EarthLinkers Keep Pace with the Boston Marathon

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4/15/13, 5:45 p.m. EST. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and individuals whose lives were touched by the tragic explosions at today’s Boston Marathon. We are grateful to report that we have accounted for the safety of our employees in attendance there today as spectators and runners.

Monday, April 15th marks the 117th Boston Marathon. Race day is always exciting for EarthLink, and not only because the company is the Boston Athletic Association’s (B.A.A.’s) official IT services provider. One team of EarthLinkers has been busily preparing, monitoring and proactively routing web traffic for the Boston Marathon, ensuring that the web site for the iconic event is accessible for the more than 1 million site visits and 12 million page views during the event, while another team of EarthLinkers is preparing to run the race!

Team EarthLink at the Boston Marathon

“EarthLink is a great partner to have our back with web traffic on race day. They provide us with the peace of mind to know that we have ample data storage and servers in our arsenal. Even if we get 100 million site visits, we know we can provide a good experience to each and every one of them,” said T.K. Skenderian, Marketing and Sponsorship Manager, Boston Athletic Association. Click here to view the full press release, and click here to view our B.A.A. case study.

For five lucky EarthLink employees, Monday is the day they will run the Marathon after winning a company contest for complimentary race waivers. Mark Clementi – Circuit Design Tech, Rochester; Christine Antonini – Provisioning Team Lead, Rochester; Justin Davidson – Manager Network Support, Burlington; Scott Turner – Manager System Administration, Atlanta, and Linda Scavarda – General Ledger Accountant, Huntsville will each fulfill a lifelong dream when they compete in the Marathon.

Scott Turner wrote, “I ‘m not as fast as most Boston Marathoners but my goal is to be like a freight train – unstoppable!  Life is more of a distance race than a sprint and thanks to the EarthLink waiver, I get to fulfill my dream — running the Boston Marathon on my 60th birthday!’  And Justin Davidson also shared, “I remember the first time I ran this race for our company in 2011. While running I remember saying to myself, ‘I know it is a race, but I really wish it never ended.’ 

Congratulations to everyone on Team EarthLink, whether running in the Marathon or keeping the technology infrastructure operating at peak performance!

For the latest EarthLink updates, visit our press release page, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Hosted Voice from EarthLink Business – Why it’s Different

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EarthLink Business has created a rich portfolio of offerings that can change your business for the better. We have such a wide range of IT services that any business would be able to utilize us as a one stop shop. We are not the only consulting firm though, so what sets us apart? Here are three reasons to partner with EarthLink Business…

  1. Only One Back to Pat – In the world of communications it is rare to partner with a single entity for an entire solution. Often you have to get your voice circuit from one company, the phone system from another and then the people that show up onsite are contracted out from a third business. Here at EarthLink, we own the entire process. From beginning to end, if you have an issue there is just one phone number to call. Your dedicated business relationship manager will help you with anything and everything without making you jump through hoops.
  2. The EarthLink Network is a Step Above the Rest – With any communication service, call quality is the most important component. Almost every provider claims to have QoS (Quality of Service) but that can equate to different variations of the technology. In the end, unless your provider owns the entire connection from beginning to end, they can’t really guarantee the quality of that call if it is not on their network. Additionally, QoS will only take you so far when you start to layer on other technologies. CoS (Class of Service) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_of_service) is an offering that is offered by few and far between. EarthLink Business does all of the above and we do it well. Other best effort technology providers may offer you up front savings but if your communication platform quality suffers the loss of revenue will cancel out any savings, tenfold.
  3. Relax, We’ve Done This Before – Over the last several years, we have perfected the process of changing your business with our solutions (particularly Hosted Voice). We now have over 30,000 hosted phones running on our network. Each endpoint (phone) gives it’s user a versatile and flexible way to do business which helps them to be more productive and ultimately more profitable.

When you are ready to change your business for the better, contact your local EarthLink Business representative so that we can help you get there.

 

VoIP Features on Legacy Systems

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VoIP gets all the attention – but what about companies that purchased a PBX (Private Branch Exchange) phone system or are just not ready to take the leap to a full VoIP (Voice Over IP) solution? Are there still VoIP options available? Does ‘the cloud’ come into play?

A PBX is a private telephone network used within a company. The users of the PBX phone system share a number of outside lines for making external phone calls. The PBX also connects the internal telephones within a business as well as connects them to the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

VoIP itself is merely a new way to transport calls…not the way calls are processed. And EarthLink Business has options available to see if your company can continue to operate using existing systems while still taking advantage of VoIP features…

EarthLink Business offers complete Line Side and PRI services, which we hand off to the customer as analog lines or TDM PRI, respectively, to the customer’s key system or PBX/IP PBX.   These EarthLink Complete Voice services transport calls and data across a VoIP network, allowing customers access to many of the same great features offered with EarthLink Complete Hosted Voice:

Network-based Unified Voicemail hosted in the network for access from any device.

Network-based Unified Fax for viewing inbound faxes on your computer, web-browser, or email from anywhere.

Auto Attendant provides a virtual receptionist and simulates a live operator. Auto Attendant directs callers to the correct department or employee. The main menu can be configured and personalized. Calls can be sent to a phone that is not on the system such as a cell phone.  This network option eliminates the need for an additional piece of equipment on site.

Call Router provides businesses with the ability to route calls from their main business number to alternative destinations. Features include automatically routing the main number to any 10 digit domestic phone number, send all calls to the main number to voicemail or set up a weekly call routing schedule based on: time of day, day of week, calling party and configure for holidays or special days in advance based on a calendar. Control of call router is through a secure administrative portal where customers can make updates and changes from any Internet connection 24/7/365.

Abbreviated Dialing enables customers to dial their other locations, on the same network, without having to dial the full 7-10 digit number, similar to extension dialing.  This is supported across all EarthLink Complete Voice products.

Site-to-site calling allows customers to call all of their locations without incurring domestic long distance charges.

Have questions or want to know more? Contact EarthLink Business and we’ll see how we can help!

Hosted Voice: EarthLink’s Retail Communication Solution

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Hosted Voice by EarthLink Business is being applied to the retail vertical more and more. It is a great way to unify any company that has a few to many locations with minimal telephony needs. Since EarthLink has so many options for blended access, we can create a cost effective customized solution that is a good economic fit for any customer and any size retail presence.

EarthLink Business is one of the few providers that can provide COS (Class of Service) over a DSL connection. With this offering, retailers can enjoy a business class connection at an extremely competitive cost. In the past, retail owners would have no way of unifying their store locations because each store would be stuck with a separately-managed, low end communication solution. But with the EarthLink Business Hosted Voice product we can unify all of the stores and provide detailed call accountability through call logs…giving leadership personnel visibility into how their business is functioning. In turn, they are able to fill in the gaps, adjust their dealings appropriately, and increase productivity (which can ultimately increase their profitability). Contact an EarthLink resource today to find out how the EarthLink Hosted Voice product can change the way you do business!