Phone System Services -Lombard, IL 60148

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.

What is Auto Attendant?

Auto Attendant is one of the most common applications we install with business phone systems.

It is a standard application that can satisfy many different tasks/needs.

In a nutshell, an auto attendant is a programmed add on for your phone system that will help answer calls and can route callers to proper destinations. Think of it as a receptionist program.

You can program the auto attendant to route calls during specific hours and you can also program different messages/directories to operate at different times of the day.

Most prospective customers will turn to the internet to do preliminary research for products and services.

But . . . once they’ve found the company or companies they are interested in, a phone call is still the most popular first step to contact your business and engage your services.

So, that means you’ve got a decision to make. You need to decide whether you want a live person to answer the phone and route your calls, or whether you would rather skip that step and have a program do the heavy lifting for you.

For many small to midsized businesses, the auto attendant is a great way to reduce overhead and make sure calls never goes unanswered.

Auto Attendant Best Practices

Proper auto attendant design and implementation is essential to the overall experience an inbound caller will have every time they pick up the phone and dial your number.

Some key factors to think about when designing your system:

• Make sure your introductory message is clear and concise – you don’t want people to get bored or annoyed with a long message every time they call in.
• Avoid too many options – nobody enjoys sifting through 14 options to find the place they are looking for.
• Keep it simple and keep it logical – prioritize your most popular departments/options towards the beginning of your message to speed up the inbound call process.
• Your directory needs to be up to date – who will be in charge of managing this?

Three Unique Ways You Can Use Auto Attendant

1. Use your auto attendant function to answer FAQs

Do people call your office often with the same questions? You can dedicate a space in your auto attendant directory to frequently requested info like your address, your hours of operation and more. This will save your receptionist and staff valuable time and provide prospects with the info they are calling to acquire.

2. Add a Directory

There are multiple different types of directory options available to you.

• Full list of staff extensions
• Search by first or last name for staff
• Department Directory

The option you choose is based on what you believe will be easiest and most helpful for inbound callers. By implementing a directory you avoid an endless list of options on your primary outgoing message and also add a layer of organization that prospects/customers appreciate.

3. Share Upcoming Event & Company Announcements

Your auto attendant program can actually be used as a great marketing tool for upcoming events and promotions. Have a seasonal promotion coming up? What about an office closing due to a holiday? Maybe there is some big news specific to your industry you want to share? All of these are things pieces of information you can distribute to inbound callers.

**Added Tip** Your Music on Hold (MOH) message can also promote events and promotions for you.

The post Auto Attendant: 3 Unique Ways You Can Use It To Improve Your Business appeared first on Andromeda Technology Solutions.

There's a new strain of ransomware to put on your radar.

This latest one was discovered by researchers working from SentinelLabs and it has been dubbed Nefilim.

Based on the initial research, it seems to share significant portions of its code base with an older strain, Nemty 2.5.

The two key differences between the two strains are as follows:

1. Nefilim's code does not contain the Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) found in Nemty 2.5
2. Nefilim relies on email communication to arrange ransom payment, rather than routing those through the TOR browser.

The researchers spotted Nefilim in the wild at the end of February of this year (2020). At this point, it's unclear exactly how the malware is being distributed. The best guess at this point is that the malware is being spread via exposed Remote Desktop Services. However, the malware winds up on a target system.

When it does its work and infects the files on the compromised computer, the victim will see the following note:

"A large amount of your private files have been extracted and is kept in a secure location. If you do not contact us in seven working days of the breach we will start leaking the data. After you contact us we will provide you proof that your files have been extracted."

This tactic is becoming increasingly common, and as we've seen in recent months, it's not an idle threat. Worse is that based on the analysis of the code to this point, Nefilim is secure. That means that at present, there's no free way to recover your files once they have been encrypted.

While this strain isn't especially widespread at this point, it's a legitimate threat. It would be a grave mistake to ignore it.

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