered during customer interviews,we know thatmany usersof speech recognition didnot rely fullyon the technology,because it did not always deliver the expected results. The actual reason – thoughnot directly recognized by theusers –was that suddenlyoccurring backgroundnoise can lower the accuracy rates and frustrate theuser.Thereforewe implemented the two-microphone technology so the user can feel prepared evenunder the nosiest conditions.You can rest assured that everything runs smoothlynomatter where youwork.” www.olympus.co.uk The RecMic II Series with brand-new smart two-microphone system and unique noise cancellation technology sets standards for professional dictation. OPINION 01732759725 29 magazine Nolan Braterman of FrontierVoice and Data explains why it pays to have back-up Howmuchmoneywouldyourbusiness lose ifyou lostall connectivity? Connection to the internethasbecome anessentialpartofanybusiness. According to a recent survey,only 25%of thosewhowerehit by internet outages last yearwere able tomitigate their down-time byundertaking tasks that didnot require internet access. Of course, there are variousways to get bywhen the internet fails.There’s theCosta down the road (other coffee shops are available)or tetheringoff your mobile data if you are lucky enough to haveunlimited4G. But these are short-term solutions thatwon’t cut themustard during majoroutages.Which iswhere a second internet connection comes in – the overall idea being that if yourmain service provider cutsout forwhatever reason,your secondary connection is ready andwaiting to takeover. First steps Inorder tomitigate the chances and impactof anoutage,businesses should carryout anumberof simple actions: 1 Check that all your routershave been configured properly; 2 Check that you areusing internet connectivity that is suitable for your business purposes (this tends to be a common pitfall formany businesses, manyofwhichopt for residential connections as they are cheaper); 3 As your company grows, it’s vital that you carryout regular internal checks and audits to ensure all IT and telecommunication systems are able to dealwith increased volumes and are safe fromoutages and cyber- attacks.You can review the scalability and resiliencyof your systems by checking that your bandwidth is still suitable for the sizeof your business. If your businesshas grown beyond your bandwidth speed and size, then it’s time toupgrade – before it fallsover! 5 Regularly review themarket to see if there’s anything available that your business could benefit from. In a rapidly evolving industry there are alwaysnew features that canmakeworking life easier andmore protected. Unfortunately,a connectivity issue will sometimes arise despite your (and/or your provider’s) best efforts.This iswhere the back-up connection comes into its own.Rather thanwasting timemoving to a temporaryoffice spaceor rinsing your mobile data dry,a betteroption is to implement a backup internet connection. Whatmay seem like anotherunnecessary expense today could save you a lotof stress andmoney in the long run. Youroptions Dependingon the sizeof your business, there are ahandfulof solutions available tohelp your business battle a broken broadband connection: 1 A stepup from yourmobile phone data,a4G routerorMiFi devicewill connect to the4Gnetwork in the event of an internetoutage,meaning you can continue to carryout small tasks that require internet connection, such as taking PDQ payments and sending email. The costof a device like this is around the£130mark. 2 For businesses inwhich a large chunk of theworkload dependson an internet connection,a secondADSL line is amore reliableoption.Before taking this step it’s important to choose a different supplier to theoneused for yourmain broadband connection, so that if yourmain service provider encounters amajor issue,your secondary connectionwill be able to kick in. Carryonasnormal With the costof a second connection for amicro business starting at£12.95 per calendarmonth and the average cost of anoutage reaching£1,287 in2016,a secondary connection represents good value formoney,especially as there are, Why every business needs two internet connections on average, fouroutages perorganisation per year. New prospects and existing customers are key drivers in sustaining and growing your business. Ifneither can get through to you,will they call your competitors?By adding a second low- cost connection you can be confident that your businesswill carryon as normal in the eventof anoutage.The figures really do speak for themselves. Formore than30 years,FrontierVoice andData (FVD)has provided businesses withworking,flexible,bespoke and price competitive communications solutions.FVD is an independent supplier and carries a comprehensive suiteof business-grade products to suit any type or sizeof company. http://fvdata.co.uk/ NolanBraterman What may seem like another unnecessary expense today could save you a lot of stress and money in the long run Sources: http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2017/03/isp-claims-uk-lost-7bn-2016-due- business-broadband-outages.html. http://www.businessinsider.com/un-says-internet-access-is-a-human-right-2016- 7?IR=T OLYMPUS : RecMic II Series ISSUE 133 THEWORKPLACE &TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE FOR SMES WWW.BUSINESSINFOMAG.UK ISSUE133 Samsung CommunicationManager Series MAJORFUNCTIONS&BENEFITS SPECIFICATIONS FUNCTION Benefit StraightforwardArchitecture • Singleserverarchitecture • SCMCaccommodatesupto512users • SCMEaccommodatesupto3000users • Entirevoiceecosystemsconsolidated intoone interface ResiliencyandHighAvailability SCMC • DualPSU (optional) • Dualgignetworkports SCME • Highavailabilitymodes:active-standby, active-active • Switchovercases: LANcabledown, SCMdownorprocessdown • Datasynchronisation: Real-time,totalsyncorbycommand Integration • Integratedvoicemail,autoattendant,emailandaccessmanager • Seamless integration formobilephones intoyourvoicenetwork Callevaluation, feedback,resultsandauditreports • Unifiedmessaging • Conferencing • MobileExtension (MOBEX) • Callmove • Systemmonitoring • Calltrace • WEVoIP • SupportsSIP features (300+)andmultiple interfaces for3rdpartyapplicationconnectivity DESCRIPTION Category SamsungCommunication ManagerCompact SamsungCommunication ManagerExpress Capacity Users 512 3,000 Gateways 32 256 CPS 5 50 ConcurrentCalls 150 1,000 MOHChannels 6 256 UMSChannels/C nferenceChannels 32/32 64/64 SIPTru ks/TotalTrunks 128/256 512/512 Redundancy Network Y Y Power Optional N/A System N/A Active-Standby,Active-Active Dimensions Dimensions 1u (441.5x352x44mmWxDxH) 1u (431X393.7X42.6mmWxDxH) www.samsung.com/business COLLABORATIO N • VENDING • CO-WORKING • OFFICE DESIGN 20 year anniversary of Canon imageFORMULA Document scanners