Pink Connect Blog

Posts Tagged ‘broadband’

Andy Moore (Pink Connect Bristol) has words of encouragement for us all – especially on these dark, cold mornings:

“I have been networking like mad over the last 3 weeks. Last week I did 4 consecutive morning meetings!  By the last one I was ready to turn the alarm off, roll over and go back to sleep.

However as I was substituting at a different BNI group I had to be there and I am glad I made the effort.

I had only been there a few minutes when the owner of a local business asked me if I could help her sort out her telecoms.  Obviously I was happy to do this & within an hour of arriving back at my office I received a call asking for an appointment on Monday.

On Monday I got hold of copies of all of their phone bills and made further enquiries with the incumbent supplier including getting a £300 overcharge credited back!

We are now going to provide her with 2 broadband connections and 5 lines.

I am so glad that I dragged myself out of bed because you just never know who might be wanting our services. Bring on those morning sessions!”

Editor’s note: The phrase “the early bird catches the worm” means success comes to those who prepare well and put in effort. It was first recorded in John Ray’s A collection of English proverbs 1670, 1678: “The early bird catcheth the worm.”

As it heads towards that time of week when our roads and our broadband clog up with sheer weight of traffic and everything runs slow, Raj Deokar (Pink Connect Northampton) has some words of advice on how to improve your broadband connection speed.

There are many factors that affect speed of broadband. Some of the key ones are:

Read the rest of this entry »

Speed up your world today with Superfast Fibre Business Broadband

Pink Connect, has seized the opportunity provided by the roll out of fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) to make high upstream business-grade broadband affordable to small businesses looking to compete in an increasingly data-hungry environment.

Benefits of Pink Fibre Pro

• Up to 20 times faster upload than standard business broadband
• Superfast service at cost effective rates
• Improve your business efficiency whilst reducing cost
• Up to 10mb upload speed
• Guaranteed minimum 12mb download throughput
• No fair usage policy

FTTC’s upload speeds of up to 10Mbps enable businesses to use video, voice or VPN technology more easily and will support a range of high-data demand applications whilst improvements in download speed make  fibre considerably faster than any standard broadband connection.

Managing Director, James, says,  “Getting your business on the Next Generation Network is a simple enough once the fibre has been run to a cabinet near you. We send an engineer to your premises to set the new connection and install a vDSL (very high speed DSL) modem. The whole installation process takes about 10 days from order to live connection and it costs a lot less than it used to when businesses looking for high speeds paid a high price for uncontended, dedicated solutions like EFM or Leased Lines.

When Katy Dann was looking for a new phone system for the care home agency business she was just starting up, Stuart from  Pink Connect (Bournemouth) called round to her home based office to talk her through what was needed to get up and running.

Katy says, “I thought it was going to be a hassle but after half an hour it became clear it would be easy.

Stuart explained I could use my broadband connection for my business telephone and pay low rates for the calls as well. He brought a handset with and showed me exactly how it would work.

I needed to get the business up and running quickly and as the Feature Plus system is so easy to install I decided it was the right option for me.  Within a few days the phone was working and I have been up and running ever since. I use the feature plus web site to manage the phone and can divert calls to my mobile when I am out of the office; it is perfect for my business.

I hadn’t heard of Pink Connect before but I am glad I have now; it is good to know there is someone local who provides such a personal service!”

Stuart Moore, Director of Pink Connect, Bournemouth, nearly didn’t meet this new customer.

Stuart says, “It was a wet Wednesday evening.  I had not had the best day and I was due at a networking event. When I arrived was “underwhelmed” by the prevailing atmosphere. I very nearly went straight home but after giving myself a good talking too, decided to stay and give it my best shot”

Half an hour later Stuart had a meeting arranged for the following week with a local business man who owns and operates a chain of 8 dry cleaners and laundry’s from an office in Bournemouth

Stuart continues, “I had in my mind to talk to the owner about his power requirements but during the meeting it quickly became apparent that his big issue was telecoms. The company had 3 different suppliers for lines, calls and broadband plus a rental charge for an old telephone system. I put together a quote for the Feature Plus Premium service, alongside line rental and broadband provision.  The customer really liked the fact that by transferring his business to Pink Connect the savings made on lines, calls and broadband services will pay for the VOIP handsets within 10 months. The other major benefit he liked about the proposal was reducing the number of his suppliers from 3 to 1.  The fact I am local and committed to excellent customer service also was a big plus. He signed to take the full package!”

So if you ever are tempted to take the easy option and not go to a networking event, you may miss out on opportunities like this one.

Editorial note: the expression “Thaz a face lik awet wensday” is thought have originated in Lancashire where Wednesday was traditionally wash day

Following up on a conversation at a recent networking event, Pink Connect (Bournemouth) is delighted to have helped independent financial advisors, Heritage Investments improve the quality of their calls.

Heritage Investments were experiencing problems with their VOIP (Voice over IP) telephone system. Upon visiting their office it quickly became apparent that they were running  5 phones  and data traffic down one broadband connection. This was causing issues with call quality.

Further, upon analysing the monthly bill it was clear that by switching to Pink Connect a 20% saving could be achieved on lines, calls and broadband charges!

Pink Connect proposed a separate broadband line for the phone traffic and an upgrade to the handsets so they would be compatible with the Feature Plus platform.

Once the system was installed and the broadband connection had stabilised the quality of the calls improved. The team was also trained to access and use the feature plus web site, this means that the telephone system is now running in a way that suits each individual phone user and Heritage Investments’ customers

R.P.Lovatt Insurance have again chosen their long term Communication suppliers Pink Connect in a deal that includes all lines, calls, mobiles, phone systems, ADSL and IT infrastructure. With this deal, Marc Lovatt has fixed the cost of his partnership’s Communication and IT budget for the next five years. Marc said “Pink Connect have been our chosen suppliers for over eight years now. As we have grown they have expanded our systems ahead of demand ensuring we always have the tools for the job. I am delighted to have secured their comprehensive services at a fixed cost with this innovative agreement. I recommend Pink Connect to any company wanting the best solution for their business communications”.

Management consultancy McKinsey has identified 10 technology trends that will force executives to anticipate and respond to their effects on their enterprises.

• Distributed co-creation moves into the mainstream
• Making the network the organisation
• Collaboration at scale
• The growing “internet of things”
• Experimentation and big data
• Wiring for a sustainable world
• Imagining anything as a service
• The age of the multisided business model
• Innovating from the bottom of the pyramid
• Producing public good on the grid

McKinsey said it identified emerging internet technologies, increased computing power, and fast, pervasive digital communications as key forces changing the management landscape back in 2007.

“Since then, the technology landscape has continued to evolve rapidly,” it said. It noted that Facebook has quintupled in size in two years to touch more than 500 million users. More than four billion people now use cell phones, and 450 million access the web from a mobile. Read the rest of this entry »

In a world of so much choice, the tools allowing us to make those choices are important.  One of the biggest decisions for a business in recent times has always been ‘internet’.  The internet is a complicated infrastructure, with thousands of service providers and hosting companies, all doing their bit to expand the internet and to provide others with the tools and information to do their job.  With almost all companies using the internet to some degree, it is important that as a service provider, Pink Connect Ltd gives their customers the best connection for what they need, and that our customers know exactly what they are going to get, and what other choices are available to them through our useful broadband package system.  For this task, some special tools are needed, and the most useful of these are the websites allowing us to supply information regarding internet connections to a customer, before they order it.

SamKnows is one of the most popular ADSL resource sites on the internet, providing a lot of useful information about specific connections, about exchanges, or about ADSL as a whole.  Their most useful feature for us is the Broadband Checker, which will allow us to estimate the download speeds on most connections before we install them.  The checker is very simple to use, just enter a telephone number, or postcode, or both and get information regarding that connection/postcode.  You will get a set of results, which you can browse through with the tabs down the left hand side of the central box, but the most useful of these is the “BT ADSL” tab, which will bring up a result like this.

This page will give you information on the specific line, such as whether ADSL is actually enabled at the local exchange, whether it is enabled for further services, such as ADSL Max, ADSL2+ and 21CN.  It will also tell us the speeds to be expected on the line.  All of these are important to learn as much as possible about the line, and let the customer know what to expect from their connection.  Another useful tab, is the “BT 21CN” tab, which will give details of BT’s new 21^st Century Network infrastructure.  The postcode search works in the same way, but the results tend to be less accurate as a postcode can cover a reasonable area.

Also included in the SamKnows website, is the Exchange Search, which will allow you to find the local exchange of any town.  This will also give you details such as which services are available at the exchange, and also which ISPs currently operate from this exchange.

A thriving  Limousine business wanted a professional Internet solution for their clients to use whilst on the move. Pink Connect were able to offer the perfect package in the form of 3′s 3G MiFi dongle – allowing up to ten clients to connect their PDAs, smartphones, BlackBerrys and laptops to a single discreet device, enabling  the firm offer truly mobile high speed Internet access. Call us today about taking your business’ wireless network with you wherever you go.