As we are wrapping  up the year here at Teledynamic, handling the few customers that didn’t take the entire week off, it’s time to think New Year’s Eve.  And for me, that means spiced rum.

I’ve never been a big fan of Captain Morgan.   It’s cloyingly sweet and watered down at 70 proof.   However, I do like the concept of flavoring rum with winter spices.  So what to do but retreat to the laboratory and create my own.    Mistakes were made and I punished myself by drinking them all.   However, progress was steady and and today I think I’ve got a tasty alternative to “store bought”.

SPICED RUM

1 bottle of good gold rum (Bacardi or Goslings)

3” vanilla bean

½ tsp vanilla

1” cinnamon stick

1 point star anise

1 allspice berry

1 small grating nutmeg

Very small piece orange zest

Add the ingredients to the bottle and infuse for one week.   Taste and make any adjustments as necessary.   The finished rum makes for great hot rum drinks and can be served as an after-dinner drink paired with a chocolate dessert.

I’d love to hear about your favorite spiced rum recipe.

Happy Holidays,

Randy Kremlacek

Teledynamic Communications provides free educational materials about telecommunications on an ongoing basis to our subscribers and customers. We are a provider of a complete range of VOIP, telecom and data solutions for business.

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard of numerous stories of hosted VOIP providers who are experiencing business problems.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a critic of the PBX-as-a-service industry.   For certain applications and customers, it’s the perfect solution.  In fact, our company sells hosted VOIP for specific applications.   However, much like its analog predecessor Centrex, it’s a one-size-fits-all product, with very little capability to customize the service to meet your business needs.   Therefore, it works well in simpler, less communications-intensive businesses.  However, a technology assessment is not what this post is all about.

Today, the hosted VOIP marketplace is the wild west.  There are virtually hundreds of companies providing the service, most with little business history and no track records.   The technology and business case of hosted VOIP can be quite compelling, but beware the industry.  After all, you entrusting your entire business communications to these folks.

There are some excellent players in the marketplace who’ve got sustainable business models and have been in the game for years.   San Francisco-based CallTower has been around since the turn of the century and is thriving.    Wholesale Hosted VOIP provider, New Global Telecom (NGT) boasts of beginning their business way back in 1996, making them a grandfather of the industry.

However, these two are exceptions in this wild territory.   Large providers such as SunRocket and VOIP Inc. both evaporated in the past year leaving customers without service.   Locally, a swarmy company by the name of Xiptel, headed by the fast and double talking Peter Geddes did the ol’ corporate switcheroo buying out the assets of the old company and reviving themselves the next day as, guess what, Xipcom dga XIPTEL.   However, they “forgot” to tell their customers and agents.   Pretty sleazy if you ask me.

As time goes by, the industry will mature, the weak will whither and die and the sleazeballs move to the next wild west game.  Until then, be very careful when considering hosted PBX.  there are some safe choices, but you’ll have to do some heavy digging to find the gems.

I’d like to hear about your experiences.

Randy Kremlacek

Teledynamic Communications provides free educational materials about telecommunications on an ongoing basis to our subscribers and customers. The company provides a complete range of VOIP, telecom and data solutions for business.

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Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve received a number of emails from CLEC and LEC carrier salespeople.   They all have a common theme – Their competitors are all doing horrible in this recession.  The meaning, although usually unstated, is that the email author works for the only telephone company in the industry that will survive today’s dire straits. Here’s an excerpt from one of the missives:

Sprint

Losing a lot of lines, especially with residential to cellular and cable as well as competition in small to midsize business.

XO

Carl Icahn is using tricks to try to get more control over XO and away from the shareholders.  XO stock at .18 cents per share and trading over the board.  De listed – no longer on NASDAQ. 

AT&T

Recently stopped using its Vonage-like service

TW Telecom (Formerly Time Warner)

Shares tumble as economic slowdown is pressuring revenue.  Recently trading at 

Had to disconnected a lot of customers who are not paying building

PAETEC

Missed their earnings and revenue projections. Stocks fell accordingly.  Stocks down and trading at .92 cents.

CBeyond

Stock took a big hit and analysts have downgraded it.  Trading at $11.59, down from a high of $46 earlier this year

What’s sad is that these salespeople are doing their companies and the telecom industry a disservice.  Communicating to the world a grim (and inaccurate picture of  impending death and destruction spreads unfounded fears about the telecom industry.   You would think that a perceptive salesperson would have learned long ago that fear breeds indecision.  Why would a customer make a change in carriers today if the messages that they hear in the sales process are filled with anecdotes of the demise of the industry. The Teledynamic Service Department has received several calls asking for their opinion on the health of carriers.  We always respond with a message that we believe that the carriers will survive and will be around for the long haul.

Guys, why not clean up the message and provide your prospects, partners and customers a positive voice in this recessionary environment.   Stop sniping and get back to helping your customers!

Randy Kremlacek

Teledynamic Communications provides free educational materials about telecommunications on an ongoing basis to our subscribers and customers. We are a provider of a complete range of VOIP, telecom and data solutions for business

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I’ve been in the business of selling and implementing business telephone systems since 1985.   Over the years, I’ve observed many businesses making their decision on which PBX to purchase based upon the aesthetics of the phone that would be on their desk.   I’ve always considered calling handling to be the core component of a telephone system and the phone just a device used for making and receiving calls.   Many end-users (and decision makers) place a larger emphasis on the desk phone.   In other words, looks count, sometimes even to the detriment of functionality.

When Cisco and3Com introduced the IP PBX in late 1998, their desk phones were quite limited in functionality but had a “new technology” feel to them and were readily embraced by buyers.  It didn’t take long for IP PBX manufacturers to catch on to this wave of interest and design telephones with large screen menus and brushed silver bezels.  These new phones were really a hit.  It wasn’t unusual for buyers to spend up to $1,000 for a fancy new IP phone with a color screen, web-browsing and other features rarely used.

However, that seems to be changing rapidly.  Phones are being replaced by devices.  Huh, you say?   Softphones eliminate the desk phone.   Smart wireless phones are serving dual purpose – they function as a cell phone outside of the office and as a mobile office phone within the business.  Microsoft’s Office Communicator has a built-in softphone.  Any IP-enabled product could conceivably be a phone.  Thus, the change from “phone” to “device”.  It’s funny, I’ve heard a multitude of names for phones over the years:  Station, set, phone, terminal, handset and now device.

So after many years of experts prognosticating the disappearance of the common desk phone, to be swallowed up by the data network may finally be coming true.   Certainly desk phones won’t be obsolete tomorrow, but rather they’ll be just another “device” from which to choose.  My prediction is that these devices will blossom and users will have an overwhelming array of products from which to choose.   It’s likely that users will find something that fits them just perfectly.  Good luck to the IT department in supporting this potpourri of new technology!

tell me what you think.

Randy Kremlacek

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