“The current system  had aging technology and couldn’t satisfy current or planned feature/function requirements, including: call processing capacity, SIP trunking, networking all facilities, and of course, VoIP”, said Brendan Lehan, Sales Representative with STL Communications. The Streets Department already had an Avaya IP Office and was upgraded and networked back to the main system at City Hall and prepared for fiber connecting to the Public Works building. “From the beginning of the project through the implementation of it, it’s been a wonderful experience”, said Joe Lane. “We are really, really happy with the end results.” Mr. Lane went on to say, “our sales rep Brendan was fantastic, came out with Greg Hall, who was our project lead and he sat down with us and worked out every detail with me.” He went on to say, “when it actually came time to install the system, Greg came out with his technician Joss and knocked the thing out in record time.”

When asked about STL Communications and their abilities, Joe stated, “they’re a top notch company to work with, I would highly recommend them for anyone who’s looking for a new phone system or looking for an AVAYA Partner to maintain your phone system.”

Since the implementation of the new system, the City of O’Fallon has contracted with STL Communications to provide wireless connectivity to remote facilities from the Renaud Spirit Center and continue to work with the City to bring innovative solutions to their communication and collaboration challenges.

“This is a big win for us”, said Al Danklefsen, VP of Sales & Marketing for STL Communications. “Half of our work force lives in either St Charles County or within O’Fallon city limits, and it’s wonderful to say they are an STL Communications customer.”

About STL Communications: Located and headquartered in the St Louis area, and an AVAYA Services Expert. STL Communications blends that “can do” spirit and desire to help clients with the latest communication and collaboration products and services. STL Communications drives creativity, generate ideas and accelerate smarter decisions providing their customers with better productivity, greater profitability and a stronger competitive advantage.

St Louis, MO, May 7, 2012:

 “the continuum of care is littered with communication delays and therefore drives down productivity and adds costs to patient care. STL Communications solutions provide the technology, tools, and knowledge to fill the holes, thus providing an increase in patient, nurse, physician, and staff satisfaction, and at the same time, reducing the total cost of care.”

 When asked about the needs and challenges this year’s attendees where talking about, STL President Steve Leidholdt said,

 “Many are concerned about compliance with meaningful use; even those who are quite far along are now starting to dive into the details.”  ”We are having discussions about how to improve the speed of communications within the continuum of care. The business of healthcare is changing and providing the tools for the job is essential for rural healthcare and in the long run improves the overall cost model.”

 What products and services offered by STL were getting the most attention?

 “The Avaya Unified Communication suite of products is big”, stated Mr. Leidholdt. “They offer healthcare organizations the ability to collaborate using traditional voice, email, text, and video all on a single platform and all supported by a single vendor.” Mr. Leidholdt went on to say, “we are also seeing lots of interest in our Polycom IP and SIP wireless handsets; they are very popular with nursing staff.” ”iPad to video conferencing is also a big hit, we showed the ability for a physician and or an executive to access others through their handheld tablets, this has tremendous value.”

 STL Communications provides the core technology that keeps a hospital running. This includes the networking equipment, telephone systems, wired and wireless data networks, video conferencing, and applications that drive down the cost of care. The STL Communications smart hospital offers: Mobility: Nurse to Patient to Physician Communications; Notification: Physician/Nurse-Call Response, Paging, On-Call Scheduling, Intelligent Operator Solutions; Patient Contact: Appointment Reminder, Patient Follow-Up and Payment Recovery; Workflow: Patient Admit and Discharge Coordinator; Telehealth: Video Conferencing.

 STL can be reached through our website at stlcom.com or they can be reached by phone at 800-993-4785. Healthcare leaders can also see us at other critical access hospital shows around the midwest.

 Take a look at our video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ-73KgFzwc

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In theory, growing your business will make you more profitable thanks to “economies of scale” such as:

• Spreading core infrastructure costs: Every business is going to incur certain core infrastructure costs—e.g., office space, equipment, marketing/advertising. Spreading these core startup costs over a larger sales base is a key way to achieve early profitability.
• Discounts: Growing larger makes you eligible for purchasing discounts that can significantly lower your costs on things like supplies, raw materials, business services (e.g., security).
• Pricing resilience: With a larger business, you are better able to absorb variations in pricing and defend your business against price-cutting by competitors.

It’s easy to get excited about the economies of scale, especially when real estate agents, suppliers and perhaps even customers are cheering you on. But it’s worth it to take a second look. While economies of scale are real, when your business will really be able to benefit from them is another question.

If you decide that it is time to add more locations, keep in mind that your office communications can make it easier than ever. For example, Avaya IP Office, a popular communications solution for small and midsize businesses, lets you share resources (i.e., messaging and a receptionist) between offices, significantly lowering your overhead. It also gives you options for more cost-effective sales coverage: if one office is closed, calls can be seamlessly diverted to the office that is open (callers won’t even notice).

You can also administer an Avaya IP Office system from anywhere there is an Internet connection—another way to reduce the costs of having multiple offices. That means if you add an employee or change the way calls are routed at one location in your business, you can easily make the change at another location. You can get more information about the multisite options in Avaya IP Office at http://www.stlcom.com/pics/db/document_library/56_ipofficepreferred_lb4317.pdf

The Shoeman’s organization collects shoes which are sold in third world countries for pennies on the dollar and then the profits are used to drill water wells in Kenya. Kenya literally has hundreds of villages that have no water supply making life more than difficult. Leidholdt said that, “I am very proud of our employees and look forward to continued involvement in charitable events for our community.”

Given that scale, it’s hard to identify one “must have” app. But if you are a small or midsize business looking to take your communications capabilities to a new level, the app Avaya has released for Android and Apple iPhones has a lot to recommend it.

Avaya is best known for its business communications systems—the kind that sit in your office. It has a market share and feature-set that its competitors can only dream about. But Avaya also recognized early on that when people go to work, they often aren’t just sitting in the office. They are working at home, on their commutes, at the airport—you name it. So Avaya began to add mobility features to its business communications systems.

Avaya was one of the leaders in making it easy to “twin” your mobile phone to your office system so you could get all your calls and messages anywhere. Now it has taken that capability to a whole new level with the Avaya one-X® Mobile Preferred app for Android and Apple iPhone devices.

The Avaya app puts a load of connectivity and collaboration tools on your smartphone:

Contacts—See all your office contacts color-coded for their availability. Just tap to call or IM.

Messaging—See all your voice messages and IM’s. Prioritize and respond.

Conference Calls—Setting up a conference call on a mobile has never been easier. Tap a contact and pull them into a call. Mute, drop, and bring new people in as needed.

Geopresence—Instantly see where someone is on a map (ideal for tracking sales or service reps) and track their progress in getting to where they need to be.

Avaya created a quick demo of all of these features.  It is available now at http://bit.ly/HkXNSP Give it a try. You may never look at your office phone or your smartphone the same way again.

Besides the STL Communications exhibit booth showing our smart hospital solutions, the Annual Conference highlights include:

• 50+ innovative, practical and cost-saving sessions addressing workforce, federal policy and programs, disease prevention and treatment, primary care collaborations and much      more. There’s plenty for everyone. Click here for the full agenda.

• The keynote address from TR Reid, New York Times-bestselling author of “The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care.”

• The annual Rural Medical Educators Conference on April 17 is an opportunity      to connect and share ideas with those committed to advancing the training of health care professionals for rural practice.

• A free, exclusive student track on being a rural health care professional in today’s environment, quality of care and rural health policy.

• An enhanced presentation to honor NRHA’s 2012 Rural Health Award recipients.

• A free yoga session.

• A chance to network and explore downtown with a brewery tour organized by NRHA’s volunteer Communications Committee. (Space is limited. See NRHA’s Facebook page to sign up.)

You don’t want to miss the nation’s largest gathering of rural health professionals. Register today.

And get to the conference hotel inexpensively and easily. Blue Sky Shuttle is offering NRHA members a special rate of $28 for round-trip airport transportation. You can book online here or at baggage claim.  The discount code is ‘NRHA’.

What is 802.11n?

The industry is adopting and embracing this technology because of its improved performance over the a,b,g standard. 802.11n delivers the attributes necessary to address the explosion of users, the proliferation of various client devices, the convergence of voice, data and video on the WLAN, and the increase in mission-critical applications over the wireless network.

The convenience of mobility and the availability of robust wireless security, has led organizations  to use their wireless networks for more than just email and Internet access. Hospitals use their wireless networks to access patient records and send radiology images. Universities use WLANs to administer tests, and manufacturing facilities use them to track inventory. The wireless network is now considered just as mission-critical as the wired network, therefore, reliability and predictability are paramount.

The Bottom Line….

• The business network must adapt to the explosion of wireless devices from users who bring their own device (BYOD) to work.
• The wireless network must be robust, adaptable, and secure.
• CIO’s are seeing that the deployment over the wireless network pay business dividend as the cost benefits are compelling.
• The next generation WLAN must be engineered to handle real-time multimedia applications over a reliable and predictable infrastructure.

With its improved performance 802.11n when compared to the a,b,g standard, it’s not suprising that the industry is adopting and embracing this technology.

STL Communications provides competent Project Management and employs highly qualified, Avaya Certified Technicians to install complex communication systems and infrastructure with a minimum of disruption to everyday business. We believe that process drives expectations and a good process delivers value to the success of all projects. The STL Communications Customer Satisfaction Roadmap was developed out of our 20 plus years as an Avaya Business Partner, it is endorsed by Avaya and is best-in-class within the industry. How does this best in class process work?

• It starts with a kick-off meeting involving your staff, the STL Communications Project Manager, and any sub-contractors involved in the project
• The team goes through the series of events to take place, providing a seamless transition from your STL Communications sales team to the STL Communications installation team
• Milestones, responsibilities and timelines are defined and a mutually agreed upon time frame is scheduled
• Training schedules for both end-users as well as system administration training for the person managing the system every day.
• An escalation and change control process is activated and the project begins

Over our 20 plus years in the industry we have found this to be a very sound process that provides the information necessary to enhance your communications infrastructure with a minimum of disruption to your business. In fact, STL Communications process has been adopted as a best practice by Avaya.

And don’t worry; STL Communications will continue to provide service and support after the installation.  How you ask, STL has over 170 years of collective industry experience in our Services Team, with a vast variety of talents including voice, data, video, wireless products as well as a wide knowledge of specialized applications.

STL Communications offers both Avaya Maintenance as well as STL Communications maintenance solutions custom tailored to fit your company’s specific needs.

If you are interested in perusing infrastructure upgrades, system health checks, or general support please contact us at 314-205-7100 or 1-800-800-993-4785 or by e-mail at customercare@stlcom.com