Industry Insiders have raved about The Advocate Cloud and Connectivity Insider Summit, hosted on November 5-7. CIOs representing over 20 companies called the conference "Excellent" in its quality and execution. Contact us to find out how you can join the brightest minds in IT at next year's Insider Summit!
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UCaaS Changes the VoIP Value Proposition
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This article is the second of a three-part series on Hosted VoIP, by Insider Greg Davis.
When comparing Hosted VoIP services, you need to look beyond price and really understand how the service features can increase your employees' productivity. Most VoIP services now include desktop and smartphone apps that enable users to make and receive calls using either their broadband, WiFi or cell phone service.
However, some of these apps also enable users to see if their co-workers are on a call or away from their desk, send them private Instant Messages, and engage in audio, web and/or video conference calls. These Unified Communications-as-a-Service(UCaaS) features can greatly enhance employees' productivity by enabling them to communicate effectively, juggle more activities, and be more accessible while traveling. For those companies that already have audio/web conferencing services, UCaaS can offset the cost of these point-solutions and extend them to all employees.
Advocate can help quantify these productivity gains to perform a complete TCO analysis, determine which service is best suited to your specific business needs, and help you implement it.
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In Our Community
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Our Insiders are active within the technology community. Here are just a few of the events we attended recently.
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 | | Insiders brave the rain to give back at the Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta Parade earlier this month. |
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 | | Insider Emily Ashley is joined by Jonathan Cox of Kauffman Tire and Christina Critzer of SunTrust at the 2014 Insider Summit. |
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 | | Insiders Carrisa Baptiste and Kristy Miller represent Advocate at the 2014 Women of the Year Awards, sponsored by Women In Technology Atlanta. |
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Looking for best-in-class performance, scalability and price? Our Insider knowledge and expertise will get you there faster!
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Time to Cut the (Landline) Cord?
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Enterprises Begin to Follow the Model of Most US Households
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Recent studies show that over 40% of American households are now wireless-only when it comes to phone service, and the percentage is steadily increasing. Heavily correlated to age-demographics, the residential use of landline phone service decreases as you move from the Silent Generation (most of whom still have landlines and no cell phones) to the Baby Boomers to Generation X to the Millenials (most of whom roll their eyes and shake their head when they see a landline phone).
Like residential consumers, American businesses are also reducing line counts, partially due to increased use of mobile devices, but more in response to a migration to Voice over IP (VoIP) services. While there are lots of benefits of VoIP (cost, control, and consolidation), the elimination of traditional landline phone service (POTS lines) has been much slower with business, and very few enterprises have removed POTS lines entirely. Even businesses who have embraced VoIP cling steadfastly to one or more POTS lines per location, with the primary reasons for holding out being:
- Availability of Emergency 9-1-1 service,
- Fax lines, and
- Alarm lines
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Advocate Insider Summit Wows Attendees
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CIOs Name Summit a "World-Class Event"
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The first ever Advocate Cloud and Connectivity Insider Summit sponsored by CenturyLink and Netskope took place in Charleston, SC on November 5-7, 2014. This inaugural summit was held at the Charleston Place Hotel, hosting more than 30 IT leaders from companies like Aarons, Kauffman Tire, InVentiv Health, SunTrust, and many more. Over the course of the day-and-a-half conference, attendees participated in engaging panels on some of the most interesting topics in IT management. From innovative subjects such as "Leveraging the Cloud" and "Mobility," to "IT Leadership" and "Unified Communications," attendees of the Insider Summit discussed and shared their concerns, successes, and challenges managing complex IT departments late into the evening.
And speaking of staying up late, the Insider Summit was not without great food, wine, and entertainment. After all, how often do this many C-level IT decision-makers get together for a night out on the town? Between a private dinner at Fulton Five and cocktails at the beautiful Market Pavilion Rooftop Bar fun was had by all.
Scott Crowder, CIO BMC Software, commented "I have had the opportunity to attend many IT events-I found the Insider Summit unique in creating an intimate environment with fellow, peer IT leaders for exchanging ideas on managing the complex and changing technology environment for enterprises."
From post-event communications (LinkedIn Group), the attendees have raved about the Insider Summit's intimacy, openness, range of content, and relationship-building. For the Insiders at Advocate, simply being associated with this landmark event is a point of sincere pride.
Advocate thanks all of the attendees and sponsors who made this groundbreaking event possible. The countdown has officially begun for the 2015 Insider Summit!
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Steve Williams Joins Insiders
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Advocate is pleased to announce that Steve Williams has joined us as Executive Vice President of Business Development. Steve co-founded and served as President of MacBeth Williams TeleConsulting, a 22 year old boutique consultancy focused on providing enterprises telecommunications consulting services.
Upon joining Advocate, Steve commented "I had partnered with Tim Wise, Scott Fogle and the Advocate team on multiple projects over the last five years and was always impressed with the expertise of the staff and their professional approach with clients. During my discussions with Tim and Scott about joining Advocate, it was clear that we share a common philosophy and passion for earning client trust by building long term relationships and helping clients solve complex IT/Telecom problems. I am convinced that Advocate is well positioned to become the premier IT/Telecom and managed service consulting firm in the U.S. I am very appreciative to Tim and Scott for offering this opportunity and look forward to helping Advocate become the "go to" firm in this space."
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Clients Now Leveraging Our
Insider Advantage |
- International Software Provider
- IT and Business Skills Training Company
- Manufactured Home and RV Community Owner
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Stay Connected with Advocate
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