Posted by Birchills Telecom on Wed, Apr 20, 2011 @ 10:17 AM
BT operates a number of franchises throughout the country. They call these franchises BT Local Business. 
These are independent companies given the task of working with businesses with between 1 and 50 employees. It is often difficult to know who you are dealing with because it's often not BT directly. In the interests of openness, for the first time we publish a full list of the local franchisees. The list is taken from BT's tradespace web site which doesn't always tend to be the most up to date with information - so I do apologise if you are dealing with some one else.
An Easier Way
There is an easier way. You can deal with a company that doesn't use any franchises and who always deals directly with it's customers. I am talking about Birchills Telecom who own the web site where you found this list. You will save money and know who you are talking to.
In the meantime here is the comprehensive list of BT Local Business franchisees.
Area covered BT, Local Business name
Bath and Bristol, Leading Edge Group UK Ltd
Birmingham to Hereford, D2 Communications Ltd
Cambridge, JTalk Ltd
Cardiff, Leading Edge Group (UK) Ltd
Central Yorkshire, CT Communications Ltd
Cheshire, The Business Connection Ltd
City of London, Square Mile Business Solutions Ltd
Coventry, Christal Communications Ltd
Derby to North Birmingham, Business Communication Solutions Ltd
Devon and Cornwall, CoasTel Communications Ltd
East Midlands, Aspire Communications Ltd
Edinburgh, Capital Connections Ltd
Glasgow, Glasgow Telecom Ltd
Greater London North East, Switched On Communications Ltd
Greater London North West, Enterprise Business Technologies Ltd
Greater London South West, SE Networks Ltd
Guildford, DialCom Ltd
Herts Essex, Jay-Bee Telecom Ltd
Lancs and Cumbria, SME Digital Solutions Ltd
Lincoln, Linx Business Communications Ltd
Liverpool, Chester and North Wales Branded Telecoms Ltd
London Thames, London Business Connections Ltd
London West, Integrated Computer Technologies Ltd
Luton Peterborough, DMB Communications Ltd
Manchester, Solutions for Business Ltd
Middlesbrough, A N Solutions Ltd
Milton Keynes, Ridgeway Communication Services Ltd
Newcastle, Converged Communications Ltd
Norfolk and Suffolk, Unified Comms Ltd
North and East Kent, Utopia Enterprise Solutions Ltd
North Scotland, Dee Voice Data Ltd
Oxford and Bucks, Virso Communications Ltd
Portsmouth, IoW Victory Communications Ltd
Scotland South West, Clyde Solway Ltd
South Central, Business Communications UK Ltd
South Coast Central, Leading Edge Group (UK) Ltd
South East Central, Inspired Communications Ltd
South Yorkshire Humber and Chesterfield, Cutler Communications Solutions Ltd
St James's Park London, South East Talk 4 Business Ltd
Stoke to Shrewsbury, Inter-County Communications Ltd
Stratford, D Communications Ltd
Swansea, Leading Edge Group (UK) Ltd
Thames Valley, ConvergeCom Ltd
Wolverhampton, D2 Communications (Wolverhampton) Ltd
About Birchills Telecom
Hosted VoIP from Birchills Telecom means no more problems in owning or maintaining an old fashioned system. It means simply being more professional – you have all of the features that the big companies have with none of the problems or cost.
Why not call us now on 01922 21 33 33
Posted by Birchills Telecom on Thu, Apr 14, 2011 @ 12:56 PM
Ofcom and Telephone Numbers
The situation with telephone numbers and ownership is quite clear but definitely not obvious. So with all the usual disclaimers about not relying on this without taking professional advice I'll try and explain how telephone numbers work in the UK.
Who is Ofcom?
Ofcom was established as a body corporate by the Office of Communications Act 2002. Ofcom is the regulator for the UK communications industries, with responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services. The Secretary of State responsible can wind it up at any time.
So who does own telephone numbers?
There seems to be no concept of telephone number ownership - it seems no one "owns" them.
The question is then who manages them and the answer to that is clear. Ofcom says:-
"Telephone numbers are a critical national resource, for consumers, businesses and the delivery of key public services. They must be managed effectively, so that they are available when needed, do not have to be changed, and mean something to those who call them. This is Ofcom's responsibility."
Ofcom got this responsibility from Oftel when they packed up and Oftel got it from BT when they were privatised.
So you don't own your phone numbers?
You don't own your phone numbers and they can be changed at any time. Ofcom have demonstrated this on many occasions such as the reallocation of London codes.
How does number allocation work?
Ofcom says:-
"Last year alone Ofcom allocated 126 million new telephone numbers, including 51 million geographic phone numbers (01 and 02) and 75 million non-geographic numbers (08 and 09 numbers).
Ofcom allocates geographic numbers to communications companies, who in turn allocate them to businesses, organisations and customers at home. We also allocate numbers to mobile operators to give to their new customers.
Businesses and organisations are normally charged a fee for non-geographic numbers (08 and 09 numbers)."
Usually Ofcom allocates numbers in blocks of 10,000 to companies who in turn allocate them to customers. Where demand is high they limit the block size to 1,000 which gives them a lot more allocations to play with. They are proposing to do this with more number ranges and want to consult on this.
How does this work with cloud based telecoms?
Cloud based systems such as that run by Birchills Telecom allocate telephone geographic numbers to their clients. Because no VoIP provider, including Birchills, has enough lines to justify Ofcom allocating blocks of numbers UK wide directly to them there are deals with number allocation companies who supply the numbers. Most of these intermediate companies charge for this service. So telephone numbers are no longer free.
In early 2011 Ofcom began a consultation on the future allocation of phone numbers wich included the idea that Ofcom would charge for numbers in short supply. At the time of writing no conclusions had been drawn by Ofcom.
However, because the cloud and internet are not restricted by geography clients can take their phone numbers with them when they move across geographical boundaries. This is just not possible with the public telephone network.
Can I port my phone numbers to other providers?
This very much depends on your current provider. If your supplier is BT then the answer is yes. If it is Birchills then the answer is also yes. If it is with other providers then the answer may well be no. You should check before you sign up.
In conclusion
So I hope that explains all you might want to know about phone numbers and the way they are allocated. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to comment below.
David Hill -Birchills
Posted by Birchills Telecom on Tue, Apr 12, 2011 @ 06:32 AM
A small business could be put under a lot of pressure if one or more employees were unable to make it into the office. For example, recently an employee came out of hospital after having knee surgery and was told he couldn't drive for 6 weeks. Although he has difficulty moving around and needs someone to look after him, he can still operate a phone and a computer and can do his job.
Usuallly under these circumstances there is often a problem associated with making and receiving calls using the main office phone number. However with Birchills Telecom phone systems running over the internet this is not an issue.
How can Birchills Telecom Help?
By using the Birchills Telecom telephone system the user is able to take their office handset and plug it into their home broadband network. Without making any changes at all the phone is able to make and receive calls just as it does in the office. Any callers will not know the difference between a call to the office or if you are picking up the call at home.
How does this work?
A traditional phone system assigns the phone number to the fixed telephone line installed in the office premises. This prevents calls on that number being reecived in a different location.
A Birchills System however uses the same set of UK Landline numbers, however, they are held in the cloud meaning they have no fixed location. The user only then needs to take the phone home and it works in exactly the same way as it does within the office. Calls can easily be transferred to other members in the office or at other locations. Call rules set up on the control panel will not be affected either so no technical assistance will be required.
My advice - get a Birchills System Now!
This flexibility gives many benefits to small businesses looking for a professional phone system that can adapt to their requirements.
Written by Kevin Box, E-Marketing Coordinator, Birchills Telecom
About Birchills Telecom
Birchills Telecom means no more hassle in owning or maintaining an old fashioned system. It means simply being more professional – you have all of the features that the big companies have with none of the problems or cost.
Posted by Birchills Telecom on Thu, Apr 07, 2011 @ 05:03 AM
Cut Your Phone Costs – A Checklist
1) Don't buy a PBX use hosted VoIP - the phones and hosted PBX are free with Birchils
2) Using a hosted VoIP service means you don't pay for electricity to run the hosted PBX
3) Using a hosted VoIP service means you don't pay any maintenance charges
4) Using a hosted VoIP service from Birchills means you don't pay any license fees
5) Using a hosted VoIP means you share your telephone calls with your broad band and save money
6) Using a hosted VoIP service means that you talk to other people on the same network free
7) Using a hosted VoIP service means that you get low low call charges
8) Using a hosted VoIP service means that can appear to be anywhere without the physical cost of an office - you can have as many geographic codes from anywhere as you like. This means you can operate expensive London numbers from say Bradford.
9) Use a live answering service means that you can save the cost of a receptionist
10) Using a live answering service from Birchills means that you don't pay any set up fees or subscription fees you simply pay for what you use.
11) Go one stage further than hosted VoIP don't even have a hosted PBX just have a virtual number - £5.00 per month to get all your calls - savings don't get much better than that.
12) Using the hosted VoIP business service from Birchills means that you get unified communications for free
13) Using the hosted VoIP business service from Birchills means not paying in advance for calls
14) Using hosted VoIP business service from Birchills means no time consuming and wasteful credit checks
Written by David Hill, Chairman, Birchills
Posted by Birchills Telecom on Mon, Apr 04, 2011 @ 03:06 PM
Remember Bugs Bunny and his catch phrase “What’s Up Doc?”. It’s a question we’ve been asking about a different rodent – Ribbit.
BT paid a whopping $105m in 2008 for this start up business in America and has now put it out to pasture. It seems that the organisation used to employ around 30 people but BT have driven that number up to around 50. The Ribbit external facing company seems to have died and it is now incorporated into the Design and Innovate team within BT.
Ribbit seemed to be involved in producing voice apps for computers. They had developed 3 products apparently. One was a desktop widget which allowed you to call someone from your computer – maybe they hadn’t heard of Skype - and the other 2 involved integration with networks – or something.
Linkedin seem to indicate that most of the executive team from Ribbit remain doing whatever research they are doing. The website traffic, although has almost disappeared.
So BT seem to have paid $105m to hire a few dozen people in America to do some undefined research. I assume that BT must be hoping that their shareholders didn’t notice.
Written by David Hill
Chairman Birchills Telecom
About Birchills
Birchills Telecom is at the forefront of the revolution in hosted VoIP. The voice technology that is transforming small business telephone systems. It gives you all of the features of a large pbx with none of the cost. No wonder that over 800 professionals now subscribe.
Posted by Birchills Telecom on Sun, Apr 03, 2011 @ 02:43 PM
Nokia continues to make headlines - we wonder if we should have bought their shares?
Regular readers may recall that I was off to buy some Nokia shares on the weakness caused by Mr Elop’s decisions to slag off
his own companies flag ship phone the N8 and sign an alliance with Microsoft. You can read why I thought Nokia shares were a bargain here.
I did indeed go to buy the shares on the 14th of February and I hit the American dealing regulations and I’m afraid gave up.
Since then it has emerged that:-
Steve Elop the newly appointed CEO of Nokia received a $6m golden hello. The eye watering package was paid $3.17m up front with another $3m due in October. He also got 500K to reimburse Microsoft fees and 300K to cover legal expenses. The details were given in Nokias 20F US document filing. You can read the full document here. Be warned though (although it has a nice photo of a unshaven guy with a bluetooth headset in his ear) it does run to 275 Pages.
In the same filing they say they have provided EUR449m against potential infringements for intellectual property. That is some serious money – essentially admitting that maybe they stole some intellectual property.
Nokia have half a dozen stores branded in their name but operated by mobilephonesdirect. I have to say that passing the Manchester store a few days ago that their customers seemed few and far between. (See the picture above). Many people have used such information when deciding to buy - did it appear to be a reliable indicator?
Well...On February 14th the share price was $8.84 per share and on Friday the 1st of April it was $8.35 – a price drop of around 5.5%. So I was wrong in the short term expecting a rebound and Mr Elop was right in predicting hard times ahead, at least in the short term.
Written by David Hill, Chairman, Birchills Telecom
About Birchills Telecom
Birchills Telecom means no more hassle in owning or maintaining an old fashioned system. It means simply being more professional – you have all of the features that the big companies have with none of the problems or cost.
So call us today on 01922 21 33 33
Posted by Birchills Telecom on Wed, Mar 30, 2011 @ 01:45 PM
We’ve only just caught up with this – sorry for the delay. 
George Nazi was with BT, responsible for all aspects of its 21st Century Network transformation program (21CN), as well as the business' global networks and IT infrastructure platforms. In this position, George oversaw a team of more than 3,000 professionals and managed the interaction between that program and BT's operational and customer-facing market units. Before leading BT's 21CN program, George was responsible for the design and build of BT's Global IP/MPLS network across 170 countries.
Mr Nazi left BT to join Alcatel in January 2011. He said in his press release
"I have seen the power of Alcatel-Lucent's High Leverage Network first hand and am delighted that I will be part of the team deploying its capabilities," George said. "I look forward to working closely with the talented leadership team Ben has assembled for this global player in our industry and to working with Alcatel-Lucent's customers around the world as they transform their networks and business models."
Mr Nazi still appears as a member of the Innovate and Design Team on the BT web site – so they are even more behind than us.
21CN seems to have gone as a concept to be replaced by NGB - Next Generation Broadband. BT's 21CN site now redirects to an NGB site. Seems like we are late on that as well.
About Birchills Telecom
Business class hosted VoIP is changing the face of worldwide telecoms. At the forefront of this revolution – driving down costs and driving up features is Birchills Telecom. Birchills Telecom are the only plug and play hosted VoIP business telephone company in the UK.
In summary the benefits are:
- Making professional high quality telephone systems affordable for everyone
- Cutting down the cost of communication, making it free in many aspects
- Geographical location becomes unimportant - any area code can be associated with any phone
- Complete integration with other technologies making unified communications a low cost reality
- The most advanced feature set on the planet.
Join the revolution today!
Posted by Birchills Telecom on Tue, Mar 29, 2011 @ 02:28 PM
Cable and Wireless Worldwide (CWW) – the UK part of the old Cable and Wireless has had a torrid time of it since its split from the international part Cable and Wireless – now called Cable and Wireless Communications. We ask - can it get any worse?
How Did We Get Here?
Initially around 1900 Cable and Wireless had a proud history of supplying international communications including laying a lot of telegraph and deep sea cables. In 1947 the Labour government nationalised it and merged it with the Post Office. It continued to have an individual identity however, running a monopoly telephone service in some of the British colonies especially in the Caribbean. In 1981 the new Conservative government saw it as an easy privatisation candidate and formed it into a plc. With the later privatisation of British Telecom, Cable and Wireless became the only candidate to offer competition to the new British Telecom. They formed a company called Mercury who provided a similar range of services to British Telecom.
Mercury had no network of it’s own and used least cost routing to offer competition to British Telecom. They also took up a mobile licence and formed the mobile arm – which was called “One to One”. Eventually Mercury was merged with NTL and other cable companies and died as a brand – leaving behind some iconic phone boxes. Meanwhile "One to One” was sold and eventually became rebranded as T- Mobile – now Everything Everywhere.
As well as selling companies and making deals – Cable and Wireless acquired Energis – a company formed to take advantage of the electricity grid infrastructure to provide a communications network. It also acquired it’s chief exec John Pluthero in the same deal in 2005. The strategy became to become the biggest IP provider in the UK and a purchase of Thus and Bulldog followed. Thus was retired as a brand whilst the Bulldog brand was sold to Pipex.
A year ago the company split in two. The international business calling it called Cable and Wireless Communications and the UK business calling it Cable and Wireless Worldwide.
The UK business has a strategy to become the first choice communications integrator specialising in the mission critical needs of large users of telecoms.
So What’s Happened?
The UK government is a major purchaser of telecoms from CWW. The new Tory coalition government renegotiated the telecoms deal with CWW. This mean that CWW had to issue a profits warning and not only that it exposed the level of profits it was making from the HMG and large suppliers.
Since then there has been another profits warning which has seen the share tumble again. The Chief finance officer has resigned.
John Pluthero and Jim Marsh, the current CEO have shared £20m between them for their “success” in turning the company around. It’s a pity that the long suffering shareholders have seen the price plummet to 54p from the 92p at demerger. On Friday the 26th of March, Mr Pluthero leapt into the market to invest and spend a massive 54K in propping up his share price.
So if Mr Pluthero won’t invest more than petty cash (in his terms) what about the rest of us? There is a long standing aphorism regarding share purchase of shares as they fall, “don’t try and catch a falling knife” and I won’t be buying.
What’s Next
Clearly the situation with CWW cannot sustain. They either must buy something (Daisy – maybe) or be bought. If they buy something then given their track record it will probably be bad news but if they are bought the news for shareholders including Mr Pluthero may be good.
Either way – it looks like an interesting time. I for one will be watching keenly.
David Hill
Chairman Birchills Telecom
About Birchills Telecom
Birchills Telecom is the friendly independent supplier of choice of VoIP business phone systems. We supply ultracompetitive hosted VoIP systems to small business throughout the UK. Prices start as low as 24p per day per phone.
Posted by Birchills Telecom on Fri, Mar 25, 2011 @ 07:06 AM
History, Memory and Knowledge
History
History is found in customer records, CRM data, marketing information such as segmentation data and in customer feedback. It allows you to identify customers and personalise 
your interactions with them, based on their order history (like Amazon), on transaction history, and feedback.
Memory
Memory helps you learn from past experience with a customer and understand your customer’s preferences. We gather memory from all customer interactions. For example, does the customer frequently travel between Birmingham and Glasgow? Does she prefer an aisle seat?
Capturing and analyzing multichannel data within your CRM is critical for memory. What did the customer most recently do on the web? Did he try other channels before he called the contact center?
Knowledge
Knowledge, including what AVID (Association for Voice Interaction Design) calls "Situational Awareness". It provides external information that may affect the contact, such as weather information or stock market data. Knowledge is often critical to providing quick service and in making an emotional connection with a passenger who may miss a connection or an investor who may miss an opportunity. Knowledge also draws from internal knowledge bases that are continually updated. For companies such as Unilever, a knowledge base is invaluable for handling customer contacts - they handle over 90 brands, and rely on a knowledge base of over 50,000 topics.
Customers want these things
Customers want these things from the companies they do business with:
1. To be recognised
2. To be valued
3. To have their needs understood
4. To be treated with respect
5. To value their time
6. To surprise and delight them
Without these six things (or at least five of them), companies cannot engage customers in ways that build loyalty. According to Gallop, fully engaged customers represent an additional 23% in profitability and revenue than the average customer. Actively disengaged customers lose companies 13% in the same measures. And Gallop estimates that only 13% of customers are fully engaged and a huge 39% are not engaged.
How To Engage With Your Customers
It is self evident that the best way to engage with your customers is to talk to them. When you can and time allows then you can’t beat meeting face to face but failing that the phone provides the best alternative. It really isn’t expensive to get a quality professional phone system such as the ones provided by Birchills Telecom. When you’ve spent all that time and effort capturing the data you owe it to yourself to maximize your opportunity. So get calling your customers on a Birchills system today.
Written by David Hill, Chairman, Birchills Telecom
Birchills Telecom means no more hassle in owning or maintaining an old fashioned system. It means simply being more professional – you have all of the features that the big companies have with none of the problems or cost.
So call us today on 01922 21 33 33
Posted by Birchills Telecom on Tue, Mar 22, 2011 @ 09:55 AM
The press and blogosphere have been reporting the change of name to Birchills Telecom.
Tech Eye said in their ironic article here
"Media Mongol Rupert Murdoch has chucked a spanner into the works of all cloud-based computer systems companies by claiming he owns the word "cloud".
Digger is apparently the first person to use the word to refer to a computer system and has forced a hosted VoIP company, Cloudnet Telecommunications, to change its name.
Cloudnet changed its company name to Birchills Telecom following legal action from BSkyB's "The Cloud" Wi-Fi hotspot provider.
What apparently got Digger miffed was that its search engine optimisation (SEO) activity was driving it to a higher Google spot than Digger's The Cloud Networks."
The change of name was widely reported with differing viewpoints. Headlines included
Why it is best not to use 'Cloud' in your business name from smeweb
High court threats for companies using “Cloud” in their names from commsbusiness
VoIP company changes name after The Cloud legal threat from computerworlduk
Murdock claims to own the Cloud from Tech Eye
The cloud demands Cloudnet rebrand to Birchills Telecom to remove "Cloud" threat from Telecom News
VoIP company faces court after using Cloud in name from Phones Review
VoIP company changes name after The Cloud legal threat From Tech World
The Cloud forces name change on VoIP company from PC World
The Cloud threatens companies using "Cloud" in their names from Business Computing World
The Cloud forces name change on VoIP company from CIO News
Thanks for all the support.
More About Birchills.Net
Birchills Telecom means no more hassle in owning or maintaining an old fashioned system. It means simply being more professional – you have all of the features that the big companies have with none of the problems or cost.
So call us today on 01922 21 33 33