Is your mobile contract nearing its end? Or are you a tech enthusiast? Either way, it is an exciting time of year as Apple announces the launch of the latest series of iPhones! 2022 is the year of the iPhone 14 series, and is always a talking point in the year for mobile phone lovers!

The upgrade culture has captivated most people and the buzz generated by the release of new technology is one of a kind. Upgrading your phone is no longer a process that just occurs as your contract ends, as the desire to upgrade is greater than ever. So, benefits will come with upgrading to newer technology.

Upgrade your technology to upgrade your business

Over recent years, technology has rapidly become both an asset and a statement piece in people’s lives. Owning the latest and greatest devices assists with daily tasks, workload, and of course keeping you connected.

Upgrading your devices such as your mobile phone is more than just a conversation piece though – it allows you to access more functions. The latest upgrades enable you to achieve more, communicate more efficiently, and dominate in the world of technology and business.

With the latest advancements in features such as 5G technology, the iPhone 14 allows you to take advantage of its incredible upgrades which will hugely benefit any user. With incredible connectivity speeds, no matter where you are located, you can rest assured you will remain connected. Apple iPhones have always offered the user a flexible solution that is ideal for both business and personal usage. With each iPhone improving on the last, upgrading to the iPhone 14 ensures you have the greatest piece of kit, in the palm of your hand. With super-fast internet speeds, high-quality audio and video calling, and even greater storage and management systems – you hold the power, literally!

Empower yourself and your workforce

You want your business and staff to operate efficiently and effectively – the solution to this is equipping them with the latest and greatest in communication technology. Remote workers such as a sales team may not be anchored to a select location and may struggle to keep connected when on the move. The best method to overcome this challenge is a business mobile solution.

Working on the road has never been so easy. Now you can extend your remote connection and reduce stress with a longer-lasting battery. Although charging your device is far from a painful task, it frees you up from having to worry about your phone cutting out at a critical moment, so you can focus on your business tasks.

Whether you’re making calls, connecting to the internet, or streaming content, the iPhone 14 will operate faster than any other iPhone. More efficient technology and improved loading times greatly improve your experience and workflow. All that saved time adds up!

Whether you are nearing the end of your mobile contract or seeking to equip your workforce with a connectivity solution, now is the perfect time to evaluate your choices. With the recent release of the new iPhone 14, you can ensure you and your team work with the latest and greatest in mobile technology.

The upgrade will deliver many advantages to your business, such as stronger connectivity across departments, remote working options, and a higher quality solution all around. The benefits of upgrading your handsets will include a fully unified and connected workforce, granting your staff the ability to deliver a high-quality communication service via voice and data whilst having access to a scalable solution with flexible features such as Teams and other applications which help you stay connected.

Southern Communications Group – SCG are proud to offer fantastic mobile and smartphone deals across a variety of different providers. Upgrade yourself or your workforce to the latest iPhone 14 today by contacting us on 01256 391 046 or email sales@southern-comms.co.uk.

Pricing information is correct as of 22/09/2022, please contact us for the latest information.

Are you tired of losing business to your competitors? It could be due to your online reach. Today, 90% of local searches are performed online. With 76% of those searches resulting in action within the next 24 hours, having a strong online presence is imperative in widening your customer reach and communication.

There are so many options to choose from when advertising your business online, and it can become rather problematic and exhausting trying to keep all those sites up to date. 

With this in mind, we have developed a few strategies to help boost your online success which you can implement today.

Why does being seen online drive success?

The majority of searches for information on opening times, directions, reviews, and recommendations are now completed using search engines, so keeping your online information up to date is of great importance. In some cases, it can be the make or break for someone purchasing with you. If your information is out of date or unavailable, even on just one of your platforms, you may be encouraging a potential customer to scroll by.

With so many other sites and businesses working hard to showcase their information online, anyone with a poor or even non-existent online presence will find themselves at the back of the race. If potential customers are unable to easily locate your information online, how can they spend their money with you?

By taking the time to add descriptions, opening hours and other business details, you are making yourself much more visible and easier to do business with and allowing you to do more business

How can I strengthen my online presence to achieve more business?

Traditionally, the first port of call would be to develop a website for your business. Your website is your digital shop front to display your products or services to the desired searcher. Plus, creating a website has never been easier with affordable web design services and designers available so your business can quickly grow its online voice.

Optimising your website will ensure that when people are searching for services within your field, they see your site before a competitor. With consistent SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) your website will begin to see more and more unique monthly traffic and subsequently more sales.  To boost your online rankings, you can either hire an in-house marketer or outsource these services.

Another quick and easy way in which you can boost your online presence is to associate your business with social media accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to name a few. According to Google, 58.4% of the world’s population uses social media and on average spends up to 2 hours a day on it. Social media is free to use, and you can set an account up in a matter of minutes, so make sure your business is taking advantage of these platforms.

Fast track your online success with SCG

Most SME’s (Small and medium-sized enterprises) appear on 70+ websites, so keeping on top of all platforms can become very time-consuming, however, very necessary.

This is where Web Listings can assist. Web Listings provides your business with a toolkit to showcase and amend your online information, using an intuitive platform to sync automatically across 50 plus digital channels. Not only does it continuously work to get your business noticed, it also enables you to update your business listings across all platforms at the click of a button.

Now you can see how your customers are finding you with real-time results, from the number of times your website link and phone number were clicked, to how often your location was viewed on search engines. Web Listings also offers insight and analytics on how your business listings are performing and how you can improve them to achieve greater success. These two elements work hand-in-hand, giving you suggested feedback whilst at the same time enabling you to monitor the effect of any changes.

Allow your business to generate more success from today with three-months free trial of our new Web Listings. Start seeing results by monitoring and improving your online performance enabling you to Be More Visible, Do More Business and Be More Connected with your customers than ever before.

Contact our Service Assured experts to activate your three-months free trial of our new Web Listings feature for your business – call us on 01256 391 046 or email customerexperience@southern-comms.co.uk today to get yourself connected.

Our focus for 2022 is to support you on your journey to being and doing more of what you want more of. Being more productive, creating more value, influencing a wider audience to sell to and ultimately.. being more successful.. whatever that means to you.

Our methodology is simple and it is based on one key fact – our attention is limited and therefore the bandwidth that we all have to apply to anything needs to be carefully utilised.

Whatever we put our minds to and whatever we choose to focus on displaces everything else that we could be thinking about.. and this is incredibly powerful. So powerful that the native American Indians even had a proverb about it that guided their actions in life:

“There is a battle of two wolves inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, lies, inferiority and ego. The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy and truth. The wolf that wins is the wolf that you feed Whatever you want to be more of is the wolf you should be feeding.. and we recommend you feed it the Art of More..!!“

Mark Shraga

Customer Experience is at the heart of everything we do, and we are dedicated to supporting you to get More of what you want More of in 2022; More focus, More productivity, and ultimately More success.

Similarly, your customers will be at the forefront of your mind when creating your goals and annual growth targets, and being connected with our customers is a key factor in how successful we are in achieving them, as well as keeping in close collaboration with your workforce and business contacts.

Our company has been bringing people and technology together to facilitate and improve the way that we communicate for over 50 years, and our mission is to enable your organisation to evolve at the pace of changing the market demands so that you can Be More Connected with your in-office or dispersed workforces, your customers and your business contacts.

How can we help you Be More Connected to your customers?

Through our own evolution to Southern Communications Group, we have acquired some of the best people and products in the industry, ensuring that we can offer you a tailored, truly end-to-end solution, that is supported and delivered to the highest standard.

The ease of use and flexibility of Hosted Telephony has pushed passed the boundaries of modern-day phone systems.  No longer are you confined to one telephone exchange, meaning you can keep your telephone number for life, no matter where your business is located. 

Call flows, messaging and voicemail options can be changed remotely and at the touch of a button, ensuring your customer’s calls are always headed to where you need them to be, and these functions are simply touching the surface of what our Evonex system can do for you and your customer base.

Working in harmony with our Hosted System, our Ethernet services offer you fix time guarantees that are not available on Broadband services, making them a popular choice if your business is dependent on the internet for business-critical applications.

Traditionally, businesses have been confined to working with one mobile network and one level of coverage, but for a sales team that is on the move, there is nothing worse than dropping calls when you are about to close a deal.  Our outstanding mobile packages offer you a choice of different networks, all under one account, ensuring that no matter where your workforce is located, they have network coverage.

The award-winning Surgery Connect cloud telephony solution is the most advanced, healthcare-focused telephony system on the market and is used by over 1400 practices.  Switch Medical, the healthcare arm of SCG, is now able to offer this industry-leading platform to both our new and existing customers.

How can we help you Be More Connected to your workforce?

With a strong focus on the work-life balance now, flexible and hybrid working is both standard and expected; but working remotely can have its draw backs as collaboration often needs more than just a call or an email.

Microsoft Teams revolutionised the way in which we communicate during the pandemic and with over 500,000 organisations currently using Teams as their default messaging platform, it is understandably the “go-to” solution for your flexible office set-up.  Our Evonex system allows you to integrate with Microsoft Teams, manage contacts with ease, as well as combine your presence status across your existing telephony and Teams.

The Evonex platform can be used across multiple sites, accessed by Internet-enabled devices, such as company smartphones, and managed through an easy-to-use dashboard. This often results in better productivity from staff, home workers, and call centers, which can lead to an increase in conversions and revenue.

Our suite of products is designed with you in mind, so that we can ensure that no matter where you are, you can Be More Connected with your audience, and whatever your business needs, SCG has the experience and know-how to help optimise the ways in which you communicate, so that you can achieve greater heights of efficiency and productivity.

Contact us today on 01256 391 046 or at sales@southern-comms.co.uk to find out how together we can help you Be More Connected

How much control do you have over your current technology and systems within your business? If you are using Evonex or another Hosted solution, then you may have more than you realise.

Hosted solutions are designed with you in mind to ensure you are adopting a solution that puts you in full control; for example, when you choose an Evonex system your business will benefit from an easy-to-use, super reliable cloud phone system that makes communication efficient, improving productivity in the workplace.

The feature-rich interface and customer portal allow you to make changes to your system and call flow with ease, helping you stay connected with customers and staff even when disaster strikes.

With Evonex, you take control from the very beginning, with a wide range of handsets to choose from, you can ensure your business is getting a flexible solution, that best suits its needs.

Increased control with reporting features

Customisable access to enhanced features and reporting software can help keep your system optimised to the highest quality, ensuring your customers are provided with an outstanding level of communication and care.  You can benefit from comprehensive statistical reporting at both call group and individual DDI levels, with informative charts and graphs to help monitor and control your communications.

Filters can be used to help drill down the data to see when your business is receiving the most calls. This can help organise staff to accommodate and keep on top of who is answering the phone and more importantly, who is not.

Manage team activity and scalability

Business growth is a natural progression and it’s important that your phone system can grow with you.

Hosted solutions such as Evonex have the flexibility to scale as large as your business needs. You can add or remove devices with ease, and within a much shorter timescale than that of a digital phone system.  Real-time system changes and Microsoft Teams integration gives you wider visibility of your remote office and ensures that when the unexpected happens, you can re-route your calls quickly, ensuring that your customers queries do not go unanswered.

Account management by SCG

Each of our customers has a dedicated account management team, filled with the knowledge of your account and our products, who can supply your business with the extra assistance you may require.  Not only are they here for help with faults and queries, but they are the ideal consultant for your telecoms needs.  With the addition of your account manager, your business’s telephony will be future-proof and fully under control.

The uncontrollable ISDN Switch Off

As most of you reading this may already be aware, the ISDN Switch Off is approaching fast (subject to time of reading), and those who have yet to migrate to next-generation telephony may find they lose what little control they had.  As the saying goes, ‘strike whilst the iron’s hot’ we recommend you do just that.

Be More in Control of your journey to the Cloud and talk to us to see how we can utilise your current solution or assist you with your upgrade to a Hosted solution. Speak with our Hosted experts on 01256 391 046 or email sales@southern-comms.co.uk.

Your business is important, as are your customers and staff and the technology you use is vital to assist your business with growth and communication.

The thought of managing change can be scary; be it moving premises, upgrading your current phone system, or preparing yourself for the upcoming challenges such as the telephony switch off.

Our range of Assured Services is designed to make sure you are protected from the events you may not have planned for – We have detailed for you our most popular services that ensure your business can remain covered from any unforeseeable misfortune.

Service Protect

In the event of a fault, it is not always straightforward to diagnose exactly where the fault lies, especially when you have multiple vendors involved in your site set-up.  Not knowing which supplier should resolve the issue creates huge frustration, and worse causes delays in resolving the ongoing and often service impairing issue.

Service Protect gives you the assurance that we will dispatch an engineer who will interface and co-operatively work with your IT team and 3rd party suppliers to diagnose and resolve faults.  This helps eliminate frustration, see a faster fix time, with fewer engineering costs.

Broadband Protect

Broadband fault diagnosis can be tricky; hardware, cabling, and network tests take time, and router replacement, combined with engineering visits can become costly.

Broadband Protect gives you one free router replacement and covers the cost of one engineering visit up to the amount of £250.00, every 12 months.  This means that you can request the attendance of an engineer without delay, or the fear of unexpected charges, ensuring no time is lost.

Enhanced Hosted

Learning the ins and outs of your Hosted Telephone system can take time, or you may simply prefer to have us manage changes for you.  Either way, if you need something amending quickly and are unsure how to do it, waiting for network standard timescales may not be ideal.

Enhanced Hosted offers priority SLA’s on change requests, faults, and an array of additional benefits such as around-the-clock system support, inclusive announcement recordings, and site visits to ensure you can make changes as and when you require them.

Line Safe

Many of us have been in the situation where a voice fault has been reported, an Openreach engineer has attended the site and proved the fault to be related to something on-premise.  We are then hit with a rather large bill for the engineers’ time.

With Line Safe, we will cover the bill of one engineering visit, every 12 months, guaranteeing you peace of mind and assurance, that in the event an engineer is required, any unexpected call-out charges will not be applied to your bill.

Voice Safe

Telecommunications fraud can happen to any type of business in many ways, and no business is too small to be targeted.  Fraudsters can rack up thousands of pounds of fraudulent call charges in a matter of hours.

We cannot prevent you from an attack, but if fraud occurs, we will pay up to £10,000 as a credit against calls made via fraudulent activity on a Voice Safe protected account, giving you the assurance that you are financially protected against fraudsters.

To ensure you’re fully protected, find out more about our service assured services, or alternatively, you can contact one of our assured team members on 01256 391 046 or email sales@southern-comms.co.uk.

We all like the idea of achieving more out of life. Whether it’s more for less money, more quality in our lives, or even achieving more out of our jobs. In a world of tight budgets and increased demand for businesses, telecoms may seem like an afterthought. However, upgrading this vital asset may surprise you. By upgrading your system your business will be able to ‘achieve more’ whether it’s saving you money or incorporating flexible features to assist staff communication. We are here to show you how your business can achieve more from an upgraded solution.

Firstly – Why should I upgrade my system?

That’s a good question – especially as upgrading and changing telecommunications are seen as costly investments. However, by unifying your business’s telephone system, Wi-Fi, and broadband connection, you can decrease your costs.

‍We often get asked why businesses worry about upgrading when their current system works just fine – so we have provided 5 reasons why your company should consider an upgrade.

Future-proofing your business’s communications 

We understand how important communication is to a business. We also know that businesses need a telephone system that can last long into the future and that will offer a good return on your investment whilst providing excellent communication.

That is why we provide a bespoke solution that any size business can benefit from. Your company can instantly take advantage of a solution that fits your requirements, not just now, but long into the future. Therefore, safeguarding your investment long-term. We also offer in-house engineers for installations and a support and maintenance team to resolve any teething issues you may face.

Newer technology

A great way to decrease your business’s telephony costs is to upgrade your telephone system. By upgrading to new technology, you minimise the risk of costly telecom faults. You may also find that with the right lease, your monthly payments will be less which can save your business money in the long run.

You can reap the rewards that are associated with new technology. With integration at the forefront of most modern technology, having a telephone system that is integrated with your business’s network and offers easy-to-use features which can be a great way to streamline workflow within your organisation.

Alongside the ever-approaching ISDN switch off – there is no better time to upgrade to newer technology to avoid communication disturbance. Furthermore, upgrading to newer technology will mean your business will begin to see savings from the very moment you install, as a hosted solution is more cost-effective than your traditional telephone line.

Save money with SIP Trunks and VoIP

‍As stated above, the ISDN switch-off is approaching and we have set goals to ensure that the switch-off doesn’t leave people in the dark. If they continue their target to switch everyone over to fibre broadband and IP telephony, then the UK’s ISDN network is due to be switched off in 2025.

So, what will replace my ISDN line?

Good question – SIP Trunks, VoIP, and hosted telephony will become the norm for business telecommunication. You can take advantage of SIP Trunks and VoIP to help your business achieve far more out of its communication setup.

Other than the huge feature set these modes present, when upgrading your telephone system, the biggest benefit you will notice is the reduced cost on your monthly bills by eradicating the requirement for multiple costly landlines.

Unifying Communications and mobile apps

A great way to achieve more out of your communications infrastructure is to consider unifying your communications environment with mobile applications. For example, your business probably has Wi-Fi infrastructure, a telephone system, a broadband line, and lines & calls all put together to create your ‘telecoms’.

Why not combine these different assets under one roof to reduce your business’s costs and push your integration to the next level? Integrating these systems can unlock features such as VoIP handsets, mobile handoff, and computer telephone integration. 

Services like call routing, self-service, and reporting all help to decrease incoming call response times and help to keep your administration costs down.

‍A new telecommunication system can also help to improve customer and staff interaction. Customers can receive notifications from your business through SMS or via recorded messages services directly. In this way, you can be sure that they are always well informed of any event, offers, and promotions you are enlisting.

Integration

With one centralised system and smaller IP phones, you can link your external sites to the main one without the need for systems on every premise. With VoIP, you can also benefit from FREE calls between sites!

If you would like any more information about how your business can achieve more from a new telephone setup or a site survey, please don’t hesitate to get in touch for a no obligations chat on 01256 391 046 or email sales@southern-comms.co.uk.