How big do you need to be before you think about making voice calls over the internet? Even small companies can benefit, according to entrepreneur Nick Ogden, who launched On Instant, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service this week.
Ogden, founder of internet payments system WorldPay and online mall BarclaySquare, has funded the business himself because he believes in the technology. And because he can afford to -- WorldPay was sold to the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2002 for ?40 million. VoIP enables voice calls to be turned into packets of data that can be sent over the internet without tying up a phone line. But it is not just about cutting call costs. If voice is transmitted at the same time as data, new applications become possible.
One convert to VoIP is Terry Coutanche, founder of Coutanche Solutions. He has been using On Instant for the past two months to manage nearly two dozen IT staff in America, Australia and Ukraine.
"Calls to staff are now free," says Coutanche. Previously, most of the contact was by e-mail, but often a phone conversation is more useful. You can get an answer straightaway and you can even record calls. Or you can send voicemails to each other, which some people find faster to compose than e-mail.
On Instant, which is aimed at small businesses, costs from ?4 to ?15 per person per month. The service includes internet-based contact management software, map-based business directory and press release distribution software, with VoIP as the glue that sticks it all together.
The contact manager enables a hurried business person to make a note of any follow-up action they have promised a customer. They will get a reminder when they switch on their PC that day.
To use On Instant, businesses need to download the software and plug a PC headset with integrated microphone into their PC or laptop computer, or buy an IP phone. They can then call anyone registered with the service for "free" -- or no extra cost. To use the software, they will also need fairly new PCs running Windows 2000 or XP and a broadband internet connection, such as ADSL or cable.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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