Internet used to be a measly dial up connection that only a handful of families had access to at home. Now dial up is no longer in existence, and just about any device you can think of comes WiFi enabled from refrigerators to door locks. We use more WiFi than ever before and expect to have it while grocery shopping, while at work, and even on airplane trips.

This year Grandstream is celebrating our 15^th anniversary. In 2002 our founders set out to build what ended up being some of the first SIP devices anywhere in the world. They were looking to take advantage of what was at the time a new technology fad known as “Voice over internet protocol.” In 2003, the first official Grandstream products hit the market: the BT100, a simple IP phone, and the HT286, a 1-line Analog Telephone Adapter.

Over the last few years, we’ve compiled a variety of case studies examining successful deployments from around the world. These case studies feature diverse verticals that use Grandstream products to build powerful UC solutions. Let’s consider the different ways Grandstream products were deployed and how they customized our solutions to fit their business size and needs.

What’s a “Like” got to do with it? Everything! At least when it comes to social media. If you are wondering how to drive engagement and follower increase, wonder no more. I sat down with our social media guru here at Grandstream and compiled a list of useful tips to boost your social media strategy through relevant content.

This article was originally published in Comms Business Magazine - the UK's leading magazine for the ICT channel. Click here to view the article on their website.

Every business is always looking for ways to make their company more productive while increasing their bottom line. Most of the changes a business will consider usually come down to increasing resources at the expense of increased costs, or decreasing costs at the expense of lowering resources. There is one, easy and often overlooked change that a business can make to increase resources, productivity and bottom-line revenue while actually lowering costs. Changing your communications platform to a modern, digital communications platform is that change.

Not all industries are equal, that’s why knowing how to customize the right IP voice solution is essential. With all the features that come in unified communications, options for solutions can be endless. If you don’t know which direction to go, having too many options can prove to be a headache. To help you get started, I’ve compiled the skeleton of ideal deployments based on industry aimed at helping you customize your own IP voice solutions.

The success of technology is based on constant advancement. Right now, the industry is looking toward the future in anticipation of what the “newfound” cloud will bring. IP Telephony is no different as more and more communications move to the cloud. This leads many to question, is hardware going to stick around? The on premise IP-PBX isn’t going the way of the tin can, and Grandstream proves that—the arrival of the cloud doesn’t cancel out the benefits of hardware-based solutions. But I suppose for some, the question remains how does the on premise IP PBX innovate with us? The answer to that is through customization, security, and flexibility.

We have been talking about integration on our blog quite a bit recently. It has become one of the most popular buzzwords in communications as open-source technology continues its takeover of the industry. Integration is not just something that manufacturers should be talking about but something that end-users should pay close attention to when designing, deploying or expanding their solutions.

We’ve already started the conversation about security— now, let’s focus on loss prevention for businesses. Part of a good risk management strategy is to reduce threats from both outside and inside the organization. This is where video surveillance comes in.

Since their launch in June of 2013, the UCM series has become one of the most popular on-premise IP PBXs in the world. It offers small to medium sized businesses an almost unprecedented unified communications manager (hence the UCM acronym) that gives them access to enterprise-grade voice, video, data and mobility features in an easy-to-setup, easy-to-manage fashion with no licensing or recurring fees.