Phone System Services -Chicago, IL 

Whether you need a legacy phone system maintained, or an entirely new communications system for multiple offices, Andromeda Technology Solutions is the answer you have been looking for. As our expertise also includes complete data network solutions, you can rest assured that we can fully integrate a communications system that will best leverage your existing or future IT infrastructure.

In many cases, your telephone system is the first thing people will experience when dealing with your business.

• Does it show your company in a good light?
• Is it set up so your clients have a good experience?
• Does it help maximize employee productivity?

Let us show you how a phone system should be set up!

Experience the simplicity of having an experienced company to handle all aspects of your communication systems, letting you focus on running your business.

Contact us or fill out the Request form on this page now to ask us to contact you!

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Hybrid PBX and IP-based Phone Systems

We support a host of major phone systems—from Avaya, NEC, Panasonic to Toshiba— and are a certified Panasonic dealer for both a traditional PBX system, as well as a true IP-based VoIP system. The beauty of these systems lies in their very extensive feature set (over 800 features) and their mix-and-match capabilities. Each system can mix analog, digital and IP phone sets to match almost any application. Also, each system has extensive functionality built-in for incorporating branch offices, work-at-home employees and other remote workers.

We spend a great deal of time understanding all your requirements, so we can select the system and functions that are exactly what you need.

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The Phones Become the Network

If you are considering an IP-based telephone system, it is important to understand these systems are more data systems than phone systems. Unlike a traditional PBX system, a VoIP system puts a significant burden on your data network, and requires specific equipment and configuration to ensure everything is running properly.

Many traditional telephone service companies lack the skills to properly install and maintain a VoIP system. Andromeda Technology Solutions excels in all aspects of voice and data, and will ensure you get the system that is right for you.

Whether Cloud-based, Hosted/virtual PBX, or completely on-premises, we have the knowledge AND experience to guide you and implement your voice communication system to perfection.

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Replacement of Legacy Phone Systems

We have many years of experience upgrading/replacing legacy phones systems from: ComDial, Nortel, Toshiba/Mitel, and Samsung just to name a few. If you would like to experience service from a truly customer-focused organization, call us when you are ready to replace and upgrade your existing legacy telephone system.

			KX-TA KX-NCP KX-TDA KS-TDE
			IP Office Definity Magix Legend Partner
			Aspire Elite IPK I-Series DS/DSX

AndroPedia Tech Library

As part of our service, it is important to keep our client-partners well informed on Telephone system developments, news, and best practices. Here is just a sampling of typical items from our AndroPedia^SM library archive:

It costs money to make money.

It’s safe to say that you’ve heard this phrase somewhere – especially if you own or manage a business.

Rent . . . Employee Salaries . . . Utilities . . . Outsourced Services . . . Supplies . . . the list goes on and on and on.

With the cost of being in business steadily increasing, it is important to save where you can.

We speak with business owners about how technology can add value on a daily basis. We assist in improving uptime which increases productivity, we help business owners and managers secure their data so they can rest easier knowing they have proper protection in place.

We help business owners secure their physical locations with access control, security cameras and burglar systems.

We even help businesses increase revenues with professional website development and digital marketing strategies.

All of that said, there is still one area that we see business owners overspending on time and time again.

Care to guess what that might be? . . . if your phone bill came to mind you nailed it!

If you are like many other professionals, you want to take a good look at your phone bill but don’t know where to start. With that in mind we grabbed a few things to pay attention to and cost saving ideas that you’ll find below.

Tips and Tricks to Help From Overpaying on Your Business Phone Bill

Pay close attention to your contract dates

While there is a certain expected increase in services over time, all too often companies are being overcharged every month by their service provider because they are out of contract.

Service providers don’t want you on a month to month agreement. They want to know they have your business for extended periods of time.

On top of this, the end of your current contract is a great time to see what else is out there. Even if you stay with the incumbent provider, you’ll know that you are getting the best rate and may be able to get a deal for sticking around instead of jumping to the competition.

Take a look at how your phones are serviced

Getting your business “in the cloud” is a big topic these days. With many different cloud based applications and even cloud based hardware, it is no surprise that your phones also have cloud options.

There are many types of phone systems available to you and they are serviced differently which means that they have different costs associated as well.

While we won’t dive into too much granular detail, your main options for a phone system are on premise digital systems, on premise IP based systems and other cloud based systems or VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) systems as they are commonly known.

At times, a VoIP system may offer a cheaper monthly expense but over time it may end up costing more than your traditional PBX or on premise solution.

We would recommend bringing in professional assistance before switching from an on premise system to a cloud based or VoIP system. There may be infrastructure costs or other back end costs associated with this switch you should be aware of before making the change.

Make sure all of the lines you pay for are in use

This may seem like a no brainer but as your organization grows and you have more phone lines in service, it is easy to forget that one or many might not be necessary.

The most common instances of these forgotten lines are dead extensions, fax lines or other dedicated office equipment lines and potentially even dedicated lines for security.

You obviously don’t want to disconnect these without investigating how it might impact things at the office – especially if the lines are dedicated to security.

We’d suggest having a professional technician come on site to test and document your lines if you believe you are paying for lines that aren’t being used.

Consider a PRI

A PRI is a Primary Rate Interface but the acronym is a commonly used term for phone bills and the telecommunications industry.

In a nutshell, a PRI is a circuit with a physical device on site that allows you to group multiple analog lines or DID (Direct Inward Dialing) numbers onto one circuit.

We’ve found that a PRI cuts down costs for companies with approximately 6 analog lines or more. Instead of paying a monthly fee for each of those lines, you pay a fee for the service to your PRI and an upfront cost for the hardware.

Of course, this doesn’t save you money in every instance but more often than not, using a PRI will cut your monthly bill a bit.

Check your bills regularly

There are many different reasons you want to check your phone bill every month.

Service providers may change rates, add fees or any other number of things and if you pay the phone bill without regard or even set it up on auto pay it may take months before you recognize the discrepancies.

The more comfortable you are with reading your phone bill, the more you will understand about the different fees and charges and the less likely you are to have random fees or charges go unnoticed.

When all is said and done, we suggest taking a deeper look into your phone bills about every 6 months. You can do this yourself or task an outsourced firm to do it. There are even brokers out there that  you can contract to shop rates and ensure you get the best deal.

Andromeda is not in the business of providing your actual phone connection, but we are in the business of providing you with the best technology and customer service experience with your phone system.

With that in mind, if you ever have a question about something you aren’t sure about on your bills, our staff is more than welcome to help you out.

The post Are You Overpaying On Your Phone Bill? Tips and Hidden Tricks to Save On Your Business Phone Bills. appeared first on Andromeda Technology Solutions.

Whether you are considering purchasing a hosted VoIP Phone System or you’ve already made the switch there are some important things you’ll want to consider to make sure that you have in place.

Hosted VoIP phone solutions are a great option for small business. They offer many special functions and programming options to businesses via cloud technology and network capabilities.

These systems are easily portable – sometimes referred to as ‘plug and play’ solutions. As long as your office has proper cabling and network infrastructure, you can move phones easily across the office in minutes without having to call a technician or service company.

Hosted VoIP Phone solutions are scalable, offer many bells and whistles, make remote workforces easier to manage, offer detailed reporting options and a wide range of other business functions.

It should be mentioned that many if not all of these functions and programming options are available on digital solutions and IP hybrid solutions. Do not believe any phone vendor that tells you otherwise.

If you decide that hosted or cloud VoIP phone systems are the solution for your office, you’ll want to take a few steps to make sure that you are setting yourself up for a smooth and secure transition:

1. Consult an IT Vendor with Network Security experience

Whether you are planning a transition to hosted VoIP Phone Solutions or you already have them, it is important that you understand the implications this has on your network and your network infrastructure.

You want to make sure that you know how much bandwidth you currently have available and whether you’ll need to increase this. Making and receiving phone calls over the internet can eat up your available bandwidth and if you don’t account for this demand increase, you may suffer from dropped calls, low call quality and other issues. So make sure you have strong enough service from your internet provider.

Adding your phones to the network adds other requirements as well. You’ll want to have a network audit done to check up on your infrastructure and your network security. You may need to add equipment and/or update infrastructure for your VoIP phone solution to work.

Hosted VoIP systems without proper network security and infrastructure are vulnerable to data theft, DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks and other cybersecurity issues. Just like any other extension on the network, you’ll need to make sure that connections are secure and you are proactively protecting your business.

2. Make sure you have a plan for emergency numbers

While hosted VoIP phone systems can be great for your business, they do create some issues for emergency calls to local law enforcement, medical help etc.

Because your calls are made over the internet there is no geographic location associated with your phones and this poses a problem for first responders. Essentially, your phones cannot figure out which emergency call center to direct the call to.

Because of this, most companies with a cloud phone solution like hosted VoIP need to have a backup plan for emergency calls. This may mean that you maintain one digital or POTS line for emergencies.

If you have a burglar system or security system you might already have this set up because these solutions run into the same issues with VoIP service.

3. Find a vendor who can support your solution

There are hundreds of options available to you for your hosted VoIP Phone system. Between all of your hardware options and service provider options things can get a bit confusing.

A great first step when you are looking into VoIP is to engage your IT company and see if there is a solution they provide/work with.

All too often we get calls from companies with hosted phones looking for support and we have to turn them away because they have hardware Andromeda isn’t able to support.

When choosing your hardware and service provider you want to ask the following:

• How long has the company been around (they pop up and disappear far more often than you’d think)?
• Who is going to provide service to the hardware?

You definitely don’t want to find out once it is too late and your phones are having problems that you don’t have anyone to help you out.

Your phone system may change or be replaced but the need for a secure and reliable phone system remains the same. Additionally, your need for a technology or telecom vendor that understands your solution remains paramount. If moving to hosted VoIP Phone Solutions or cloud phone system is something on your mind, make sure to give us a call and we can work to make sure your transition is as smooth and secure as possible.

The post VoIP Phone Solutions: 3 Steps To Protect Yourself & Your Business appeared first on Andromeda Technology Solutions.

How good is your IT staff at staying current when it comes to applying all the latest security patches? Unfortunately, the answer for most businesses is, "probably not as good as you think."

According to research conducted by Bitdefender, a staggering 64 percent of un-patched vulnerabilities discovered on corporate networks in 2020 involve bugs that date back to 2018 and before.

This mind blowing statistic has serious implications for your company, no matter what business you're in, and no matter how large or small your firm might be.

What the key finding means, in a nutshell, is that of the US businesses with one or more un-patched piece of code running on their network, there are fixes available for nearly two thirds of them. Worse, those fixes have literally been available for years. Not taking advantage of them is, from the perspective of a hacker, like leaving a neon sight above the front door of your business that reads, "we don't lock up at night - please, come in and steal from us!"

Everyone in the industry knows and understands that keeping up with all the latest patches for the software deployed across even a small network can be both frustrating and time consuming. It's certainly not one of the more glamorous aspects of the job.

Even so, it is absolutely critical, and it pays to do a periodic survey of all the software installed on your network and how long it's been since a security patch was applied. If you're looking for an inexpensive way to bolster the security of your company's network, making sure all the latest software security updates are installed should be your first stop.

Even if that's all you wind up doing, taking that one simple step will dramatically improve the overall security of your network, and that's a very good thing.

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