Technocom Blog

Technocom Blog Readers Referral Program

Want to make a few extra bucks?  Technocom has a referral program which pays you back for referring anyone that could use our services.  The way it works is, you fill out a form with your information and the information of the company or person needing our services and what type of work they need done.  If they agree to have Technocom complete some work for them, you get 1% from the total sold.  So if the work we do comes to say 10K, you would get $100.   If you already know of someone needing services we provide then why not make a little money by sending them our way.  If you have any additional questions please call Craig Hill at 503-454-7318.
Click on the link below to download the form.  Fill out the form and fax it in (503-682-2781) to the attention of Craig Hill. 

Referral Form

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Setting up a Green Council Working Committee

Where to begin…where to being.  I’m seriously hoping this exercise is not going to be a repeat of my last visit to the dentist.  What we are trying to do is set up a working Green Council within a business organiztion that will benefit and educate members of the committee and of the organization.  Sounds simple doesn’t it.  WRONG! It has been my experience that whenever two or more people, unknown to eachother, sit down to discuss a “new” concept, opinions are going to vary tremendously.

 And not only opinions.  We spent the first half hour on semantics…what the meaning of “is” is.  Believe me whenever you have a new, socially volitile, emotiaonally charged topic like “Green” anything, your going to have to take your time and make sure there is consensus.  If Ihad any hair I’d pull it out, but I’m going to calm down and realize that this is a process.  I had so much steam coming out of my ears yesterday that i didn’t take the time to educate the people there about my concerns.  That’s my fault.  Expecting everything to run smoothly is a pipe dream and i shouldn’t have had my expectations that high.  I promise to do better.

 What this ongoing blog is hoping to accomplish is the education of you out there who may be thinking about or attempting the same type of thing…a committee to further sustainable (after half an hour this is what we came up with instead of Green!!  Can’t wait to get a new definition for another word next week!!) building practices.  Sarcasm aside, I do hope to provide educable materials in this blog, but I will also keep it humorous.  none of us needs another trip to the dentist!  I will change the names to protect the innocent but lets hope this is very informative for all of us.

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Outlook Inbox Organization

If your main job is to correspond all day via email, stop reading this blog. It’s not for you… 

I get way too many emails in a day. Sometimes it’s hard to keep myself focused on what really NEEDS to be done, and what is just wasting my time. There, I said it. 

I’ve tried every method out there from creating sub folders with rules for incoming mail, to using the “flag” strategy. Even if I archived my emails every 6 months, I still always seemed to end up with 10,000 emails in my inbox at any one time. I’m not a pack rat by nature, but it seemed like every time I deleted something… a business journal email, a confirmation of some type, etc, I would undoubtedly want to look at it again the next day. 

I finally came across a couple of articles that seem to have solved the problem (or at least eased the pain a little). After using this system for about 3 months now, I rarely have more than 30 emails in my inbox. 

I created a folder that I named “Archive” right in my main mailbox tree. All emails that I open that I don’t need to respond to, I drag into this folder. That way, it’s there if I need to go back to it. Also, that folder along with my “Sent Items” folder, are what I will archive every 6 months. (I actually changed the name of the folder later from “Archive” to “Old Items”, because sometimes I accidentally dragged emails into my “Deleted Items”, folder which was right below it. Sometimes now I drag stuff into my “Outbox” though… I need a new idea for that one.) 

Next, I created a folder that I called “Save”. I use this folder for things like passwords, vendor account info, instructions for setting up my VPN, our FTP server address, and other stuff that I use just often enough that I don’t want to have to search too hard to find it. 

All other emails that come in I address immediately, in the order I received them. It can be difficult at first, because the tendency is to do the easy stuff first, and then do the more time-consuming things later. The problem is, “later” sometimes never comes… So my general rule is, unless it’s something that will take more than an hour or so to do, do it now (even if it means asking for clarification or delegating). I created a folder named “To Do” for those emails that I couldn’t take care of in an hour. 

Also, if your job permits it, turn off your notification of new emails. I don’t think I have to remind anyone how distracting it is to be working on a project and have that box pop up telling you that you have a new message. Personally, 90% of the time I find myself stopping what I am doing to read it. 

The trick is to keep as few items in your inbox as possible. Set a schedule for checking your email. That could be twice an hour, or twice a day, depending on your business and job duties. Then, DO SOMETHING with each email as you get done opening it. 

How do you keep your inbox clean? Any suggestions? 

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Integrated Access

There is a great way to save money on your telecom budget.  Most carriers now offer a version of Integrated Access.  Integrated Access is where voice and data are brought into your office site on one T-1.  When no one is on the phone; you have the entire T-1 available for internet traffic.  When someone does make or answer a call, the voice traffic takes a small portion (different carriers have this set up differently) and uses it for that call.  Once the call is completed, you know have the entire T-1 available for internet traffic again.  Voice traffic always is the #1 priority!
Many companies have one voice and one data T-1.  By combining them into one, you may be able to cut costs, increase efficiency….or both.

Some of the carriers are now allowing you to ‘Bond’ two T-1s together; so that you could have 2 or 3 T-1s available for both internet and voice traffic.

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What is VoIP?

I was talking with a long-time customer the other day and he asked me, “What is the single question that you are most often asked?”.  By far, that question is ”What is VoIP?” (Voice over Internet Protocol).  There is a lot more to that question than you might think.  I COULD write a whole book about it, but fortunatley, that has already been done several times over.  The one book that I think is the most helpful when learning the basics of VoIP, is a book written by Tim Kelly titled “VoIP For Dummies”. 

You can download it right here from our website. VoIP FOR DUMMIES - Avaya Edition 

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them! 

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Did you know today is Alexander Graham Bell’s Birthday?

I thought I would share a little tidbit of information.  Did you know that today is Alexander Graham Bell’s birthday?  Usually the news and media don’t seem to recognize his birthday even though he provided us with a very important invention.  His mother and wife were deaf and that influenced his life’s work.  Alexander’s research on hearing and speech led him to experiment with hearing devices which culminated in being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876.  Upon his death, all telephones throughout the United States “stilled their ringing for a silent minute in tribute to the man whose yearning to communicate made them possible”.
Think about where we would be without telephones.  His invention has lead many other inventors to improve on what he did and wow, have they improved it.  Without phones, business would be a lot more difficult and talking to friends and family would almost be non-existent because who wants to constantly drive or walk to someone’s house just to say hello.  I’m sure if Alexander didn’t come up with the invention someone else eventually would have but why not give him credit for what he accomplished.  I would like to raise my handset up in his honor and say “thank you for starting a wonderful thing”.   : )

http://www.design-technology.org/telephone.htm

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Daylight Saving Time

For those of you who are not aware, Daylight Saving Time is on March 8 this year.  

What does that mean when it comes to your phone system?  Well, if you have a Partner, Legend, Magix or Definity, you are able to change the time on your system manually.   If you don’t have the instructions you can contact our Service Department and we will be able to provide you with them.  If you have an IP phone system such as the Avaya IP Office, the computer it’s connected to needs to be updated with a Microsoft patch.   If you don’t have an IT Department or person that can upload the patch to the appropriate computer you can call our Service Department to schedule and have a technician come out and install the patch.  The patch will allow your computer to update the Daylight Saving Time on March 8.

Watch our video on how to change the time on the ESI “S” Class Phone System on: 

Facebook Page  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wilsonville-OR/Technocom-Inc/57090862390 

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uutVZp_QTJc

Wilsonville, OR Service - 503.454.7373 , 866.656.4377
Kent, WA Service - 253.395.1717, 866.230.4782
Email – service@gotechnocom.com

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