Change the Way you Work for the Better with Unified Communications
With the recent signing into law of the Telecommuting Act of the Philippines, working from home or telecommuting is expected to boost in popularity. Given the severe traffic conditions in Metro Manila, working from home really does sound very attractive not only for the employee but for employers as well. Allowing work from home not only gives the employer potentially significant savings in office space but can also improve productivity by over 10%. Employers who allow their staff to work from home also see increased worker satisfaction and lower attrition rates. Obviously, not all jobs can be done from home and some jobs will always require face-to-face interaction. However, for jobs where the actual employee location isn’t important, a number of employers still hesitate to offer an option for their staff to telecommute. Most often the reason for the hesitation would include: Lack of oversight, and employees shirking their duties Lack of direction Security Lack of employee interaction/brainstorming All of the above though can be easily overcome through the use of Unified Communications Technologies. Unified Communications refers to the integration of various communication methods into one system or device. Unified Communications facilitates effective Remote Working by combining and integrating multiple communication and collaboration tools. Through Unified Communications, employees can: Answer office phone calls from anywhere in the world. Collaborate with other employees for free via instant messaging, video conferencing or teleconferencing. Utilize project management and collaboration tools. Utilizing UC need not be expensive or complicated. There are a number of free/freemium tools that facilitate Unified Communications even for the smallest of businesses: Long-distance calling/collaboration –Skype, Viber, Magic Jack Video/Teleconferencing –Skype, Google Hangouts Instant Messaging –Facebook Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, etc. Groups/Forums –Google groups, Yahoo groups, Facebook Groups Document Management –Google Apps/Docs, Google Drive, Dropbox Project Management –Github, Asana, Basecamp A step up from using the free tools above is availing of a Hosted Unified Communications Platform. A hosted platform allows you to have a full-featured UC System without the capital expenditure and technical expertise needed for setting it up and maintaining it on-site. It is a more secure solution than using free/freemium tools and is a fully integrated system where all components readily communicate with each other (i.e. email<->sms<->messenger). It is a more formal/professional configuration, indistinguishable from a traditional office communications system. Our sister company, Elisha Telecom, has been offering a Hosted Unified Communications Platform for over 12 years now. Starting at less than Php 350.00/month per user, they offer a very affordable entry point to Unified Communications that will allow your employees to work from home efficiently. Contact Elisha Telecom and get a free demo today. This Article was based on the presentation: Remote Working and the Virtual Office, presented during UCX Asia 2015 at the SMX Convention Center.
Sangoma FreePBX and Vega Session Border Controller (SBC) in the Philippines
EACOMM Corporation is happy to announce that it is now reselling Sangoma FreePBX Appliances and Sangoma Vega Session Border Controller (SBC) in the Philippines. Sangoma is a publicly listed company in Canada that has been operating since 1984 and is a recognized world leader in providing VoIP equipment particularly to opensource/Asterisk-based VoIP Systems Sangoma FreePBX Appliance Sangoma FreePBX is one of the world’s most trusted opensource PBX applications and the Sangoma FreePBX Appliance is a highly reliable and affordable PBX Appliance that can scale easily to your business requirements. Ideal for small to medium businesses who wants a hassle-free VoIP PBX deployment, EACOMM is currently selling the FreePBX Phone System 60 (good for up to 60 users) and FreePBX Phone System 100 (good for up to 100 users). Prices start at just Php 35K+VAT for FreePBX 60 and 65K+VAT for FreePBX 100. Telephony cards and gateways are available for analog (FXO/FXS) or Digital (T1/E1) integration. Contact us for more information. Vega Enterprise Session Border Controller A Session Border Controller or SBC is a network appliance used to control signalling, particularly of Voice over IP traffic, across your network. A SBC helps prevent fraudulent use of your VoIP infrastructure that could lead to expensive call charges made by hackers. Certified for use with Skype for Business, the Vega Enterprise SBC is an affordable security appliance that is a must have for any robust and secure VoIP system. The price of the Vega Enterprise SBC starts at Php 120K+VAT inclusive of 25 simultaneous calls. Additional licenses are available upon request. *Prices Subject to Change without Notice. Please contact us for the latest prices.
Visit the Elisha Telecom Booth at UCXAsia-COMDDAP
Our sister company, Elisha Telecom will be exhibiting in the first Unified Communications Asia Expo here in Manila: UCXAsia to be held in conjunction with the one of the most prestigious computer shows in Manila: COMDDAP 2013. Elisha Telecom will be showcasing its various VoIP products, services and solutions such as its popular ETPBX hosted VoIP PBX Platform. Visit Elisha Telecom at Booth U809 by downloading a FREE COMDDAP PASS by clicking this link.
Audiocodes MP-118 FXS Configuration with Elastix
EACOMM just upgraded the extensions for our Elastix PBX System from using antiquated Linksys PAP2 devices to an Audiocodes MP118 8-port FXS. The Linksys PAP2’s were simply too buggy and tend to die after a year or two and we’ve given up on finding replacement devices in the local market. Audiocodes being a top of the line product, we thought we won’t get into too much issues in configuring it but it seems much of the information we found online did not directly apply to the device we purchased (even the included quick start guide seemed out of date) and a lot of the configuration settings are not that easy to find. Therefore, we decided to share this walkthrough in case other people are going through the same headaches. Note that these steps worked with our specific Audiocodes model and firmware with Elastix PBX but we do not make any guarantees you will have the same experience configuring your own device. Our Hardware is an Audiocodes MP-118 with 8 FXS Ports purchased from Elisha Telecom. The Audiocodes Firmware Version is 6.20A.022.003. The first step is to configure the MP-118’s IP Address. Note that the MP-118 does not offer an option for DHCP. By default the FXS-only and mixed FXS/FXO is set to: IP Address: 10.1.10.10 Subnet: 255.255.0.0 Gateway 0.0.0.0 What you need to do is attach the device directly to your PC using an RJ45 cable. The manual states you need a cross-over cable, but we were able to make it work using a standard RJ45 cable. Next you need to change your computer’s IP address to match the MP-118’s domain. For example you can change your PC IP settings to: IP Address: 10.1.10.1 Subnet: 255.255.255.0 Gateway: 0.0.0.0 (for Windows, just leave blank) Once you’ve configure your PC’s IP settings, open a browser and go to http://10.1.10.10 to access your MP-118. The MP-118 default login is Admin and password is Admin (case sensitive!). Once in the panel, click the Configuration button on the upper left, expand the VoIP Folder and then the Network Folder and click IP Settings. From here you can edit the IP address, Subnet Mask and Gateway to match your PBX Settings. Once done Click Submit. Note that the device has now adapted the new IP Settings and as such the web page you are viewing is no longer working! Attach the MP-118 to your VoIP PBX Network and reconfigure your computer’s settings to that of the PBX network as well. Type in the new IP Address for the MP-118  in your browser to go back to the admin page. At this point, press the “Burn” Button on the top of the screen to save the settings into ROM. Otherwise, all the settings will revert back when power to the device is lost. Remember to press BURN whenever you make significant configuration changes moving forward. Next we can configure the codec you will be using. For our ROM version we found this at Configuration -> VoIP -> Coders and Profiles -> Coders. From the table here you can define codecs to use in order of priority. After that, you can configure the MP-118 to detect your PBX Server. This is done via Configure-> VoIP->SIP Definitions->Proxy & Registration. For this menu, set Use Default Proxy to “Yes” and Enable Registration to “Enable”. Press Submit to save changes. Under the Use Default Proxy option there is a button for “Proxy Set Table”, click this to open a new window where you can set the PBX Server(s). Press Submit to save changes. Go back to the previous menu and you can now press the Register button at the bottom to register the device to your Server. Now you can finally configure your Extensions. This is where we took the most time as we could’t find the section of the menu where you’re suppose to do this! Finally we found it at: Configuration->VoIP->GW and IP to IP->Analog Gateway->Authentication. From here it is a straightforward process of typing the username/extension and the password you will be assigning to each FXS port. It is worth noting that in our version of the firmware the Submit button on the lower right was not working. However, there is another submit button on the top and this works just fine. Submit and Burn your configuration once done. There is one final step that we needed to do before we could complete our configuration. We noticed that when dialing out, after the third digit, the MP-118 was already making the call. You can change this at Configuration->VoIP->GW and IP to IP->DTMF and Supplementary->DTMF and Dialing. The top most setting is Max Digits In Phone Num, and for our device this was preset to only 3! Change this to a more sensible number (especially if you allow direct NXXXXXX dialing to dial out) and you’re set! *For parties interested in purchasing an Audiocodes gateway or have one configured. Please send your inquiries to sales@elishatelecom.com. Elisha Telecom is a leading British company in the field of VoIP/Asterisk Consultancy.
Pacific Internet Launches VOCAL VoIP Service
Pacific Internet Philippines is offering a VoIP package that comes with a FREE grandstream or linksys VoIP Phone. Available plans start at Php 900.00 per month with 125 call minutes free. Higher priced plans comes with DID in UK, US or other countries. Compared with foreign offerings from the US or Europe, Pacific’s offering seems a bit expensive. With effective per minute charges to the US ranging from Php 5.00 – 7.20/minute. The free IP Phone would be the biggest come-on though, albeit at the price they’re charging perhaps a higher-end phone would have been nicer. For more information, visit: http://vocal.pacific.net.ph/index.html