Modern Etnacom Logo
Etnacom has existed in one way or another since 2001. Throughout its life its services, employees and even its location have changed multiple times.
I thought it might be interesting for some readers to see how the company has evolved over the years. At most, this will serve as a way to see how I’ve gotten to this point and some of the interesting things I’ve encountered. At the very least, it will be a “statement for the record” of where the company has been and where I intend to take it.
The Beginning
Original Etnacom Logo
In the summer of 2001, I was still in high school. A close friend and I were deliberating about how we could make some extra money in addition to our typical teenage jobs as waiters. We both knew a lot about computers and my friend was an expert in video editing, producing clips for many local events such as track meets, town gatherings and weddings. I already had some success in creating small websites for local businesses and helping others around the community with their computer repair issues. Thus, Etnacom Networks was born. I still joke with my friend about the day when we typed up a one-page “business plan” and brought it upstairs so that my father could review it (we were both under 18 at the time and needed a financial guarantor). Being a business owner himself, my father was excited about the idea and took us to the bank to open our own account. Our initial investment was fifty dollars each.
From that point forward, we worked hard to earn any business that came our way. The majority of our clients were local organizations that needed websites and web hosting, and we were able to meet their needs quite well. In fact, we still retain a lot of our original clients, even though Etnacom has evolved quite a lot since then.
As we grew older and more experienced, we started working on more complicated projects. The era of wireless computing was just starting to come about, and many businesses in the community wanted a cost-effective way to network multiple laptops and desktops into a small network with shared printers, files and Internet. We started installing more complicated server systems that ran on various flavors of Linux and Windows Server. Of course, we never forgot about our “bread and butter” services of web sites and web hosting.
Transformation to Consulting Firm
Towards the end of 2006, the original two Etnacom partners decided to go separate ways. There were no hard feelings (in fact, Brian is still a very close friend and is the best man at my upcoming wedding), but we decided that I would take the company into a consulting role while Brian would concentrate on his own profession that actually had little to do with the IT field. I became a support provider for a few start-ups and small businesses in the New York / New Jersey area, and I partnered with GoDaddy so that I could continue to offer web hosting services to my clients while improving maintenance and quality of service. Web hosting services are now offered under a subsidiary called Etnahost.
With the completion of my Masters’ degree at Carnegie Mellon University, I expanded my knowledge and experience within all of the topics I consult in, which included some very in-depth expertise in Online Marketing and SEO. I also added a new field to my repetoire – Information Security, which is in my opinion one of the most important aspects of IT. Because of my large concentration in this new field, I decided to again make some big changes and accept a full-time position working in the Baltimore / Washington D.C. area. However, Etnacom will continue to operate in the same reliable capacity it always did.
The Future
The Internet and IT in general have certainly evolved quite a bit since I’ve started doing this. Networks were once a luxury only enjoyed by corporations, now they are common in most homes (and even in some automobiles). Websites were a one-way venue to share information and e-commerce was just taking off in 2001; Facebook wasn’t even an idea in anyone’s mind. These days, community-based interaction over the Internet is common. There is no telling how Etnacom will evolve over the next few years or how technology will either. However, I can promise that I’ll continue to offer solutions that are on the cutting edge but also practical. It will certainly be a fun ride!
I decided that a facelift might be in order for the website. A lot has changed in the past few months, and I want to make sure that the face of Etnacom accurately reflects what Etnacom is and the type of business we do.
If you are a client, you are well aware that I started a new full-time position in July, working information security-type issues. Being that my degree is in Info. Security, I decided that this would be a wonderful opportunity, but I also wanted to continue doing my work at Etnacom. So, I decided to transform the company into a vehicle for part-time consulting.
Before I accepted the position, I spoke with my clients to see if there were any concerns with me meeting their needs part time and mostly during nights and weekends. Everyone was extremely supportive (and I thank everyone for their generous support!)
So, here we are. Getting back to the website – I think a look and feel that shows that I’m a one-man show with a lot of experience to offer does the trick. I am now showcasing my blog on the home page so that you can read about my insights and experiences with clients and technologies (and sometimes with my full-time job, if I am able to share). I am still accepting new clients, but have relocated to the Baltimore-Washington metro area, so my on-site work is limited to that region.
As always, i’m available anytime for help, so drop me a line if you need anything!
In our last post, we talked about how to cut costs in your business by using online fax and PBX services. These two services are great when it comes to streamlining your costs, especially among multiple business locations (or maybe you don’t have a business “location” at all).
However, what we’re going to talk about today completely dwarfs the article from a few weeks ago. Today we’ll discuss online telephony services that actually allow interactive calling, such as Skype and other Voice-over-IP services. To those of you who are very technical, this is not a new idea. On the other hand, to a small business owner that doesn’t frequent the IT realm, this could be a revolutionary new strategy.
Voice-over-IP (also known as VoIP, which I will use for the rest of this article) is a technology in which voice and telephony services are delivered through the Internet or another comparable network. It became popular in the early 2000s when large corporations saw just how expensive it was to run an internal phone system. Think about 2,000 employees in an office building, each of them with their own telephone wired into the central telephone room. What if one of those employees moves to another floor? Their telephone system needs to follow them, which means that the company needs to hire an expert to come in and reprogram the telephone system so that the one particular employee can have his telephone socket at another desk. This is on top of the already ongoing maintenance of the telephone system and the ongoing maintenance of the data network that is also in the building.
Well, enough of that. Why not have the telephone system and the data system part of the same network? Additionally, since the telephone system is now travelling through the data (computer) network and so it could carry much more information, such as configuration and user settings. Now, instead of re-wiring the telephone system every time someone moves, the employee can just take his telephone to a new spot (the telephone is configured with all of the information it needs) and plug it in. Voila! Same number.
As this technology evolved, some thought “why even have a desk phone at all?” Why not make the phone part of the computer? After all, the computer is already part of the data network. Large businesses started turning to Cisco’s VoIP system, which is quite expensive. On the small business end however, services such as Skype started to pop up. Skype is very similar to many online Instant Messaging clients such as Gtalk and AIM, but it has superior call capability. For example, a Skype user can call any other Skype user and talk for free. A Skype user can also choose to receive telephone calls and place telephone calls for a very small amount of money. Etnacom’s employees each have their own direct telephone number and the capability to make unlimited outgoing calls anywhere in the United States and Canada for a cost of $12 per month per employee. Skype also offers many other services such as video calling, international calling, voicemail, call forwarding and more – all for free or at a very low cost.
One of the major advantages of VoIP is that it eliminates the need for physical phone lines – everything is done through an existing Internet connection. As long as you are running some type of Broadband (Cable/DSL or better), there should be no reason why you shouldn’t be able to run at least 2 or 3 VoIP lines. Additionally, since services like Skype are portable, you can access them anywhere with an Internet connection. We are frequently on the road and make telephone calls from outside the office. Even if we didn’t have Internet connectivity, we could always forward calls to our cell phones while away.
Although we use Skype and it is certainly the most popular VoIP application out there, many other services do exist. Vonage is one such company and offers some interesting phone plans starting at $17.99 per month. We used to use Vonage, but abandoned it because Skype was a better fit for us. On the other hand, there are plenty of businesses that might feel that Vonage is a better fit. Instead of requiring computer software, Vonage supplies an adapter that connects to the Internet on one end and an ordinary telephone on the other. So, if you’re looking to keep your existing telephone hardware but still take advantage of VoIP’s costs, Vonage is certainly a great solution. Vonage also supplies some interesting services such as “telephone on a stick”, which is a USB-key-like device that can plug into any computer for access to a telephone line.
There are many other small companies that offer VoIP services – many of them may be good, but we encourage you to check them out thoroughly before making the switch. Be sure that they are proven, reliable and cost effective – and feel free to contact us if you need assistance in making that decision.
There is one last warning that we feel is very important – VoIP services don’t have the same quality emergency services as physical lines. Although we may never need to use it, we always take comfort in the fact that during an emergency we can reach 911. This is not so on every VoIP service – Skype does not offer 911 capabilities. Vonage does have 911 services, but you must register your location in your control panel and update this location when you move – this could be troublesome for those that are frequently on the road and rely on Vonage. On the other hand, this may not be a large problem if you also use a cell phone, since you can access 911 easily with that. The bottom line is, always have a backup phone for emergencies.
In the end, VoIP technology is a very reliable and cost-effective alternative, especially for those looking to cut the costs of expensive land-lines or mobile phone plans. Our company has saved an average of $30 per employee per month since switching to VoIP services – our cell phone plans are much less expensive now!
Happy chatting!
