Just understanding what office virtualisation is can be difficult enough; picking from the long list of software providers that help you achieve it can feel impossible. Since virtualisation is a relatively new practice for small and medium-sized businesses, there isn’t even a standardised way to go about virtualisation for your company. So why not start with this simple list of the 5 most popular virtualisation platforms and what their strengths are. VMware Any conversation about virtualisation for small and medium-sized businesses usually starts around VMware. Although it wasn’t necessarily the first, VMware was the company that really put office virtualisation on everyone’s action item list. The company offers a number of different solutions for different sized businesses with a wide variety of needs. Its ease of use and robust security features have secured its reputation as one of the best options for virtualisation at SMBs. Citrix An average user may not recognise the company name, but has a good shot at previous knowledge of their popular remote access tools, GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting. Citrix has specifically geared their virtualisation software, XenApp, XenDesktop, and VDI-in-a-box toward SMBs and even claims that non-IT staff can easily manage and administer the services. They even provide a free trial to prove it. Microsoft Although it may be a little more difficult to manage without an in-house or outsourced IT staff, Microsoft’s Hyper-V option is hard to ignore considering its integration with the popular cloud platform Azure. Whether you’re a Microsoft loyalist or you just want to minimise the number of vendors in your network, Hyper-V offers everything you need from a popular virtualisation platform service. Oracle This company just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Specialising in marketing software, they also offer database management, cloud storage and customer relationship management software. If you’re using any of their services already, there could be benefits to enlisting their virtualisation services as well. Oracle does everything, server, desktop and app virtualisation, and they believe that consolidation of all of these into one solution is what sets them apart. Amazon And since we’re on the topic of household names, let’s talk about Amazon’s EC2 platform, which hosts scalable virtual private servers. The ability to scale and configure capacity is definitely EC2’s biggest draw for SMBs, who are preparing for the possibility of rapid growth. Although almost any virtualisation service is rooted in scalability, Amazon is leading the pack in how quickly and finely you can adjust your solution to your individual needs. Virtualisation is a really hard topic for most SMBs to tackle. This list only covers the most popular vendors, and there are plenty more out there. Choosing one based on its application possibilities and management requirements is not a subject for the lighthearted. Contact Multi IT today to have all the difficulties of popular virtualisation platforms made simple. Our expert IT professionals will be able to advise you on what is best for your business and business needs.

In today’s modern age, the waves we surf tend to be invisible and keyboards are the new surfboards. Having a reliable Wi-Fi connection is key in keeping daily business operations up and running, so sluggish internet is definitely the last thing you and your business needs. Here are 10 ways that help speed up your Wi-Fi connection: Router centralisation and elevation For optimal signal strength it is best to place the router in the middle of the room, away from other electronics without any doors or walls obstructing it either. It’s always good to keep the router high since routers tend to spread signals downwards, meaning the higher you place it, the more coverage you’re going to get. Reposition antennas Try positioning them perpendicular to each other, one being horizontal and the other vertical. Reception is maximized when your device and the transmitter are both operating on the same plane. Former Apple Wi-Fi engineer, Alf Watt, attests to this theory: “perpendicularly positioned antennas ensure optimal wireless reception”. Use powerline network adapters Multi-story housing prevents routers from being centrally located, so the next best thing is to use power line network adaptors. These devices work by utilising the electrical wiring in the walls. First off you would have to plug it in near to and connect it with your router through an Ethernet cable, then plug-in the second adaptor after you have chosen a room for network coverage. Connection will then be delivered. Wireless security Setting up wireless security prevents your network from being compromised by external threats that lead to undesired downtime. After logging into your router’s admin page, change the encryption method to WPA2 and select a password that’s easy to remember. Utilise heat mapping software This allows you to see what your wireless heat map looks like, showing you exactly how much coverage each area is getting. With this information, you’d be able to reposition the router into an optimal position, adjust antennas or power-line network adaptors to eradicate problematic areas. Switch to 5GHz Firstly there are two frequencies to choose from: 2.4 and 5GHz, and for homes or offices dotted with electronic devices the 2.4 GHz spectrum gets crowded pretty quickly. Solve this problem by switching to the 5GHz spectrum since it allows for more devices without cluttering the Wi-Fi. Move to less crowded channels Living in crowded neighbourhoods or buildings mean that you share the same signal space, depending on which frequency your network operates on. By choosing the right channel, interference is reduced thus speeding up the Wi-Fi. Applications such as WiFi Analyser or WifiInfoView helps find which channels are overflowing and which ones aren’t. Router upgrades Wireless and internet technology have come a long way in the past 5 years, and if your router is older than that - you might want to consider upgrading it. The easiest way to determine if your router is slowing down is to look up the model number and compare its specs with those of the internet package from your ISP. Turn old routers into Wi-Fi repeaters When you want to extend your network but your powerline network adapters won't do, the next best option is to turn your old router into a wireless bridge. This involves installation of custom firmware on your router. If wiring isn’t your thing, this is the best alternative of extending your Wi-Fi to the outer limits of your property. Contact your ISP as a last resort If nothing does the trick you should consider calling your ISP. Despite it being an uncomfortable task to accomplish it potentially saves you any future frustration. By contacting your ISP, they’d be able to diagnose the problem and provide a solution for it, at your own expense of course. The benefits of having an efficient and stable Wi-Fi connection are endless; better communication with clients, more streamlined business operations or even watching your favourite videos without the buffering. Give your business the edge it deserves by giving Multi IT a call or Contact us, we’ll gladly answer any questions you have on how you can speed up your Wi-Fi.

Big data is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot these days, but rarely in conjunction with SMBs. VoIP has often been touted as a way for small businesses to access enterprise-level functionalities, and better access to customer data is one of the many ways to do exactly that. Keep reading for coverage of the best ways to leverage your VoIP data to increase conversions and provide better service to your clients. Time/Date Data One source of information that nearly any VoIP system should be able to easily access is time, date and duration of calls. As a small or medium-sized business, you probably work on a tight budget. Properly analysing this data can be invaluable when deciding how many staff you need on the phones and on what schedule. For example, you may notice that on Mondays you get a rush of calls in the morning, but by Tuesday afternoon the lines are dead. Just asking your employees when the phones are dead may work, but consider looking for more specific trends to better assign call responsibilities to your staff. You may find that there is a particular combination of time and day that simply doesn’t generate a need for anyone to work the phones. The more agreeable the person on the other end of the line is, the more likely they are to vote for your company with their dollars. If you’re making outbound calls, pay close attention to when you see the most success. Everyone knows that no one likes to get a call during dinner time, VoIP allows you to take this one step further and find other stress points in your call schedule. Location Data Location data is also easy to track and a simple way to make your call strategy more agile. Understanding how purchasing or support habits differ between different locations can improve your marketing, customer service and client retention. Ask your VoIP service provider about call-routing options so that whoever answers your phones is an expert on the area the caller is from. With the right amount of preparation you can help a client on the other side of the country as if your company was right around the corner, and there are few things as valuable as being helped by a local. Customer Intelligence Combining your VoIP services with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software opens up entirely new data points. How many times have you called a support line with an issue and have had to explain all of your history with the company? Even if you somehow did win the customer service lottery and got the same representative every time, the chances of them remembering you and your story are slim to none. With proper CRM integration, your VoIP system can route callers to the same service representative every time they call and provide your staff with a detailed support history. Customer Habits/Personalities Analyse client call habits and predict how to contact them and offer assistance before they even realise they need it. Does your data show that one of your clients generally calls once a week, but missed last week’s? Give them a call and check up on them. If you want to really get in the weeds with your data, you can begin to match clients with your service and sales representatives based on ‘personality’ data. Data points like staff’s age, gender and average call time can potentially be used to route customers to the best possible representative. Product/Service Trends Whenever possible, tie data to specific products and services in each call and look for the most consistent patterns that result in a successful contact. If you notice that most of the customers that buy your flagship product come back and buy an accessory to it within three months, stop dumping money into marketing the accessory products during the original sale and trust what your data tells you. Follow up in a month and ask if they’re interested in that ancillary product. You may be thinking that some of these data points were accessible with your legacy systems by simply logging the information separately. Tracking data that way is prone to user error and requires a pre-meditated plan. VoIP services track all of your data, all the time. Your SMB can easily view and analyse up-to-date data in no time. This agility and efficiency can revolutionise how you design your customer interaction strategies. Do you feel like you could be getting a better ROI from your VoIP services by taking another look at your calling data? It could be as simple as better organising your usage statistics, or as intricate as installing specialised analytics software. Regardless of how you want to go about it, we’re the ones to do it - Contact Multi IT today or have a look at one of our leading PBX systems, 3CX.