Need SAN or NAS that's cost efficient, easy to manager, and scalable? Look no further!

Friday, July 23, 2010 by Ron Pirau
Is your direct attached storage at capacity for your servers and your are thinking about adding more storage or a NAS?  Is the maintenance for your current SAN up for renewal but budget is limited?   Are you at capacity for your current SAN but don't have capital to acquire another SAN chassis?  If you answer yes to any of these question Scale Computing SAN is something you need to look at.  Scale Computing SAN is about 1/2 to 1/3 the price of competing SAN solution, is less complex to operation, and expands when you need to in 1,2, and 4 TB increments with a scalable predictable cost.  Scale Computing also includes replication so if you have DR requirements you can locate another Scale SAN in an off site location and replicate.  To save on capital costs LightBound uses Scale Computing SAN as part of the off-site data backup service for a monthly recurring cost.  LightBound also sells Scale Computing Storage Area Network Solutions and can fully implement the SAN on your site and also set up the replication to our shared storage server.   LightBound is an Indiana High Speed Internet provider and offers circuits starting at a T1 to a direct fiber connection that can provide the bandwidth needed for the replication server.  If you want to take 10 minutes to see what Scale is all about lick on webinar to watch a short video. If you need more information on Scale's SAN & NAS please send an email to sales@lightbound.net or contact your LightBound account manager.

IVMUG 3rd Annual Demo Days

Thursday, July 15, 2010 by Jay Cutler

IVMUG 3rd Annual Demo Days, Tuesday July 27th Save the date...

Date: Tuesday, July 27th
Time: 7am-6pm
Location: Indianapolis Convention Center

VMware Product Update
Keynote Speaker
28 Breakout Sessions
36 Vendors (Exhibit Area)
Hands on Lab

More infomration to come.

Please register if you havent already done so. Feel free to invite friends, co-workers, clients, etc. The agenda and registration link can be found here: http://demodays.info

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.

PBXtra 5.0

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 by Jay Cutler
NOT OUT YET, but here are some things to look forward to.
1. Voicemail-only and Virtual Extensions
The new Virtual extension is primarily for call forwarding when you have am extension
number used for little or nothing else. The Voicemail-only extension on the other hand,
is used when you need to have an alternate mailbox or special box to collect VM that is
not specific to an individual user on your system (e.g. maybe at the end of a call menu
that rings a queue, unanswered calls all go to a single mailbox that represents missed
calls for that queue).
The new Virtual extension is different from a virtual extension in previous releases. The
difference here is that now there is no unique user assigned to the virtual extension it is
considered a Non-User extension type. This means it will not have a username or login
available and cannot, for example, be an agent in a queue. Because it is not a user, it
has no voicemail and no first/last name (not a person so why have a name right?).
The voicemail only extensions do no call routing at all and simply have a VM box.
Both VM Only and Virtual extensions can be in the Company Directory, In HUD. Only
VMO extensions can be in the Name Directory though (the one over the phone) and
only Virtual extensions can be either public or private extensions. Of course standard
users with extensions have all these features and more, so these are just each a scaled
down version of a user and extension tooled for a specific purpose.
2. Users with Extensions Each user can now have multiple extensions. For example, an existing employee, Mike, needs a second phone for his home office. This option creates a new extension and associates it with Mike's user account.

3.Directed Call Pickup *88+Ext will allow you to pick up a call from a specific extension with a ringing call.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.

HUD 3.5

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 by Jay Cutler
It's not out yet, but here ar some things to look forward to.

1. Linked Servers, Users now have many functions across linked servers, including:
see call status of linked extensions, barge across linked server,
see & join conference rooms on a on linked server, retrieve calls
parked by linked extension, add linked extensions to your queue,
and so much more!
2. Support for Windows 7
3. HUDdy List, This HUDdy list shows the people you contact the most. This list
is stored on the server side so restarting or reinstalling the HUD
client will not reset your HUDdy List. The HUDdy list score is
determined by the sum of chat sessions + outgoing calls to a
person.
4. Support for MAC OS10.6
5. Whisper, When whispering a person that is on a call, you can hear the
entire call, but only the person you 'whispered' can hear you.
6. whispered by that person.
7. New Queue Stats The queue detail window now includes additional statistics:
- Time to Answer Service Level Agreement (TTA SLA). The TTA
SLA can be set in the Web Admin Panel on a per queue basis
- Duration (the duration of an active call)
- Idle (the time elapsed since the agent last took a call from any
queue)
- Calls (the total number of calls the agent has taken since the
stats were last reset)
- Avg. (the average talk time per completed call for that agent).

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.


Endless Possibilities for NSOEM and Fonality

Thursday, July 8, 2010 by Jay Cutler
Endless Possibilities for NSOEM and Fonality IP PBX Solutions

Installing drilling and power solutions is hard enough; the staff at NSOEM didn’t want to put in hours installing and maintaining the company’s phone system. So when NSOEM decided to replace its AT&T key system with Fonality’s PBXtra with HUD Agent, it was a match made in Houston. PBXtra’s flexible feature set, simple installation and administration, and ability to create a single phone network among a distributed workforce with multiple office locations are a hit at NSOEM. And HUD’s ability to track staff locations and quickly transfer calls meant that the company had finally found a phone system that it could hang its hat on.

NSOEM is a Houston-based manufacturer’s representative that focuses on engineering sales for electrical products related to drilling and custom power solutions. As the company expanded, its existing AT&T key phone system didn’t offer the flexibility it needed and often suffered from bad call quality. NSOEM needed a new phone system that was reliable and flexible, and that could easily connect its headquarters with its new warehouse facility, as well as with reps in the field.
PBXtra Works for NSOEM

On the hunt for its new system, NSOEM narrowed the search to Fonality’s PBXtra with HUD Agent and a system from a local phone installer. “I was impressed because, when I was evaluating PBXtra, I was working directly with Fonality,” said Keith Howard, operations manager at NSOEM. “The other vendor didn’t even distinguish who the phone system manufacturer was, and that didn’t sit well with me.”

Howard found that PBXtra’s technology fit his organization perfectly, too. “PBXtra is a phone system that works for us, rather than having us work for it. It’s incredibly easy to install, and the possibilities of what you can do with the system are endless.” PBXtra has allowed NSOEM to easily create a single phone network; now employees, regardless of whether they are working from the main office, its new warehouse or a remote location, are able to present a united, professional image to customers. And, the system will also be used to connect a new Louisiana office when it goes online later this year.

PBXtra’s flexibility was another key reason NSOEM chose to work with Fonality. “PBXtra allows me to tailor the system exactly how I want to. It saves me time and gets the job done right,” said Howard. Being able to route calls to the main office, to a different first point of contact, or directly to field reps’ cell phones has been a real time and customer service improvement for NSOEM.
Efficiency Is Up With HUD

PBXtra’s HUD has proven to be a favorite with Howard because his field sales team often travels to customer locations to evaluate and install products. “HUD is absolutely great,” he said. “It allows me to see whether my field reps are available no matter where they are, and it makes transferring calls to them a breeze. I simply drag and drop the call to wherever they are.”

Howard is also extremely pleased with HUD’s Outlook integration. “With HUD, I barely touch the buttons on my phone anymore! I just click on a number from my Outlook contacts list and the call is placed for me,” said Howard. “HUD is especially useful for international calls because I can program the country codes once and then forget about them.”
The Future and VoIP

NSOEM is currently operating a mixed VoIP and analog environment, but Howard is eager to test the possibilities of VoIP further. He anticipates that “PBXtra will help us save a bundle when working internationally. With PBXtra, soft phones and an internet connection, we can work around the world without huge telephone fees. It’s just one more way that PBXtra will work for us.”

Light Bound can be your Virtual Service Provider. We help you answer that email and return the telephone call without worry.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.


One Neck to choke for all of your Data and Telecommunications Services

Thursday, July 8, 2010 by Jay Cutler
In this day and age where everyone depends so heavily on Technology. Isn't good to have one company that can provide ITManaged Services, Server Collocation, Web Hosting Services, Virtual Storage, Storage as a Services, VoIP PBX Solutions, Hosted VoIP PBX  Solutions, Voice Services and Data Services.

LightBound can provide your Cloud Services, Data Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity to your Voice and Data services including Off Site Data Backup Services.

Light Bound can be your Virtual Service Provider. We help you answer that email and return the telephone call without worry.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.

Real Estate firm chooses Fonality over Shoretel and hears why

Thursday, July 8, 2010 by Jay Cutler
What do you do... If you are a technology minded real estate management firm with over $1 billion in real estate assets and you're planning for a call center? If you are Oregon-based PREM Group, you choose Fonality's PBXtra Call Center Edition and HUD Pro, of course. Beating out ShoreTel on both price and standards-based technology, PBXtra provided a powerful call center solution that integrates with CRM software, helps build customer retention and improves employee efficiency. Prepping for a Call Center — PBXtra and PREM Group Set the Stage What do you do if you are a technology minded real estate management firm with over $1 billion in real estate assets and you're planning for a call center? If you are Oregon-based PREM Group, you choose Fonality's PBXtra Call Center Edition and HUD Pro, of course. Beating out ShoreTel on both price and standards-based technology, PBXtra provided a powerful call center solution that integrates with CRM software, helps build customer retention and improves employee efficiency. PREM Group is a Portland, Oregon-based real estate management company with approximately 2.5 million square feet of real estate assets valued at $1 billion. The company's vision is to be the most progressive and innovative real estate service company, and it views technology as a strategic asset for reaching this goal. Given its top-down approach to technology and future plans for a call center, it's no wonder that when PREM Group decided to purchase a new phone system, it selected Fonality's PBXtra Call Center Edition and HUD Pro, which supports the latest and greatest in convergent technologies. Standards-Based Wins the Race "We looked at several vendors, namely Fonality and ShoreTel," said Brian Thompson, chief information officer at PREM Group. "We were attracted to Fonality for several reasons. In addition to cost, the fact that the technology is standards-based and SIP [session initiation protocol]-supported architecture was also instrumental in our decision. The PBXtra system was extremely well priced; it cost us roughly half of what a ShoreTel system would have cost." Being a technology-minded company, PREM Group has its eye on the future and is interested in adopting new, convergent technologies that integrate well with other systems. According to Thompson, "it was important that our new phone system support open standards, especially SIP. SIP support is one of the reasons we chose Fonality over ShoreTel: PBXtra supports SIP and ShoreTel does not. Fonality allows us to integrate PBXtra with SugarCRM, our customer relationship software. This enables us to build customer retention by delivering highly personalized services according to individual customer attributes and history. It goes beyond conventional "help desk" solutions by automating not only the agent-customer interaction, but by creating an enterprise workflow focused on serving customers through fulfillment of their requests." Sophisticated Options with PBXtra and HUD Although PREM Group does not have a true call center in place today, it selected Fonality's most powerful phone system -- PBXtra Call Center Edition. The choice of PBXtra Call Center Edition allows PREM Group to link transactions in the call center with back office fulfillment operations, and leverage some powerful call center features, such as load balancing and call queues. This ensures that the company has the appropriate system in place to create a complete, in-house call center within the next year. Of particular interest to PREM Group was Fonality's HUD Pro product, which gives operators a sophisticated way to handle incoming calls. "With HUD Pro, our operators can park a call and check a property manager's availability before transferring the call or putting it through to voicemail," Thompson continued. "HUD Pro is an efficiency tool that fits well with our corporate mission, and helps us serve our customers better." All PREM Group employees also use HUD from their desktops for interoffice dialing and to determine who is in the office or on the phone at any given time. "The ability with HUD to just click and automatically call an employee's cell phone is a very popular feature with our employees." LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.

LightBound can provide your Cloud Services, Data Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity to your Voice and Data services including Off Site Data Backup Services.

Light Bound can be your Virtual Service Provider. We help you answer that email and return the telephone call without worry.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.

Does your cell phone work with your telephone system?

Thursday, July 8, 2010 by Jay Cutler
How many times have you taken a call on your cell phone and the person asked a question that needs to be answered by someone at the office.  What do you do? You say, "Please hangup and call Bob at this phone number.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to transfer the call back to some in the office using just an extension or to another cell phone?  Calls can be done with a consultive transfer or blind transfer.

Now you can with LightBound's Fonality Phone System feature Mobile Boomerang. This service is available as a CPE based IP Telephone System or hosted in our secure Data Center.  We also offer a pure Hosted IP Telephone system that will make your cell phone or home phone part of your Telephone System running over LightBound's Data Network.  Never running over the raw Internet like other VOIP providers. Increasing productivity and the abililty to provide better customer service.   Now you can never miss a phone call.


Light Bound can be your Virtual Service Provider. We help you answer that email and return the telephone call without worry.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.

LightBound is proud to announce that we are now certified SIP provider for Interactive Intelligence

Thursday, July 8, 2010 by Jay Cutler
LightBound is proud to announce that LightBound is a certified VoIP SIP provider for IP PBX company Interactive Intelligence.
http://testlab.inin.com/ProductsPage.aspx?ProductType=7


LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.

LightBound Hosted Virtual Services

Monday, June 21, 2010 by Kate Rance

LightBound offers virtual storage and hosted virtual servers.
LightBound can combine managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require,  regardless of their technical expertise.

Interesting integration for a IP PBX Phone system for a large Professional Sports Team

Monday, June 21, 2010 by Jay Cutler
We are working with a large Professional sports team that is looking to replace their current 12 year Nortel phone system.  Prospect has unique setup with several hundred employees all needing DID (Direct Inward Dial) numbers and Call Center features for sales and customer service group including call monitoring.  In addition, they have almost 700 analog phones around their facility. LightBound was able to propose a solution that would allow them to keep their legacy analog phones and give them IP PBX solution for their office with all the bells and whistles that Fonality provides.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.

LightBound Webinar on Fonality IP PBX Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Monday, June 21, 2010 by Jay Cutler
Have you been curious about the Fonality trixbox PBX but haven't been able to get away from the office to come to a Lunch and Learn? Fonality trixbox is a full featured, cost effective VoIP PBX that brings enterprise level phone system functionality like presence management, call queues, and CRM integration to the small to mid-sized businesses. Let us come to you with our monthly webinars. Webinars will last about an hour, starting at 11:30.

Location:   LightBound Data Center
731 W. Henry St, 2nd Floor
Indianapolis, Indiana

Dates:   June 23, 2010


Contact Email:   events@lightbound.net
Contact Number:   (317) 777-7165

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.


So what if you aren't the biggest operation out there?

Monday, June 21, 2010 by Jay Cutler
So what if you aren't the biggest operation out there?

You should still be able to present a professional image at an affordable cost. That's what Orion Logistics, a third party logistics service provider, believed. After a quick Google search uncovered Fonality, Orion was en route to replacing its failing phone system with PBXtra. Low cost and feature rich, PBXtra has improved customer service and employee efficiency all while making the company look great to the outside world.
Making a Move; Orion Logistics Takes PBXtra Along with Great Results

Orion Logistics, Inc. is a third party logistics service provider offering services to companies that want to outsource the physical distribution of manufactured products. When the company began planning to move its operation to a new 100,000 square foot warehouse, management was debating whether to invest in moving and reprogramming their existing phone system, which didn't provide the advanced features they needed, or go shopping for a new phone system.
Moving on Up for Less than $10K?

At the time, Orion, which has 15 employees, had regular phone lines and an AT&T Partner phone system that was purchased in the late 1990s. After looking at the cost of moving its existing system and what features they would ideally like to have in a phone system, Orion decided to look for a new system. "We wanted our phones to be automatically answered, have good voicemail, transfer calls to employees in the warehouse and conference calls together," said Jim White, IT manager at Orion. "We also wanted to purchase and install our new phone system, without hiring a phone guy or relying on other expensive outside consultants."

"I found out about Fonality through searching on Google," said White. "The PBXtra system was very attractively priced and had all the features we wanted and more. We did not want to make a five figure investment in our new phone system. For not much more than moving our broken phone system, we could implement our new advanced PBXtra system. Plus, we didn't want to have to dedicate staff to the ongoing function of our phone system and with PBXtra we wouldn't have to." Orion liked the fact that Fonality provides automatic software updates and can administer its server remotely. The one time, in 14 months, that Orion needed help, Fonality support was able to look at its server remotely, see immediately what was going on and fix the problem.
Improving Employee Productivity and Customer Service

Since Orion is a warehouse operation, employees are often out in the warehouse rather than at their desks. With Fonality, employees can easily have their cell phones configured as extensions, which makes it possible to transfer calls to them while out on the warehouse floor. This feature has made a huge difference for Orion. Employees now answer calls that they weren't able to before, which saves time, increases productivity and allows Orion to provide better service.

"When I went through the steps to start configuring people's cell phones as PBXtra extensions, we all thought it was incredible," said White. "With this feature, we don't have to keep customers waiting, there is no need to install phones all over the place, and people can keep working while they take calls from customers, dispatchers, suppliers, etc. It is a big time saver!"

White is impressed with Fonality's ability to forward voicemail to email, which allows employees to listen to voicemail from their computer either remotely or at their desks. He also likes the ability to administer the phones from a web browser, which "saves time and give us better control."

"We aren't a huge operation, but we did want our new phone system to give us a really professional presentation to the world. We need to answer phones and be responsive to customers, suppliers and partners. PBXtra allows us to do that and a lot more."

Light Bound can be your Virtual Service Provider. We help you answer that email and return the telephone call without worry.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.

Indiana Cloud Computing - LightBound

Friday, June 18, 2010 by Brandon Ring

What Advantages are there to my firm with Cloud Computing?

  • All practices large or small can take advantage of enterprise level computing via the Cloud
  • No great capital expenditure is required as most services are operated on a rental basis
  • Scalability is quick and easy, as the need for resource increases, firms of all sizes can simply add additional resource as and when required from the cloud computing vendor without capital outlay for additional  hardware
  • Implementation and administration costs are greatly reduced for the client as hardware and applications are provided by the cloud vendor
  • Cloud computing is environmentally friendly as it removes the heating and cooling requirements to a data centre where the economies of scale can prevail


What is New in VMware vCenter™ Lab Manager 4

Monday, June 7, 2010 by Jay Cutler
0 Comments »

Don’t let 12 feet of snow shut you down.

Monday, June 7, 2010 by Jay Cutler
0 Comments »

LightBound Business Continuity

Friday, June 4, 2010 by Kate Rance
LightBound offers business continuity solutions to fit any size business. Our state of the art data center is on net with nearly 20 major carriers, which allow for redundant circuit paths to fit most disaster recovery needs. We also offer off site data backup service essential for business continuity plans.

LightBound Hosted Virtual Server

Friday, June 4, 2010 by Kate Rance

I spoke with a potential customer this week who is interested in hosting SQL, Sharepoint, and smart mail servers at our data center using the LightBound Virtualization services. Initially they were interested in only managed server hosting, but realized the hardware cost and maintenance would be a challenge to maintain. I was able to provide a solution using our virtualization and cloud services that would meet both his performance and budgetary needs.

Indiana VoIp - SIP

Friday, June 4, 2010 by Brandon Ring
With SIP trunks, a single network can be maintained within the organization, rather than having both a voice and data network.  Internet bandwidth can be used more efficiently, streamlining expenses.  In addition, Moves, Adds and Changes can be completed without major wiring upgrades.  These benefits all lower costs for the business.

what is SIP - Indiana VoIP

Friday, June 4, 2010 by Brandon Ring
SIP trunking allows enterprises and small businesses to eliminate a PSTN gateway at their site and outsource that function to a carrier.  It is typically a lower-cost alternative to Primary Rate Interfaces (PRIs) because SIP trunks can be purchased in single-trunk increments (as compared to 23 channel increments for a PRI).