The cloud is essentially the abstraction of technology resources and its location that are vital to building a thriving computing [...]]]> It seems that with Google’s announcement of its “Google Drive,” property rights are no longer solely associated with homeowners in legal battles over the environment or other regulatory issues between owners of property.

The cloud is essentially the abstraction of technology resources and its location that are vital to building a thriving computing infrastructure. The ironic part of this is that by definition the cloud is a shared services and a converged infrastructure yet this debate is over sole ownership.

However, Google seems to have changed that with Google Drive. When signing up for this new service one must agree to terms and services that include “a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works, communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute (your) content.”

Additionally, Google has included in their service agreement a caveat that its rights “continue even if you stop using our Services.” This same caveat caused an uproar with Facebook when users who canceled accounts realized that their information lived on long after they deleted their accounts.

Let’s be clear, Google is probably will not take all of your hard work and steal it for their gain, but users need to be aware of these terms. Whether it is photos or work documents, you may have signed off on letting Google or any other cloud sharing service companies do whatever it wants with your data. At the end of the day, the truth stands that you need to be aware of what you put on a cloud storing service and what you keep exclusively on your own storage because if a company ultimately swipe some trade secrets or inventions from any of their users there is no turning back. So be aware of what you are willing to part with before you click agree.

Here we go again! After two futile attempts to push through legislation in the United States Congress to encroach on our belief in an open and free Internet, lobbyists and members of congress are at it again. This third bill, like the first two, would give “big brother” controls [...]]]> Save the Internet Round 3

Here we go again! After two futile attempts to push through legislation in the United States Congress to encroach on our belief in an open and free Internet, lobbyists and members of congress are at it again. This third bill, like the first two, would give “big brother” controls to the U.S. Government for everything that we do online.. The bill is entitled the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, CISPA for short.

The first two attempts, PIPA and SOPA, fell due to strong grassroots opposition and those same voices are here again to stop this third attempt.  A group of professors and fellows from Carnegie Mellon, Ohio State, Georgetown, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and many others in technology have expressed the same concerns that have been shared over the last three years involving SOPA and PIPA.

While we appreciate many of the intentions in the bill, CISPA would significantly limit personal privacy and freedom.  According to the open letter to Congress, “By encouraging the transfer of users’ private communications to US Federal agencies, and lacking good public accountability or transparency, these “cybersecurity” bills unnecessarily trade our civil liberties for the promise of improved network security.”

The Internet has been a transformative technology precisely because it is open and our personal privacy is respected.  In just the last few years, we have seen the open flow of information and ideas between people, companies, governments change the world.  Now it is time for them to stand up and voice OUR concerns and to stop CISPA from going any further. If you want to help please sign the petition here or contact your congresspeople here

You may be a business owner that needs to direct hundreds of calls, both domestic and international, or you could be a non-profit organization that gets thousands of calls during a fundraising drive.  Both are happening all over the world and many of these [...]]]> The Changing Landscape of Business being shaped by the Cloud

You may be a business owner that needs to direct hundreds of calls, both domestic and international, or you could be a non-profit organization that gets thousands of calls during a fundraising drive.  Both are happening all over the world and many of these businesses and organizations are turning to cloud based phone systems to help alleviate the stress to onsite servers. Additionally these businesses are turning to cloud based phone systems to reduce organizational confusion by having to move information from server to server because of over crowding.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation has retooled their entire IT infrastructure as it prepares for a major expansion of its fundraising efforts and to maximize their potential success during the latest fundraising initiative.  JDRF CIO James Szmak oversaw this retooling of their donor management system and explained his reasoning as “no longer having employees tied to a desk, but rather giving the ability to access this information anywhere via laptop or iPad.”

Szmak’s analysis is spot on and is beginning to shift traditional thinking regarding telecommunications. In this increasingly mobile world we live in, having to hardwire offices and be at the office to access much of the customer data that all businesses have is becoming a thing of the past.

Ease of access is not the only driving force behind this changing landscape.  There are two other driving forces behind this change that we at FluentStream are seeing everyday as well.  First is the cost, it is cheaper and for businesses in a world trying to run lean, cost matters.  Furthermore, many capabilities now available in the cloud, such as Click to Call or CRM Integration – where they may have only been financially feasible for much larger companies in years past.

Second, the ever increasing number of features that cloud based phone systems have is simply astounding.  People are able to text and chat through the “cloud” as well as make video calls literally free of any additional cost.  Features such as adding toll free numbers, phone numbers from anywhere in the world, and customized greeting and redirection of phone calls are helping cloud based phone systems grow in popularity.  Those businesses with 1-888 numbers are able to foot the bill rather than the customer paying a dime.  And when those customers call in, instead of having them sit on hold while the call is bounced around it is very easy to create customized greeting and redirection of the phone call so that it goes to the exact person it should by providing them recorded options on each level bringing precision to the entire set up of cloud based phone systems.

As options for cloud phone systems increase and businesses begin to try and find new ways to integrate their communication and business services, it is clear that cloud based phone systems will continue to change the business landscape.  Businesses both big and small are simply striving to streamline their effectiveness and get exactly what they are looking for, balance in their communication services.

We always love hearing from our readers! What are your thoughts?  Has the cloud changed the way you work?

I want to take a brief moment today to discuss our philosophy on Experience and the tools we are implementing to measure it.  Experience is every one of your interactions with our [...]]]> At FluentStream Technologies, three core principles drive every one of our interactions with you – our prospects, customers, and friends.  Those three principles are Trust, Price, and Experience.

I want to take a brief moment today to discuss our philosophy on Experience and the tools we are implementing to measure it.  Experience is every one of your interactions with our sales, support, and leadership team.  Ensuring the best customer experience with FluentStream is not only important to our bottom line, but it’s the most important way we differentiate our service and a key measure of how likely you are to refer us to your network.

To this end, with our great partners at Focus Arrow we are rolling out a tool called NPS or Net Promoter Score.  You may have heard of NPS or seen this survey before.  It simply asks a single question:

On a scale of 0-10 how likely are you to recommend FluentStream to a friend or colleague?

Our goal is to produce as many promoter scores – those giving us a score of 9 or 10 – as possible.  Many of our customers may already have received this survey from us.  We will send this survey to all of our customers periodically, as well as after interactions with our team.  The goal is to establish our baseline performance and to raise that score over time.

We are taking the Net Promoter Score seriously at FluentStream – in fact, it will become a defining element of our culture.  Every employee regardless of role is trained on the importance of NPS.  Our NPS scores are updated real time throughout the day and are prominently displayed in our office.  As President, I am personally notified of every single detractor or negative report from our customers and I will act to ensure that my organization delivers for our customers – every time.  At the same time, I will reward those individuals and teams that deliver us the most satisfied customers.

Make no mistake about it – our industry is competitive and challenging.  We live in a complex ecosystem and sometimes things that upset our customers are difficult to resolve.  That said, my goal is that FluentStream not only have the best customer experience in our industry but that we are a world class organization in delivering support.

I would personally appreciate honest feedback to our surveys.  I can assure you that your responses will be both noticed and taken seriously.  For all our customers – thank you for your business.  With your help, I know that FluentStream can and will deliver world class support.

Joshua P. Elson

“I am in sales so obviously I spend a large majority of my day on the phone.  I would like to share a few quick reasons why the FluentCloud platform makes my job easier, [...]]]> At FluentStream, we like teamwork. Recently, our very own Sales Executive, Josh Ellis, wrote a blog describing how he uses FluentCloud.

“I am in sales so obviously I spend a large majority of my day on the phone.  I would like to share a few quick reasons why the FluentCloud platform makes my job easier, resulting in a larger pipeline and better close ratio.  When pitching a hosted VoIP solution to a potential prospect, the last thing I need is poor call quality, dropped calls, or echoing and lag in the call.  To date, I have yet to experience any issues on my calls.  Frequently, I am asked from the other party if I am using our system because they are impressed with the clarity of the call.  It can make for a quick closing of the deal if I am speaking with someone who has call quality issues with a competitor of ours.

Internally we use Sugar as our CRM (customer relationship management) tool.  Not only am I able to click-to-call through Sugar, but incoming calls will tag the caller ID, match it up with the account in Sugar, and create a screen pop.  This saves me time when outbound dialing, and allows for more effective inbound calls when I can see the record of who is calling.  Call records are automatically created in Sugar and notes can be added to the record as well.  This functionality can be added to various CRMs, web-browsers, and email clients.

Another feature that helps me out daily is our call reporting capabilities.  With the possibility of creating reports over 50 metrics deep, I can more effectively manage other sales individuals in the organization by viewing number of calls, time on the call, and various other reports.  Call recording is also another available feature.  Anyone in sales knows that listening to yourself on a call is one of the best ways to improve your craft.  Out of the box, all calls are recorded, easily accessed, easily transferred and playable through our web portal.

Working in sales can grant me some freedom out of the office when traveling, meeting with clients, and occasionally working from home.  I run a softphone on my laptop that allows me to make calls via a computer phone and a USB headset from anywhere I have internet connectivity.  No matter where I am at in the country, I am connected to the phone solution and can extension dial other employees, receive routed calls from the auto attendant, and check voicemail.  Our Find Me/Follow Me feature is enabled to forward out calls to my cell phone if I am not available at my desk phone.  My cell phone will display our FluentCloud caller ID letting me know it is a business call.  It could be a new hot lead or a new customer ready to sign up, so I certainly do not want to miss these calls.”

We’d love to hear about how you would use FluentCloud and what features are the most important to you. Check out our website to learn more.