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.

Goodbye Credit Card, Hello Mobile Wallet

More than forty years since we were introduced to the credit card, a new revolution in shopping is bubbling under the surface.  As early as this summer, we could be paying with a simple wave of a phone.

The technology will allow consumers to make purchases by waving their mobile phone over a till scanner. Barclaycard and the UK’s biggest mobile phone network, which includes Orange and T-Mobile have signed a partnership to bring the system to 40,000 tills.  Mobile phone networks and banks are in talks with the manufacturers including Apple, BlackBerry and Nokia about incorporating the technology into their devices. 

The system uses a tiny chip and antenna built into the phone, which links the handset to the owner and their credit card or bank account.  The antenna sends a radio signal to a till scanner which recognises the handset, authorises the payment and then deducts the money from the owner’s account.  Customers will be able to increase their security with an optional PIN.  Initially there will be a £15 cap on transactions but the banking industry expects this to rise. 

Are you comfortable with another move towards the mobile being a must-have tool in modern life?  Handsets have already gone beyond calls and texts with video, music and internet access, but are you ready for a virtual wallet?

Quote for the Week!

“It is always the simple things that change our lives.  And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen.”

Donald Miller

O2 to launch Free Wi-Fi Nationwide

The existing UK-wide wi-fi network is undergoing big changes as O2 announces that it is launching a free wireless nationwide.

O2 had previously offered free wi-fi on some of its tariffs via BT Openzone and The Cloud, but The Cloud is rumoured to be close to sealing a buy-out deal with Sky, and O2 is widening its scope independently.

Initially the hotspots will be available in 450 O2-owned sites, which won’t offer great coverage but there are plans to expand to other locations, including shops and restaurants which is a step in the right direction. O2 said access to the hotspots would be through a simple sign-up process and would be free to both O2 and non-O2 customers, which they plan to fund through advertising.

There are some big boys in the market already with BT Openzone and Fon the biggest in the UK, but not enough people use it.  With that in mind, O2 want to help kick-start more wi-fi usage

"Only 20% of people who have access to free public wi-fi on 02 tariffs actively use it despite the majority of devices being wi-fi enabled," said O2's business development director Tim Sefton

Hi-Tech Criminals turn attention to Business Mobiles

Net giant Cisco has suggested that mobile phone operating systems are becoming increasingly popular with hi-tech criminals.

In their annual report they have predicted that 2011 will see a significant number of attacks directed at smartphones, mobile software and users.  That said, the vast majority of criminal activity continues to be aimed at Windows and the programs that run on it.

2009 brought a significant turn in trend for mobile malware with the appearance of a virus call Zitmo.  This was a mobile version of the Zeus Windows trojan that has proved hugely popular with criminals keen to steal logins to online bank accounts.

Apple products are proving to be a target as statistics gathered by Cisco suggest a growing number of vulnerabilities are being found in Apple operating systems.

The relative youth of the Android Operating Systems makes them a vulnerable platform to.  Trojans aimed at Android, that booby trap apps that run on phones, or bury premium rate links in ads were also starting to turn up. For instance, in late December 2010 the Geinimi trojan for Android was found that can steal almost any of the data on a handset.

Bandwith Problems Solved by Space

A small spacecraft system manufacturer has announced that they plan to put 78 small satellites into orbit to carry the internet.

Microsat Systems Canada Inc (MSCI) have called the project "CommStellation", and plan to deploy the system from 2014-2015. It will require six rockets to take the platforms to an altitude of 1,000km.  From there, the network will act as backhaul, linking the traffic of local telecoms and internet service providers to the global fibre infrastructure.

It seems that there is a new wave of manufacturers recognising the fact that space may offer a simple solution to the bandwith problem facing the world. 

David Cooper, President and CEO of MSCI, said that “There are immense backhaul shortages now and it's going to get worse”

CommStellation is planning something very similar to O3b, which is planning a constellation of eight internet backhaul satellites in a medium-Earth orbit (8,000km) around the equator. This system is also expected to start to roll out in the middle of the decade.  However, CommStellation would be very much lower in the sky than O3b and would circle the Earth via the poles.

Read more on O3b:

http://adodolive.blogspot.com/2010/11/broadband-satellite-launches-in-5432.html

http://adodolive.blogspot.com/2010/11/satellite-broadband-update_30.html

Google Android Driving Spacecraft with Mobile Phone

In recent years we have seen mobiles used at higher and higher altitudes, but until now, they have never gone into space several hundred kilometres above the planet, but that is exactly what the team at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) in Guildford want to do.

Their plan is to see if the sophisticated capabilities in today's phones will function in the most challenging environment known to man.  Although we do not yet which handset model will be sent into orbit, we do know that the phone will run on Google's Android operating system.  The hope is that the equipment will be used to control a 30cm-long satellite and take pictures of the Earth during the mission later this year.

Messages and pictures will come back via the satellite's radio link, so the phone won’t be “calling home” in the normal sense.  For the first part of the mission, the mobile will simply act as the back-up to the main computer on the spacecraft.  However, at some point, the phone will actually be put in charge of the craft.

The venture is part of the company's quest to find more inexpensive, off-the-shelf electronics that can be used to lower the cost of its spacecraft designs.

Microsoft Explain Windows 7 Data Problems

Early January has seen "a small (low single-digit) percentage of Windows Phone customers" complaining on net forums of data issues.  The problem seems to consist of the phones software sending and receiving "phantom data".

In some cases, particularly in the US, customers claimed that that their phone was sending "between 30 and 50MB of data" every day; an amount that ate a hefty chunk of their 20 day, 1GB allowance.

Microsoft said its investigation found that most problems were caused by an unnamed "third party" service.  They are currently in contact with said “third-party” working on potential solutions, and in the meantime, potential workarounds to pacify customers.   

However, the cause of the issue does not appear clear cut, as Microsoft has also admitted that there may be more than one root cause.