Sinclair Community College is the largest regional provider of online education, with more than 180 different online courses and a mission that focuses on providing accessible, high quality, affordable learning opportunities. As a commuter college that depends on the telephone to ensure smooth communication with students, Sinclair College needed to replace a legacy phone system from a manufacturer that had dropped out of the picture. ShoreTel was Sinclair’s choice for the future.

Sinclair Community College encompasses five remote campuses covering a forty-mile radius from its Dayton Oh campus, and servers more than 27,000 commuter students. The largest regional provider of online education, its' mission is to provide accessible, high quality, affordable learning opportunities. Of the nearly 37,000 calls it handles during peak registration periods, most concern financial aid and require the expertise of agents with very specific training. As the economy drives more people to move towards new careers and qualifications, Sinclair expects peak call rates to top 46,000 in 2010.

In 2002, Sinclair's legacy Fujitsu PBX manufacturer went out of business. Although the PBX system met current needs, college staff recognized that the system ultimately needed replacement. With a knowledgeable IT staff active in organizations such as the Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education (ACUTA) which has a well established VoIP special interest group, Sinclair was well prepared to evaluate VoIP and IP-PBX solutions against the specific needs of higher education settings. After talking to Accent Information Systems, a ShoreTel partner, two IP-based communication systems made it to Sinclair's short list, Avaya and ShoreTel.

Find out more about the solution by clicking this link: http://www.shoretel.com/resource_center/success_stories/Sinclair_Community_College.html

 

Report Focuses Heavily on Customer Experience and Product Offering

ShoreTel® the leading provider of brilliantly simple IP phone systems with fully integrated unified communications (UC), announced it has received a "Strong Positive" rating in Gartner's April 2010 "MarketScope for Unified Communications for the SMB Market, North America." The report's weighted rating system focuses most heavily on the customer experience and the capabilities, quality, and feature set of the product.

Kevin Gavin, Vice President of Marketing, ShoreTel, said "We believe this report and our ‘Strong Positive' rating confirms our position in the market and our commitment to providing our customers with the industry's best features, reliability, and service. From small companies to large enterprises, it's clear that when customers share their experiences, ShoreTel's true leadership shines."

 

 

  Growth continues - combined resources enhance services to clients
Accent Information Systems, a regional leader in sales of business telephone technology, data and converged network solutions, announced today that it has acquired the cabling and IP telephony business, along with selected assets from Newcome Electronic Systems headquartered in Columbus Ohio. This transaction is an important part of Accent’s aggressive growth strategy to expand its service capacity throughout Ohio.

Our President, Frank Goode stated, “This partnership will allow clients of Newcome Electronic Systems to continue to enjoy the high level of service and support they’ve had over the past 30⁺ years”. Tim Newcome of Newcome Electronics said, “I wanted to find a well-established, professional company that is committed to the community and Accent’s reputation is second to none; I believe they will continue our legacy of first-class performance and leave our customers well served”.

Businesses look for a partner that can provide the structured cabling solution that works along with the data network backbone and then delivers a solution to the desktop that fulfills customer’s needs. Over the past 17 years Accent has helped many companies reach this goal.

Our two organizations have worked on some mutual accounts throughout the years and with this acquistion will be adding some notable names to the Accent client list.

Accent will support all clients that use HP ProCurve data equipment, Proxim Broadband Wireless and ShoreTel IP telephone equipment. Newcome clients will continue to use the existing Newcome phone number and website.

ShoreTel Reaches One Million Phone Milestone With Shipment to Non-Profit Community Health Center Company Ships One Millionth Phone to Clinica Romero, which works on behalf of the underserved population of Greater Los Angeles

The leading provider of brilliantly simple IP phone systems with fully integrated Unified Communications (UC), is pleased to announce that is has shipped its one millionth phone to Clinica Romero in Los Angeles as part of an initial deployment that includes more than 180 phones in three locations.

"We're thrilled to be the recipient of the one millionth phone since ShoreTel is one in a million when it comes to phone systems," said Robert Desmond, CFO at Clinica Romero. "The ShoreTel solution provides a solid platform for future growth and enables us to deploy a single phone system across all of our three sites, and manage them from a single point without requiring additional IT resources. Plus, the easy to learn features create a highly efficient call center to better serve our community."

As a private, nonprofit, federally qualified community health center, Clinica Romero operates in East Los Angeles neighborhoods, serving disadvantaged patients, including the homeless, from more than 140 Southern California zip codes. ShoreTel features such as workgroups, hunt groups and office anywhere, help Clinica Romero ensure that no call goes unanswered, and that patients are routed to the most qualified staff member as quickly as possible.

Despite the economic downturn, ShoreTel has maintained a steady growth over the past few years, in part due to its management simplicity and obsessive focus on customer satisfaction. In April 2009, independent analyst firm, Synergy Research, announced that ShoreTel had achieved the No.1 market-share position worldwide in the small and midsize market for its desktop application, ShoreTel Call Manager. In November, Nemertes Research awarded ShoreTel Best Overall VoIP Provider for the sixth year in a row, based on independent surveys of IT professionals.

It has been said before that the "first million is the hardest". We are glad to have ShoreTel as a Premier partner. Let's get the 2nd million!

What’s interesting in 2010?

As the year starts we all look for ways to “start anew”. One of our partners shared with me recently “with 2020 only ten years away, the year 2010 takes on new significance”.

At Accent many of you have know us for years as a provider of solutions. The truth is we hardly come up with the solutions alone. You, our clients, tell us what works best for you and provide the direction we need for a Great Solution.

We have been running the IT Seminars downtown Columbus for nearly three years now and as we “start anew” we are looking for input regarding the topics we should highlight for the upcoming year.

You have the floor.  What is of interest to you? Seminars on general business processes, specific phone technology, Contact Centers, web based solutions  etc…? We are looking forward to some exciting seminars this year with your help. Please send your suggestions to aisoffice@accentservices.com . They will be considered for upcoming events.

Don’t forget that we will be giving away two premium seats to one of the Blue Jackets games on the 19^th. We hope to see you there.

You may have heard the term cloud computing before and wondered “what in the world have they thought of now” or “this can’t possibly be useful to me”.  If that was your initial response, you’re probably not in the minority. However, cloud computing is everywhere and you could be using it every day without ever knowing. 

No, cloud computing is not the act of using your laptop computer during a commercial flight, nor is it a top secret government project to harness the sky for IT applications.  Cloud computing is an information systems and business concept used to deliver data to a user wherever he or she might be.  Sounds complex, right?  In reality, it’s pretty simple to understand, and in practice, it’s very useful for many businesses.

Wikipedia defines cloud computing as “internet- ("cloud-") based development and use of computer technology ("computing")… Typical cloud computing providers deliver common business applications online which are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers”.  In its simplest form, cloud computing allows a user to access information via the Internet through a web browser instead of a dedicated program running on the PC’s desktop.  So what does this mean for business?  If I’m connected to the Internet, I have access to my data.  It’s that simple.

The flexibility and scalability of cloud computing is what attracts many businesses, especially when it comes to Software as a Service (SaaS).  SaaS is a type of cloud computing that delivers actual business applications through a web browser (think Google Docs or Salesforce.com).  In the example of Google Docs, a user can create and edit documents as if he or she was using Microsoft Word or any other word processing application.  Those created documents can be saved to “the cloud” or the user’s PC; Word- created documents can even be uploaded to “the cloud” and edited via Google Docs.

The possibilities of cloud computing don’t just end at the desktop, in fact the promise extends far beyond.  Because your data is in “the cloud”, it can be accessed through any web connected device that has a browser.  This includes laptops, tablets, and smart phones, with no data synchronization of any type required.  Enabling collaboration is a key element of cloud computing as well.  Now, your documents stored in the cloud can be shared with others and true real-time collaboration can take place at the click of a button.  Imagine a platform where your data is stored in one place but accessible and sharable from anywhere - that’s flexibility.

As knowledge workers are asked to be more productive and businesses are looking for ways to innovate, providing the flexibility of “the cloud” can be crucial to staying competitive for any business.  The fast paced world of today requires information be readily accessible and easily customized to fit any need.  Providing users with the power of cloud computing may just give your business a competitive advantage and have your customers sitting on cloud nine.    

Technology Tip of the Quarter: Evaluate Passwords

Any good manager is worried about the security of his or her business. We've all heard about the destruction hackers can cause, from wiping out bank accounts to causing immeasurable long-term hassles.  It's likely we've tested the passwords we use on a daily basis, not only in our businesses but in our personal lives as well.  But are our employees being as proactive against cyber crime as we are?

This quarter’s “Technology Tip” is a simple one… something that should be shared with every employee and family member, and doesn’t cost anything to implement:  Check the safety of the passwords you use, and protect those passwords.  

Much has been written on this.  Just Google “password security”.  It may sound easy and so logical, but is so worth repeating.  Follow these steps, and your password should be secure enough not to be “uncracked”:

1. Determine the security level of your password; in other words, determine who needs to have access.  Is it something that everyone but the custodial staff needs access to?  Or does it protect information that is detrimental to your business or personal life if in the wrong hands?  You may want to have 3 or 4 passwords, one for different levels of needed security.

2. Come up with a password that is “uncrackable”:
- Start out with a sentence that you can remember, like “I want to retire to the mountains of North Carolina next year if I can”.  (It should have at least 8 characters.  More is even better.)
- Shorten it by using the first letter of each word: IwtrttmoNCnyiic
- Substitute numbers for some of the letters: 1w2r2tmoNCny11c 
- Make sure you use upper case and lower case letters (this example already does).
- Substitute symbol(s) for a letter or number:  !w2r2tm0NCny!!c

There you have it.  A really tough-to-crack password that’s easy to remember. 

3. Now that your password levels have been determined, and your passwords are developed, be sure they are not written down and stored on a sticky note in the top drawer of a desk. There are some really great “password manager” programs that will store and organize your passwords, help you avoid being a victim of phishing (illegally posing as a legitimate business online in order to get sensitive data such as log-ins passwords or social security numbers), and can even save time in filling out on-line forms by remembering personal information. Just be sure to do some research before downloading or purchasing – some software might contain built-in spyware.

With good management, your log-in information, passwords, and sensitive data will remain safe and secure.

As we begin to total up the donations for Pelotonia we are very grateful for the support you have shown us and The James Cancer Research Center.

We couldn't have been successful without you. Thank you. If you know of others that would like to joing the 1,000's that have raised millions please direct them to the website.

The ride has finished this year but the Fight against Cancer continues. Thank you!

Take a look at some of the pictures from the event here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/42074670@N06/sets