Caisson this week helped a school parish in Edmonds, WA save thousands of dollars on Ethernet services with Integra Telecom.

Featured industry: Education

Featured service: Ethernet over TDM

Caisson services for this project:

• Ongoing account monitoring 
• Resolved service quality issues
• Conducted a telecom services audit
• Presented price options from competing providers
• Negotiated renewal contract

Caisson has helped the education industry with telecom for a decade. It's our great pleasure because we know how important schools are to our communities. 

That's why we were thrilled this week to help a long time school customer renegotiate its Ethernet services contract and save nearly $2,500 a year. 

Today's schools are in a unique position with regard to IT infrastructure. So much of learning is going online. Network security is an ongoing issue. Schools need robust Wi-Fi networks, public networks, office administration networks, and all of them need to be connected to high speed Internet access. Schools need sophisticated firewalls to prioritize traffic and network security. E-911 must be activated. The list goes on. And the cost goes up.

In this case, we made the cost go down.

Caisson helps growing marine manufacturer connect its new location to its headquarters and data center with Fiber+ and EPL services.

Business Ethernet services featured in this project:

• CenturyLink® 100 Mbps Fiber+
•  Integra Telecom 100 Mbps Ethernet Private Line (EPL)

For this project Caisson:

• Evaluated bandwidth needs
• Qualified new business location to identify providers with fiber network connectivity available
• Secured service pricing from multiple, competing service providers
• Handled contract negotiations and installation scheduling

Case study:

A large U.S. based manufacturer of commercial and recreational buoys and other marine accessories with worldwide distribution opened a new location in Kent, WA. The new location houses business administration staff. A local commercial real estate agent recommended telecom services broker, Caisson to the client for business Internet service at the new location

This week, I attended the 2014 Integra Telecom Tech Expo. Keynote was Mitel Vice President of Sales Engineering, Joshua Haslett talking about the new role of CIOs as the "front-edge source of product innovation and customer engagement for businesses." Speakers from Metaswitch, Polycom, ADTRAN and Ciena addressed topics, including networking for the hybrid cloud, network virtualization as it relates to Wi-Fi deployment, and security with hosted exchange. Happy to go into detail about any of these topics. If you're interested give me a call or leave a comment. But here's what you really need to know about the latest trends in business telecom:

Information that comes from telecom carrier representatives is highly biased.

At the expo, if you listened to the cloud services representatives you might think the whole world is moving to the cloud and that you're crazy not to move to the cloud yourself.

Sharing with you the most current telecom pricing promotions is just one way we work behind the scenes on your behalf.

This month's business phone and Internet service promotions include:

• Cloud Firewall Services
• Business Connect Bundles
• Mitel PBX Purchase and SIP Trunking
• Hosted Voice Connections Bundle
• Multi-Site Business Bundles
• more...

Northwest-based telecom carrier, Integra Telecom has lowered the prices of its popular Business Connect Bundle service.The 10Mb integrated EoC (ethernet over copper) used to be selling for $599 per month and included 4 to 8 voice channels. Now that 10 Mb EoC service sells for $449 with 10 voice channels. Integra Telecom's Broadband Bundle Service has been very popular with downtown Seattle small businesses.

Here are some more details regarding this new Integra Telecom EoC promotion:

Wholesale distributor, McKillican American Inc. is headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada. It plans improved telecommunication services at several of its locations in the U.S.A. The company chose Washington-State-based Caisson Technologies to provide telecom consulting and to deliver telecom services and equipment.

Beginning with the company's Oregon and Idaho locations, Caisson identified available carriers. This is known as “qualifying a location” in telecom speak, and it's the first step in buying telecom.

“There is obviously a great deal of expertise with Caisson Technologies that eliminates the telecom language barrier. Caisson is really good at dissecting problems within our telecom infrastructure, condensing details and revealing solutions in a way we can understand.”-Marc Emond, IT Manager, McKillican American Inc.

Here are details on hosted Microsoft Exchange via phone and Internet service provider, Integra Telecom. 

Integra's Collaboration & Messaging Service to include:

• Microsoft Outlook 2010 (Service)
• Microsoft Exchange (Service)
• Microsoft Lync (Service)
• Mobile phone synchronization
• Microsoft SharePoint (Service)
• Microsoft Outlook Web Access / OWA
• Spam, virus filtering
• Advanced Encryption

ntegra Telecom offers high-bandwidth transport and point-to-point connectivity for business continuity, disaster recovery and long-distance data center networking. As reported:

PORTLAND, Ore., April 2, 2012 – Integra Telecom Inc., a provider of fiber-based,

business-grade networking, communications and cloud solutions, has launched

Wavelength Services...