While you evaluate vendors, be sure to refer to the below list of criteria to guide your selection process.

The right voice and data partner should have these qualities:

• Knowledgeable. The best voice and data providers stay up to date on telecom and IT technologies and know how to configure them to fit the specific needs of your business operation.
• System Neutral. The provider you choose should not represent just one telecom system but should provide you with multiple system options — explaining the pros and cons of each so you can make a better (and more informed) decision.
• Budget Sensitive. Your provider should make sure you get the best value for your money.
• Training. Select a voice and data provider who will not only install the new system but also help to train you and your staff so everyone can quickly become productive and efficient using your new system. Your provider should also be willing to step in to train new employees as they are hired.
• Proactive. Your provider should bring you new ideas and opportunities to improve your system and better support the growth and success of your business.
• Thorough. Only after a thorough and professional evaluation of your voice and data needs is completed should your provider recommend a system that will effectively support your business operation.

You want not only a voice and data provider but also a partner. Their goal should be your goal — and that is to help make sure you have the voice and data system that best supports your business now and long into the future.

Fortunately, choosing a vendor with confidence is easy if you select a company that is a member of The Ideacom Network. Here’s what our members must do to be accepted in this exclusive network:

• Pass rigorous examinations. As a nationwide association of telecommunication leaders, our members must pass a rigorous examination to be accepted.
• Provide the highest standards of customer service. Each member has demonstrated that they conform to the highest standards of customer service and maintain only the most qualified personnel to assist you.
• Be certified on the latest technological advancements. Each sales and service representative is certified on the very latest technological advancements in our industry.
• Be vendor neutral. Ideacom members sell, install and maintain the industry’s leading manufacturers of voice and data networks and products. As representatives of many different platforms, you can rely on them to be “vendor neutral” and provide a system that that will fit your needs.
• Receive world-class training. Members attend Ideacom University to receive world-class training unavailable elsewhere in the industry. They also undergo extensive training in all phases of the business at annual meetings as well as attend workshops throughout the year.
• Be fully vetted. All Ideacom members are vetted by a third-party service for financial stability, customer satisfaction, technical certifications and more.
• Be chosen based on merit. Not just anyone can join Ideacom. Members are chosen based on a merit system.
• Offer more competitive pricing. The Ideacom Network is part of a purchasing consortium, meaning our members can deliver goods and services at prices that are very competitive.

As a network of independent voice and data resellers, you can find an Ideacom member wherever you may have offices or facilities across the country. The Ideacom Network has been serving the needs of businesses throughout the United States since 1999. Many of our members have been in the industry for 50+ years. To get the high-quality advice, support, pricing — and the pro-active attitude — you want from your telecom partner, you can always select an Ideacom member with complete confidence.

The post Select a Voice and Data Partner with Confidence appeared first on DataTalk.

Before the cloud, businesses had to spend time and money on purchasing or leasing equipment. They would then have to dedicate valuable storage space for the installation of hardware. A technical team would have to handle maintenance and upgrades, and when new innovations appeared, additional time and money would then be spent on software purchases and upgrades. Additionally, if there was a natural or man-made disaster, all data could be lost.

A cloud-based hosted data service can help improve your business in many ways.

Cost Savings

Eliminate redundancy and streamline costs by housing critical data in one location, enabling the data to be accessed and/or updated by multiple users while ensuring a single point for updates, avoiding expenses related to software and equipment updates.

Avoid the capital investment of equipment purchases and eliminate the need to install and dedicate space for equipment within your facility. Rather than purchasing and installing software or the hardware to support it, businesses can purchase a subscription for cloud-based data services at a reasonable monthly cost. Transitioning to a recurring operating expense also allows businesses to employ better and more predictable budgeting.

Flexibility

With cloud-based hosted data services, your business can quickly adapt to market changes and take advantage of opportunities as they appear. The limitations of housing your own data disappear.

Time Savings

You want to run your business. This means building a successful business plan and strategy, seeing opportunities, and leveraging them as part of your success. Managing equipment and giving your business access to the latest technology can be costly and time-consuming. Using a cloud-based hosted data service frees up time for you and your employees and enables you to focus on how best to grow your business and serve your customers.

Capabilities

Having access to the latest critical features to help support your business operations is an important consideration. Hosted data services give you access to more features and services, enabling your operations to become more productive and competitive.

Growth and Scalability

Cloud-based hosted data services offer vertical scalability, which gives businesses the option to access more, or fewer, services or features on-demand. On-site equipment can limit your growth and require substantial investments in order to increase your data storage, but a cloud-based hosted data service makes it easy to grow your business and the data needed to support it.

Security and Compliance

Data stored in the cloud is carefully encrypted and backed up so, in case of a power outage, fire, flood or any other man-made or natural disaster, your business can recover quickly without the loss of any of the data critical to your business operations. Cloud-based data services can also help you maintain compliance with any industry regulations you must follow as well as protect you from security threats such as ransomware.

Your Ideacom Network provider can help you assess your needs and find a cloud-based hosted data service that will bring your business these bottom-line benefits.

The post Key Benefits and Features of Cloud-Based Hosted Data Services appeared first on DataTalk.

Big businesses efficiently handle customers by building large, expensive call centers staffed by hundreds of sales and support representatives. Their goal is to never keep a customer waiting and to quickly respond to customer inquiries. Those businesses know that customers who have to wait for a response often end up as lost revenue.

Fortunately, without having a huge, expensive call center, your business can still be responsive and deliver a positive customer experience. You can do this with a Contact Center. Contact Centers can help you ensure every incoming customer contact is handled quickly and personally by someone in your organization.

Support all types of customer communications with a Contact Center.

Contact Centers are systems that put all of today’s communication methods — office phones, online chat, instant messaging, email, smartphones, tablets, computers, and even video, and Web conferencing — into a single system that gives you the power of a big business call center.

Offer the best possible customer experience and easily handle major customer communication needs through a Contact Center.

• Answer technical questions from customers and help them use your product or service.
• Provide customer care related to billing, accounts, returns, complaints, or other common issues.
• Instantly respond to questions posted through your Website’s live chat capability.
• Send post-call surveys to measure satisfaction.
• And much more…

Whether or not you have personnel dedicated to customer support or other functions, a Contact Center is the central point in your business from which all customer contacts can be managed.

Cost-effectively bring your business unending benefits, including:

• Provide your customers with more contact options. With an effective Contact Center, your customers can reach out to you through many channels and be assured of a fast response.
• Avoid the high cost of dedicated customer sales or support agents. A Contact Center can funnel all inquiries directly to the appropriate sales, support, technical, or other staff, wherever they are located.
• Improve the customer experience. Deliver a high-touch customer experience regardless of the size of your business.

Cost-effectively handle customers and improve the customer experience.

Regardless of how your customers want to interact with your business, they want a personal response — and they want it immediately. Most Contact Center providers also include reporting capabilities that let you monitor how your staff is handling communications with customers. These reports can help you:

• Review contact traffic and see how contacts were handled.
• Keep a record of customer contacts in case of a possible dispute.
• Use reporting to better train employees on how to best improve the customer experience.
• Account for specific customer and business call activities for billing, legal and regulatory needs.

There are many options for choosing a Contact Center system, so it can work for any business, regardless of its size. Contact Centers can be deployed as a hosted service, a virtual service, or an on-premise system. Your Ideacom Network telecom provider can help you find the Contact Center solution that best meets your needs.

The post Deliver a Positive Customer Experience with a Contact Center appeared first on DataTalk.

What is Section 179?

Section 179 of the tax code is a tax deduction related to the depreciation of qualified business expenses. Section 179 allows business owners to deduct the entire cost of qualifying equipment, property, and software purchased during the tax year. This means that if your business buys or leases qualifying equipment, you are able to deduct the full purchase price from your gross income for that year.

How it Works

Previously, when businesses purchased qualifying equipment, it was typically written off through depreciation over a period of several years. Section 179 allows businesses to write off the entire purchase price, up to $1,080,000 total, for the current tax year. The deductions cannot exceed the taxable income of your business.

Does Your Business Qualify?

Any business that purchases, finances, and/or leases new or used business equipment during the tax year should qualify for the deduction, so long as they’ve spent less than $2.6 million. In order to qualify, the equipment must be used for business purposes more than 50% of the time. The equipment must also be placed into service by midnight, December 31st of the year that you are taking the deduction. Eligible equipment purchases may include:

• Office equipment, i.e. computers, computer software, office furniture, telecommunications equipment
• Machinery purchased for business use
• Improvements to non-residential buildings
• Property contained in a building, i.e. refrigerators, signs
• Business vehicles (Dollar limits apply to expensive vehicles, and there are special rules for heavy SUVs)

The equipment does not need to be new, but it does need to be new to your business. You must maintain complete records of what you have purchased throughout the year. Refer to the IRS and/or your tax accountant for a full list of qualifying equipment, requirements and restrictions.

You may not use Section 179 to deduct the cost of land or inventory, permanent structures attached to land, air conditioning and heating units, property used outside of the United States, or intangible property such as patens, trademarks and copyrights.

Leasing & Section 179

Your business can lease equipment and still take advantage of the Section 179 deduction. The main benefit of leasing is you can still take full advantage of the deduction while making smaller payments. Using a non-tax capital lease, you can purchase and write-off up to the deduction limit worth of equipment for the tax year, without spending that amount during the year. This can help to markedly reduce what you are spending out-of-pocket.

Section 179 vs. Bonus Depreciation

Bonus depreciation also allows businesses to deduct the full cost of equipment purchases. In a lot of cases, bonus depreciation has the same result as taking the Section 179 deduction, however there are scenarios where a business should consider bonus depreciation instead of the Section 179 deduction,

As mentioned previously, Section 179 caps out at $1,080,000. Businesses that have purchased more than $1,080,000 in equipment should consider bonus depreciation, as it does not cap the maximum amount that can be deducted.

Businesses can also potentially get a larger deduction using bonus depreciation for vehicle purchases. When making large equipment purchases for your business, be sure to consult your tax accountant.

Bottom Line

Section 179 has made a tremendous impact for many businesses by giving them the ability to write-off the entire cost of qualifying equipment. Maximize your business’s purchasing power and lower your operating costs by taking advantage of this legal tax incentive.

*This newsletter contains information about tax laws. This information is not advice and should not be treated as such.

The post Section 179 Tax Deduction & What it<br>Could Mean for Your Business appeared first on DataTalk.

These devices are usually installed along with what is called a distributed antenna system (DAS).
DAS is a telecommunications system that receives the carrier’s signal (a licensed radio frequency)
on a base transceiver station or a bi-directional amplifier and then transports it into your building
using a cable.

Coverage antennas are placed throughout the building as necessary to provide the best
overall service for you and your employees. Cellular signal enhancement solutions come in
passive or active options. The best option for you will depend on the size of your facility.

Passive systems
These systems use coaxial cable, a coverage antenna and other components that do not
require AC or DC power to function. Passive solutions are more cost effective to install and
work best in buildings that are under 100,000 square feet. Passive systems require the radio
frequency power to be balanced among multiple coverage antennas so there is a strong and
consistent signal throughout the building. The downside to this option is that it is difficult and
costly to expand over time, should you want to increase the square footage taken up by your
business in the same building.

Active systems
These systems require AC or DC power and consist of changing the radio frequency into
other types of signals, such as optical. Then, antenna-like devices are placed throughout the
building to receive the signal and change it back into a radio frequency used by cellular
phones. Active systems are more costly than passive and are used in very large buildings as
well as in campus-like settings of multiple buildings. This option, unlike a passive system, is
easy to expand should the need arise.

Your Ideacom Network telecom provider can help you assess your needs and find the solution that
can best improve the cellular signal in your business.

The post Improve Your Cell Phone Signal appeared first on DataTalk.

Here are the basic elements you’ll want to consider when choosing a UPS system:

1. Power: The system you choose must have enough power to protect and support all of the
   devices you have in your business. Power is usually calculated in Volt-Amps (VA). By
   adding up the watts required by each piece of equipment, you will be able to determine the
   total amount of power your UPS system will need to protect.
2. Protection Runtime: Secondly, you will need to consider how long you want the system to
   stay powered if there is an extended outage. Many UPS devices keep equipment operating
   only a few minutes, giving users enough time to safely shut them down. If there’s a chance
   that power will be off for an extended period, this could interfere with your ability to conduct
   business. Having no power can result in missed communications, unhappy customers and
   lost revenue. Selecting a UPS with extended runtime is an important consideration.
3. Activation: Different systems use different triggers to initiate their operation. More basic
   systems have battery power that kicks in when the voltage drops below a certain level.
   More powerful systems have a transformer. Transformer-based systems have more
   sophisticated technology that keeps the voltage within an acceptable range and only relies
   on the battery in low- or no-power situations.
4. Incoming Power: It’s important to know about the quality of your incoming power source
   when choosing a solution. If power fluctuations are common in your area, a UPS with
   Automatic Voltage Regulation is the answer. This can protect your equipment by correcting
   ` the incoming power from over-voltages and under-voltages.
   UPS systems should not be chosen based on price alone. Select one that fits the systems and
   equipment you use in your business and the quality of the power source you receive.
   As you run your business, make sure it’s able to run even when the electrical power is less than
   reliable. Adding an uninterruptible power supply can help your business save its sensitive electronics,
   equipment, and other systems and increase the reliability of your business for your customers —
   even if the power company can’t.

The post Electrical power is a good thing — until it’s not. appeared first on DataTalk.

1. Make a list of all your physical business assets that could be lost in a disaster. This list
   should include:
   • Building(s)
   • Equipment
   • Furniture
   • Vehicle(s)
   • Product inventory
   • Cash
   • Financial, customer and other operational data
   • Physical documents
2. Identify Risks. Determine which types of threats can damage or destroy your assets or
   significantly impact your business operations. Some of the following may not affect your
   area, but any that could impact your business operations should be considered.
   • Earthquake, tornado, tsunami, or hurricane
   • Pandemics
   • An electrical surge or outage
   • Fire
   • Hacking, viruses, and other cyber attacks
   • Rain and flooding
   • A spill of hazardous substances
   • Terrorism
3. Determine the steps you will take to protect your assets from disasters. Take each
   threat and each asset, then analyze how you can prevent or prepare for the various
   disasters that might affect those assets.

Personnel
Employee safety should be the top priority of your disaster plan. Create a plan for
the protection/evacuation of your employees during natural or man-made events
that could affect their safety.
• Assign and train employees, based on their skills, to be prepared to take specific
actions in the event of a physical threat.
• Bring in a professional to train a number of employees to perform CPR and other
first-aid measures.
• Determine escape routes and safe areas employees should use, depending on the
type of physical threat.
• Post a plan of these routes in a prominent place so employees are reminded of
them and can know them instinctively.
• Include instructions for turning off utilities such as gas, water, and HVAC systems.
• Assign individuals to help ensure that an escape or safety plan is implemented
properly.
• Practice this plan and make sure new employees are trained on it as part of their
orientation.
• Post emergency phone numbers for police, fire, poison control, etc.
• Add safety equipment — including first aid kits, Automatic External Defibrillators
(AEDs), fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, and shelter-in-place supplies — to your
facility.
• Maintain an emergency personnel file on each employee with important medical
data, and names of emergency contacts.
• Develop a plan on how to continue operations in the face of a widespread outbreak,
keeping in mind the potential need to shut down physical locations.
Physical Assets
Meet with your insurance provider to understand what is and is not covered in the
case of various types of disasters.
• Determine the cost involved in expanding coverage to make sure your assets are
insured in case of each type of loss.
• Make copies of important printed documents — such as deeds and other legal
documents — and put the originals in a safe deposit box at your bank.

• Take photos of all physical assets, put them on a CD, DVD, or flash drive,
and store it in your safe deposit box. Businesses that have an inventory of their
belongings, with pictures, typically receive higher insurance payments from losses
and receive them faster.
• If your business is in an area threatened by severe natural storms, consider making
building enhancements so your building(s) can better withstand these threats.

Data
The financial, customer, and operational information on your network is the heart of
your operation. Ensuring that it cannot be lost is the best action you can take to
quickly get your operation up and running again.
Moving your operations and data to a cloud service provider not only protects that
data in case of a disaster, but can also significantly enhance the productivity,
collaboration, and functionality of your business.
Cloud services, such as Intermedia, offer business services — including hosted
Exchange, Hosted PBX, Securisync®, and AnyMeetingTM — that let you
communicate, collaborate, manage content and run your business applications.
Today’s highly mobile environment, with employees accessing data from their PCs,
smartphones, and tablets, makes that access easy, yet keeps your data safe and
secure and away from your physical location so it’s not affected by any natural or
man-made disaster.

Getting Help
There are several governmental and charitable agencies ready to help in times of a
disaster. The Small Business Administration is prepared to assist, with programs such
as their National Response Framework (NRF), National Disaster Recovery
Framework (NDRF), and Disaster Loan Making (DLM) process. Their Disaster
Oversight Council/Executive Management Team oversees the direction and support of
the disaster loan process during disasters and coordinates DLM and continuity of
operations (COOP).

By addressing all the above issues in your plan, your business can prevent damages from
some possible threats, be better prepared for other disasters, and be in a position to quickly
get your operations back up and running when issues do arise.

The post Are You Prepared? Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery appeared first on DataTalk.

Big businesses efficiently handle customers by building large, expensive call centers staffed by  hundreds of sales and support representatives. Their goal is to never keep a customer waiting and to  quickly respond to customer inquiries. Those businesses know that customers who have to wait for a  response often end up as lost revenue. 

Fortunately, without having a huge, expensive call center, your business can still be responsive and  deliver a positive customer experience. You can do this with a Contact Center. Contact Centers can  help you ensure every incoming customer contact is handled quickly and personally by someone in  your organization. 

Support all types of customer communications with a Contact Center. 

Contact Centers are systems that put all of today’s communication methods — office phones, online  chat, instant messaging, email, smartphones, tablets, computers, and even video, and Web  conferencing — into a single system that gives you the power of a big business call center. 

Offer the best possible customer experience and easily handle major customer communication  needs through a Contact Center. 

 • Answer technical questions from customers and help them use your product or service.  • Provide customer care related to billing, accounts, returns, complaints, or other common   issues. 

 • Instantly respond to questions posted through your website’s live chat capability.  • Send post-call surveys to measure satisfaction. 

 • And much more… 

Whether or not you have personnel dedicated to customer support or other functions, a Contact  Center is the central point in your business from which all customer contacts can be managed. 

Cost-effectively bring your business unending benefits, including:  • Provide your customers with more contact options. With an effective Contact Center,   your customers can reach out to you through many channels and be assured of a fast   response.

The post Deliver a Positive Customer  Experience with a Contact Center appeared first on DataTalk.

What is Caller ID Spoofing?

Caller ID spoofing is a technology that allows a caller to display a number other than the actual number from which a call is placed. With this technology, the caller can send and receive calls and texts that appear to be from any phone number that they choose.

While there are legitimate uses and benefits to using this technology, scammers are using it to steal money and personal identities over the phone. In order for their phone scams to work, scammers need their targets to answer the phone. In recent years, scammers have started using “neighbor spoofing” to match the first six digits of their intended call recipient’s own number to make them think the phone call is coming from a local business or even a friend or family member. They know that their call recipient is much more likely to answer the phone if the call is local, increasing their chances that their scam will be successful.

Is Caller ID Spoofing Illegal?

Technically, caller ID spoofing is not illegal. Under the FCC’s Truth in Caller ID Act, so long as a person or business entity is not using caller ID spoofing with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongly obtain anything of value, it is perfectly legal. Unfortunately, a person using caller ID spoofing for less than legitimate purposes knows that what they are doing is illegal and will continue to do it anyway.

How Does Caller ID Spoofing Work?

There are many internet-based services that offer caller ID spoofing. A caller provides the phone number they’d like to call along with the phone number they would like shown on the recipient’s caller ID. The call is then sent through a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service, where the outbound caller ID is changed, and the caller is connected to their desired recipient’s phone number.

Protecting Yourself.

While the Federal Trade Commission has done what they can to try and ensure that spoofing services are not being used to defraud consumers, there are precautions you should take to protect yourself from potential scams:

• Keep in mind that caller ID spoofing allows a caller to use actual phone numbers of individuals and businesses. This means a scammer can make it appear as if the call is coming from your doctor, insurance company, or financial institution. If you receive a call from a number that you recognize, but are uncertain of the caller’s authenticity, there is nothing wrong with hanging up and calling the number back to ensure it is not a scam.
• Do not give personal, financial, or credit card information over the phone unless you have initiated the call.
• Consider using a call blocking app to decrease the number of spam calls you are receiving or ask your phone carrier if they offer a similar service. Many mobile devices also offer the ability to manually block spam numbers.
• Do not enter online competitions or sweepstakes. Many of these contests are designed to obtain your personal information. This data is then often sold to third parties.
• Lastly, do not answer calls from unfamiliar phone numbers, even if it appears to be a local call. By answering the phone, you’re alerting the caller that the number they are dialing is a real phone number, putting you at risk of receiving even more calls in the future. If the caller is legitimate, they will leave a message.

You can also add your phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry at www.donotcall.gov. While it is unlikely to prevent scam calls, it may help to reduce the number of legitimate calls you receive from telemarketers, making it easier to screen for scammers. If you suspect a call you received was fraudulent, you can file a complaint with the FCC online at https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us.

The post Caller ID Spoofing and How to Protect Yourself appeared first on DataTalk.

Kari’s Law is named for Kari Hunt who was killed by her estranged husband in a motel room in Marshall, Texas in December of 2013. Ms. Hunt’s 9-year-old daughter had tried to dial 911 several times during the attack but was not able to because she did not know she had to first dial “9” to get an outbound line.

Through this tragedy, lawmakers realized there is a problem caused by many of the multi-line telephone systems typically found in hotels, offices, and universities. These systems require users to dial an additional digit to use an outside line — even when they are trying to call 911.

Congress enacted Kari’s Law in 2018. The legislation requires multi-line telephone systems (MLTS) to be configured so dialing 911 directly connects to public safety. MLTS phone systems are typically found in enterprises such as office buildings, campuses, and hotels. These requirements went into effect on February 16, 2020.

If your telephone system requires your employees and other users to dial a number to get an outside line, your business must comply with this law.

Fortunately, most of today’s newer telecom systems meet Kari’s Law. However, it’s important to verify your system works as required and that the emergency dispatcher sees the correct information for the location of the phone from which 911 is dialed.

In addition to requiring that an MLTS be capable of permitting a caller to dial 911 without any other digits or code, such as a prefix, the statute and the FCC’s implementing rules require a notification be sent with each 911 call. This notification must automatically be sent to a central location or to another person or organization regardless of location. The notification can be in the form of on-screen messages with audible alarms for security desk computers, text messages for smartphones, or an email for administrators. The form of notification used does not have to guarantee receipt, but it must be delivered where someone is likely to see or hear it.

At a minimum, the MLTS Notification must include:

• The fact that a 911 call has been made
• A valid callback number, unless it is technically infeasible to provide one
• Information about the caller’s location that the MLTS conveys to the public safety answering point when the call to 911 is made, unless it is technically infeasible to do so.

The callback number in the MLTS Notification does not have to be a Direct Inward Dialing number to the 911 caller’s extension if one is not available.

RAY BAUM’S Act

In addition to the direct dialing and notification requirements of Kari’s Law, the FCC has also created rules to improve the dispatchable location information associated with emergency calls from MLTS phone systems. In environments such as hotels, school campuses, warehouses, and multi-level office buildings, it can be difficult to find the exact location of a person calling 911. RAY BAUM’S Act was created to ensure faster and more accurate responses to 911 calls. Under RAY BAUM’S Act, “dispatchable location” data must be conveyed to emergency services for all 911 calls without further action required by the caller, regardless of the technology type.

The FCC noted that there were greater difficulties in providing location information for devices that were not used at a single fixed location, and adopted rules based on the distinction between “fixed” and “non-fixed” MLTS or VoIP devices. Fixed devices are those that connect to a single end point (e.g., a desk or office phone) and are not capable of being moved to another endpoint by the employee. Non-fixed devices are devices that the employee can move from one location to another. While non-fixed devices have greater flexibility in the type of location information provided, dispatchable location information is still the “gold standard” to which the FCC’s rules aspire.

Fixed MLTS

The FCC found that providing dispatchable location information was technically feasible for fixed MLTS devices. This phase went into effect January 6, 2021, and fixed MLTS must transmit the dispatchable location information associated with a fixed MLTS device to the PSAP, without further intervention by the user at the time they place the call.

Non-Fixed MLTS

For non-fixed MLTS, as of January 6, 2022, providers must either convey:

• Automated dispatchable location for 911 calls when technically feasible, or
• Manually updated location information, or
• Alternative location information, defined as location information (which may be coordinate-based) sufficient to identify the caller’s civic address and approximate in-building location. Additionally, alternative location information for large multi-story buildings should include the floor level and approximate location on the floor.

Remote MLTS

After January 6, 2022, MLTS devices operated outside of your business premises must provide the following when making a call to 911:

• Dispatchable location, if technically feasible, or
• Manually updated dispatchable location, or
• Enhanced location information. This information may be coordinate-based and should consist of the best available location that can be obtained from any available technology or combination of technologies.

Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’S Act Compliance

Your business needs to have a complete safety protocol in place for its facilities. Complying with 911 regulations will help you to properly plan for the safety of your onsite and remote employees. Additionally, failure to bring your business to compliance can result in large fines up to $10,000 and additional penalties of up to $500 per day of noncompliance.

To verify your phone system is compliant you’ll need to find the administrative phone number for your location’s 911 call center, likely known as the public safety answering point (PSAP) and ask what steps you need to take to verify that your location is compliant.

You’ll need to be sure that the following information is displayed for the 911 operator should someone need to call for emergency help:

1. The name of your business
2. The address from which you are calling
3. The telephone number from which you are calling

This information needs to be verified for each outbound line in your building(s).

The requirements for Kari’s Law went into effect on February 16, 2020. The requirements for RAY BAUM’s Act are as follows:

• January 6, 2021
  • Fixed MLTS:
  • Fixed 2-way VoIP
  • Fixed Telephony
• January 6, 2022
  • Non-Fixed MLTS
  • Remote MLTS
  • Non-Fixed 2-way VoIP
  • Outbound-only VoIP

If your system is not able to reach 911 without dialing another number first, or if you’re not sure if your business telephone system complies with Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’S Act, contact your local Ideacom Network telecom provider who can work with you to be sure all the necessary programming changes have been made to your system to bring you into compliance.

The post Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’S Act: Compliance for Your Business appeared first on DataTalk.