Blog posts in Communications

TOTW: how to cut email replies down to size

For this tip of the week, we show you how to cut quoted emails down to size.

It's easy for a long email chain to get out of control. Once a message has gone back and forth between two or more people a few times, replies start getting ridiculously long.

Typically, you'll have a few lines of the new message at the top, followed by pages and pages of older messages. Some email systems - including recent versions of Microsoft Outlook - make it really easy to cut this rubbish out of your replies.

Here are the instructions for Outlook. Many other email clients work in the same way:

1. Highlight the text you want to quote in your reply

Click and drag with the mouse to highlight the key text:

2. Click Reply or Reply All

Just click the Reply button as normal:

3. Write your reply

Outlook will only quote the selected text, so you can write your message and hit Send:

That's all there is to it! Recipients will thank you for bringing the email back down to size.

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Cloud telephony: when disruption is a good thing

Image: Flickr user opopododo.

Have you noticed how frequently the term 'disruptive' is used to refer to technology? I often think it's off-putting for many businesses. After all, the last thing that any of us want is more disruption.

Cloud telephony services are often described as being disruptive. But in reality, cloud telephony can be much less disruptive to businesses than other types of telephone system.

However, cloud telephony certainly is disruptive to traditional telecoms service providers and carriers, because it offers features that they cannot provide.  

Let's take a closer look at how cloud telephony compares with traditional on-site telephone systems.

Cost savings

Cloud telephony can offer significant cost savings over traditional digital lines or even VoIP telephone systems. As with other cloud services, you eliminate many of the infrastructure and maintenance costs of an on-site system.

You can either introduce cloud telephony alongside your existing telephone system or as a complete replacement. Either way, you will almost certainly save on line rental and call costs. Expect to pay as little as 0.75p per minute for calls to landlines, or 2p per minute to call mobiles.

In addition, you should get the flexibility of a per-user, per-month pricing plan, without a lengthy contract. The cost can start from around £10 per person per month.

Scalable and flexible

Cloud telephony is inherently scalable, making it ideal for growing businesses. This means you never have to pay for more services than you need at any given time.

Because cloud telephony is delivered over the web, it's easier to bring branch offices and remote workers onto a single phone system.  You can scale up and down easily and economically without the headaches of changing or merging lines.  

Furthermore, employee mobile phones can be integrated with your cloud telephony system, enabling business calls to be logged and even recorded in the cloud.

Employees can be given a business phone number which routes to and from their mobile, meaning they don't have to use their personal number for business. It's a great way to allow staff to bring their own device, without revealing their personal numbers or running up unnecessary call charges.

Overall, you'll get more control over mobile call costs (which can be a significant proportion of your total telecomms bill) and be able to manage employee mobiles more effectively.

Enable, don’t disrupt

Cloud telephony can give your business access to sophisticated features that were once the preserve of large companies.

You may be able to integrate your email, CRM or other business systems with a cloud telephony system. This will allow you to click-to-dial, or display information about a caller on screen before your telephone agent answers the phone.

In contrast, it's usually much harder to integrate traditional phone systems into your other business systems.

Reporting for business

A cloud telephony system also provides flexible call recording. You can choose to record every call, or just those that fit criteria you set.

Call recordings are stored in the cloud, meaning you can access and play them from any internet-connected computer. Recordings can also be linked to customer records in your software.

Combined with comprehensive reporting, you'll get a complete, detailed insight into your company's sales processes, from initial enquiry to closing the deal.

So, with its inherent flexibility, lower costs, and business-enhancing features, cloud telephony can be compelling for almost every company. Since when has this kind of good business sense been disruptive?

• Choose a telephone system supplier
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This piece was written by Mark Seemann, CEO of SYNETY, a cloud telephony firm.

The new BlackBerry aims to bring Balance to your business

It's make or break time for RIM, manufacturer of the BlackBerry.

Once dominant in the world of business smart phones, the BlackBerry's market share has been steadily eroded by Apple's iPhone and Android handsets from the likes of Samsung and HTC.

But now RIM is fighting back with the BlackBerry Z10, which looks like ... well, it looks like every other smart phone that's hit the market in recent years.

It's a black slab with a big touch screen. Original.

The BlackBerry Z10 does personal too

There are lots of reviews that'll tell you about the BlackBerry Z10's tech specs and performance. Check engadget, TechCrunch and The Telegraph. Overall, it seems like a decent handset.

But there's one feature that sets the BlackBerry Z10 apart from its competitors. It's called Balance. According to RIM, it's the 'simplest and most user-friendly way to balance your personal and work life on a single device.'

Balance means that instead of carrying two phones (one for work and one for business), the BlackBerry Z10 can do both. It keeps company data secure and separate from personal photos, games and other distractions. You switch between the two modes by swiping the screen.

Will BlackBerry Z10 work with BYOD?

While Balance sounds like a really useful feature, for your business to take advantage of it you need to have bought into the BlackBerry platform, and be using BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

And that's where the BlackBerry Z10 is going to hit problems for smaller companies. The current trend is to bring your own device (BYOD) and give staff incentives to use their own smart phones for work.

There's no point in going to the trouble of implementing Balance if only a few staff members have chosen to buy the Z10.

Does that means the BlackBerry Z10 is set to fail? Not necessarily. It's just that the strings attached to Balance make that particular feature less useful for companies that don't have the budget to buy a phone for every employee and set up a BlackBerry-based infrastructure.

What's left is still a very capable smart phone. But given the dominance of Apple and Android, is that enough?

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Freelancers: get a business landline without a landline

It can be a challenge for freelancers working from home to keep their business and personal lives separate.

The humble telephone number is a great example of this. Many freelancers end up using the same landline for personal and business calls. This can lead to all kinds of awkward situations, like your kids answering when your most important client calls.

The price of a landline

But landlines are expensive, costing as much as £15 a month from BT. Getting a second one installed hardly seems worthwhile, especially if you mostly use your mobile for outgoing calls.

Well, here's a cheaper, more flexible alternative. Skype - the internet telephony and instant messaging service that's now owned by Microsoft - can give you a landline number for a fraction of that cost.

It works really well - I've been using it to take business calls for the last few months.

You need to have a Skype account to buy a number (it's free to sign up). Once you have a number, the Skype app on your computer will 'ring' when someone calls it. You can answer and speak to the caller using a headset connected to your computer.

If you'd prefer to have a separate phone on your desk, you can buy a Skype phone instead.

Other advantages of Skype

Price aside, there are other advantages to this approach too:

• Flexibility. Unlike a normal landline, your number isn't linked to a location. Callers can dial the same number and reach you anywhere. If you're out and about you can automatically divert calls to your mobile or use Skype's mobile apps to stay in touch.
• More choice. Skype lets you choose which area code you want your number to have. This means you can get a London number even if you're based in Leicester, or an Edinburgh code even though you live in Essex.
• Cross borders. You can also get a number for a different country, if you choose - it's a nice way to let international clients call you at local rates. Dialing international numbers through Skype is often cheaper too.

How to get started

If you have a Skype account, it's easy to add a number to your package. Just go to the Skype website and sign in. Then:

1. Scroll to the Manage features heading and click Skype Number.
2. Click Get a Skype Number
3. Click the country for your Skype number
4. Click the dropdown menu to choose your area code
5. Skype wlll give you a list of numbers to choose from. Choose the one you want and click Continue.
6. Choose whether you want to buy for 1, 3 or 12 months.
7. Enter your payment details and follow the instructions to complete your purchase.

That's it. Now when you're signed in to Skype, people will be able to call you on your landline number. And they'll never know that you're not using a normal telephone.

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(Image: Flickr user dno1967b.)

Communication and administration: a business nightmare?

Tick-tock: time is precious in business. (Image: Flickr user blue2likeyou.)

Are communication and administration tasks diverting resources in your business that could be better used for other things?

A study conducted by Dynamic Markets on behalf of Google has found that even in this age of webcams, collaboration software and instant messaging, many workers struggle to work together effectively.

Many of the 3,500 small companies surveyed cited specific problems with communications and admin. They'll probably be familiar to your company too:

• Over half of respondents said they run into email problems on a weekly basis. The biggest single issue was mailbox size. It's common for some email systems to block incoming and outgoing messages when your mailbox fills up. No word on whether any respondents are secretly pleased for the breathing space they get when this happens.
• Arranging meetings eats chunks of employee time. The survey found that on average, a meeting takes one-and-a-half hours to arrange. Regardless of whether you accept that faintly ludicrous figure, it's clear meetings drain productivity. You can use a shared calendar system to book meetings efficiently (both Microsoft Office and Google Apps offer this function), but I'm not convinced that gets to the root of the problem. It would be far better simply to pledge to hold fewer meetings.
• Another big headache is collating feedback. On average, the people surveyed do this seven times a month, taking two hours each time to combine all the comments into a single master document.

Even when faced with these issues, many workers are still clinging to traditional methods of communication, relying on the phone, email and meetings.

However, some businesses are seeking alternative ways to communicate, with 39% increasing their use of online collaboration tools. The study found that these are more commonly used by organisations which saw an increase in profits or turnover in 2012.

This could suggest that more forward-thinking, tech-savvy small businesses are using collaborative technology to gain a competitive advantage.

Do you use any great collaboration tools in your business? Or is it better to pick up the phone and have a chat? Leave a comment to let us know.

• Collaboration tools for your business
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The rise of video conferencing

Source: The Rise of Video Conferencing

TOTW: Control yourself (and your emails)

This week's Friday tip is about a couple of overlooked features in Outlook 2010 that could save your bacon. Please note that some of these features may only work if Outlook is connected to a Microsoft Exchange server.

When editing a message in Outlook, have a look under the File > Info menu. The first option, 'Restrict permissions to this item' allows you to control whether the email you send can be forwarded to other recipients. This is handy for anything confidential, including HR and salary related emails. 

The second option of interest is the message delivery report. If the message you're looking at has already been sent, selecting this option will take you to a web based service that shows you if the email was delivered or not. Sometimes this might prove useful with clients that aren't receiving your emails but don't check their spam folders.

Next we have 'message resend and recall'. As the name suggests, this allows you to resend or recall emails. Resending an email this way is different from just sending it again, as it will delete your previous email from the recipient's inbox, and replace it with this updated version. Very useful for correcting mistakes you noticed after the email was sent. Recalling an email works in a similar way, where the email is removed from the recipients inbox. (Note: you can only recall an email if the recipient has not already read it, but I suppose in that case it's too late anyway.)

The last button on the info page brings up properties of the message. Here you can control any flags, such as 'high importance' or 'sensitive', as well as controlling message expiry date (if desired). This will notify the recipient that the message is out of date if they read it after the date you specify.

Bonus tip: Many of these features can be added to your Outlook ribbon toolbar, by right-clicking on it and selecting 'Customise the ribbon'.

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Does Samsung care about its older customers?

Over the last day or so a Samsung video has emerged that pokes fun at Apple and its customers.

It shows a bunch of people waiting in line outside a shop to buy a new mobile phone. To pass the time, they discuss the phone's exciting new features, like a connector that's 'all digital' and 'the coolest adaptors'.

The ad is clearly aimed at Apple, the tone is of friendly mockery, and it makes some good points. Many new iPhone features have been standard on Samsung phones for some time.

But around a minute in, one member of the queue reveals that - shock, horror! - he's not there to buy a phone himself. He's just saving a spot for his parents.

"Thanks for holding our spot," says his coffee-cup-clutching mum, while a bearded, grey-haired chap (dad, presumably) looks on with a benevolent smile.

The implication is clear: the iPhone is for oldsters. If you're hip, with it and under 30, a Samsung phone is way cooler.

Just a bit of lighthearted fun, or casual ageism? I can't quite decide, but in this day and age it seems patronising to suggest older people are behind the times with technology and have a tendency to make poor purchasing decisions.

We've mentioned before how research shows the stereotypical view of older computer users isn't very fair or accurate. Yet in the process of having a dig at its biggest rival, isn't Samsung needlessly reinforcing those stereotypes?

Watch the video here and decide for yourself:

Friday Donut tip: keeping on top of your Outlook inbox

A bulging Microsoft Outlook inbox can be a fact of life. The more emails you send, the more you receive - and that makes it all-too-easy to forget to follow up important messages. So, to help you keep track of what's in your inbox, here are three key Microsoft Outlook tips:

1. Use coloured flags

All recent versions of Microsoft Outlook (since Outlook 2002) allow you to flag messages as they come in. There are lots of different coloured flags available (so you can use them to indicated different things) and flagging a message turns it into a task, which then appears on your task list.

Just click the grey flag by each message to set a flag. What's more, when you right-click a flag you've set, you can add a deadline, helping you prioritise tasks.

2. Use folders

Folders are a great way to group emails about a particular project or subject, or from a particular person. For example, I have an IT folder, with a Projects subfolder, and then subfolders within that for individual projects.

Getting into the habit of filing emails in the correct folder makes life a lot easier when you need to find an email quickly. And if you're feeling confident, you can also use rules to automatically move emails to folders based on who they were sent from, the text in their subject, or a number of other factors.

3. Search and you'll find

The search option in Outlook has improved considerably with recent versions, and it's often now the fastest way to find a message. In the latest version (Outlook 2010), the search happens as you start typing.

Just enter someone's name, a keyword, or another word you know will help identify the email. Results should start appearing as you type. If you are having trouble finding what you need, try some of the more advanced search options.

Previous Friday Donut tips:

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Seven email fundamentals we all forget sometimes

Ding! You've got mail. Chances are you’ve been sending and receiving email for years. And that means the chances are also high that you’ve fallen into a routine when it comes to composing a new message.

We all make email mistakes sometimes, so here’s a quick refresher of seven email fundamentals. Follow them and you’ll send polite, effective emails – every time.

1. Start and finish courteously. Always open with a friendly greeting and end with an appropriate signoff. They make emails more personal and – particularly if you’re asking someone to do something for you – less demanding. Always double check you’ve spelt the recipient’s name correctly.
2. Get to the point. Nobody wants to read an email essay or wade through 500 words to find the ten that matter. Keeping your messages short and sweet shows you have respect for the recipient’s time.
3. Pause for a moment before sending. There’s no undo option for emails and no way to shred them. So always think carefully before sending a sensitive, confrontational or emotional email, particularly if it’s going to several people. (Setting up your email system to delay emails for a minute or two helps eliminate any ‘I shouldn’t have sent that’ moments.
4. Check your email carefully. When you’re in a hurry it’s easy to type the email and hit send. Wait! Use the spell check, read it through and make sure it all makes sense. If you’re broaching a tricky subject, as a co-worker to read what you’ve written.
5. Limit acronyms and emoticons. Does the smiley face really have a place in the workplace? The answer probably depends on the nature of your company, but try and resist the temptation to pepper your messages with them. The same goes for common internet-acronyms like LOL.
6. STOP SHOUTING! Whoops, sorry about that. Nothing screams impolite and abrasive like an email written all in uppercase. Use proper punctuation and capital letters where appropriate. But don’t write anything all in uppercase.
7. Avoid using ‘reply all’. This feature sends a reply to everyone who the original email was sent to. It’s useful occasionally, but most people use it because it means they don’t have to think about who should actually receive their email. It clogs up people’s inboxes with irrelevant messages, contributing to an email overload nightmare.

Have you ever made any embarrassing email mistakes (we’ve all done it once or twice!). What are your tips to stay on the right side of email etiquette? Leave a comment to let us know.

• When it comes to email replies, is faster better?
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This post was written by Roxanne McCann and edited by John McGarvey

Email is dead: long live instant messaging

When I tell people that email won’t be around in five years’ time, they look at me like I’m mad. It’s true though – email hasn’t changed for 20 years, and we all know what happens to technology that doesn’t change. It dies.

Email is as secret as Twitter

At a presentation I did recently, I told people email wasn’t secure. To illustrate this point, I explained that information sent by email is as open as your Twitter stream, as long as you know where to look for it.

Some members of the audience looked at me in shock, admitting to sending all sorts of sensitive data via good old Microsoft Outlook.

I went on to explain that instant messaging is the future for corporate communications. I don’t care if you don’t believe me. It’s true and now I’ll explain why.

Twenty years ago people did business over the phone. When you needed something from someone, you picked the phone up or went to their desk, had a conversation and got what you needed.

Email changed all that. We became accustomed to sending a request for information, waiting for a reply, replying to the reply, waiting for another reply … and so on. A conversation that could have taken a few minutes turns into a four-hour email trail.

The only positive aspect is that email gives us an audit trail. I’m not sure about you but to me that feels like a backwards step. Of course, we didn’t see it like that at the time. 

Real-time communication is changing

Well, the world of real time communication is changing and instant messaging is the new black, if you’ll excuse the cliché. Now when I want to discuss a subject I can go into my copy of Outlook and click ‘reply with IM’:

This instantly opens a text, voice or even video conversation with recipient. You can discuss the subject and get an outcome - and best of all the entire chat is recorded in Outlook so you can check what you actually said. You can even share data directly from Microsoft Word or Excel using the share button in the review tab.

Of course, these functions aren’t only available in Microsoft Outlook. There are plenty of other services that do similar things, including free ones like Skype. So, next time you’re tempted to hit ‘reply all’, why not try instant messaging instead?

• Five email blunders you really don’t want to make
• Ten ways to use email effectively
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Lee Wrall is founder and MD of Everything Tech, an IT support and service provider based in Manchester.

What on earth is unified communications anyway?

You can’t read about business communications these days without seeing a mention of unified communications. It’s a great bit of jargon, but what on earth does it mean?

As business technology continues to develop, more and more communication channels are being opened. Tools like instant messaging, email and mobile phones make staying in touch more efficient and practical, regardless of distance and budget.

In the past, you’d have had to switch between different devices and channels to keep in touch with clients or partners. As the number of possible communication channels has grown, that’s started to become unmanageable and complicated.

Step forward unified communications, which combines these different tools into one system, so you can stay in touch more easily.

Elements of unified communications

The very nature of unified communications means it’s flexible – and that’s part of the problem when it comes to defining what it actually does. However, it covers five broad areas:

• Messaging. This brings together main forms of communication – like fax, email, voicemail and text messaging – and integrates them with your calendars and contact details. All these different things are grouped in one ‘inbox’, which you can access from your computer or mobile phone – so you don’t have to switch devices to use different communication methods.
• Instant messaging. In essence, instant messaging is online chat. You communicate with others by sending and receiving short text messages in an online chat window. Instant messaging can be fast and secure, and you can set your instant messaging system up to keep a record of all messages sent.
• Presence. This is becoming an increasingly important part of modern business communications. Presence technology enables you to see if your contacts are available or not. For instance, you can see if a colleague is in a meeting or away from their desk. Presence information ensures attempts to reach other people aren’t wasted, and makes it easier to keep in touch with remote workers.
• Conferencing. Reach employees, customers and partners without having to travel long-distances. Conferencing systems can be voice-only, or include video too, so you can see the different people taking part. Conferencing is a good way to hold remote meetings and build closer links with people outside your business.
• Voice over internet protocol (VOIP). A little more jargon for you here, but VOIP simply means that your telephone calls are sent over the internet as digital 1s and 0s, rather than down ordinary phone lines. This can dramatically reduce your costs and makes things much more flexible, allowing your telephones to be linked with the other elements of your unified communications system. Learn more about VOIP >>

A unified communications system will be flexible and modular, meaning you can combine these core elements – and some others – however you want.

Other elements include mobile access, collaboration tools to aid document sharing, speech recognition and call control. A good IT supplier will be able to help you understand the benefits and create a system that’s right for you.

• Learn more about creating a unified messaging system
• How our phone system brings us together

SynergyPlus provides telephony and technology solutions for businesses.