Business Telephone System

The telephone system has been around for decades and it is critical to households and businesses. For obvious reasons the telephone system is vital to business, it keeps you connected with customers and it allows you to contact colleagues either in house or across another premises. The business telephone system is now critical for any business regardless of size.

Keep Your Business Telephone System Updated Large or Small

Due to the ever changing nature of technology both customer and business requirements change as technology evolves. Now this means your telephone system needs to be flexible and adaptability with technological changes. These are the top 7 signs your business telephone system is outdated and needs replacing:

- Your business phone system is unable to grow alongside your business.business telephone system
- Your system has a lack of features.
- Your enterprise has a system for each facility.
- Poor or crackly voice calls.
- Can't cope with large amounts of call volume.
- Your telephone system is not compatible with VoIP.
- Your system will not support mobile telecommunications.

System Industry Importance

- Call Centres
- General Practitioners
- Hotel & Hospitality
- Recruitment Consultancy
- Accounting Services
- Large SEO Consultancies
- Automobile Showrooms
- Business Consultants
- Large Corporate Banking Firms

The system is critical within all business sectors, however do consider that some industries rely on having effective telecommunications for success. If your business is a hotel for example and your telephony system is ineffective think about the implications it can have on potential client bookings. Also consider that you are a recruitment agency, your day to day operations see you liaising with professional clients and potential candidates, an ineffective system will have detrimental affects to your business as well as your professionalism. Different industries will be affected subversively, however regardless of industry your business will always NEED the most effective system, this is something your organisation should not COMPROMISE on.

System Feature Importance Large or Small

- Ability to forward calls to any devices.
- Ability to add new extensions at the whim on the company.
- Ability to monitor calls, i.e. whisper, barge and record.
- Ability to hold conference calls.

Now if your business does not take care of it's system requirements and you fail to upgrade your system, you are going to miss out on the latest system features. Consider this, many system features do in fact save businesses man power and capital spend. The call bridge feature for example, allows the user to access the office from long distances, which of course saves on outside trips to the office saving you time, capital and giving you continuity. Also adding extensions at the whim of the company is a great feat, being able to expand or decrease your system requirements as the company see fit.

Which System Should I Choose Then?

This is a common question across system requirements, the short answer is you need to 1st understand your business requirements. If you have 2 phones & no extensions then of course you won't need a NEC SV9100 or a NEC SV8100 which is suitable for large businesses, you would be better of with a NEC SL1100 system. You should choose a system that suits your businesses needs and requirements and one that is feature rich. If you are unsure you can start now using our TELEPHONE SYSTEM GUIDE.


About the Small Business Telephone System

Many small businesses have a perfectly understandable tendency to talk about their business telecom services requirements in terms of a small business telephone system. The trouble is, frequently that train of thought may become confused in terms of the difference between the capability of your phone system and its cost.

Powerful system capabilities do not equate to big systems and big prices

Of course, if you have a phone system that has 200+ extensions on it, then by many definitions it is a big system. Yet you don't have to have a big system like that to achieve impressive telecoms support for your business. In fact, it may be to the contrary.

If your system only has six extensions but is modern and well integrated into both your existing technology infrastructure and your business processes, then it may deliver you incredible opportunities. If it's obsolete or poorly integrated then it may not only fail to deliver opportunities but actually possibly inhibit your operations - even if it does have 200 extensions.

Modern business phone systems are designed to be capable of adding huge value to your business from day one, even if you're starting with a small business and small telecoms configuration of just a few extensions.

Design is key

Modern small business phone systems are designed to be easy to install but the selection of your solution is typically key. Although business telecoms are increasingly seen as being purchasable off the shelf, in reality there is a relationship between thinking through and designing your telecoms needs and the eventual benefits you'll achieve.

Purchasing an expensive small business telephony system that can do huge amounts of things for you from day one may not be the most suitable solution if, in fact, you don't need half of those functions anyway. The good news is that if things change in future, then the modular nature of modern small business telephone systems means that your technology can be generally upgraded and expanded without throwing away your existing investment.

Proven solutions

Today few companies, large or small, can afford the luxury of being a test site for glamorous but unproven technology. That's because modern businesses rely heavily on their telephone systems to support their operation virtually every minute of the day.

If the system is unavailable for technical reasons, you'll typically want it fixed very rapidly indeed. What you probably won't want to hear is that it can't be fixed because nobody has seen this problem or specific telephone system before.

That's why using well known telephony solutions such as Siemens business telephone systems may help reduce your risks of down time and limited support. Back this up with a telephone systems maintenance contract from a reputable telecoms solutions provider and you can typically feel confident that your telephone operations will run as smoothly as possible.

New view of the small business telephone system

So, the telephone system for your business may be small in size and moderately priced but if the selection is correct and your integration sound, you may find that it delivers real benefits. The small business telephone system is no longer small in terms of its capabilities!

Death Day Celebrations

The celebration of the Day of the Dead is a mixture of Catholic and pre-historic Hispanic beliefs about death. The Spanish conquistadors brought their religious faith to the Americas but their beliefs dated back to the early Christians' adoption of the customs of the ancient Egyptians and Romans.

The ancient Maya, Aztecs and other pre-historic Hispanic people believed in an afterlife. In particular, the Aztecs believed that everyone who died would be born again. They honored the spirits of the dead and invited them to visit earth on certain days of the year. On those days, the ancient people offered them tamales and atoles (a drink made of cornmeal and water).

Over time, October 31st evolved into All Hollows Eve when the spirits of dead children came to visit. November 1st became All Hallows or All Saints Day, a day to pray for the innocent souls of saints and martyrs, and November 2nd became All Souls Day, a day to remember the spirits of departed sinners.

Today, the Day of the Dead celebration is a family event reuniting the living with their dead relatives. Each family and community has its own way of celebrating although many customs are observed in common throughout Mexico.

October 31st is a day of preparation for the celebration. Families shop at the local market for food supplies and items like copal (a resin-based incense), marigolds, candles and calaveras de dulce (sugar skulls).

Back home, children make an altar decorated with small baskets of nuts, hot chocolate in small cups, sugar skulls, flowers, fruit, and toys. They light incense and small candles that will illuminate the way for the angelitos (little angels) to visit earth.

On November 1st, families eat an early breakfast of pan de muertos (bread of the dead), hot chocolate, atole, and tlalludas (chicken broth served with large tortillas). Afterwards, the family does the necessary chores to prepare their house for visitors.

The women of the house make tamales de mole (mole sauce and chicken folded inside a tortilla which is then wrapped in corn husks and tied with string) which are steamed in a large pot. In the meantime, another family member makes a second trip to the marketto buy sugar canes and more marigolds.

The adults decorate their own altar by placing a colorful cloth on a table and decorating it with a crucifix, pan de muertos, fruit, flowers, cups of chocolate and atole, a small offering of cooked tamales, and the special things the deceased enjoyed during their life on earth. They light a bowl of lamp oil and place a lighted candle for each dead relative and their photos.

The sound of fireworks and the ringing of church bells announce that the spirits of the dead are on their way to earth. The bells ring without stopping for twenty-four hours, rung by teams of young men.

Families wear their best clothes and visit through the day and night and into the next day, bringing empty baskets which they fill with items from the altars of the homes they visit. Host families take the time to visit friends and relatives, too.

On November 2nd, families visit the cemetery, cleaning and decorating the graves and tombs with flowers. They bring picnic food as an offering to the dead. The families believe that the dead do not actually eat this food but "inhale" it.

The bells stop ringing at 3 p.m. signaling that the dead are departing. Families eat, sing,laugh, visit with their neighbors, and children play among the tombstones. When night falls, candles are lit on the tombs and graves.

Families depart, too, until the celebrations begin again next year.

Day of the Dead Celebrates Lives Lived

The Day of the Dead celebrations held on November 1st and 2nd acknowledge the culmination of the life cycle, and that death will come to us all. While it directly follows Halloween, the holiday is not designed to scare or bring sadness.

The Day of the Dead allows the living to honor those who have died - family, friends,ancestors, and pets. While its origins are from ancient Meso-American cultures, which range from Mexico to Honduras and El Salvador, anyone can adopt this annua lobservance and tailor this colorful celebration to remember their own deceased loved ones.

History

Starting with the Halloween connection, going back about 3,000 years, the ancientCeltic people believed that on October 31st the boundary between the living and the dead dissolved, allowing spirits of the deceased to cross over into the living world. Tocombat the Druid festival Samhain (pronounced Sow-wen) held this time of year, theCatholic Church moved All Saints' Day - a.k.a. All Hallows' Day - from mid-May toNovember 1. Halloween comes from abbreviating All Hallows' Even, the evening before the day.

Meanwhile, over in the Western Hemisphere, indigenous peoples such as the Aztec, Maya, Olmec, Toltec and other tribes in Mexico held rituals celebrating the deaths of ancestors during the month of August. It corresponded with a festival dedicated to agoddess called Mictecacihuatl, The Lady of the Dead. When Catholic SpanishConquistadors came to the New World more than 500 years ago, they tried to eradicate these native rituals that seemed to mock death and symbolized death and rebirth.

The ancient rituals refused to die in the face of forced conversion. So to make the ritual more Christian, the Spaniards moved it to correspond with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, November 1 and 2. In Mexico, Dia De Los Muertos as it is known in Spanish, often honors deceased children and infants on the first day, and deceased adults on the second day.

The early Meso-American attitude was that life is a dream, and death is the awakeningto real life. The dead are considered to have semi-divine status, given permission toreturn once a year. They are to be welcomed, not feared.

How Day of the Dead is Celebrated

Today, Day of the Dead celebrations are held in Mexico, parts of Central and LatinAmerica, in the Southwest U.S., and some European countries. In Mexico, thecelebrations are elaborate, even more so than Christmas observances. Parades and profuse decorations in homes and cemeteries make this time of year a tourist spectacle.

Families visit cemeteries to clean the graves of loved ones, decorate them with flowersand candles, and commune with the spirits of the departed. Often, they picnic in the cemetery, bringing the deceased's favorite food and drink.

When the Church granted magical curative powers to relics, it was extended to the use of milagros, Spanish for miracles, metal charms in the shape of body parts that need healing. This gave rise to specially shaped Day of the Dead foods, such as sugar skulls and pan de muerto, sweet egg bread baked in the shape of skulls or bones. These can be offerings to the dead or eaten by the living.

Colorful parades are held with people dressed as skeletons, a reminder that in death, we actually continue life. Skull masks and artwork of skeletons doing everyday activities, such as dancing, bicycle riding, and eating and drinking, remind us that theeverlasting soul continues on, separate from the body.

The celebration continues in the home, welcoming the dead with respect and devotion. Some families will make an elaborate dinner, set out the food and not eat it until the next day, to let the spirits eat first. They may also make the bed with fresh sheets to allow the spirits to rest after their long journey to earth. And they construct ofrendas,individualized altars with offerings to maintain relations with the dead.

Making an Ofrenda or Altar

You don't have to be Mexican to honor your loved ones with a Day of the Dead altar in your home and welcome their spirits for a visit. Start by setting up a table with photos of the deceased, and their ashes if you have them. Don't forget to include departed pets!

Decorate around the photos with flowers and candles. Set out foods and beverages that they used to enjoy. Play the music they loved. Put art objects they collected or artwork they created on or near the altar. Write messages to them and place the notes next to their photos. Include items from pets' lives, such as toys, leashes, treats, and tags.

Traditional ofrendas have items that represent the four elements of earth, air, fire and water. A glass of water is included, to give the spirits a drink after their long journey. Tissue paper sheets with elaborate cutout designs, called papel picado, represent air, as they move with the gentlest breeze. Flowers and a bowl of salt often represent the earth, and candles provide fire.

Marigolds are the flower of choice for Day of the Dead decorating. Their pungent scent is said to guide souls to earth, and marigolds are often still blooming in late October. Flowers can be arranged in an arch, along with sheets of papel picado, representing the connection from earth to heaven.

Create the altar prior to Halloween, and keep it up for as long as it feels right.Photograph the altar for posterity. Each year presents a new opportunity to rememberand honor those who meant so much to us while they lived. Inevitably, there will be new faces to add as the years go by.