Many of us subscribe to expensive phone plans which do nothing but provide us with a phone service in our own homes. The recent interest of consumers in VoIP based solutions instead of PSTN ones for cost reasons has made people wonder just how far one can go in replacing the traditional home phone experience. Services such as MagicJack have become more and more popular and many companies such as Vonage are showing an interests in providing VoIP services to the masses.
The problem is that VoIP requires a fundamentally different type of phone compared to the one required by the plain old telephone system. This is because VoIP runs on Internet connectivity instead of the dedicated phone lines provided by the telephone service. While the old phone is an analog device, the Internet is digital. So VoIP phones are designed to handle digital voice data and not analog data. However, many people already have phones which they like and VoIP phones are expensive. There are two different ways to get a cordless phone working with VoIP so you can roam around your house without paying huge monthly fees.
The first method is to subscribe to a VoIP service that includes a complimentary cordless phone. This might be the easiest way for you to go. Skype for example has a cordless phone that specifically works with its service and its proprietary protocols. Of course, given the closed nature of the Skype protocol, this is the only way to use Skype by roaming around on a dedicated handset.
The second method is to purchase an ATA adapter for your cordless phone which then plugs into your Internet connection thereby allowing you to seamlessly use VoIP without any problems. Of course, not all ATA adapters are the same and you should use one that is compatible with the VoIP service you're using. Most VoIP services these days have settled on the SIP protocol so if you get an adapter that works with that you should be ready to go.
This is a great way to harness your home Internet connection for use with your cheap cordless system that always sits at home. Smartphone users can of course piggyback on their wi fi connection which most likely exists throughout the house so there's no need for any special equipment.
Ultimately VoIP is about flexibility. There are multiple ways to achieve the same thing and this is in keeping with the nature of the Internet itself of which VoIP is a byproduct.
An Italy fan celebrates after the World Cup soccer match between Italy and Australia, in the streets of downtown Frankfurt June 26, 2006. REUTERS/Miro Kuzmanovic
Italy's general election is held on Sunday.
HSBC's Fabio Balboni argues that polls point to no clear winner in both chambers of Italy's parliament.
Two charts help illustrate what is going in the election, and what could happen.
With Italy's general election now less than a week away, the outcome is no more clear than it has been in the months leading up to the vote.
The centre-left coalition of Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party, the populist Five Star Movement, and the right wing bloc comprising Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the far-right Lega Nord could all end up running the Italian government in the coming weeks.
However, according to a note from HSBC circulated to clients this week, the most likely outcome in the election is a hung parliament, which could — in theory at least — lead to another election.
It seems likely, HSBC says, that Berlusconi's centre-right coalition will be the biggest bloc, but will fall short of having enough seats in both houses of the Italian parliament to govern.
"According to polls, it should get about 36% of the votes (source: Termometropolico, 17 February). Populist party Five Star Movement (5SM) would get about 28% and the centreleft coalition, led by current ruling party Partito Democratico (PD), about 26%," the note by Fabio Balboni says.
"The centre-right coalition, however, would still fall short of an absolute majority of seats in both houses of parliament. A possible grand-coalition - including PD, FI and all other centrist parties in the centre-right and centre-left coalition - would also fall short of a majority."
The chart below shows how things stand according to the most recent polls — polls are banned in Italy in the immediate run-up to elections, so the latest data comes from February 17.
HSBC
Should this hung parliament transpire, Balboni says, there will be several questions to ask on the morning of March 5.
"These are if the centre-right gets a majority of seats, and if so, who gets the most votes between Forza Italia and the Northern League," he writes.
"If no one gets a majority, key will be whether the centrist mainstream parties have enough seats to be able to form a grand coalition (or 'technical' government, which to us means the same as the parties supporting it would be the same)."
Malcolm Smith, head of the international equity group at JPMorgan Asset Management JPMorgan Asset Management
Malcolm Smith is head of a group of which manages $135 billion of assets at JPMorgan Asset Management.
Smith was the youngest ever managing director at the firm, aged 30.
He told Business Insider that the key to his success is not being afraid to "ask the difficult questions."
LONDON — Aged just 30, Malcolm Smith became Blackrock's youngest managing director.
Six years and two children later he now oversees JPMorgan Asset Management's $135 billion international equity group, a major part of the $1.7 trillion business.
One of the keys to this rapid rise, Smith told Business Insider, is the ability to know when to ask the "awkward" questions of his bosses.
"I'm willing to ask the difficult questions, address the big issues, and own them and deal with them," Smith told Business Insider when asked what he puts his success down to.
"When younger people come into the industry, there's always this sort of feeling that you don't know as much as senior and more experienced people. That's normally absolutely true by the way, but there's a happy balance between keeping your mouth shut and listening [and speaking up]."
"You don't learn too much by opening your mouth. Obviously, you know what you know, so you need to listen a lot, but also ask the right questions and be willing to ask the awkward question."
Having started his career in 2004 at Merrill Lynch Asset Management, Smith became a Blackrock employee after its acquisition in 2006. He eventually rose to become a managing director.
Smith's words echo those of a former boss, Michael Barakos, who in 2016 praised Smith's "straight talking and pragmatic" approach to his job when he was named one of Financial News' rising stars of asset management in 2016.
Not only is asking difficult questions and speaking up a good trait to have, but so too is the ability to have a sense of perspective and see the bigger picture, Smith believes.
"Sometimes it is just being willing to think about those basic things, then worry about the problems and own the problems. Think through every angle of a problem," he said.
Smith also advises aspiring asset managers to "act as though you were the business owner, even if you're not" when looking at potential stocks to buy.
"You've got to ask 'If I was in charge, what would I do? What would I worry about? Have we thought about that?'" — Smith told BI.
"Oftentimes, that's been helpful. Everyone always assumes someone else is worrying about it, but most organisations don't have people who just sit around worrying about things."
It may seem obvious, but Smith also encourages people looking to make it in the industry to actually care about what they're doing, and care for the people they're working for, rather than simply doing a job.
"You have to care, and want to do well. You don't want to let people down, you don't want to let you clients down, your colleagues down, and so worrying and caring about that business and all the different challenges it faces from every angle has been a big thing."
Smith also believes that everybody needs a healthy dose of luck — especially when it comes to who you end up working with — is a big determinant of anybody's success.
"One of the key things for me is that I've generally had really good managers — I've been very lucky in that regard — who have been able to give me opportunities and support, and sometimes take risks on me."
"If you're pretty young, and people are moving on your responsibilities, you hopefully deliver, but until you put someone in charge, you never know."
Prime Minister Theresa May with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
The EU will call for Northern Ireland to stay in its customs territory and stick to single market rules after Brexit if Theresa May cannot find a way of avoiding a hard border.
The contentious fallback option will be revealed in the withdrawal agreement legal text on Wednesday morning.
Brussels wants a "common regulatory area" on the island of Ireland if the UK government as the fallback option, an official who has seen the text has told Business Insider.
The proposals come as a leaked letter by Boris Johnson admits Brexit may cause a hard Irish border.
LONDON — The European Union will propose keeping Northern Ireland within its "customs territory" and closely aligned to its single market rules after Brexit, in the text of the withdrawal agreement due to be published today.
A well placed EU source, who has seen the text, has told Business Insider that the EU will suggest a "common regulatory area" with "no internal barriers" on the island of Ireland, if the UK government is unable to produce a workable solution to avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
The highly-anticipated document translates into legal terms the agreement reached by British and EU negotiators on the first phase of Brexit negotiations in December.
The text, which is set to be up to 120 pages long, will not explicitly call for Northern Ireland to stay in the single market if the UK government fails to come up with a workable solution, the source told BI, but will lay out areas where it could stay fully aligned with single market rules in order to maintain frictionless trade.
The European Commission is set to publish the document at around 10:00 (GMT) ahead of a press conference from the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier.
Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly insisted that Britain will leave both the customs union and single market as part of its imminent departure from the EU.
However, British MPs, EU officials and the Irish government have warned the prime minister that this will make physical infrastructure on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic inevitable.
The legal text published today will suggest keeping Northern Ireland under the EU's customs code and closely wedded to single market rules after Brexit if May is unable to come up with a way of avoiding a hard border.
It will make clear that this course of action is the default option — or the "backstop" as its known in Brussels — and other solutions to avoiding a hard border remain available, such as a comprehensive UK-EU free trade agreement.
This proposal will meet strong opposition from the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, which currently props up May's Conservative government.
The EU's "backstop" would effectively move the border to the Irish sea but the Arlene Foster-led party opposes any Brexit deal based on Northern Ireland remaining wedded to the EU and moving away from the rest of the UK.
The DUP very nearly scuppered the December agreement over concerns about regulatory alignment between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
It will also irk pro-Brexit members of May's Cabinet, like Boris Johnson and Liam Fox, who want to see the whole of Britain diverge from EU rules and regulations after Brexit.
The proposals come as a leaked letter revealed that the foreign secretary Johnson has privately admitted that Brexit could cause a hard border with Ireland.
Johnson privately told May that preventing a hard border should not be the main aim of the UK government.
The foreign secretary appeared to row back on the UK government's previous commitment to maintaining "frictionless" trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic in an interview with BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday morning, saying that only "excessive" checks can be avoided.
"We think we can have very efficient facilitation systems to make sure there's no need for a hard border and excessive checks on the frontier between Northern Ireland and the Republic," the foreign secretary said.
Lithuania's fans wave flag and cheer on their team during their FIBA Basketball World Championship game against France in Izmir September 1, 2010.REUTERS/Sergio Perez
Lithuania wants to become a fintech hub.
MEP who set up Blockchain Centre says Brexit is "a big opportunity" to attract businesses.
Thirty five companies applied to be licensed in Lithuania last year.
UK-headquartered startups Revolut and TransferGo have already chosen to set up EU subsidiaries in the Eastern European country.
LONDON — Lithuania is betting that Brexit can help it become a global fintech hub, as the Eastern European country seeks to attract British companies setting up subsidiaries in the EU.
"I cannot deny that," Marius Jurgilas, a member of the board of the Bank of Lithuania, told Business Insider when asked if Lithuania saw Brexit as an opportunity.
"We are not saying that we will be attracting top firms from the fintech hub of the world, which is and always will be London, to the new booming financial sector in Lithuanian, no," Jurgilas said. "But there is a huge flow of firms — and we want to participate in that flow — who want to hedge the risk of Brexit."
"This is the state of affairs that everyone has to deal with and we're just part of the game," Jurgilas said.
Lithuania's position in Europe. Google Maps
Britain's future relationship with the European Union remains up in the air and finance firms fear they could lose passporting rights, which allow them to sell services across the 27 member bloc. To hedge against this risk, many businesses are setting up licensed subsidiaries in other EU countries.
Lithuanian MEP Antanas Guoga told BI: "I think [Brexit] is a big opportunity because we're cost-wise a very competitive country, people are very diligent and hard-working, and, because of Brexit, a lot of companies are in a position to move out of the United Kingdom to make sure they're safe and secure."
Guoga helped to set up a Blockchain Centre in the country's capital Vilnius last year, dedicated to exploring applications of the new technology that banks are excited about. The centre launched in January with the support of PwC among others.
'One of the most exciting fintech hubs in Europe right now'
Lithuania is an unlikely contender to become Europe's next fintech hub.
Unlike Paris or Amsterdam, it does not have a strong history of financial services. Unlike Berlin, Vilnius does not have startup scene of any international renown. The entire country has a population of 2.8 million, around a third of London.
TransferGo's CEO and founder Daumantas Dvilinskas. TransferGo
But its pitch appears to be working. Invest Lithuania announced in January that 117 fintech companies are now operating in Lithuania, employing 2,000 people. It may not sound like a huge amount but the growth is impressive — 35 new businesses were registered in 2017.
Hot London-based banking startup Revolut and fellow UK startup TransferGo are among the fintech businesses to choose Lithuania. Revolut praised the country as "one of the most exciting fintech hubs in Europe right now" in a statement last year announcing they were applying for a banking license there.
"They recognise the opportunity of Brexit," TransferGo CEO Daumantas Dvilinskas told BI. Dvilinskas is originally from Lithuania but said he chose Vilnius for an EU office not just because of personal ties, but also because of its "innovative regulating body."
The Bank of Lithuania has a "business-friendly attitude," according to board member Jurgilas. The central bank has got the licensing process down to as little as three months, for example.
"We identified that the thing that is really tilting the scales in the decision-making process is time," Jurgilas said. "It's not about monetary cost or regulatory burden, it's about how much time do I have to invest to get a decision? Firms want certainty and quick decisions."
Other fintech-friendly initiatives include the central bank's regulatory "sandbox", where firms can try out innovative new business ideas with the regulators blessing, and a blockchain sandbox, dubbed LBChain, that will give companies a safe space to experiment with blockchain projects under the regulator's supervision.
Can Vilnius compete with Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam?
Lithuania is not alone in looking to attract fintech business off the back of Brexit. Many European capitals are trying to woo businesses, with Paris lobbying particularly hard. Why should firms choose Vilnius?
"Being in the eurozone gives us the same status of Frankfurt," Guoga said. "We've got a lot of hard-working people with knowledge of fintech who are not costing as much as they would in other cities because of the living costs. The country is very clean. There's a lot of different benefits and that's why there's only more and more people coming here."
Established players are also choosing Lithuania for development facilities, which helps create an ecosystem Guoga argued.
"I'm just in the blockchain centre here and I can see the building next to me is all filled by Barclays," he said. "Barclays has the biggest centre of development here in Vilnius. Further on I can see Nasdaq. A lot of the IT is all done from here.
"Having Barclays here, having Danske Bank, having Nasdaq here and having many many other startups and also big multinationals have cemented our place as a place for fintech development."
"I think we'll be on target to do a lot more [e-money licenses] this year. The momentum is definitely there. We should aim to issue 100 a year as soon as possible. The demand is very wide."
Georgia Toffolo, star of "Made in Chelsea" and "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!," is the unlikely new darling of the Conservative Party.
She's been told to run for office by Boris Johnson, is friends with the foreign secretary's dad, and has met the prime minister.
Toff, as she is universally known, hates that politics is associated with "middle-aged, greying men" and wants more young people to vote.
Just don't try to dig too deep into her political views.
Georgia Toffolo is best known as one of many posh girls on the glossy reality TV show "Made in Chelsea." She also won ITV's "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!," during which she ate a bull's penis and was locked in a coffin with live snakes for Britain's entertainment.
But since leaving the Australian outback, Toffolo has now — somewhat unfathomably — become the new darling of the Conservative Party.
The 23-year-old formed an unlikely bond with Boris Johnson's dad, Stanley Johnson, while in the jungle — and their relationship has blossomed since returning to Britain. "We genuinely hang out all the time," Toffolo confirmed in an interview with Business Insider.
Toffolo, or "Toff" as she is known to almost everyone, accompanied Johnson to the Tory fundraising ball earlier this month, where she got up on stage to address the party's grandees.
There she met Prime Minister Theresa May, who thanked her for everything she has done for the party, and Boris himself, who asked when she was "going to stand as a Conservative MP." "Not sure that's a great idea," Toff blushed.
We know this because Toff chronicled her night in her new column for The Sunday Times. Business Insider asked the Foreign Office whether Johnson recognised that exchange, but we're yet to hear back.
In fact, Toff is so ingratiated with the party that the Conservatives' so-called "youth tsar," Ben Bradley, held her up as a vote-winning poster girl. "It would be a real benefit to us as a whole to have that relationship with her," Bradley told The Spectator magazine, going on to claim she could "help solve the Conservative youth problem."
The trouble is, right here and now, during a brief interview set up to promote "Made in Chelsea," Toff doesn't really want to talk politics.
Has Stanley introduced her to the upper echelons of the party, BI asks.
"Well no, I've alwa- ugggh...," Toff splutters, changing subject mid-sentence. How does it feel to be the face of Tory youth? "I don't want to talk about that. We're here to talk about 'Made in Chelsea' today. I'm so sorry."
It's is a shame, because, like it or not, Toff has become a sort of unofficial cheerleader for the Tory party.
And while she's performing this role — and winning praise from the party's great and good — her political pronouncements do warrant some scrutiny.
Toff has ogled backbench MP Jacob Rees-Mogg as a "sex god," but does she find his hardline views on abortion and gay rights equally attractive?
She doesn't have much time for "nimwit" Nigel Farage, as she once described the MEP, but aren't her pals Rees-Mogg and Boris pretty in tune with him on Brexit?
She's an advocate for fox hunting, so must have been grumpy when the prime minister abandoned her pledge to give MPs a vote on making it legal again?
And she's boasted to the Financial Times about how easy it is to make cash from promotional Instagram posts. Can her political views be bought as easily as an endorsement?
Getting young people to vote is "the most important thing"
We didn't get answers to these questions, but there is one issue Toff is prepared to talk about: improving political engagement among millennials.
In 2014, she told her Twitter followers that they would be "very naughty" if they didn't vote, and once described Belgium's compulsory voting system as "fantastic."
She warms to her theme: "I've got a great platform, with nearly two million followers on Instagram, I just want to make sure that people register to vote, they go out and vote, and if they don't agree with something, they speak out.
"What I don't like is when people don't like the establishment, they don't like the current government, they combat that by saying 'I don't like politics.' Go out, have your say, vote against the government. It's the most important thing."
Toff steps out with Stanley Johnson. Getty
And when there's not an election, Toff is garnering support for petitions. Her latest cause is a bid to ban live animal exports, a goal she does not feel conflicts with her support for fox hunting.
"A lot of animals are transported hundreds of miles across the sea to different countries to then be killed. They shouldn't be doing that, they should end their life here," she says.
The TV star is also happy to express more adoration for Stanley Johnson. She has roped him in as a guest star on "Made in Chelsea," where cameras will capture their long lunches over copies of the Financial Times.
"We spend so much time together that when the cameras are rolling, it's just as though they're not there. It's so funny," she says. "I told Boris that he'd filmed for the show and he was like: 'That's amazing.' How funny is that?"
Toff is certainly something of a paradox: A reality TV star, who openly trades on her "ditzy" image and regularly poses in her underwear on Instagram. But also a politics obsessive who waves the flag for of Britain's ruling party.
"I don't like that politics is associated with middle-aged, greying men. I'm a young blonde woman who's 23 and I can be as interested in politics as the next person," she says.
And with that, Toff is off. The Tory member of eight years may not have any immediate political ambitions, but didn't a reality TV star in America once say something similar?
Do you, as a small business owner, believe that you deliver the exceptional customer experience? A survey by Bain & Co. verified that 80% of those companies surveyed believed, possibly like you, that they delivered an exceptional customer service experience. However, the results of this survey revealed that only 8% of their customers believed the same way.
So why this gap between the desired beliefs of small business owners to C Level management and the actual ones of the customers?
Part of the explanation has to do with the overall lack of a strategic plan not to mention a customer loyalty plan. However, the inability to identify the points of connection (those things that the customer see, hears, Touches, smells, tastes or feel) along with Points of Potential (operating systems) that are not properly aligned to purpose of business probably contribute just as much to a poor customer service experience.
Furthermore having employees with bad attributes does not deliver an exceptional customer service experience. The bad attitudes of employees were cited by close to 70% of the customers who took their business elsewhere. Again, what your customers see and hear from your employees are two significant points of connection.
Another survey in the 20th century by Learning Dynamics discovered that 1 out of 5 senior management personnel do not even talk with customers. Additionally, 1 out of 3 responsible for reaching customers (marketing) do not talk with these same individuals that are hearing the various marketing messages. Finally, 2 out of 3 involved in innovation (research and development) do not talk to those who are looking for better products and services. Do you see a large disconnect here? Or in the often quoted line: What we have here is a failure to communicate!
These reasons all demonstrate why only 1 out of 10 of your customers believe that you delivering exceptional customer service. To avoid delivering poor customer service, then maybe you as the small business owner to the C Level executive management team need to reconnect with your customers through a customer loyalty experience. By not taking action, your business may continue to be one of those firms that operate in denial much like the ostrich with its head in the sand.
