“When we started Star2Star back in 2006, we knew we had some very special technology. I’m very proud of the entire team at Star2Star, and I’m also proud of our more than 300 agents and dealers, who are a large part of our success”, said Norman Worthington, CEO of Star2Star.

Star2Star posted sales of $10.8 Million for 2010, representing a three-year growth rate of 1555.9%. The company sold more than 12,000 telephone systems in the past twelve months, and currently serves nearly 200,000 users.

Star2Star customers typically save around 50% on their monthly telephone expenses. The savings are usually more than enough to offset the leasing cost for the phone system. As a result, Star2Star delivers a state of the art phone system that saves customers money from day one. Star2Star’s lower operating costs are a direct result of the company’s unique Blended Architecture, which provides high-quality, high-reliability telephone connections over ordinary Internet connections.

“While we’re thrilled to place on the Inc. 500 list, we’re really just getting started”, said Joe Rhem, President of Star2Star. “We’ve recently won some very large customer accounts that will significantly increase our revenue stream going forward”, Rhem said.

About the Inc. 500:

The 2011 Inc. 500 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2007 to 2010. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2007. Additionally, they had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent-not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies-as of December 31, 2010. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.’s September issue. Companies such as Microsoft, Zappos, Intuit, Jamba Juice, Zipcar, Clif Bar, Vizio, Oracle, and many other well-known names gained early exposure as members of the Inc. 500.

About Star2Star:

Founded in 2006 in Sarasota, Florida, Star2Star Communications develops and delivers business-focused Internet telephone systems and service. Star2Star’s award-winning technology employs a powerful Blended Architecture that overcomes the limitations of other Internet phone technologies. Star2Star delivers innovative features and increased productivity while providing substantial cost savings.

Star2Star products are sold through a diversified international network of distributors, master agents, and certified installing dealers. Available across North America, Star2Star Internet telephone systems are installed in thousands of small- and medium-sized businesses and in many large national retail and restaurant chains.

The 6739i also is equipped with multiple headset connection options, support for up to nine lines with call appearances, dual Gigabit Ethernet Interfaces and extensive call management capabilities.

Key Features and Benefits:

• Large Touch Screen Display
  The high resolution (640 x 480) full VGA backlit LCD Touch Screen display is at the heart of the Aastra 6739i. A state of the art display, the screen provides helpful navigational menus to take full advantage of the powerful telephony features this SIP phone brings to the desktop. Adjustable brightness settings can be used to ensure maximum resolution quality in any lighting environment.
• Aastra Hi-Q™ Wideband Audio Technology
  All 67xi Series IP Telephones incorporate Aastra Hi-Q™ audio technology to deliver enhanced performance and voice clarity. Integrating wideband audio software and hardware, the Aastra 6739i goes one-step beyond maximizing the acoustic performance to deliver a remarkable audio experience on every call, whether using the handset, hands-free speakerphone or headset port.
• Flexible Headset Options
  Providing enhanced headset flexibility, the 6739i allows for a variety of headset options. Featuring a built-in Bluetooth interface and a dedicated EHS (DHSG) port, the 6739i facilitates mobility around the office while enjoying remarkable audio quality on your wireless headset.
• Simplified Deployment
  From initial deployment and configuration to future enhancements and upgrades, the Aastra 6739i is designed to save your business time and money. Dual auto-sensing switched Gigabit Ethernet ports eliminate additional wiring and simplify installations without compromising the bandwidth required by power users. Integrated IEEE 802.3af Power-over-Ethernet allows easy deployment with centralized powering and backup.

Benefit #1 – Lower Total Cost of Ownership: A hosted VoIP solution enables savings right from the onset as it is no longer necessary to purchase expensive ‘boxes’ or systems. All an organisation needs are VoIP-ready handsets and the hosting service provider will take care of the rest. The service provider will also manage both the phone and data lines, enabling further cost savings.

Organisations can obtain access to the most advanced technologies without having to invest large sums of money in hardware, making this an affordable option even for smaller businesses, and allowing them to access communications technology that was previously only available to larger companies.

Benefit #2 – Simpler IT support: Traditional phone systems are fairly complex and require a high level of skill to maintain. However a hosted VoIP solution removes this barrier to entry, as it uses a simple web interface and therefore requires very little IT support or training to administer. Users can be quickly added or deleted and additional features enabled by administrators from their computers through the intuitive interface, thus making additional support or staff members unnecessary. This in turn leads to further cost savings through simplified maintenance of the system as the resources can be allocated to other areas of the business.

Benefit #3 – Reduced Capital Investment: With hosted VoIP it is no longer necessary to spend large amounts of capital on expensive systems. Other than the actual handsets there is no investment required and no large capital expenses to depreciate over time. Hosted VoIP is an operating expense rather than a capital expense, so all businesses need to pay is an affordable monthly service fee to have access to a range of capabilities that can improve productivity and connect the business to advanced telephony.

Benefit #4 – Improved Business Continuity: Communication is at the heart of any modern enterprise and the last thing any business needs is for phone services to go down. Hosted VoIP solves this problem by incorporating failover systems that kick in should things go wrong. Because the physical box does not reside on the business premises but in a redundant and secure data centre off site, even if the building is affected by floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters the phones remain unaffected. A web-based portal enables users to quickly forward calls to cell phones or unaffected locations so that business can carry on without affecting customers.

Benefit #5 – Easy scalability: Hosted VoIP is a highly flexible solution as the number of employees on the system is not constrained, so expanding or reducing the number of users is a simple and cost-effective process. If resources become tight or the number of employees needs to be reduced this can easily be accommodated, and in times of growth it is quick and easy to scale up without incurring massive costs or disruption to the business. This gives organisations the ability to immediately make changes and scale up or down with fluctuating business needs.

Benefit #6 – Added functionality: A hosted VoIP solution gives businesses access to a wide range of functionality that can be activated on demand to suit the needs of any organisation. From HD voice to automatic voicemail forwarding and remote call following to phone systems integrated with Outlook or CRM systems, the potential for expansion is practically limitless. Hosted VoIP gives any size business the ability to access features and functionality that were previously only available to large enterprise because of cost constraints.

Benefit #7 – Automatic Upgrades: Outsourcing VoIP to a hosted provider means that businesses no longer need to upgrade hardware to take advantage of new features and technologies. All upgrades will be done by the host and will be delivered through software changes that happen automatically in the background. So businesses will always have access to the latest technology without the need for expensive upgrades every time something is updated.

Benefit #8 – Productivity Anywhere: Traditional telephony systems are highly desk bound, which in today’s world is no longer the ideal scenario. A hosted VoIP solution gives businesses the ability to gain access to constant connectivity and productivity anywhere, anytime, whether employees are at their desks, in the boardroom or on the road. Workers can access the communication features of the VoIP system no matter where they are, improving productivity dramatically.

Benefit #9 – Access to Powerful Video Conferencing: Travel can be an added expense that during tough times many businesses cannot afford. Video conferencing enables the productivity of face-to-face interactions without the cost of travel. Hosted VoIP enables organisations to quickly and easily access video calling capabilities (part of Unified Communications), making calls far more personal and productive than traditional phone calls.

Benefit #10 – Focus on core business capabilities: By removing the worry and maintenance of phone systems, organisations can better focus on their core business capabilities. The management of these increasingly complex business communications systems is outsourced and handled offsite, so the telephony system continues to work while employees can get on with their jobs safe in the knowledge that the telephony system will just work, whenever they need it to, and they can access features like voice and video without having to know why and how they work.

In conclusion, hosted VoIP has numerous benefits that can help telecommunications  to be brought onto a level with the rest of the world. Now that bandwidth is not the obstacle it once was, and IT spend is expected to increase in over the next year, hosted solutions such as VoIP have become a reality and can drive greater productivity and efficiency in business operations.

By Gail Holt, MD at Zycko South Africa

Sarasota, FL (Vocus/PRWEB) February 09, 2011
Star2Star Communications, makers of “The World’s Most Reliable Internet Phone Solution”, today announced the most recent in a long series of industry awards. Internet Telephony Magazine has named the company’s flagship Star2Star Business Internet Telephone System as “Product of the Year” for the fifth consecutive year.
“This award underscores the superiority of our system architecture,” said Joe Rhem, President of Star2Star. “We’re in an industry that changes continually, so I’m especially proud of our development, sales, and support teams for keeping us at the forefront of VoIP technology,” he added.
The editors of Internet Telephony Magazine chose the award winners based on the product’s quality, innovation, and ability to meet customer needs. The 2010 Product of the Year winners are published in the February 2011 issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine, (http://www.itmag.com). INTERNET TELEPHONY has been the authority in IP communication since 1998™.

About Star2Star:

Star2Star Communications offers the revolutionary StarSolution, the world’s only Blended Architecture voice communications system. Joining a proprietary premise-based PBX with custom cloud-based voice services, Star2Star’s unique End-to-End solution is built together to work together. Star2Star monitors the solution 24/7, and sells and installs through a certified service network three thousand strong. This exclusive combination of architecture, monitoring and deliverability results in best of class features, business grade call quality, guaranteed reliability, dramatic savings and has made Star2Star Communications the only voice services vendor capable of providing a complete solution to every business address in North America served by broadband Internet.

Installation and management is fairly straightforward but can be slightly confusing depending on the environment. The installation consists of wiring up the master unit, connecting the door unit and then connecting the Fingerprint Key. After all of that is complete, further management takes place on the built-in web management console. We found this GUI console to be easy to navigate and intuitive to use with a very organized layout.

This product offers flexibility in deployment as well. Since it is network-based, several readers can be placed throughout the environment and be centrally managed. This also means user access is centrally managed and it can be set up via granular or broad policies that are configured directly in the web GUI.
Documentation included a quick setup PDF, as well as PDF manuals for the hardware component, software component and user enrollment. We found these to contain clear instructions, as well as many screen shots and configuration examples.

Support provided by e-DATA includes no-cost phone and online technical support during the warranty period, as well as access to a knowledge base, video tutorials and computer-based training available via the website. Customers also can purchase on-site training, as well as additional phone support.

At a price of $921 for just the fingerprint reader, we find this tool to be an average value for the money. While this reader can incorporate with an existing system, if there is not a system in place, the master unit and door units must be purchased separately.

Key Features:

• Complete phone system – Provides call switching, routing & queueing
• Purchase cost dramatically lower than a traditional hardware PBX
• Scaleable – Unlimited extensions and phone lines. No proprietary expansion modules needed!
• Web based configuration & status indication – Easy phone system management!
• Unified communications – Receive voice mail via e-mail & see user presence
• Auto attendant (e.g. 1 for sales, 2 for support, etc.)
• Reduce long distance and inter office call costs
• No more expensive proprietary system phones – Use standard SIP phones
• Eliminate the phone wiring and make moving offices easier
• Easy call control, presence and extension management with 3CX Assistant
• Click to Dial & Call Pop-up for Microsoft Outlook
• Receive & Make calls via the standard PSTN using VOIP Gateways or cards
• Save on monthly call costs using SIP trunks, VoIP providers or Skype Connect!
• Out of the box configuration for many VOIP providers, VoIP Gateways, Skype™  and IP Phones.

As you know, business asset purchases normally must be depreciated over a period of time. The tax code now allows a business to elect to expense (immediately write-off) the purchase up to $500,000, which yields an immediate tax deduction and large tax savings.

Here’s an example of how a $125,000 purchase breaks down…

Section 179 Write-Off Amount: $125,000
Cash Savings on Purchase: $43,750
(Assuming a 35% Tax Bracket)
Net Cost of Equipment: $81,250

Check with your Accountant on how this tax break affects your business. Then contact Tel-One for help in taking advantage of this opportunity for your business: sales@tel-one,com or (800) 249.1989.

The cause for the new digits? A huge influx in the number of youngsters with phones that their parents bought for them.

• Reliability
• Cost
• Order Accuracy
• Delivery/Timeliness
• Quality
• Business Relations
• Personal
• Customer Support
• Responsiveness