Royal Navy Select SpliceCom

More evidence as to the reasons why Adodo are proud to be a SpliceCom Community member.

The Royal Navy has started the rollout of next generation command & control systems, based on SpliceCom’s Maximiser OS based IP PBX, to train its submariners. Working closely with SpliceCom Community Partner iCS Communications and prime contractor British Aerospace Systems (BAe), Britain’s leading developer of telephone systems has delivered specially modified versions of its S8000 Soft PBX and PCS 582G touch screen IP Phones to meet the Royal Navy’s exacting requirements.

The process started when the Ministry of Defence (MoD) issued a tender for equipment to replace the Royal Navy’s existing Sub-Surface Training System (Trainers), which was viewed as obsolete. In particular, on-going maintenance of the purpose built PC based VoIP solution utilising touchscreens was becoming an ever-increasing issue that was having a significant impact on training for submariners.

Although an existing Command & Control system from Speakerbus was under consideration, discussions between BAe and iCS identified SpliceCom’s Maximiser OS based Soft PBX with PCS 582G touch screen IP phones as the basis of a far more flexible solution. “The feature-rich SpliceCom feature set allowed the basic concept of the proposed new training system to be tested using standard “off-the-shelf” products,” explained iCS Communications’ founder and MD, John Gillborn. “iCS then acted as the intermediary between BAe and SpliceCom to agree, define and timeline the developments required to enhance the IP PBX and IP phones to meet the MoD requirements. SpliceCom’s flexibility as a company and our close relationship with them as a business partner, were key to making this happen,” continued Gillborn.

Developments centred around the adaptation of the PCS 582G IP Phones to work as “headless” comms clients with specific specialist headsets, the addition of Push-To-Talk (PTT) functionality and interconnects for multiple (Binaural) audio inputs to be used simultaneously.

The initial rollout was for three training sites, each one consisting of SpliceCom’s Soft PBX with 30 modified PCS 582G touchscreen extensions, plus spares. Each site was allocated 3 weeks to strip out the old system, install the new and successfully complete Site Acceptance Training (SAT). Following the successful completion of these tasks, within the allocated time, the systems were handed over to the MoD to commence training.

“The Royal Navy’s training suites are used for “real world” simulation,” said Gillborn. “The communication system is a fundamental part of this, providing the senior ranks with an open channel that the whole bridge listens to. This bespoke multi-party command & control system fuses off-the-shelf British technology with SpliceCom’s in-house development skills to deliver a solution that is simply not available at this level of functionally or price.”

“By using the SpliceCom system to fulfil this role, we have achieved this in a way that is easy to deploy, simple to use, quick to diagnose and maintain, without the need to completely close the Trainers as was the case with the older systems. Fast start times and easy “on the fly” configuration makes this system a pleasure to work with,” said Steve Johns, Area Support Manager for British Aerospace Systems.

“There are already plans for the deployment of a 4th site, but now the initial systems are in place and being used by the Royal Navy there is a lot of interest from other training facilities and maintenance teams within BAe and the MoD.  We recognise that this will be a slow process, but there is a lot of promise for this product over the next 2 to 3 years. The bottom line here is, if there’s a system requirement that’s a little out of the ordinary, and there’s a real business need with a realistic budget in place, you’re far more likely to achieve it with a SpliceCom system,” concludes Gillborn.

Fighting Back against Cyber Criminals

"Last year alone, the US logged over 300,000 virus attacks on their networks and noted that organised crime now makes more money from cyber crime than any other activity."  These were the words of Professor John Williams, director of the Geospatial Data Centre at a recent conference on cyber security held in Cardiff.  However, the problem is Global…

In the UK, it is estimated that cyber crime is costing the economy up to £27bn every year.  Officials say cyber criminals, terrorists and other nations are getting better at penetrating state and private networks, whether to spy, to steal data or damage critical infrastructure.

The summit in Cardiff agreed that the UK and the US would need to produce many thousands of people with expertise in fighting off criminal and terrorist IT attacks over the next few years.  The summit has ended with a university deal to do just that. 

All data that is important to you needs protection, that includes your business phone system, your data network and your PC’s.  Have you ever considered security for your mobile phone?   Smartphone’s require protection in the same way that your PC does, AntiTheft, AntiVirus and AntiSpam are all possible.

For more information call us today 0115 970 1471

Call recording – Office phone and mobile

Most people will now be aware of the growth of organisations recording calls.  The potential of your call being recorded now has almost become the norm. At Adodo we have never heard of a company being thought badly of because they record calls - why should they, they are just showing that they want to be precise and accurate and to train their staff well? They also know that ‘things’ happen.

Providing fully integrated call recording should be a standard feature of any new phone system purchase. If you are not considering a new phone system and don’t have call recording then maybe you should consider bolting it on. What about calls made from your mobiles? Yes, the same reasons.

The most popular reasons for recording calls are;

• telesales / telemarketing training assessment and coaching
• note taking / dictation
• solving "who said what" disputes, or more formally..
• recording agreements
• recording meetings
• recording instructions for greater speed and accuracy and detail
• clarification of quantities and specifications
• protection of staff from abusive / difficult customers
• ideal for litigation purposes as recordings can be used in court (UK)
• monitoring nuisance callers
• monitoring customer service
• monitoring staff performance
• anti fraud - surveillance

The resulting benefits are;

• Resolving Disputes

the recording helps to diffuse the dispute, rather than to escalate it. The reason for this is that most disputes escalate because one party thinks that the other party is being difficult, lying, or is not fulfilling what they committed to. When listened to together more than 80% of disputes evaporate and are solved amicably. Quickly find calls and email an extract to your customer, how much time will you save?

• Demonstrating Compliance

For many organisations, such as Financial Institutions, it is necessary to show that

that Regulatory rules have been followed.

• Monitoring Quality

Provides you with the additional ability to ensure that all customers are being dealt with professionally at all times

• Improving Performance

Work with staff to develop their telephone and telesales techniques. It also means that all stakeholders within your system can work effectively when communicating by phone knowing that they are protected.

• Sharing

Share conference calls and online meetings with business colleagues.

Home working and Mobility

The Way You Want It to Be

At Adodo we see the User as the most important component in a telephone call – not the device that they use to make or receive a call. Therefore why not use whatever type of phone you want to and seamlessly change that phone depending on where you are? At your desk you could be using an IP phone. Moving between offices you can take personal and departmental calls on your mobile. When visiting another office you could use a ‘softphone’ running on your computer, in conjunction with a USB or Bluetooth headset or handset. And once you get home you could choose to take all your calls on your home phone. All this flexibility from just a single User Licence easily controlled from anywhere.

Using a simple application you can turn any Windows or Apple Mac OS X computer into a fully featured IP Softphone. Connectivity is provided by a Virtual Private Network (VPN) broadband link to the head- office. To provide optimum speech quality this connection should support a Quality of Service (QoS) to ensure voice traffic is prioritised over other applications, or alternatively be dedicated to telephony use only.

However, IP Telephony is far from the only home working option with our solutions. Using the same application in conjunction with a home phone or your mobile, it delivers speech that is more reliable and consistent in quality than that obtained by using IP phones or softphones over the public Internet. Therefore you can provide the same functionality as if they were in the office and deliver Department, Group and Call Centre calls to your remote workforce in an identical manner to their office based colleagues. This makes it an excellent solution for home-based agents, after-hours support teams and anyone else who occasionally may want to work from home.

A very cost-effective way to work, appear as one and employees no longer have to give out their mobile or home numbers to be contacted when they’re out of the office.

A Definition of Unified Communications

The integration of real-time communication services, resulting in increased productivity. These services can be seen as different applications such as telephony, instant messaging, presence information, workforce mobility, video & audio conferencing, call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax.

Putting People First

Unified Communications reduces complexity by putting people at the centre of the communications experience. All of the ways in which people contact one another are integrated into a single environment. This way, you can use software to eliminate geographic boundaries so you can stay connected with team members and partners no matter what device you’re using, and no matter where you are. You can communicate in real time, from your office PC or on mobile devices while on the road, in a security-enhanced environment.

In its simplest form Unified Communications increases overall productivity by simplifying life for your workforce when it comes to internal and external communications. This is achieved by reducing the number of devices and interfaces used for communications during the business day, integrating (or unifying) applications so they work together and making them easier to understand, use and support.

Each individual business is unique. It therefore follows that the components encompassed by Unified Communications will differ on a company-by-company basis, based upon what is relevant and useful to a particular organisation. This means that Unified Communications will be the interaction of some, or all of the above applications.

The Rising Threat of Telephone Fraud

Everybody knows that when you surf the web, you need PC protection, but very few consider protecting their phone system.  Telephone fraud is fast becoming a global menace and requires urgent attention.

SME’s and non-profit organisations are particularly at risk from hackers whose activities can cost the business many thousands of pounds.  Last month Romanian authorities dismantled a cybercrime network blamed for causing more than 11 million euros in losses to firms in the US, UK, South Africa, Italy and Romania.  Here in the UK, a North Wales based charity recently faced a huge bill after their phone system was attacked.

Kieran Duff, Chief Officer of Flintshire Local Voluntary Council (FLVC) has been keen to warn schools, businesses and other charities to protect themselves against a scam that has cost his organisation the best part of £4000. Hundreds of calls were made to premium and international numbers over one weekend after faceless fraudsters hacked into their phone system.

The most common attack is carried out in two parallel moves.  Cyber thieves obtain account information and then contact institutions, changing information such as phone numbers, email addresses or even bank account numbers so they can later transfer money or empty them.  At the same time, they flood the business’ phone lines with spam calls in order to block verification calls coming in from the banks and other institutions.

It is a silent crime, so it is vital that all parties remain vigilant.  You should do what you can to lock down the switch, starting with traditional data network security investments.  Anti-hacking technology should now become a pro-active and standard element to every new quote.  In addition, carriers should be alert to any unusual call patterns.  However, even with all this in place, it is unlikely that any PBX is fraud proof particularly when connected to unsecure phone lines, so what can you do?

Have good passwords

Wherever required, particularly on voicemail, DISA (Direct Inward Station Access) and on the remote access support service.

Minimise access

That includes the amount of systems and software that has access to the phone system.  Also ensure that only trusted people are able to change configurations. 

Call Barring lists

Make sure you keep all call barring lists up to date.  Furthermore, that those lists include allowances for the fall-back route through BT.

Adopt a security device

If you haven’t already, invest in a dedicated security device that allows you to keep your PBX features but increase security.

Call Management Software

Add software that can alert you when calls are made outside of your expected patterns.

O-bit rings in VoIP security

O-bit Telecom has bolstered its VoIP portfolio with the launch of Purple Network Hosted Secure.  

Connecting directly into O-bit’s NGN, Hosted Secure allows VoIP traffic to run over a secure IP VPN rather than the Internet.

A key USP of Hosted Secure is its full integration with SpliceCom handsets, offering users the full feature rich services available on the platform.  O-bit is the only company able to offer full integration over a WAN for SpliceCom handsets.

To speak to one of our consultants today and find our more call 0800 092 1471

SpliceCom's Server Boost

SpliceCom's 5108 Call Server for branch offices and small businesses has been given a capacity boost with up to 12 IP extensions now supported.


Alternatively, the server can be configured to handle up to four analogue devices and eight IP extensions.

Robin Hayman, a Director as SpliceCom, stated: "Businesses now demand that their UC applications are available in a consistent nature to all of their employees, irrespective of location.
"By increasing the capacity of the 5108, the smallest platform in our 5 Series family provides inclusion for those working in smaller offices of large organisations."


Source: Comms Dealer July 2010

Top 5 Tips for Phone System Improvements!

15 years in Telecom, hundreds of customer meetings, system installations and projects managed and I am still constantly amazed by some of the very common mistakes companies make with their business phone system.

If customer service is important to you then please read the rest of this article.

In no particular order:

Number 1:

Automated Attendant Greetings that go nowhere, or worse, they go everywhere!

AA greetings that go nowhere. A call into your main company number gets answered by an automated attendant greeting that suggests menu options, which when pressed gets disconnected or just rings and rings.

AA greetings that go everywhere. This one really gets me. I hate calling some companies, particularly the bigger organisations. You feel like you’re lost in the transfer window.
Is it time to review your you Auto Attendant greeting? If you have more than 3 choices off the automated attendant , if you probablyhave have too many.

Number 2:

Automated Attendant greetings that sound like they were recorded by your grandmother. I love my grandmother. She’s great. I wouldn’t get her to record the Adodo automated attendant greeting though. To some organisations this is a complete afterthought. Our technicians sit down with the company to record the greetings.

It is your company’s image. It is the first thing people hear when they call into your company, so it is important to get it right! Whether you get a well spoken member of staff to record it for you or hire a professional, we can help you find the suitable Attendant for your company.

Number 3:

Do not make it difficult for a caller to get live assistance. When you press “0” or hold to speak to a receptionist, you should always always always get a live body.

No live body around?

Then find one.

Number 4:

Hold Times Do Matter. No. It’s not OK for your callers to wait on hold for 5 minutes. Some companies, despite best recommendations otherwise, don’t even offer their callers the option of speaking directly to a person. There are no circumstances in which a caller will be satisfied with this.

Unless you aregiving away money, people just won’t wait. Or, if they have to wait they will be spoiling for a fight by the time they are picked up.

It’s simple really, monitor the calls, make it even easier and get some software that does it for you and make sure your callers are answered in less than 3 rings.

Number 5:

When you put your callers on hold, what do they hear?

A constant stream of beep beep? Maybe static like a badly tuned radio station? Maybe even silence, so they think they have been cut off?

Fix it.

Every phone system has a music on hold port so utilize it. Choose something that they can sing along to, something that will relax them, or maybe even use it as an opportunity to tell them about a special offer, but play them something!

There are is plenty more details to consider to make sure that you are making your investment work for you, but these 5 points should be covered at a very basic level. For any more assistance there is only one number to call!! FREE PHONE 0800 092 1471