Switching Phone Systems to VoIP | Abbotsford IT Services

Many Abbotsford businesses use VoIP telephone solutions, ourselves included.

The traditional business telephone solution is showing its age. With the Internet and online technologies powering more and more business functions, organizations are finding it difficult to justify keeping the good ‘ole traditional phone line for their communications solutions. When you add to that the consideration of the initial cost of implementation and how difficult it is to scale a traditional PBX phone system to accommodate for growth, more and more businesses are looking for a more dynamic, and more flexible, solution that’s in line with their needs.

This is where cloud VoIP solutions are coming to the rescue. VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, and is a type of phone that uses the internet to make a call! It can either connect to someone else who is also on an internet-capable system or switches to the conventional phone line at one end if needed.

The More Flexible Option

VoIP systems are, cheaper to implement and to manage, often allowing rapid changes to your phone system configuration on-the-fly. With all your staff on the same system, they can work from anywhere and still take advantage of the VoIP phone System.

Features of VoIP systems

Telephone service providers may often bundle services together in an attempt to offer consumers the opportunity to get more for their money, but these “cost savings” may not actually be worth it if you do not fully use all the services the package provides. With cloud VoIP, you get exactly what you pay for - no more, no less. This helps you build a solution to best align with the specific needs of your business. Plus VoIP systems still have an abundance of fancy features for you to choose from, if you need them!

Adjustable for Growth

The traditional PBX phone system is often difficult to work with, especially if your organization is constantly growing. For each new user, new phone lines and extensions have to be added to your telephony infrastructure. With a cloud VoIP solution, the phone infrastructure is much more dynamic and new users can be added easily. You don’t have to lay new phone lines or remodel your office every time you add users!

To add to that, it is very portable - meaning you can still answer your phones from wherever you have a good Internet connection. (And many VoIP providers also allow you access through mobile apps!)

The Fine Print

There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution and not everything in life is perfect. There is almost always the odd con with most systems, and VoIP is no different. VoIP systems are completely reliant on your internet bandwidth (even though they are smart enough to work out when you are not speaking and not use bandwidth in those moments) - so a good internet connection is vital. Our team have become experts in properly assessing your connectivity and working with your ISP to get the best connection.

Along with an Internet connection, the system is also completely reliant on a power source, so power outages can cause a problem. We implement batter backups to reduce this issue.

Also, if you dial 911, emergency services may not automatically be able to locate where your call is coming from, so they can divert you to the nearest dispatcher, like they can with traditional phone calls. You can, however, register an address with your number to aid this.

Also, It Can Fully-hosted and Maintained by WildFrog

Managing and maintaining a telephone system can be complex, especially if you already have other priorities, like managing your day-to-day business operations. Implementing a new system can also be daunting… however, that is why we are here! WildFrog Systems can advise you on the best system for you and provide the care needed to ensure that you get the most out of your telephone system.

To learn more about how cloud-hosted VoIP can benefit your Fraser Valley business, give us a call at 604-210-9811 or email support@wildfrogsystems.com.

Spear Phishing and How To Avoid It | IT Services in Abbotsford

You have probably already heard of phishing – after all, it is everywhere, these days. That’s why we want Fraser Valley Businesses to be aware of a specific kind - Spear Phishing.

From the good old-fashioned Nigerian prince email all the way through to the CRA phone scam (also known as voice-phishing or vishing). The scammers cast a huge, wide, net as far as they can, and wait to see if anyone bites.

Spear phishing, though, is different in that they target a specific person – usually someone in a large company with access to valuable data or finances. Before they are contacted, the scammer will take the time to do some research on their intended victim, mostly online through social media accounts etc.

Using the personal information that they have gathered, they will then contact this intended victim, making their email as personal and legit looking as they can. It may be as an application to a job that they know they are recruiting for, or a faked email from a friend claiming to have a link to a new menu from a favourite restaurant. Of course, this link or document will contain a malware-infected link or document.  Once clicked, the hacker either gains access to company data, or can plant a crypto-locker virus for ransoming.

Most spear phishing is aimed at mid-tier employees. However, there are a few brave spear-phishers who will sometimes target someone at the top of the company tree, like a CEO, CFO or senior manager. When this happens, it is called whaling.

How can your business prevent this kind of phishing?

• Education is a key one here. Making employees aware that this can happen will go a long way! Advise them to keep their social media content as private as possible (after all, that is as much for their own personal benefit as yours!).

• Make sure all employees know what to look for in fake emails (such as poor spelling and grammar, or checking link addresses before clicking them by hovering the mouse pointer to see a pop-up box of the address. If you get a link claiming to be from a certain bank or company, open a browser window and go to the bank/company website directly and compare their actual address to the one you see on the email.

• Limit data to the people who need it. If you keep data on shared drives, make sure sensitive data is housed on separate drives (eg a drive for Accounting only, a drive for customer lists only etc) and only give people access to the areas/drives they need to work.

• Keep all software, anti-virus programs and firewalls up-to-date.

• Back-up, back-up, back-up!! Back-up your data well and back-up often!!

If you are worried about your company’s potential vulnerabilities, give our team in Abbotsford a call at 604-210-9811 or email support@wildfrogsystems.com.

How to Change the Name of your Facebook Business Page! | Abbotsford IT Support & Services

A lot of local businesses here in Abbotsford, and the Fraser Valley, have gone through some renovations in the last few years.

We’ve gone through a branding change as well, and the reality is that all the steps involved can take a lot of work.

When our grand launch day finally arrived, we were more than ready to share our hard work with the world. All our ducks were in a row, paperwork finished, and the new artwork prepped and ready to go. One of the last things we had to do was announce our new name on social media!

Changing things on most of our social media accounts went very smoothly. Instagram was a breeze, as were Twitter and Google. However, (surprisingly) Facebook was more of a challenge than we had anticipated.

Facebook Procedures

On the surface, it looks easy. You just go to the About section of your business page and click “edit” next to your page name. However, this is where we encountered a surprise.

Facebook’s algorithms will not approve your name change if it looks too different to the previous one. We ran into this problem because our new name looks nothing like our old name… and Facebook refused to approve the change! (Even more surprisingly, though, they had no issue with us changing the username, which gives you your vanity URL!)

In the Page Support Inbox, next to the message telling us of our new name failure, there is an option to appeal their decision. However, our experience (and further research!) showed us that this will do absolutely nothing to help your plight.

So, we found a work around… and it was a success! Being the helpful folks we are, we thought we would share our process…

2-Tier Process

For the easiest success, it is best to do the change in 2 phases.

PHASE 1: First, you change it to a temporary name that incorporates both your new name AND old name. (So, for example, if you are changing your business from something like “Joe Bloggs Plumbing” to “Easy Run Waterworks”, you would make the new FB page name something like “Easy Run Waterworks – Joe Bloggs Plumbing”.) You need to leave it like that for at least 7 days (as per Facebook rules).

PHASE 2: Once your 7 days is up, go back to the name edit option, and repeat the process, but this time change it the name you ultimately want. (i.e. dropping the old name part). Done!

I totally understand the logic behind it. Facebook works on a lot of automation but still wants to protect the everyday user from scams and confusion. You also want your customers/audience to understand that you are the same company with just a new name, and this 2 step process does reinforce that. It is just a tiny bit annoying when you just want to get things done and move on!

WildFrog supports businesses in the Fraser Valley with all their technology needs. Call us at 604-210-9811 for a free quote to switch to WildFrog’s expert support today.

Is AI as scary as it sounds? | Vintage Wildfrog Post

We wrote this post before the big AI boom of 2022!

Now we want to know, how is your Abbotsford business using AI? Comment below if you have any questions about AI that you’d like answered by our IT service technicians.

Enjoy!

AI (or artificial intelligence) is such a big buzz word/phrase, right now, as more and more new products are claiming to use the technology, with plenty more predicted to come. AI is everywhere… from transportation to healthcare. This year’s CES even featured a few products claiming to be AI-infused, although how many of these products are actually AI? Should we be worried about the rise of the machines? Well, it really depends on what your definition of AI is.

To many of us, you say AI and you immediately conjure up scary images from movies like Terminator or iRobot, with a real fear that one day machines will eclipse mankind and relegate us to some form of servitude or post-apocalyptic society. In reality, the version of AI that we are now seeing is actually a subcategory called machine learning. It is really a form of coding that is allowing a machine to finish its programming by learning from various patterns and behaviours that it observes. It really doesn’t have an awareness of self or independent thought beyond the given task. (Big sigh of relief there!)

So, looking at real world examples, take the self-driving car. It uses the data, rules and parameters that it was given (highway code laws, maps, your chosen route, collision avoidance rules) to navigate roads it hasn’t travelled on before and get you to a destination. It may use AI to make an instant decision to avoid a collision or choose a better route in a heavy traffic situation, but it doesn’t actually think spontaneously for itself and only seeks an outcome to arrive at a predetermined destination in one piece. No sudden distracted diversions because of its personal opinion that it thought the little red hatchback was cute and wanted to see where it was going! (On the very rare occasions when these cars have been involved in an accident, reports have shown that 94% of those cases were, in fact, as a result of human error, not the technology).

It really does have some great benefits, as a computer’s black or white “thinking process” can see patterns that the human brain can miss, leading to better results. The learning process also means far less initial programming, as you are not giving it every single scenario or piece of data to work out its results – it is figuring that out on its own. Used right, machine learning can make more accurate predictions, so companies can make business decisions based on that data-driven outcome.

Machine learning technology can save lives –medical tech that requires action when it knows body chemistry isn’t correct (eg an insulin pump that uses data to know when to deliver a dose). It can save time and money – predicting a product’s performance success & making design adjustments in the early development stage, rather than having to spend more time finding those flaws at the prototype stage. The benefit list goes on.

Of course, research and development into AI is still very much ongoing, and its definition (& role in our society) will definitely change over the next 10, 20 or 50 years. It may replace the jobs of some, but it will create jobs in other areas. For now, though, it is very much at the forefront of current technology development trends and is something to embrace rather than fear.

Fraser Valley Businesses in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Langley and Mission are always welcome to give us a call for a free quote and discussion about how we can help them improve their company’s tech at 604-210-9811.

How Your Fraser Valley Business Can Leverage Automated Services

The strategic use of automation allows us to protect your business from harm.

Business technology is the bane of the modern worker. No matter how well-intentioned the members of your staff are, when they have computer troubles, it complicates everything they are trying to accomplish. This, in turn, complicates every goal you are trying to accomplish.

The automation of IT service delivery gives you a direct line to a stronger business by streamlining the services that your customers rely on. This is accomplished by removing downtime from the equation, while also securing your data and protecting your infrastructure. Since we only automate repeatable and routine tasks, it makes it so we can provide a comprehensive IT management service for an affordable monthly rate.

What Can Your Business Automate?

Many of the services we are responsible for can be automated, and many of them, in our opinion, work better as automated tasks. By taking the human element out of the equation, the time-consuming tasks that humans could conceivably mess up are replaced with repeated perfection. So the first step for the company in search of leveraging automation for IT management, and for the right managed services provider, is to determine what tasks absolutely need to be automated in order to save capital. We will assess what kind of management your organization needs, and customize our powerful solutions to protect your business.

Some of the most common automated tasks include:

• Patch management

• Backup management

• Mobile device management

• New hire management

The key to our automation is our enterprise-level Management software. This includes pre-built automations and customizable options to build more services. In some cases, it’s as simple as clicking the options in a menu, but you have to know what systems you want control of, and what maintenance is required to keep those systems working efficiently. With tools being managed by knowledgeable technicians, you will see a precipitous increase in IT availability, which will immediately decrease the amount of downtime your organization sees.

How Do You See Value From Automation?

When your technology breaks, you have to fix it. That much is understood. What many business owners don't understand is that the costs that are really hurting their business are the ones that come from employee downtime. These costs add up quickly and can, depending on the problem, be a major reason your organization’s profitability wanes.

We use automation to ensure that your hardware is up and running properly, that your network is free of process-hindering threats, and that your software is current. These processes, if done manually, would cost you (and us) a fortune in man-hours. We have done the legwork to ensure your IT is stable and running efficiently, which leads to a stable and efficient business.

Are you a business in Abbotsford BC or the surrounding area, seeking to optimize your business’ tech?

WildFrog Systems’ services are the solution your business needs to eliminate downtime. If you would like more information about automation, remote monitoring, or any of our other managed IT services, call us today at 604-210-9811.