Vancouver, Canada-based Sutus has readied an integrated small business communications solution that combines all the data, networking, phone and security features needed to power today’s small office/small business. Called Business Central, also known as small business server in a box, it has won several industry innovation and product excellence accolades.
To see how this marvel could help a venture like VentureBeat, the company decided to install Business Central 200 in its new offices in San Francisco, California, which is in a high rise building where traditional phone installation fees are exorbitant.
In fact, VentureBeat’s editor-in-chief Matt Marshall has seen the demo of this product at Demo Spring 2010 and was impressed by the features and functions offered by this small-business server in a box. So he decided to install it in the company’s new offices.
Besides getting the Business Central 200, Marshall also received some Polycom (News - Alert) VoIP handsets.
According to Marshall’s write-up on the VentureBeat site, the installation of the unit went off without a hitch, and the extensions and voicemail were set up through a Web-based interface. In this scheme, the voicemails get forwarded to the company’s writers’ email inboxes, which turned out to be easy and convenient.
Unlike purely Internet-based VoIP solution, there was something reassuring about the Sutus (News - Alert) solution because your phone lines are running off a machine you can actually see, writes Marshall.
“Okay, call us server huggers. But really, the Sutus server could be anywhere: The important thing is it’s dedicated for our use and under our complete control,” asserts Marshall in the write-up. He describes the Business Central solution as a private cloud-computing service. Mix in the public cloud services we use, like Google (News - Alert) Apps, and we’re actually practicing what we write about -- a hybrid cloud solution as a transition to moving everything to the cloud, according to Marshall.
Another feature highlighted in this description is the flexibility of the solution. Additional phone extensions with US numbers for writers/reporters around the globe could be added in a snap, writes Marshall. “With softphone apps, we could route calls to their computers and they wouldn’t have to pay international long-distance fees. That’s a huge savings,” says the writer.
There are so many features and functions incorporated in Business Central that VentureBeat folks did not have enough time to understand them all. But, Marshall knows that when his company is ready to start taking advantage of its email, file-storage, or CRM features, they won’t need an IT expert to set them up. A simple Web interface can configure what we need, concludes Marshall.
Ashok Bindra is a veteran writer and editor with more than 25 years of editorial experience covering RF/wireless technologies, semiconductors and power electronics. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Patrick Barnard