All businesses want an easy life. We all want our teams to be operating smoothly, work to be completed efficiently, and for our customers/clients to be happy! But, in the real world, this isn’t always the case. Complicated systems, lack of staff, an overwhelming surge of customers… there are countless obstacles out there that can get in the way of…

Winter often means one thing for GP surgeries – sickness levels through the roof! And with that comes more Doctor’s appointments. And with that comes more people ringing up the GP surgery in desperate search for an appointment. With more people sick this time of the year, the overwhelm for staff is at an all-time high. Surgeries require a friendly, prompt…

Christmas is almost upon us! And this often means business downtime. Therefore, it’s important that customers are still looked after during this period. There are a few things you may need to think about! While you’re business closes its doors over the festive period, it’s not abnormal to have a few stragglers – who have missed those ‘Christmas opening times’ social…

It’s been described as the biggest change in the telecoms industry for 30 years and it’s going to affect us all. So, did you know that BT will no longer be selling ISDN lines after September? Do you know the impact it will have on your business and the changes you need to make? If not, you’re certainly not alone,…

It can be a real nightmare when your business’s phone stops working ­– particularly in today’s world where you likely rely on it to connect with customers, colleagues and other stakeholders. We’ve all been here: rummaging around in wires connected to who-knows-what, dialling and testing, plugging and unplugging, all for nothing to make any difference. Begrudgingly, you head to social…

With the worry of a recession looming and inflation stubbornly refusing to shrink, 2023 is predicted to be a tough year for everyone, businesses included. Despite the rather bleak outlook, there are ways to prepare and adapt to ensure your business can ride out the storm and remain profitable.  Consider remote working If your business allows, consider having your workforce…

The big copper line switch off began this year with BT no longer installing traditional copper phone lines from September, in preparation for the dissolution of the entire network in 2025. This means that telephone landlines as we know them will no longer be operational, marking the biggest change in the telecoms industry in 30 years. Understandably this can be…

Well, the short answer is…every business! As it’s scalable and versatile, as well as significantly more cost effective than traditional phone lines, a VoIP phone system is a brilliant option for a variety of businesses, no matter their industry or size. We’ve put together a few examples of how these benefits can be applied to help different businesses. Remote or…

Let’s face it, telephone communications systems aren’t that sexy.  To us, of course they are but even we can appreciate that the majority of business owners might not feel that excited about them!  In fact, they’re more often than not seen as a necessary evil, something without the obvious appeal of the latest software or shiny new mobile phones and top notch tech.  It’s safe…

It’s no secret that the NHS is currently up against it.  We know – from our three decades working with GP surgeries across the country – that when the pressure ramps up, having a robust, versatile, modern communications system is so much more than a luxury, it’s an absolute necessity.  Both in maintaining the very best patient care as well as taking…

There’s is so much we can do to try to make savings in our businesses to help weather the storm a little and before we have to resort to more drastic measures.

etting the absolute best comms solution for whatever industry you’re in. 

We’ve proved recently that we’re all absolutely capable of working collaboratively but virtually but are we really getting the very best remote experience we could? Playing a little video conferencing bingo – how many of the following have plagued your online meetings lately:  Technical problems with audio  Hard to sign in  Poor picture quality  Limited functionality There’s another way!  Our trusty…

As we come out of the heat of Summer and the weather starts shifting, the nights draw in and the schools start back, demand for GP services continues to creep on up.  Whether it’s annual flu jabs or Covid boosters to co-ordinate or an increase in general enquiries as patients succumb to the changing seasons and the illnesses it brings (likely…

‘Flexible!’ ‘Remote!’ ‘Hybrid!’ A quick scour of LinkedIn’s job pages shows just how much the British workforce has changed over the last few years.  No longer just in exceptional circumstances, working out of the office – at least some of the time – is a must have for the majority of employees.  And with some 78% of them reporting a better work…

We’ve nearly made it to the end of another school year – hear the sighs of relief up and down the country as students and teachers get ready to enjoy some well-earned rest and relaxation over the holidays! But school life doesn’t stop for everyone as Summer hits:  in fact with a little space to breathe, now is the perfect time…

It’s no secret that the UKs healthcare system is under immense pressure in 2022 – the pandemic hit an already stretched service and the last few years have taken their toll on staff across the NHS.  With doctors and nurses leaving faster than the health service can replace them, significant funding issues and a growing population, patients are drawing the short…

2022 is looking like an increasingly tough year for businesses.  With inflation predicted to top 11%, energy bills soaring and people spending less and less to weather the cost of living storm, it’s easy to feel quite despondent about the outlook. BUT there are always small ways to adapt, adjust and  maybe save a few pounds along the way and this year…

Whether you’ve been prompted by the 2025 conventional analogue and ISDN lines switching off date creeping ever closer or have been pushed into considering new ways of working as a result of the last couple of years, now might be a great time to switch your traditional phone system over to something new, agile, flexible.  But where to begin?  Installing a…

As the adage goes, when times are tough, we tighten our belts. But is that always the right approach for a business? We believe that effective decision making is largely about spending your money in the right way, rather than not investing at all. With inflation now rising above 8% and bills across all utilities heading skywards, business owners across…

It’s something of an understatement to say that the last few years have been hard going for GP surgeries! If we’ve learnt anything from the challenges surgeries have faced throughout the pandemic, it’s that having a robust, agile, up to date communications system is essential not just for day to day operations but in the face of crises too.  In fact,…

According to Action Fraud, the annual cost of telephone fraud in the UK is around £17 BILLION, it’s almost unfathomable.  Scammers are of course getting more and more sophisticated and ruthless but as we see unprecedented cost of living rises coupled with astronomical growth in energy bills in the UK, scammers are also getting more opportunistic and desperate.  So how do you…

If we’ve learnt anything from the challenges faces by surgeries throughout the Coronavirus pandemic it’s that having a robust, versatile, modern communications system is more than just a luxury.  It’s an absolute necessity in maintaining the very best patient care as well as taking care of heavily burdened staff during a national emergency.  We found that those surgeries who had…

The past 12 months have been hectic; there’s been highs, many lows and a lot of change. Things have often been done or carried out as an emergency response to events happening around us. However, with the vaccine rollout in full swing and the roadmap out of lockdown hitting its targets thus far, now may be the time to access…

Over the last 12 months, schools have really had to roll with the punches when it comes to adapting their working practices. This has meant embracing huge changes in the way they communicate with colleagues, parents and pupils, often using new technology to continue to teach and meet parental demands. Many schools may have already introduced a VoIP system to…

2020 was the year the country proved it could work remotely. With so many businesses big and small realising the benefits and the not insignificant cost savings of working more flexibly, it’s looking like 2021 will be the year thousands of companies further evolve and perfect their home working practices and processes to embrace this new normal. A key part…

With many schools across England looking set to join our neighbours in Wales and Scotland by starting to reopen in March, is your school ready?  With two weeks to go, it’s likely that you’ll start to see a surge in calls from parents trying to get to grips with yet another new normal. The increase in call volume is likely…

Whether trying to manage staff absence through sickness or self-isolation, staying on top of the rollout of free school meals to children and young people in the community, monitoring pupil levels in school on a daily basis or communicating effectively with parents and pupils trying to learn and educate at home, there is no doubt that the Coronavirus pandemic is…

Even without the unique challenges of 2020’s global pandemic, call volumes to GP surgeries inevitably ramp during the winter months with the onset of a large number of seasonal illnesses. Of course, this year that volume is reaching unprecedented levels with heightened sickness in the community as well as increased staff absence due to Covid infection, self-isolation or shielding.  So…

As 2020 progressed and the Coronavirus pandemic deepened, more and more staff were required to work from home regardless of industry, sector, geographical location or size.  Throughout the year businesses demonstrated that by modernising working practices and embracing modern technology to its fullest extent, they were able to quickly and easily move to a flexible working arrangement without loss of…

In an unprecedented year, businesses have faced innumerable challenges to adapt how they work, sometimes simply to survive.  One thing that has become clear is that early adopters of new technology and working practices have been able to weather the Coronavirus pandemic better than those who’ve had to play catch up. The key to communication success when it comes to…

Whenever they’re getting started, small businesses need all the help they can get to survive. As many as eight out of ten small businesses fail within the first 18 months. In 2020, a year where global economies have been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic, it’s an even tougher environment out there for most small businesses. While there are government schemes…

During a normal winter, staffing levels are always erratic in the winter months, with the usual winter bugs like flu and colds going around. 2020 looks to be even worse, with people showing coronavirus symptoms potentially having to self-isolate for days while waiting for their test results to come back. December is also a popular time for staff to use…

Businesses of all sizes face communication issues from time to time. The challenge facing small and medium companies are often greater as they just don’t have the resources necessary to completely tackle the problem. Not having the right resources in place has only aggravated the risk from potential communication problems. These issues can range from customers being unable to easily…

Businesses of all sizes face communication issues from time to time. The challenge facing small and medium companies are often greater as they just don’t have the resources necessary to completely tackle the problem. Not having the right resources in place has only aggravated the risk from potential communication problems. These issues can range from customers being unable to easily…

The Covid-19 global pandemic has made us reassess a huge number of things both in our personal lives and across society. One thing it has definitely highlighted is how feasible it is for many of us to work from home more often, if not permanently. With the second lockdown and a potentially difficult winter ahead, working from home looks like…

The lead up to Christmas is normally a great time of year for many of us, with food, gifts and retail therapy. That means that November and December are among the busiest months for so many of the UK’s biggest sectors, particularly retail and hospitality. A second lockdown may have thrown original plans into chaos, but come what may, many…

Towards the end of September, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson instructed people to return to working from home as and where possible, sending thousands of people back from their offices to remote working again. Not coming into the workplace every day and working from home can be jarring for many, with the transition to working at home for the next…

There’s a lot of scaremongering going on in the press since Boris Johnson announced the latest round of COVID-19 measures, including the new three tier lockdown system. In many of his recent speeches, the Prime Minister said the UK was in for a tough winter because of the implications of Coronavirus. There could be added stresses on our healthcare system…

If you run a business and want to make things work as smoothly as possible during these unusual and unprecedented times, you’ll need technology that lives up to your needs and systems that are robust enough to deal with changing work conditions. Having a phone system that meets your needs is important, particularly at a time when more and more…

BT is planning to “switch off” the UK’s entire traditional phone line network by 2025, which means switching over from a standard phone system to a phone system running over the internet is inevitable. Now might not seem like the ideal time to have to update your phone system, with the Coronavirus pandemic having widespread effects on the community. However,…

In any business, the ability to communicate with clients and customers is essential to your success. Having a phone system that meets your needs is crucial to ensuring those good lines of communication — especially in a shifting working landscape where more and more people than ever are working from home. With the uncertainty due to the Coronavirus pandemic and…

Is the Coronavirus pandemic forcing you to change the way your business is working? It might not seem like it, but now might be the perfect time to make the switch over from your traditional phone systems to something new. One of the big future-proof options is VoIP. But what exactly is VoIP, you ask? Here’s our beginner’s guide to…

Did you know that BT is planning to “switch off” the UK’s entire traditional phone line network by 2025? Five years might sound like a long time, but the reality is that if you rely on traditional phone lines for your business, the switch off means you’ll probably need to change your telephony to internet-capable phones by 2025. With the…

The economy has taken a huge hit since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. Lockdown effectively meant that businesses — and life as we know it — ground to a halt for weeks and weeks. Some businesses have been devastated by the financial crisis, while others have managed to navigate the turbulence, while having to radically change the way they…

For many businesses big and small alike, the coronavirus lockdown imposed by the government has forced new ways of working and looking at the day-to-day work environment. Some have made the most of a bad situation; some pubs have done takeaway food or beer in an effort to keep their locals fed and watered, independent retailers have started offering delivery…

Working remotely and working from home is a trend that has been steadily growing for years. It’s become increasingly popular as a way of fitting work around lifestyle, with the removal of a daily commute thought to make things particularly convenient for many people. In 2020, during the height of the coronavirus crisis, it’s becoming standard practice more and more…

The past few months have been difficult for many businesses across the South West – whether through a loss of trade during the lockdown or through the complexity of having staff members working remotely when they’ve previously always been in your office. During this period, we’ve moved a number of businesses over to our VoIP solutions. The reason for this…

Since March 23rd, the UK has taken the drastic step of ordering a lockdown, with people being told to stay at home unless it’s absolutely necessary to leave. It’s all due to the spread of Covid-19, more commonly known as the Coronavirus. Millions of people across the world are living in similar lockdown conditions; adjusting to the measures for the…

Since the UK went into lockdown in March, most of us have been sticking to the rules well and self-isolating as much as possible. That means a lot of people in their homes, looking for ways to stay busy, stay entertained and stay connected to the outside world. More than ever before, we’re leaning on our home broadband connection for…

The spread of Covid-19, known more commonly as the Coronavirus, has seen widespread repercussions across the globe. Italy has seen Europe’s biggest outbreak, leading the Italians to go into a country-wide lockdown, restricting travel and public gatherings. Thankfully, the UK has managed to keep a comparative lid on the virus so far. Initially the “contain stage” for as long as…

When he became Prime Minister last July, Boris Johnson made a pledge that nobody would have to wait more than three weeks to see their GP, but since then 11 million patients have endured waits longer than three weeks. Demand for NHS services is rising all the time, but more often than not, surgeries are finding themselves stretched in every…

If you’re in business, you’ll constantly have an eye on costs; sometimes a penny saved is a penny earned and that’s been particularly important for many businesses of all sizes in recent times. In the retail sector, sales failed to rise for a record fifth month in a row in December, with household spending in high street shops and online…

When you think of targets set in schools, you think of students aiming for top grades, or teachers trying to keep a class above a certain average score in exams. But just like any other organisation, your school will likely be constantly striving for better in terms of making things more efficient, improving communication with parents and making life a…

The start of any new year is a great time to reflect, plan and respond. What can you be doing better? What could you be introducing that would increase the productivity of your staff? How about improving the experience each of your patients has when they visit or contact your surgery? These are questions that many doctors, vets and dental…

Christmas is a fantastic time of year for most of us, with all the food, presents and precious time with loved ones. For many of us it’s very busy too; hospitality and tourism businesses are swamped by people wanting some festive fun, doctors’ surgeries are busy with people suffering winter ailments, while eCommerce businesses can struggle to keep up with…

As a business you’ll want to be as productive as possible. A large part of that will be making sure that your staff members have the processes, procedures and systems in place in order to make that goal a reality.  When it comes to communication your phone system is at the heart of it all; it allows you to communicate…

If you’re running a business, do you ever find your phone system frustrating and no longer capable of giving you what you need from it? Is it hampering your interactions with customers? Whilst changing your phone system can seem like something of a chore and always stay at the bottom of the to-do list, the benefits a VoIP system (where…

Are you prepared for the BT switch off in 2025? We can help your business get ready ahead of the game! With BT planning to turn off traditional phone lines by 2025, all businesses still using analogue phone systems will need to make the switch to a newer internet based phone system. Equations knows that each business is different so…

Have you heard that BT plans to “switch off” all the country’s “traditional” phone lines by 2025? That might sound like a long way away, but the reality is that if your business has multiple phone lines, the switch off means you’ll probably need to change systems. Luckily, if you change to a VoIP (Voice-over Internet Protocol) system, you can…

If you’re currently running a small business, then you’re bound to have plenty on your plate. It’s therefore easy to understand why updating your phone system may feel like another task or decision at the end of a very long list. However, whilst on the face of it, taking the plunge and getting it sorted may seem like a drain…

Both GP and veterinary surgeries are facing the same pressures and looking to achieve similar goals — reducing costs, increasing efficiency and improving communications with patients. Yet this might seem like an insurmountable problem when surgery teams are put under strain during the busiest hours of the day. The rising and aging UK population is putting health services under strain,…

As a small business owner, you’ll have plenty to think about when it comes to your phone system. How much will it cost? Are your call charges growing month after month? What will it cost to bring in a new employee and an additional phone line? And that’s just for a start! The best answer to many of these questions…

If you own or run a surgery and you’re not currently using a VoIP phone system, there are a whole host of benefits you could be missing out on that can easily improve your communication with patients, reduce costs and increase efficiency. Let’s take a look at four ways a VoIP system could take your communication to the next level.…

We’ve been working with schools across the South West for more than 20 years.  If you’re currently considering if a VoIP phone system could be the right solution for your campus, here are a few of the benefits from which your school could gain…. Addressing your campus layout Every school or university will be unique, however one thing that is…

Looking for a telephone system for your business that gives you everything you need at the fraction of the cost? Here’s everything you need to know about VoIP phone systems in a nutshell… Can it really cut costs? If you’re currently using traditional phone lines to run your business, then you could instantly cut costs with a VoIP system.  How…

How do you currently make and take your calls? If it’s through a standard phone line rather than an internet-based solution such as ‘VoIP’ then you need to be aware of a looming deadline! That’s because BT is planning to ‘hang up’ all ISDN and PSTN phone lines by 2025. ‘2025!’ we hear you say! No rush at all then?…

There are now 9.2 million people working in the UK with dependent children. Not sound like that many? That’s almost one in every four people of working age, so the chances are that no matter what line of business you’re in or how large or small your organisation may be, you’re highly likely to work with a parent. With parenting…

VoIP telephony is becoming increasingly popular with many of the organisations with whom we work. No matter if you’re a school, a doctor’s surgery or any other form of organisation, this technology potentially offers a host of benefits including cost savings and increased flexibility and functionality. It is however a big decision to move away from a traditional system toward…

No matter the size of your organisation, or the line of business in which you work, turning to a VoIP phone system brings with it a wide range of benefits. From cost savings to flexibility and adaptability, these systems are becoming more and more popular – so how long can you ignore the positives of having a phone system that…

When it comes to technology times move quickly. As our mobile phones and computers get more powerful we often change them and upgrade accordingly, sometimes on a regular basis, but when was the last time you reviewed your telephone system or the costs associated with making and taking calls? For many business owners a review of their telephone provider can…

It’s hard to ignore the current financial pressures in the UK, so we know that communication system budgets are tight in many organisations across the country. However, with our years of experience we also know that getting the right telephone system for your organisation is vital to the smooth running of your organisation. We believe that a tight budget doesn’t…

Seasonal organisations are often forgotten when it comes to appropriate configuration, with most suppliers putting the focus on organisations that operate in much the same way all year round. However, we know that this means you need a fantastic telephone system which can easily adapt to your different needs as you progress through high and low season and holiday periods…

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) has been on a steady rise in recent years, in fact, there’s been around a 75% increase in businesses opting to use of the cost-friendly telephone systems since 2010. VoIP works by using a broadband line to make calls. Data is sent and received via the internet connection, just like emails, and the result is…

For many years we’ve lived in a world in which our telephones have been connected to cables, a world in which we’ll have all seen an Openreach van at the end of the drive and likely been through the tedious process of getting a new line or lines added to an office building or property. With Voice over IP (VoIP)…

A lot can happen in 10 years can’t it? It certainly can in the world of technology if you think that in 2006 the iPhone was still a well-kept secret in the bowels of an Apple research and development facility in Cupertino. More than 750 million iPhones have been bought during the past decade by people across the globe, and…