Jim Machi

AstriCon typically takes place in October. And this year we had a great one planned. However, as announced two weeks ago, we have decided not …

Business owners today are now understanding that having a basic contact center as part of their UC system enables much better customer service, and are …

Once upon a time there was something called a “call center.” That’s because you would make a telephone call to it. It was a central place …

As I’ve written about quite a few times, the drivers for buying a UC phone system that you might typically hear are: Efficiency improvement Productivity …

Around this time of the year, I usually read the Cisco Annual Internet Report to see if there is anything interesting relating to the business …

SIP Trunking is important for any enterprise these days – this is the connection into your building that carries phone calls to an on-premise UC …

TADSummit Online Asia took place a month ago.  The ‘TAD’ in TADSummit means Telecom Application Development. Seems under exciting. So what is Alan doing? And …

What comes after a Unified Communications system?  More unification of course!  We are entering another phase in the evolution of the business phone system, where …

Last week, I described the basic architecture of a PBX system.  But these systems have evolved into Unified Communication systems that handle more than voice …

The business phone system has evolved. If you didn’t know that before work from home, you know it now. If you have been on a …

I was asked to contribute an article in FastMode about how we are responding, and helping our customers respond, to the pandemic. If you want to …

First of all, the question is really why would anyone need a cellular router? They could be useful as a backup mechanism in case your …

Even before the ‘new normal’ of WFH, the office environment was changing. Collaboration was starting to take hold, and the open office concept replete with …

A few weeks ago, I recorded a podcast with Isha Mukherjee, Sangoma’s new APAC marketing manager. We talked about a wide range of topics, including …

One direct impact of all this social distancing, not traveling, and working from home that is stark is the reduction in carbon emissions in the …

At Sangoma, we are already in our 6th week of WFH. Given we are a Unified Communications company, it’s been relatively smooth for us since …

As I was trying to figure out what to write about this week, I was thinking that doing business over a video calls is good, …

Unified Communications systems, as I’ve blogged about numerous times already, with their ability to offer softphones with your business number, conferencing, collaboration, presence, and mobile …

There’s a lot going on now, and for this week at least, I didn’t want to write another remote work or WFH type of blog. …

Unified Communications (UC), for knowledge workers, is all the rage right now. UC enables these folks to work from home relatively easily because this type …

If you are one of the multiple hundreds of telecom coops, ILECs (Independent Local Exchange Carriers), or small CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers), it may …

Two weeks ago, I wrote a blog about how UC can positively impact the ability to work from home. In fact, it’s almost mandatory to …

When I go to shows where we are exhibiting, I like to work the booth when I have some free time. I like talking to …

Many people today are thinking more about working from home, especially in the coming months. We’ll see how it all plays out, but it certainly …

Last week, I wrote a bit about the Unified Communications value proposition and the panel I was on at IT Expo. When preparing for that …

Last Thursday, I was on a UC panel at ITEXPO. This was an interesting panel because it was about us as employees being bombarded by …

Sangoma today announced we have signed definitive agreements to purchase .e4, based in Traverse City, Michigan.  .e4 is Sangoma’s leading valued added distributor focused on …

SIP trunking is growing. According to the Eastern Management Group, the global SIP trunking market was approximately valued at $14.4 billion in 2018 and projected …

On Feb 16, 2020, the federal version of Kari’s law goes into effect. It’s a complex but important topic, and justifies a comprehensive treatment in …

I was walking through an airport towards the end of 2019 with my Sangoma backpack, and someone approached me and asked if I worked there. …

TADHack Mini will be in Orlando in about ten weeks, at the very end of March, the weekend before Enterprise Connect.  As per the TADHack …

People ask sometimes what’s going to happen in our industry in 2020. And I typically say “I don’t know” because I really don’t know. The …

Why does it seem that CPaaS and SIP trunking goes together, like chocolate and peanut butter (or chocolate and anything!)? At first glance, these offerings …

A few weeks ago, Sangoma released Switchvox 7.3. In one way, it’s a typical point release like all software point releases as it brings the …

Last week, I explored why virtualization is a possibility for a UC solution and why it may be a viable option for some businesses. This …

Most of us understand the on-prem or cloud options when considering a new UC solution. But what about a virtualization option for on-prem solutions? That …

It was only a matter of time before someone bought the division since it had a robust channel. And so a couple of months after that …

As I’ve written about before, the drivers for buying UC phone systems typically revolve around efficiency improvement and productivity gains. These can be realized because …

As expected, I’ve had a few questions about why we purchased VoIP Innovations. One of the most obvious reasons is the addition of revenue (and …

Hello Everyone – AstriCon 2019 has started! We have well over 300 people here that just packed the introductory remarks from Bill Wignall and the …

Astricon 2019 is next week. And while there will certainly be a lot of discussion about Asterisk, there will also be some discussion about FreePBX. And …

I’ve had a few people ask me what does the RingCentral and Avaya partnership mean? I have to say, my first reaction was that the …

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) is a metric that is always important, and one that Sangoma tracks closely. Many businesses, like us, know that this is really …

The concept of the end of voicemail is not new and has been around for years. I read a blog recently about “the millennials” killing …

Yesterday, I wrote a blog called “Is it Possible to Outgrow an Open Source PBX?”. The blog was misconstrued with regards to how I stated …

An update to this blog post can be found here or at the bottom of this page. Many small businesses have started with an open …

You just got a new communications product that’s either physically in your data center or in a data center someplace else servicing your business. You’re …

Workplace efficiency is a big theme these days. Just get more done in the same amount of time by working “smarter”. As though the way …

It’s a good thing I think!  I mean, if you go on vacation and no one notices there are two potential reasons I can think …

Back in April, I wrote a blog about using phones at work. There are many reasons I wrote it, but mostly they related to all …