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Business UC voip

Low winter sun, inbound sales leads and Unified Communications

early morning sun in December in Lincolnshire

On my way in this morning I had to stop off to take this photo. It was a misty morning and the sun was barely visible. V atmospheric.

We are coming up to the winter solstice and despite the short days I actually like this time of year, far more so than January and February. I guess because we are all so busy it takes our mind off the weather1.

Our inbound sales teams have been working their socks off. They take leads from web chats, inbound calls and emails all originating from the Timico website. These are for both existing and new customers. Businesses are trying to dot their “t”s and cross their “i”s2 and get their January communications infrastructure needs in place before Christmas.

The marketing department has also been busy and with the addition of Mitel and Avaya support we now have a pretty full portfolio of Unified Communications products that complement our own hosted service and the IPCortex.  As a council member of the Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (ITSPA) I get the odd raised eyebrow from industry colleagues who are by and large purely hosted players. There is an element of snobbery amongst the purist ITSPs. However the needs of the market are diverse and with 20,000 or so business customers we now have something to suit everyone.

What do you want for Christmas little boy?”

“Oo can I have an IP Office phone system with SIP trunks please Santa?”

Ho ho ho I’ll get the elves onto it right away

I wonder how it would go down with our engineers if we asked them to wear elf outfits when visiting customers in the run up to Christmas. We could stick big red noses on all our vans. Probably better not. At this point I should shut up.

In case you’re interested I have asked Santa for a vice for Christmas. At home we have a lot of tent pegs that need straightening and I thought it would come in handy for that. I think I’ve been a good boy so should be ok.

That’s all for now. C ya.

It was sub zero in Lincoln over the weekend which was very convenient because we needed to defrost one of our freezers. The freezing cold outside meant that we could do it without worrying about the food defrosting.

I know I know 🙂

Categories
Business competitions

Santa visits the office to judge mince pie competition and I missed him

Santa seen on Timico premises

entries for the Timico mince pie competitionToday we had four entries for the Tref being massage by Karen Mayfield - as you doTimico mince pie making competition.

You will note from the picture on the left that one of the entrants looks as if he only brought in one mince pie. That was Big Rich Wright.Great care is taken over the judging of the Timico mince pie competition  with Santa looking on

He ate all the others The judges line up for a cuddle with Santa and to tell him what they would like for Christmas(claims it was his workmates). I had intended to be one of the judges but whilst I was having my regular massage, Santa came in, rounded up a teamFiona Spear - winner of the Timico mince pie competition is congratulated by Santa himself of judges and cracked on with the competition.I totally missed him! I am pleased to announce that the winner of this year’s Timico mince

hmm, whats this, a tin containing mince pies, a Santa outfit and a Cisco router on someone's desk!pie competition is Fiona Spear – seen here being congratulated by Santa. I have to say I thought they were all winners and would like to thank Faye Hemingway, Victoria Webster and Rich Wright for also entering.

The judges were Daryl, Danielle and Sophie – beautician students from Grantham College. I wish them well.

Categories
Business fun stuff

What Santa does after a hard day’s present delivering!

Post present delivery massage for Santa
Post present delivery massage for Santa

When Santa has finished for the day (night) he goes in for some well deserved relaxation. In this case Timico was pleased to be able to offer him a massage. We had a team of therapists, masseuses and beauticians in yesterday to give the staff a bit of a Christmas treat and luckily for Santa it happened on the same day as his visit. It’s a tough old game.

Note part of his outfit visible on the chair.

Categories
Business fun stuff

What Santa does after a hard day's present delivering!

Post present delivery massage for Santa
Post present delivery massage for Santa

When Santa has finished for the day (night) he goes in for some well deserved relaxation. In this case Timico was pleased to be able to offer him a massage. We had a team of therapists, masseuses and beauticians in yesterday to give the staff a bit of a Christmas treat and luckily for Santa it happened on the same day as his visit. It’s a tough old game.

Note part of his outfit visible on the chair.

Categories
Business fun stuff

Santa pays a visit

Santa made it to Timico early this year – some vids below include him meeting some of the staff – they have all been good boys and girls in 2009.

Santa visits the sales floor

Santa visits the Network Operations team

Categories
End User fun stuff

Panto

I was at the panto in Lincoln on Boxing Day. As usual they had three kids up on stage at the end for some freebies. In the brief interviews we discovered that there were two nine year olds and a six year old and that Santa brought them a laptop, an iPod Touch and a Nintedo DS for Christmas!

I guess this is good news if you are in the technology business!

Categories
Business events

Party Time

I don’t know about the rest of you but by the time Christmas Day comes along I’m going to be partied out. It all started with the ITSPA Awards at the House of Commons on Thursday last week followed by lunch with customer Foxtons on the Friday.

Monday I had dinner with KeConnect MD Robert Kemp in Ipswich, lunch with NTL on Tuesday at Cafe Bleu in Newark. Last night it was the Timico management bash at the Olive Branch in Clipsham. Tomorrow night it is the Twang.net party at Monty’s in Newbury.

Then Monday it is the Timico staff party at Belton Woods near Grantham. Tuesday night it’s The Wig And Mitre in Lincoln. I’m assuming that Santa has already sorted out what presents to bring the kids because I certainly haven’t had time to do it.

I have to say that I am looking forward to the period of austerity that this time of credit crunch and financial uncertainty merits and will be joining the queue for discounted lettuce at the reduced section in Tesco’s on the 2nd January.