A large expense faced by any company with a direct sales force is cell phone service.  Many plans still charge by the minute overall, or if there are any overages from included plan minutes.  This motivates business owners to find solutions for containing the overall minutes used.

One new gadget that promises to do so is a dual mode cell phone/WiFi phone that switches to a WiFi network when one is available.  WiFi networks within your company walls are free, meaning cellular minutes used can dramatically decline.

Today, dual mode phones are available from companies like Linksys, Nokia, and D-Link.   T-Mobile offers service that includes both cellular coverage and wireless hot spot access to accommodate such phones.   Data access is also made more readily available on such dual enabled phones, allowing users to listen to streaming broadcasts as well.

What’s the downside?  WiFi technology is not really designed to allow true mobility.   When on the WiFi network, there will be handoffs from access point to access point as the user moves around.   There will also be handoffs from the cellular network to the WiFi network and back that can cause calls to drop.   This can create some issues with business communications, imagine a dropped call as a customer is detailing his multi-million dollar order!

The good news is that lots of work is being put into making these handoffs more seamless and transparent to the user.   This means the future of dual mode phones is quite bright.

In the meantime, this may be a great idea for sales people who spent at least some of their day in an office equipped with WiFi, as calls during this part of the day will be free.

Taking advantage of this new technology means having a robust internal WiFi network with few dead spots and strategically positioned access points so that dropped calls are few and far between.   And these access points should be based on a robust and well planning internal network with a strong wired foundation, based on at least cat 5e cabling.

If your internal networks are ready for an overhaul so you can add these phones to your internal IT structure, why not call professional network cabling experts?  The right professionals will be happy to analyze your network and make concrete recommendations for enhancements that will move you into today’s world.   They can provide a network assessment and upgrade, and then help you choose the best dual mode phones for your team now and in the future.

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Now more than ever before, businesses and their overall efficiency are dependent on the quality of Internet, voice, and video service their chosen provider can supply.  This makes the choice of service provider one that can make or break a small or medium business in today’s economic climate.

Making this situation even more complex is the wide variety and number of providers available that claim to be able to support anything, anywhere!  Where is the truth to these claims?  How can they be validated?

Regional, national, and international service providers can be found that offer anything from WiMax (great for remote areas with no infrastructure), DSL (good for very small businesses with 2-5 employees), to full T1s that can service a larger facility.

If you plan to deploy an IP phone infrastructure, it is best to choose at least a cable modem 6MB minimum service or a T1. DSL is not usually able to support VoIP (voice-over-IP) telephony, which has a huge cost and service benefit for all levels and sizes for business.

It also makes sense to ask any company vying for your business for at least three references from companies that are as close as possible to your size and number of employees.

Sometimes, the constraints of your building may dictate the service provider you must choose.  In some areas of the world, building owners have made “deals” with service providers that preclude other choices.  If you are caught into one of these situations, WiMax (wireless broadband) becomes a possibility as it is usually not covered by other contracts.   If your area isn’t covered by WiMax either, then you have the unfortunate choice between moving or using the only service provider offered.

Thankfully, the issue most businesses face is too many, rather than too few choices.   Many service providers, faced with user churn because there are so many choices for their customers, offer attractive promo deals to potential customers. Be sure to look beyond the immediate benefits of the “deal” to find the best overall package for you and your company.

The best choice for your company will be the provider that offers the bandwidth PLUS SLA (service level agreement) that fits your needs.  Remember, bandwidth alone is not enough to ensure clear Internet connections, you also must be wary of oversubscription. If there are too many users of the same “pipe”, delays can result.  This may not be serious if you don’t plan to deploy VoIP (voice-over-IP), but can still cause delays in video or file downloads that can be irritating to your employees.

If you want expert advice on whom to choose, why not call network cabling installers?  Professionals will assess your unique situation and draw from a wide knowledge bank to recommend the service provider that will meet your needs most cost effectively.

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As Dick Tracy comic books and episodes of George Jetson foreshadowed, video IP phones are now a reality and are available in bulk from a reseller near you. But do you really need this exciting new gadget?

For the average rank and file worker, at this time, the answer is no.   These phones run upwards of $300 per handset, so at this time are mostly used by upper management.

But, if you are a manager who does a great deal of video conferencing but don’t yet have the Capex to put into a nice telepresence setup, a video phone might be just the ticket.   You will be able to get “face-time” with customers, employees and suppliers without leaving your office (or home, depending on where the equipment is installed), and you will be able to “look ‘em in the eye” and assess what is really going on if the business or sales situation requires it.

This can cut required travel costs and enhance how business is conducted dramatically.  It can even help position your business as a “green” business as it will cut carbon footprints.  Plus, many video phones have built in web browsers so they can act as multifunction devices.  They can be used to playback videos, view photos of system’s that need troubleshooting (which means they may be a great investment for field service or applications engineering teams), quickly check social networks for updates, and a wide variety of new applications that just require some simple API development.

While not suitable for every employee, a video phone may be perfect for the receptionist’s desk as he or she can then send a picture of the visitor to the employee whose time is being requested – a face may ring a bell and help make a quick decision to meet or not to meet with the guest.

Marketing communications or PR employees may also benefit from such a phone, as face time is critical when interfacing with magazine editors, analysts, and high profile industry experts as well.

But for most SMBs (small, medium businesses), this gadget is simply a high priced toy – whose value is yet to be proven.    Once the market matures, pricing is sure to fall to reasonable levels and video IP phones will become as affordable as simple IP phones are today.

Video IP phones require 100KB or more of bandwidth per second – so a solid IP infrastructure is a must even if you plan to deploy only one or two such devices.  Professional structured cabling installers can help make sure that the pipeline you have going to your video phones is strong, solid, and built on an infrastructure that will provide smooth, non-choppy video signals.  Call professional installers today, and they should be able to perform a comprehensive network assessment to make sure your existing cabling, routers, switches, and other equipment can handle the addition of video phones.

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The IT industry is rife with “buzzwords”, and one of the latest and greatest is network lifecycle management.   Although it may appear that IT managers simply want an excuse to draw still more flow charts and network diagrams, this buzzword actually makes a great deal of sense in many ways.

What is Network Lifecycle Management?  It is a new concept that simply means that a company’s network needs tender love and care from the planning phase all the way through the EOL phase when a new network is installed.   And careful lifecycle management means that the length of time before that happens will be extended.

A network lifecycle begins with the conceptual stage.  Careful planning as to the customer’s current as well as future needs must be taken into consideration, and scalability must be built in from the start.  An assessment of existing infrastructure and needed upgrades is performed at this time.

Installation is the next phase of the lifecycle – and this is followed by a thorough validation of the install to make sure no present or future “gotchas” exist.  Any latent point of failure is identified and rectified to make sure the network is robust.

During the operational phase of the network lifecycle, it makes sense to remotely monitor the network for any signs of new problems through services like Cisco’s Smart set of services or Broadsoft’s PacketSmart technology.   Proactive network management is far superior to trying to figure out what went wrong after the fact, with irate employees with no Internet, email or phone service asking what is going on.

Any issues discovered during the monitoring phase should be dealt with immediately, so that small problems never escalate into large ones.

If designed properly in the conceptual phase, a network should scale and grow to meet the needs of employees over time by simply adding new wiring and equipment.  Equipment upgrades can be performed remotely (in the case of SW upgrades), or by swapping out pieces of equipment for newer models without replacing the entire network.

When the time finally comes and an entirely new network is required to keep pace with technology – proper lifecycle management will make this task painless too!

To make sure your network is managed properly in every phase of its useful life, why not call structured wiring experts?  They will create a comprehensive plan for your network that will allow you to gain maximum value from it for the longest time frame possible, making it a cost effective and logical choice.   They will carefully assess your unique needs, as the right installer should understand that “one size does not fit all” when it comes to a network.

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Being tethered to a desk, cubicle, or conference room is just no fun, and with the advent of wireless networks, no one has to be “siloed” anymore.    The newest 802.11n specifications also provide for greater range and security than ever before, so the old worries about hackers discovering vital data from the airwaves are not as prominent.

What IS a concern with wireless networking is coverage, and access point handoff for mobile devices.  With any wireless network, you will have some dead spots in a building. Rather than getting upset about it, simply plan for it.   Walk through your offices with test equipment from a reputable firm like Air Magnet, locate the dead spots, and make sure that tethered 10/100 Fast Ethernet connections are available in those areas.

A thorough magnetic review of your office space will also help you plan where to place access points, or areas where signals are received and rebroadcast.  It is best to purchase newer access points if you have employees who “roam” – like technicians, warehouse workers, or forklift operators.  Newer access points have longer ranges and can handoff the signal more quickly to a new access point once your employee travels outside the best range for the first access point.   Otherwise, the signal drops and an interruption in service is seen.  Advances in predictive technology, similar to that used in read channels for disc drives is applied in newer WiFi equipment.

802.11 as a standard also provides for something called “antenna diversity” – which simply means that several antennas are used and the signal picked up from the best placed one.  If you are WiFi-enabling mobile objects such as hospital beds, you have no way of predicting proper antenna placement.  Having more than one increases the probability that one of the antennas will have a clear, strong signal.  It’s like buying more than one lottery ticket, your odds of winning increase.

Make sure your antennas are placed in locations where they have no nearby EMI sources such as other wiring.  Place them correctly so the signal can rise above any metal shielding or other obstacles.

It goes without saying that a solid wired foundation is necessary before building a strong wireless network.   Your service provider should be good to his “SLA” or “service-level-agreement” and you should have at least cat 5e cabling connecting your WAN service to the wireless router and access points you have installed.  If you need to upgrade your internal wiring or would like expert help in planning your wireless network installation, call professional data installation experts for assistance.  The right professionals are more than willing to help plan, design, implement or upgrade a wonderful 802.11x network for your company.

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Innovation marches on, and wire and cable technology is yet another area where the “latest and greatest” can be found on Google via a simple search.  The newest type of Ethernet cable is cat 7, or category 7 cabling.

Cat 7 cable was designed to handle 10 Gigabit Ethernet traffic over 100 m of copper cabling.  As such, it has much stricter standards for crosstalk and systems noise that cat 5e or cat 6.   It contains four twisted wire copper pairs just like cat 5e and cat 6 cabling, but each pair is individually shielded to achieve these standards.

It is important to note that no cat 7 cable types are officially “approved” at this time, so if having the blessing of a standards body is important to you or your business, it is best to stick with “tried and true” cat 5e cabling unless you have very large files you need to transfer very quickly.

Also, cat 7 cabling is designed for 10G traffic which most small and medium businesses don’t necessary need now.  This doesn’t mean that the evolution of the Internet won’t change this in the future, but the good news is that cat 7 is compatible with cat 5e and cat 6.  All three types of cabling can coexist in the same network, which means you can upgrade the sections of your network that require it in the future while leaving your older cat 5e and cat 6 cable in place.

But if you, like Robert Bosch corporation, want your network to still be current 18 years in the future – then cat 7 cabling may be worth it for you.   Robert Bosch also opted for TERA connectors instead of RJ-45 to extend the overall capabilities and frequency range of this “state-of-the-art” infrastructure.

Whatever your cabling or infrastructure needs, network cabling installers are there to help!  The professionals will take an in-depth look at your business model and make well-considered recommendations for your current and future needs.   Call professional network cabling installers today to start moving your network in the right direction!

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In the dark ages, the Internet was nothing more than a toy or a hobby for those who liked to live on the “cutting-edge” of technology.  Slowly, it morphed into an individual tool for employees to use when doing extensive research on a particular topic, then it became a tool for those looking for art or photographs.  The first wave of Internet business tools provided new ways for companies to promote, position, and advertise their goods and services.

Innovations followed swiftly – and the Internet morphed from a one-to-one tool to a one-to-many tool, and ultimately to a many-to-many tool with the advent of social networks such as Linked-in and Facebook.

What’s next?  The latest buzz is all about the upcoming Internet migration from being a tool that is used mostly by people, to one that extends its reach to objects.   Can’t visualize your company’s inventory interacting with the Internet?  Read on…

RFID tagging – where small radio frequency transmitters are placed on containers of materials, piece parts, etc will drive one of the first waves of “things” interacting with the Internet.   Small radio waves will be sent from every container, box, or even individual component that will correlate with serial numbers, date codes, or any other piece of data you want to track.  Boxes in a storage facility can be tracked to exact location with the combination of RFID tracking and GPS technology.  Delivery vehicles can be tracked, and all individual shipping containers per delivery vehicle can also be tracked.   And this technology extends far beyond simple package and inventory tracking!  It can be used to track retail products purchased by individuals (imagine how useful it would be to have your cereal box announce that it is no longer fresh once past its use date), auto parts installed in your car, medical equipment used, and even articles of clothing.

Another wave of this movement will happen as the “Smart Grid” replaces the antiquated world power delivery systems.   This will use the Internet as a communications platform between your home and power distribution stations – saving you money, saving power, and allowing selective shut down of some less critical appliances and outlets in the advent of a brown-out or overload.  No more blown transformers or complete black-outs!

Home Appliances can become “smart” as things increasingly begin to interact with the Internet.   Your refrigerator can IM you to let you know you are about to run out of eggs, or that the milk has gone bad (based on days of storage).   You can tap a few keys on your computer before leaving work, and come home to a warm hot tub and soft music to unwind from your day.

Your business – small or large – as well as your home needs to be equipped to take advantage of these new trends.  This means having a solid networking backbone based on either a cat 5e or cat6 cable scheme, and a well-designed data storage and delivery system.   It also may mean consulting with professionals, like structured cabling installers, in order to plan for both current, and future needs for your “smart” home and business.

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Is your network ready for the future?  You may think you have all the infrastructure you need for now, but in our fast paced world, you either keep up or get left behind. And why is being left behind such a bad thing?

Because innovation is creating productivity enhancements at lightning speed.  Before you can say “TCP/IP” , the business world will have evolved into a environment where workers are highly productive from anywhere – not just their offices.   And offices offer productivity enhancing innovations like telepresence (which means no more down time in airports, train stations, etc), collaboration, company-wide internal social networks, and easily searchable databases containing knowledge applicable to every facet of an employee’s job.

What will the future hold?  The sky is the limit.   Already being discussed are innovations like holographic telepresence – where not only do you have a conference with someone remote, you have the total illusion that they are in the same room with you.   The need for “face time” is met in a sales situation without the incredible expenses and downtime associated with travel.

Database sizes will increase, and employees will be able to search from any kind of input – an idea, a song, a graphic, or a topic.   Much of this knowledge will reside in “the cloud” (a new term or “buzzword” for applications or information resident on servers located offsite), meaning the demand for robust, secure data centers will increase rapidly.  Larger companies will build their own data centers, but small and medium sized data centers will rely on outsourced data centers to have the security and reliability they need to run their businesses efficiently.  It goes without saying that the small and medium businesses will have to have both a high speed WAN connection AND a rock solid internal infrastructure to support remote large file downloads from such data centers.

IM clients where employee’s can simply transfer files back and forth are already a reality. Who wants to wait for long email downloads?  Besides, most email servers have a size limit installed, to prevent the transmission of harmful files.   Instant file transfer cuts down on printing and printing costs, but it takes bandwidth and a solid infrastructure.

“Future-proofing” your network so you are poised to take advantage of innovation as it happens will allow you to reap the benefits of enhanced productivity and lowered costs.  This means having a solid network infrastructure based on at least a cat 5e or cat 6 cable architecture.

If you don’t want to be left out in the cold, call the right structured wiring installers for a comprehensive network assessment and cost effective quotation.  The right professionals will assess your unique needs, and make sure that a solution is planned, designed, and delivered that will help you take advantage of the coming changes.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention our Network Cabling website as the original source).