The word “innovation” and Google is synonymous to other another. This is a company that never fails to innovate something better with every passing day. Sometime back in its annual I/O Conference held for its partners and developers, Google announced the launch of couple of advanced new services. Dedicated to experimenting with new thoughts, ideas, strategies and online applications Google is not afraid of critics. Development is its only objective. The new products and services Google highlighted in the conference, are all set to transform business, big or small including start up ventures. Here’s how it is likely to occur.
Android – According to Google there is already 900 million Android activations along with 48 billion downloaded apps till date. Majority knows that Apple rules the mobile domain, but in reality approximately 75 percent of Smartphone’s that got sold in the previous quarter were of Android technology. Simply put, Android OS enables an enterprise to get a consistent feel across several devices from various manufacturers and coordinate calendar, contacts and other information. Android platform promises greater reliability, flexibility and cost efficiency for the small business set ups.
Google Maps – Small business or start up entrepreneurs who have to be on the move more than the others, Google maps is a handy app for route navigation. There are more modifications coming up. There’s going to be a fresh new version dedicated to iPad with better enhancements for making re-routing suggestions as well as reporting traffic occurrences. The desktop users can expect high-quality images along with 3-D views for Google Earth and even Street View. For the ones involved in contracting, repair and roofing business can opt in for this tool to set up estimates by staying in their workstation. The improvements thus are going to have a positive impact on costing out jobs.
Payment through Email – Google is also introducing new ways for consumers to pay through Gmail using Google Wallet. Once you download the app, you can attach the payment of the concerned amount akin to a document and directly send it. As soon as this feature is developed, payment for both sides i.e. the receiver and the payer becomes easy. This feature is going to be made available within the next 18 months and what is even more interesting that the company is ensuring 100% transaction coverage.
41 new features for Google + – With a user base of 190 million, Google + rules over Facebook’s social media prominence. Hence, small business firms cannot avert this any longer. Google + have got most online browsers messaging, chatting and carrying out events through Google Hangouts. Google announced in the I/O Conference that ‘Hangout’ is going to be the only messaging feature for conducting group or one-on-one conversations over various devices. Google + new features will comprise Hangout enhancements and a Photo section and updates to the entire Google + interface. Which means if your business in not using Google+ then it’s time that you start using it.
Hence if its growth and innovation that you aim for your business get going the Google way! Now if you wish to make the most of these latest development, you can contact Suntel Technologies. We offer wide range of services to help small businesses scale new height of success.
There are more apps than what meet the eyes. Honestly speaking, we are literally surrounded by apps. We see them everywhere. Every day hundreds of new apps are being added to Google Plus Store. As obvious, most of them do not deserve to have our attention, but a small percentage of them look promising and worth our time. Here we are going to give a roundup of 10 new android apps that you can give a try -
Trek Episode Guide - This app is all set to woo in the Star Trek fans in a LCARS interface launched in the Star Trek: The Next Generation™ television series. The app offers a compendium of all the episodes of this televised show along with high quality images and plot details.
AudioBox – Since your media collection is portable, with AudioBox you can stream it from anywhere regardless of where the file is saved. This app allows you to play the DJ on Cloud, and play your “hit” tracks in smart or custom playlists.
Saga – An automatic life logging app, Saga is simplest way to keep a record of all your activities, such as what you do and where you do. In short, create your own digital autobiography as go about living your life every day.
We Heart It – Have a penchant for images? Then “We Heart It” is the perfect destination for you. Find some of the striking images of your preferences, view pictures that complement your mood or save a series of quotes. This is an inspiration corner for sure!
WeatherSignal – Going by its name it makes your mobile work as a weather hub. The native phone sensors records the local weather details, that are highlighted on the weather map updating live. So no more turning in to the news or internet to check the weather forecasts.
Schemes – As the name suggest this app has a “timely” benefit. It allows you to send timed messages through Twitter, Facebook, SMS or Gmail as per the schedule set by you.
Paul – It automatically determines your predilections and sets up a personalized profile. With this you can preload songs and videos of your choice, prior to even wanting them. Hence, there’s no delay. All the work is done over Wi-Fi.
Clutch – Clutch is certainly a treat for the online shopaholics. The app combines all that you required to shop from your phone, such as daily lucrative deals, wallet, customized collections, trending products, shopping search results, price comparisons and gift options. Regardless of your location, the app makes shopping easy and fun!
AppGratis – This app brings you a wide range of free apps with attractive discounts that go up to 90 %. Rated number one globally, AppGratis is free and is preferred by millions of iOS users.
Contactive – It efficiently combines your address book functionality with the internet data. It gathers data from sources publicly available, social media platforms and also the Contactive Global Directory to reveal the caller’s details prior to you answering the call.
Communication is the key for any business. In past, telephone was the only way of communication. But, in present times, people communicate through emails, Facebook, Twitter. However, telephone is still the most important mode of communication. Customer support, pre-sales discussion, internal communication – all these are better handled through telephonic conversation rather than emails or tweets.
The problem arises as you scale up; if you grow from 1 employee to 100 and your customer base grows from 500 to 10,000 it becomes difficult to expand your business telephone system. Setting up such a huge calling desk and maintenance become an expensive affair.
Is there any way to reduce telecom expenses is the question in everybody’s mind. Startups and SMEs who need to scale up fast often find it difficult to cope with the increasing cost of business telecom. And there comes IP telephony or business VoIP, the technology that has changed the corporate communication process entirely.
Over past couple of weeks, business VoIP has undergone serious changes. It’s not just a voice over data network any more; most of the VoIP providers are offering something more than that. Apart from the integration of voice with data network, VoIP providers are offering seamless integration of communication process with many other products and services too. Hence, there is a visible value-addition over traditional telephone system.
Three most important factors for businesses in present time are:
Businesses need to collaborate with others; team members need to collaborate to achieve bigger goals. There has to be a way for all the team members to communication seamlessly – no matter where they are located, what are their roles and what tool or device they use. This is what business VoIP can offer. In short it is the one-stop solution for all business communication and collaboration requirements.
However, to achieve this, business VoIP providers in Canada took initiatives to improve the infrastructure. Old PSTN model became outdated and high speed data network took over. Without such a strong base, VoIP technology could never reach the stage where it is today.
And the best part is, this technology will improve further. If you have not plugged-in to business VoIP yet, go for it. Look for business VoIP providers in Canada and know how they can help you. Professional VoIP providers would offer you the right solution within your budget.
You can contact SunTel Technologies as well. We are one of the leading business telecom services providers in Canada.
Most of the SMEs are shifting to Managed IT Services; instead of investing in their own IT department they are outsourcing the entire department to a professional Managed IT Service provider. This saves them money, time and effort. Above all, they get a peace of mind; businesses that are not into mainstream IT, often find it difficult to set up and maintain in-house IT department. By outsourcing it to a professional IT service provider you can achieve excellence without getting involved in it. Just plug-in the knowledge IT experts have and improve your business operations.
Running a business without IT support is something like asking people to set up industry without electricity. IT is the backbone of business operations these days; you can automate, you can keep track easily and you can increase efficiency by digitizing all the operations.
Managed IT Services allow you to get all the benefits without demanding much of your time. You can focus on your core business process while the service provider takes care of the IT part of your business.
Here is a list of benefits that you get by using Managed IT Services offered by a reputed provider.
1] Stay ahead of your time
Technology gets outdated very fast; as an SME it might be difficult for you to invest high on infrastructure. Therefore you will continue using old stuff whereas your competitors might move ahead. By working with a top level Managed IT Service provider you can get rid of this issue; most of the IT service providers invest in infrastructure and upgrades with time. Hence, you get to use latest technology and tools by working with them.
2] Low investment and known monthly expense
If you are to set up the IT department from scratch, you need to make a huge investment. And there might be unexpected incidents that can demand quick action as well. This problem can be avoided by working with a professional Managed IT Service provider in Canada. You know how much you need to pay them every month; and the initial investment is not very high too.
3] Smooth disaster recovery and business continuity
Disaster recovery and business continuity are two major things for any business; people invest a lot to ensure that these two aspects are in place. By working with a professional Managed IT service provider you can ensure seamless business operations during disasters or natural calamities.
CRM has become an integrated part of business operations these days. CRM applications are considered to be one of the most important business tools. With suitable CRM software you can automate business processes and save time and money. Above all, it eliminates a lot of mechanical and repetitive work that you otherwise had to do.
SugarCRM is one such open source CRM software; with SugarCRM you can automate the process flows, work flows and other business processes activities. There are many benefits of using SugarCRM; this is a customer relationship management application that allows you to cut on operational expenses and helps you to improve productivity.
This open source application is based on PHP and MySQL. Hence, you can easily customize it in order to make the platform a perfect fit for your business. You can create your own customized dashboard to get a consolidated view of your business; such dashboards help you understand how your business is performing. You can further customize it to achieve other business management goals.
Here are some of the advantages of using customized SugarCRM application.
1] Share data with specific team members; you can define restriction on information sharing according to user levels.
2] Import existing data stored in different file formats in to your SugarCRM application.
3] Monitor full history of tasks, meetings, calls, chats etc. to get a 360-degree view of the relationship with a customer. Users can attach files, keep notes and save contact details of customers and others in the loop for future reference.
4] Get detailed report of upcoming meetings, events, unattended leads, long pending tasks etc. You can see total number of leads received within a specific date range and how many of them got converted as well.
5] Keep all important and relevant customer information at one place; this can be of immense help for successful cross selling and better customer interaction.
6] By creating a case management module you can track specific customer problems and see how those problems were solved in past.
7] Define advanced and customized reporting to get the specific data that you frequently need to monitor performance.
8] SugarCRM 6 runs across different cloud environments; by using CRM application built on SugarCRM 6 you can get full control over customers’ data.
9] There are various SugarCRM modules available; you can add and customize them to implement a specific functionality.
10] Latest versions of SugarCRM offers built-in social media support. SugarCRM Mobile Plus allows you to access the application from BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone and many other mobile devices.
You can contact us to develop customized SugarCRM application for your business. We offer SugarCRM customization and implementation service in all major cities in Canada.
Security issues are common whenever we talk something about internet; as if security issues are integrated part of internet. However, with the advancement of technology, a lot of precautionary measures have been proposed that can help to ensure high end security. Just because country’s government is associated, people show greater trust and respect to PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). But that does not mean that hosted PBX cannot offer a secured interface to communicate. There was a time when hackers used to hack telephone calls; that is almost impossible these days because there are so many ways to identify any tampering in the network. Similarly, it is almost impossible to hack VoIP. As hosted PBX or VoIP is getting matured, a lot of techniques and ways are being invented to help people avoid online threats.
Though people think that whatever is there on the internet can be traced and hacked easily; but the fact is, in case of traditional switched telephone circuit tracking a call is much more easy than VoIP call tracing. In traditional telephone systems, the routes of call transferring and the entire functionality are pre-defined. The route might vary from one exchange to another, but it remains same within a single exchange. However, in case of VoIP or hosted PBX, there is no fixed route of signal transmission. There are many servers located all across the globe. The route is defined during runtime; it is not always the shortest route, but the quickest route, some times. The shortest route might have congestion, hence, the packets are routed through the path that is not that much congested and that can deliver a considerable turnaround time.
Professional hosted PBX service providers in Canada, make sure that everything is in place so that their clients can get a secured environment. Moreover, the government of many countries make it must for the VoIP providers to offer a secure network. It is true that the users need to be careful to make sure that the data and voice call records are protected. The hosted PBX service providers and the users have to employ right firewall, LAN settings and VPN settings to make sure that all confidential data are protected at both the ends.
You have to work with professional hosted PBX provider in Canada. A professional service provider will always help you to configure the high-end and protected system. With recent developments in the fields of internet security, creating a safe VoIP account is not difficult any more.
Microsoft launched the preview version of Outlook.com in August 2012. It was pretty clear from then that Microsoft would probably retire Hotmail and bring in Outlook.com in that place. There was a time when Hotmail was very popular all over the world; but it has lost a significant amount of market share to Gmail of late.
The transition is here now; Microsoft had officially announced about the transition and Outlook.com has replaced Hotmail finally. Around February 2013, Microsoft said that Outlook.com was ready to replace Hotmail; at that time they started to move 300 million Hotmail users to Outlook.com. Users, after getting moved over to the new brand, the users would still have their Hotmail.com, Live.com or MSN.com email id; all the contacts, settings etc. are going to work under Outlook.com brand.
The transition process is going to be slow; first of all, the users who access Hotmail heavily would get an alert – they can immediately switch to Outlook.com or postpone it for some day. Eventually, by the end of this summer, all the users would be shifted to Outlook.com
And the transition has started; a lot of people joined Outlook.com during the preview phase. Many Hotmail users have been shifted to the new interface as well. The new environment is far better than Hotmail – there are many organization tools and the interface looks pretty clean and well-organized as well. Outlook.com looks like Metro, a variant of Windows 8. However, the new interface looks to have a connection with Hotmail. Though there are many people who, irrespective of what new the get, prefer to stick to the old system or the system they are familiar with. For them, it might be a different game altogether – otherwise, the transition from Hotmail to Outlook.com is something a lot of people are going to like.
Currently there are 60 million active users of Outlook.com. According to Microsoft, one third of their total active users are from Gmail; they have also said that not all the Gmail users have stopped using Gmail id, many are using both the email ids parallel.
As the transition from Hotmail to Outlook.com is over, there would be hundreds of millions of active users. This would give Gmail and Yahoo! Mail a tight competition. According to reports published in June 2012 and December 2012, Gmail had 425 million users and Yahoo! Mail had 281 million users.
