Top Speed Data Communications is in the news!
How To Reduce Your Telecom Bills
New Edge Wins ‘Service of the Year Award' for MPLS over DSL
Office Technology Today : Got MPLS - North Bay Business Journal
Prestigious Top Award from AT&T
2007 Banner Year for Top Speed Data
New Location! - Top Speed Data Expands and Moves into Larger Space
Small Business of the Year! - Argus Courier
Wireless Revolution is upon us! - Seminar
_____________________________________________________________
How To Reduce Your Telecom Bills
Article published on North Bay Biz Website under "Business Resources"
Fall 2008, North Bay Biz Bonus Issue 2009, Comstocks November 2008, and Novato Chamber of Commerce's April 2009 Issue
Do you have a “gut” feeling that you are paying too much for your telecom services? With all of the changes in the industry, are you wondering if you even have the “right” services to run your business efficiently? Is your IT staff so busy with “computer issues” that you just can’t ask them to do one more thing? Don’t know what to ask or who to call?
The honest truth is that if you haven’t had a professional review your telecom services in the last 18 months, chances are you are paying at least 20% too much. (Feeling worse now?)
Here are a few ways to reduce your telecom bills while getting more value for your services:
- Review all of your telecom bills annually: voice, data, wireless conference calling, GPS, any service that results in an invoice from a carrier provider.
- Identify “dead” lines. It is not unusual to find numerous lines that cannot be identified by anyone in the company. (Not unusual at all, especially for multi-location businesses with average employee turnover.) Dozens of “dead” but billed lines can often be disconnected with a substantial savings.
- Match your most current contract to the first bill. Make sure that your very first bill, after a new contract goes into effect, has been reviewed for accuracy in detail and is correct. If it isn’t, the incorrect billing will very likely follow you throughout your entire contract, often not in your favor. If this was never done, pull out your contract and go back and do it!
- Check your prices. The last 2 years have seen huge decreases in prices; the carriers won’t necessarily call you at the end of your contract to let you know that you should renew at lower prices. “Shop” for more favorable terms on your current carrier’s existing network or take advantage of new network services of a competitive carrier at a lower cost.
- Understand your contracts. Know who all of your telecom providers (carriers) are, contract length and renewal date(s).
- Check for “auto renew.” Some carrier have an “auto renew” clause in the fine print; if you miss the deadline to notify the carrier, and have not notified them NOT to auto renew, let’s say, 60 days before the end of your contract, you’re out of luck!
- Get educated on new services. There are new services coming out monthly that are very affordable and, often, less expensive and better for your business!
- Make sure IT and Accounting are communicating. IT and Accounting need to communicate with each other for reasonableness of the current bill at least twice a year. Have there been upgrades, disconnects, changes that would impact the bill?
- Don’t know who or what to ask? Have your IT Manager work with an independent telecom agent review your contract at least annually against services currently available in the market from multiple carriers. Most independent telecom agents do not have fees for their review services, work with multiple carriers on a daily basis, do all of the work and research and will pass all savings back to you, in addition to becoming your advocate to the carriers.
_____________________________________________________________
New Edge Wins ‘Service of the Year Award' for MPLS over DSL
Frost & Sullivan says breakthrough service radically changes network landscape
VANCOUVER, Wash. – (July 22, 2008) – New Edge Networks, the business communications unit of EarthLink Inc. ( NASDAQ: ELNK), says it received the 2008 North American Telecommunications Service of the Year Award for its breakthrough development of a service that allows businesses to prioritize their network data traffic over standard DSL access.
Frost & Sullivan, a global research and growth consulting firm, presented the award to New Edge noting that the new service offering "radically changes the network landscape" by allowing the bi-directional use of Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPSL) classes of service over DSL and eliminating a "major impediment" to the adoption of new IP-based services.
"As applications like SAP filter down to smaller businesses and technologies like VoIP become more attractive, it is necessary for enterprises that wish to use these tools effectively to strengthen their network infrastructure to support them," said Roopa Shree research analyst for Frost & Sullivan.
"Before the advent of MPLS over DSL, this meant that it was necessary to have, at minimum, a T1 line at every location. As T1 lines cost roughly four to five times the cost of a DSL connection, this was a major impediment to the adoption of these new tools."
Shree said, "New Edge has drastically lowered the price point at which a small enterprise can enter the MPLS world."
Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents its annual telecommunications service of the year award to one company that demonstrates excellence in service leadership while focusing on its customers' needs and profitability goals. New Edge will receive its award during a banquet in its honor on Sept. 15 in San Francisco.
"New Edge developed MPLS over DSL in response to customer demand for a service that fills a large gap between DSL and T1 pricing," said Greg Griffiths, vice president of marketing for New Edge Networks. "We are proud of Frost & Sullivan's special recognition."
To introduce MPLS over DSL, New Edge installed carrier-class gateway switches at various regional aggregation points around the country. The multi-million-dollar network infrastructure investment also helps New Edge expand network capacity, improve service and add traffic routing diversity.
MPLS over DSL allows businesses to mix and match access technologies (DSL, T1, private lines) to meet the needs of each location without compromising the key values of MPLS networks: data traffic prioritization with classes of services and any-to-many communications.
It allows businesses to accelerate deployment of additional applications over less expensive DSL-based networks without the risk of creating network bottlenecks that compromise overall network performance.
Businesses now also can use DSL-based networks as backup for primary MPLS T1 networks in the event of network disasters or outages while retaining true MPLS classes of service tags on data traffic in the switchover.
________________________________________________________________
Article published - Apr 14, 2008
North Bay Business Journal
OFFICE TECHNOLOGY TODAY: Got MPLS? New tech for networks
Carriers replacing older network systems to increase bandwidth
By Loralee Stevens
Staff Reporter
NORTH BAY – If your business has several locations there’s a new acronym in your future. MPLS – Multi Protocol Label Switching – might sound as un-sexy as Digital Subscriber Line or DSL did 10 years ago, but the advance it represents in telecommunications technology could be just as significant. It’s the latest and greatest technology for wide-area networks, traditionally based on services such as frame relay and ATM to connect one local area network with several others. With new applications such as video conferencing, e-mail and Voice over Internet Protocol in demand, wide-area networks have become Rube Goldberg-like contraptions fashioned out of different platforms and protocols. “MPLS is one of the few networks to offer Class of Service, and it’s just as secure, if not more secure, than frame relay,” said Glenn Illian, co-owner of Top Speed Data Communications in Petaluma, a reseller of voice, data and video services. The IP-based MPLS network allows traffic to be prioritized, he said, so e-mail can take a back seat to VoIP or video conferencing, ensuring clear communication. “Most all carriers want to offer Class of Service, so they’re encouraging the migration to MPLS by keeping the cost comparable to the older technologies, and in many cases lower,” he said. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Covad, O1 and TelePacific are among the many carriers offering MPLS. Analysts expect frame relay and ATM to be phased out over the next few years because IP networks like MPLS are less expensive than switching technologies and much easier to install and repair. “They’re self-healing,” said Mr. Illian. “If there’s a breach in the network, traffic reroutes around it automatically instead of having to be rerouted manually.” Top Speed Data is designing MPLS networks for CamelBak in Petaluma, American AgCredit and Summit Technology Group in Santa Rosa and Richmond-based Mechanics Bank, among others. Santa Rosa-based civil engineering firm Winzler & Kelly Consulting Engineers is in the process of rolling out MPLS as it expands its network of offices. The company currently has 11 sites from San Diego to Portland, Guam and Saipan. “We’re growing like crazy,” said Winzler & Kelly IT Director Jason Ramsay. “Our older network architecture for our virtual private network was showing strain.” The clincher for the move to MPLS, he said, was VoIP and video conferencing. “It guarantees quality of service and low latency, and as we increase traffic over our network, that’s what we have to have. If our rollout is successful, we’ll have centralized all our traffic in about a year,” said Mr. Ramsay. Older wide-area networks require each local network to be connected with all the others by separate switches. MPLS requires only a connection to a central cloud. “Opening a new location is much easier and less expensive with MPLS,” said David Zahn, vice president of sales and marketing for TelePacific. The Los Angeles-based competitive local exchange carrier serves Marin, the Napa Valley and parts of Sonoma County. TelePacific rolled out MPLS in 2004, and it’s been widely adapted by subscribers with multiple locations, he said. “Its simplicity and scalability improve our provisioning efficiency, but our main reason for offering it is the closer relationship we establish with our customers who choose it. They’re more likely to come to us for all their telecommunications requirements,” he said. Banks, real estate brokers, retail chains and hospitals are finding the combination of increased broadband and same or lower costs irresistible, said Mr. Illian. Top Speed Data recently brought monthly costs for a large hospital network down from $78,000 to $45,000, allowing them to grow the network, he said. According to Floyd Ridenhour, chief administrative officer at 19-location American AgCredit, moving from frame relay to MPLS was a slam dunk. “We got three times the capacity at considerably lower cost. For the first time, our VoIP is working almost flawlessly. And with the money we saved we invested in a backup DSL system to keep our traffic flowing even if a circuit goes down,” he said. As with DSL and cable modems, customers can invest in their own on-site MPLS equipment for about $2,000 and up, depending on the age of their current system, or rent from the carrier at about $50 a month. “Either way, if your wide-area network is over 3 years old you’re prime for MPLS. It’s an enormous advance for network technology,” said Mr. Illian.
To accomplish anything close to an M P L S network right now is a muddle of routers, firewalls, tunnels involving massive amounts of IT management at EVERY location within the network. Relying on old technology is costly, less efficient, less scalable and much harder to manage.
____________________________________________________________
January 20, 2008
Receives Prestigious Top Award from AT&T
Sonoma County – Petaluma, CA: For the 5th consecutive year, Top Speed Data Communications was awarded the AT&T Circle of Excellence Award for innovation in customer network design, sales and customer service. Top Speed Data, a top producer for SBC/AT&T for many years, was named the number one of the top AT&T agents in Northern California for 2007.
An independent carrier broker for data and voice networks, Top Speed Data provides businesses with customer-tailored communications services. Top Speed Data, working with over 20 different carriers, offers customers complimentary “network tune-ups” and reviews, network design solutions and project management, saving internal labor hours as well as dollars to the bottom line. Leading Sonoma County employers use Top Speed Data as their customer advocate to gain the best advice, back-end support, accurate and lower pricing and carrier control.
________________________________________________________________
January 2008
Celebrates 2009 Banner Year
Sonoma County – Petaluma, CA: Top Speed Data Communications, established in 2002, is celebrating a banner year. With 25% improvement over 2008, President Anthy O’Brien only sees it getting better. “Top Speed Data is in a very unique niche. When the economy is slow, businesses want us to make sure that they are getting the best value for their telecom dollars as well as validate the accuracy of their telecom bills. In a growing economy, many businesses expand and add new locations. We are very fortunate that our services are always needed.”
An independent carrier broker for data and voice networks, Top Speed Data provides businesses with customer-tailored communications services. Top Speed Data, working with over 30 different carriers, offers customers complimentary “network tune-ups” and reviews, network design solutions and project management, saving internal labor hours as well as dollars to the bottom line. Leading Sonoma County employers use Top Speed Data as their customer advocate to gain the best advice, back-end support, accurate and lower pricing and carrier control.
________________________________________________________________
Top Speed Data Communications Expands
and Moves into Larger Space
Sonoma County – Petaluma, CA: Top Speed Data Communications has moved to new and larger offices in the same business complex of their original offices at 411 B Street in Petaluma. As a top agent for many of the nation’s largest telecom providers, Top Speed Data continues to grow and expects 2010 to be another “banner” year.
An independent carrier broker for data and voice networks, Top Speed Data provides businesses with customer-tailored communications services. Top Speed Data, working with over 30 different carriers, offers customers complimentary “network tune-ups” and reviews, network design solutions and project management, saving internal labor hours as well as dollars to the bottom line. Leading Sonoma County employers use Top Speed Data as their customer advocate to gain the best advice, back-end support, accurate and lower pricing and carrier control.
________________________________________________________________
Small business of the year: Top Speed Data (Archive)
Article Published - March 15, 2006
Argus Courier
By DANE GOLDEN
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF
Top Speed Data president Anthy O'Brien has a simple reason why she gives so much back to the community.
"I'm hooked," she said. "I love it."
The company is being honored as Small Business of the Year at the Petaluma Community Recognition Awards dinner at the Sheraton Sonoma County-Petaluma on March 24. This is the fourth year for the awards, which are given by the Petaluma Chamber of Commerce and the Argus-Courier.
Local organizations that have benefited from the organization's volunteer efforts and donations include Petaluma People Services Center, the Casa Grande High School mentoring program, Leukemia Foundation, Hospice of Petaluma, National Kidney Foundation, Petaluma Youth Soccer, United Anglers of Casa Grande, American Lung Association and Canine Companions.
O'Brien said that the satisfaction and rewards of giving back to the community more than compensate for the efforts of volunteering.
"You start out thinking you're going to be doing all this good stuff, and in the end you find that you get so much back you think, 'Oh, maybe it was about me,'" she said.
One recent rewarding experience was organizing the first Hospice Walk for Hospice of Petaluma last fall, where volunteers handed out information door to door. O'Brien said it was a lot of work organizing the effort, but, "In the end you start walking yourself, and it's really great. People are so happy to get the information, and you hear stories about how Hospice helped them."
But it's not just O'Brien or co-founder and vice president of sales Glenn Illian who volunteer in the community. Most employees do so as well.
"Everyone who works here sort of has the same beliefs, and it's wonderful," said O'Brien. "We do two things, almost all of use volunteer for something, and we all try to go to the gym to keep our sanity."
Top Speed is a hands-on independent telephone company broker that helps businesses find the best voice, data and wireless packages from the various carriers, whether Sprint, AT&T or even smaller providers. O'Brien and Illian have been running it since 2002.
For O'Brien, she also got a lot from the leukemia Foundation's Team in Training. She participated in a century ride, or 100-mile bike ride in Lake Tahoe, raising $6 thousand. Preparation for the ride took five months.
"It was an experience of a lifetime," she said. "It changed my life. Just the whole feeling of what you were doing for medical research and for the people that really needed you and the group of volunteers are just fabulous."
How does she do all the volunteer work and still have enough energy to run a successful business?
"I think the more you do, the more energized you get," O'Brien said. "If everyone in this town knew what you got out of what you get for giving, everyone would give something."
_______________________________________________________________________
Wireless workshop article
Convened on 25 April 2006, 8:30-noon,
Novato Oaks Inn, a free seminar
Presented by Top Speed Data Communications
The power of choice!
Wireless revolution is upon us.
By Babette McDougal
Just as the mantra, the power of information fueled the dotcom boom, perhaps it also can be said that the power of choice is what’s fueling today’s wireless boom. This was certainly the theme when 75 business professionals recently gathered at Novato Oaks Inn for “Real World Wireless,” a breakfast program organized and presented by Top Speed Data Communications, the North Bay-based business bandwidth company. The event put North Bay business executives, entrepreneurs and technology experts together with senior level representatives from Palm, Sprint, Xora and TopGlobal USA, for a lively hands-on demonstration and discussion of what’s happening in the exploding world of wireless, an entirely new frontier. The key word is mobility, what wireless is all about.
Of the many topics presented, covering how wireless technologies relate to such industries as healthcare, banking, finance and personnel management, the most popular presentations by far had to do with wireless wide area networks (wireless WANs) and the latest applications of global positioning systems (GPS). Most attendees were learning for the first time that GPS does a great deal more than just help guide your car from point A to point B.
“The GPS segment was the highlight,” said Randy Stemmer, president of marinmarket.com, a nine-year old web development company and Internet service provider (ISP). “I was amazed to learn that tracking technology has commercial applications for small businesses. This is just the beginning; we are only now just opening the door to GPS applications. It started me thinking about how my own clients could use these technologies.”
Kim Gershenson, a senior account manager with W.A. Hynes & Company, a 30 year-old technology staffing firm located in Rohnert Park, said she found out about the event at her gym. “It’s rare to find programs in the North Bay offering this kind of information,” Gershenson said. “I loved the variety, it kept me listening. And because my husband is a mortgage broker, I was especially impressed with the whole finance part, doing these kinds of transactions in a mobile wireless environment is astounding,” she said.
Portola Systems, the Sebastopol-based computer network consulting firm providing custom design, integration, installation, maintenance and on-going support for North Bay companies, also was in attendance. Their president, Grant Smoot, said that because their firm’s growth is largely in the wine country, remote and wireless applications are of particular interest. “We already use Sprint cards,” said Smoot. “Top Speed Data’s event brought us face to face with some of Sprint’s highest level managers, which is very useful to us. Having Sprint come in is fantastic, we don’t get access to these people very often here in the North Bay. Holding the event in the North Bay is great, it enabled us to attend, without having to drive all the way to Silicon Valley where most programs of this caliber are held. We were able to make the most of our day; a very professional event,” said Smoot. Another Portola Systems person, Jason Zajonc, said "All I can say is, congratulations, Anthy OBrien, for bringing much needed telecommunications education to the North Bay. My first order of business is to follow up on the new routers showcased at the event." O'Brien is president of Top Speed Data Communications. The routers, housed in boxes no larger than a small town phone book, serve as mobile bridges, creating virtual private networks, and enabling people, regardless of location or proximity to one-another, to share everything from patient file information to connecting purchases to inventories, all via secure connections which have never been hacked.
If the decade of the 1990s saw the introduction of the knowledge worker; the 2000s is witnessing the emergence of the wireless workforce. Imagine a medical ambulance transporting a stroke victim to the hospital. As the vehicle speeds its way through traffic medical technicians can treat the patient according to his (or her) specific file history via remote file access. Or, imagine a vintner being visited at his (or her) winery by a banker and transacting a real-time loan application without leaving the vineyard. No one else can see the file or grab the data, thanks to extremely secure technology in a wireless-to-wireless environment. Imagine managing the office while on the road; or monitoring the safety of a newborn baby while working at the desk to meet a deadline.
“There’s nothing new about credit card processing,” said Randy Stemmer. “But doing this in a mobile wireless environment and using GPS to enhance security? Now, that’s new!”
_______________________________________________________________
To learn more about us, enjoy listening to our radio commercialor browsing our press releases.
You can also schedule your FREE Telecom Audit or click here to TALK TO GLENN.
Our services are free ... our results are priceless!
