After reflecting on what I might write about in this end of year article I found myself faced with writing about one of the most impacting and challenging years in living memory. I wondered how some of our key managers across the businesses would express themselves if I asked them to reflect on 2020 and the road ahead; I was blown away by their responses. The main themes that really caught my attention were those of gratitude for being able to spend more time with family, whilst also being fortunate to be in the Telecoms industry which has been less impacted by Covid-19 than a lot of others.

Our Internal Sales Manager, Ferrin said this

I’ve learned that life is more precious than it seems and I’m grateful for NSN during this time for supporting all employees during the pandemic and ensured that our jobs were retained, and no staff being made redundant whatsoever.

Some employees took the opportunity to focus on career development by going further with their vocational qualifications like our Senior engineer Dan Besant, others by taking up creative activities to support their well-being. Those with young children have been able to spend invaluable time seeing them learn and grow.

Senior executives, business process owners and department leaders have all recorded some record productivity from staff across the business.

At the same time most staff have fed back that they are enjoying a work/life balance that has tilted more in favour of ‘life’. This comment from a Sales Team leader, Janay sums it up very well

I found myself more focused from start to finish, without having to worry about the commute back home or having the usual office distractions. This however meant I needed to have a strict routine in place to ensure I don’t get easily distracted by the comforts of being home.

Whatever 2021 holds for us it is hard not to consider that, even as things return to relative normalcy, some of the positive ‘side’ benefits that have emerged from the changes in how we work in 2020 could be integrated going forwards. As our Operations Director Jeremy de Agrela noted

Going from supporting multiple users in a controlled office environment that we had set up and supported for years, to supporting that same customer, and all their users in a multitude of home environments presented both real challenges and opportunities. Most of our customers now have a much more resilient technological set up across their businesses due to the changes driven by Covid-19 home working.

As our SA Channel Director Wesley Swart noted,

NSN as an enabler for change is in a great position for 2021, we are ready to fulfil our customers’ needs with our Cloud iPBX solution and awesome connectivity solutions. We need to be ready to adapt to whatever 2021 brings, both the challenges and the opportunities that arise from them, as our continued success depends completely on the success of our clients.

Whatever the new normal brings we are grateful, motivated and ambitious about being your chosen service provider in 2021 and beyond. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year from all of us at NSN.

Best Regards,
Mark Shraga

Gavin exceeded expectations by taking the lead in our inaugural end of year campaign, leading the way with great energy and gusto, Gavin took charge and set the competition on fire!

Pictured above is the champ, who shared the following words with his team :

Congratulations to all other sales team members for making the competition so tough, you really made me work for it!

It goes without saying that this wouldnt have been possible without the 10/10 support and guidance from my peers and seniors. Thank you NSN for keeping us motivated and striving!

Congratulations to our sales team for smashing their October 2020 Sales Targets!

We decided to shake things up and themed this incentive “Sell Hard 2 : Sell Harder!” and wow, our team really our team really sprang into action.

Thank you #TeamNSN for your outstanding efforts and palpable energy, we appreciate you!

As we rocket towards Christmas this year, the New Star Networks (NSN) Partnership & Reseller Team are focused on one thing – delivering the best Christmas incentive program ever.

As an NSN Partner & Reseller you will have access to a straightforward, point and shoot set of incentives that will be filling up Christmas stockings from Johannesburg to Cape Town.

We are making it hotter to go hosted, brighter to boost broadband connections, and sexier to get SD-Wans out to your clients at the drop of a Christmas hat.

What you get with NSN

Where we are different is that we give you 50% commission on margins for the lifetime of the contract.

We are pros in Cloud technology and are able to support you from a billing and technical support perspective – allowing you to focus on growing your reseller business.

Joining our partner program is absolutely free, with no hidden costs. The process is simple, and we can have you onboarded and closing deals within a week.

We keep it real with our partners – there are no membership fees or outlay costs and our ethos is simple: “If you bring business you get paid…if you don’t, well, you don’t.”

With over 10 years perfecting our craft, we can confidently give you access to new market segments you may not have been able to service before.

This will help you grow the scope of your business and provide your existing base with the latest technology. We take on the learning curve on your behalf.

Xmas Unwrapped incentive

If you sign up before 30 November 2020, you will receive our Xmas Unwrapped incentive and our standard 50% commission share.

If you want to be a part of bringing your Christmas A-game to your clients and your families then contact NSN Channel Director Wesley Swart today at wesley@nsn.co.za or 087 135 9703.

Johannesburg-based hosted telephony solutions provider New Star Networks (NSN) is expanding their IP telephony partner family and wants you!

New Star Networks (NSN) is a revolutionary telecommunications provider servicing the B2B environment with a core focus on business connectivity and hosted voice solutions.

A world-class Voice over IP, Cloud-based telephony service provider, NSN is known for its Customer service, and 100% commitment to the channel.

In the ever-evolving technological landscape, NSN solves problems using custom solutions such as SD-WAN, Cloud-based IT & Telephony systems, Hosted exchange, data connectivity, broadband, and security in order to fulfil their promise of “Connecting You Now Now”.

The high-performance technology company has focused on growing through partnerships and is currently recruiting partners for the last quarter of 2020.

Why you should become an NSN Partner

NSN SA has been supporting its parent company in the UK since December 2010, after which the company has seen global growth.

With the launch of their partner programme in the South African marketplace in August 2017, NSN has achieved phenomenal traction.

As a partner of NSN, you will enjoy world-class service delivery, cutting-edge products, commercial support, and competitive pricing.

The company is currently paying out excellent commission rates to multiple partners and has headroom to onboard at least another 70 partners in the last quarter of 2020.

Partners earn as much as 50% of the margin on all recurring revenues signed through the Platinum Partner Programme.

NSN also enables partners to achieve ongoing revenue streams with minimal effort or fuss, fully supported by their desk and field-based sales teams, as well as 24/7/365 fast track technical support teams.

On top of that, NSN provides funding to help you go out into the world, win business, and enjoy success.

NSN also has special promotions on new handsets, flexible contracts, new client sign-up bonuses, and connection vouchers of up to R1,500 to help you win more business!

To become a Platinum Partner with NSN, contact Wesley Swart on 087 135 9703 or wesley@nsn.co.za

Download PDF

Read our tips here for doing our collective best for the economy in the current crisis.

With businesses and personal finances hit hard by a loss of income, the first of the month may mean triage in deciding what to pay.

As a typical “black swan” event, COVID-19 took the world by complete surprise. The focus of most businesses is now on protecting employees, understanding the risks to their business, and managing the supply chain disruptions caused by the efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The full impact of this epidemic on businesses and supply chains is still unknown, with the most optimistic forecasts predicting that normalcy in China may return by April,1 with a full global recovery lagging depending on how other geographies are ultimately affected by the virus.

However, one thing is certain: this event will have global economic and financial ramifications that will be felt throughout global supply chains, from raw materials to finished products.

NSN provides a critical connection to family, friends, loved ones and essential services such as first responders, healthcare, government agencies and schools.

We understand that during this time, your business will be reassessing essential services and implementing extreme austerity measures.

A common practice is to restrict all usage-based costs, which in your case may be Telecoms. It is important to note that Telecoms has been classified as an essential service and is considered part of critical national infrastructure.

While we encourage you to make the best decision for your business, we ask that you consider the effect not paying your telecom bill on time will cause.

Why Paying On Time Makes Sense

Business Continuity

Business continuity planning is the process of creating systems of prevention and recovery to deal with potential threats to a company. In addition to prevention, the goal is to enable ongoing operations before and during execution of disaster recovery.

Telephony, connectivity services and collaboration tools are vital for business to keep operating. There are currently no alternative methods that are viable in the long run to keep you connected with employees, consultants, customers, vendors etc.

NSN are doing our best during this time to support you but in order to do so we rely on your payments to fund our operations so that we can continue to keep you connected.

In this modern day and age, businesses can see out this tough time, but only if they employ strict contingency measures and focus on having open lines of communication between stakeholders.

Saving Your Good Name

The cost of paying on time is low as compared to almost anything else you can do to maintain a good reputation in your business community. When you pay late, you kick your cash problem down the road a few months at great cost to your credibility, something that is crucial to preserve in tough economic times.

To survive, your business will eventually have to pay its debts, so by putting them off a few months you gain nothing but risk losing your good reputation.

Ensuring Excellent Future Service

Every working day, you (and every other small entrepreneur on Earth) form judgments about the businesses you meet, judgments that are particularly crucial at a time when many businesses are in financial trouble. For example, you likely have thoughts like these on a regular basis:

Business A produces a reliable product.
Business B’s employees can be relied on to show up when they say they will and work overtime if that’s what it takes to finish a job.
Business C constantly comes up with new and innovative services that frequently anticipate our needs.
Business D always seems to be understaffed by surly employees who never return phone calls.
The owner of Business E is great, but some of his younger employees are not properly trained.
Damn Business F. Another day is here, and its check isn’t.

When these thoughts run through your head, you’ll doubtless question whether you ever want to deal with business D, E, or F again. And if you had to choose one of these less-than-stellar outfits to head your blacklist, we bet it would be Business F. That just makes good sense. Tough as it is to cope with late deliveries, unreturned phone calls, inexperienced workers, or even poor-quality products or services, it’s far harder to survive without being paid. This is doubly true for a business in a field where payment isn’t due until after goods or services are provided. Here, if payments are substantially late, a business can fail even though its bottom line shows it to be profitable.

You want to be a company that other companies want to do business with. For example, if your business suddenly needs to ask a print shop to turn around a flyer in a few hours, you’ll have a much better chance of getting them to say yes if you paid your last bill the day it was due.

Encouraging People in Your Network to Recommend Your Business

Keep in mind that it’s not just your satisfied customers (people who pay you money) who tell others about your business. All the people who work for and with you can also be powerful recommenders. This includes everyone you cut a check to, from your landlord and insurance broker.

If they feel positive about your business—something that is greatly aided when you pay their bills promptly—each can become a significant marketing ally.

Building and Keeping a Positive Credit Profile

If your business is new and tiny, you might assume the rest of the commercial world doesn’t even know you exist. Not so.

Almost from day one your small business will leave tracks in the commercial sands. For example, if you incorporate, form a business, hire employees, or apply for a bank loan, credit card, or trade credit, you’ll quickly appear on the radar screen of data collection organizations. These outfits gather and sell credit information about virtually every business. Among other things, they note what your business does, how many employees it has, who owns it, and, probably most important, its credit and bill-paying history.

In short, your bill-paying profile is available to anyone who pays a modest fee.

Who would buy such a report? Especially when economic times are tough and many businesses are losing money, the answer is: Virtually all of your creditors and potential creditors, including banks that are considering lending you money, companies reviewing your application to lease equipment, and suppliers, wholesalers, and other businesses from which you have requested credit.

True, an excellent payment record alone won’t guarantee that you’ll receive a bundle of commercial credit or a particular loan; other information is also important. But if a data collection agency reports that you habitually pay late, your credit application is sure to raise a red flag and greatly increase the likelihood that you’ll have to pay cash up front.

Getting a Payment Cushion

Paying on time acts as an effective rainy-day fund if and when you face a serious reverse like losing a major client, having a horrible sales month, or dealing with the bankruptcy of someone who owes you a lot of money.

That’s because in case of emergency, you’ll have a payment cushion of several months: If you’ve paid promptly over the years, you’ll have built up a substantial reservoir of goodwill and respect with creditors. They are likely to support you when you can’t pay on time if you can show them a convincing plan to solve your temporary cash problem.

What To Do When You Must Pay Late

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you might not be able to pay all your bills on time. For example, you might be forced to delay some bills a month or two while you deal with a one-time problem like a lost line of credit, a tax lien, closing a money-losing part of your business, or most prominently, the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this situation, your best strategy can be stated in three words:

communicate, communicate, communicate!

Don’t wait until you receive a third demand letter to talk to the people whose check is not in the mail; pick up the phone as soon as you know you have a problem. Talk to the person who has real authority to manage accounts receivable to briefly explain what the problem is, how you’re solving it, and when you expect to be able to pay. If you can make an immediate partial payment, even a small one, it’s absolutely essential that you do so. As the old saying goes, it always pays to put your money where your mouth is.

Lastly, it is imperative to keep paying essentials such as telephony, connectivity and whatever software and hardware you need to be able to communicate.

Help us keep the lines of communication open, so that we may enable you to focus on getting your business through this challenging time.

Adapted & Sourced From: Deloitte. | NOLO | NY Times

Are you still making manual payments? Get in touch with accounts@nsn.co.za today for a direct debit form and avoid late payments!

If in the future, there are options for us to be able to draw down services from any of the other major carriers and suppliers that we deal with at a reduced cost as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will of course look to pass this support directly through to you. To help us understand the payment/financial help you require, please submit a Financial Help Application.

Download the Financial Help Application Here

Out beyond the Corona Virus is the Cloud: Let’s grow our businesses there.. together.

Many years ago, I became heavily involved in web and audio conferencing, utilising almost any angle I could think of to promote them. They have always been great enablers, but they were always a choice, another option to choose from for the buyer. Today we are looking at an unprecedented crisis with potentially a medium to long term shift from doing business in person to doing it remotely, or virtually.

Whether this sounds surprising or surprisingly obvious to you it is the beginning of a major shift from on premise modes of working to Cloud (hosted/off premise) solutions. These solutions enable people to continue engaging, trading, collaborating and growing both their businesses and their networks of value-based relationships. Furthermore, the move to the cloud as the environment for connecting and transacting is creating a whole new space for communities to grow and thrive.

More time spent connecting and less time spent trying to connect is leading to many more possibilities, and possibilities are the stuff that hope is made of. If we embrace the challenge that this crisis presents us with and take up the gauntlet to keep connecting, learning, developing and delivering valuable products in this space then we will grow and we will prosper; not only in spite of the challenge but precisely because of it.

On an hourly basis our Tech support teams are enabling businesses to re-organise their people, working wherever they need to, whenever they need to. I don’t mean this lightly when I say that it is a privilege to be able to meaningfully help our clients weather the crisis and not lose their momentum wherever possible.

The challenge today is to keep up our pace of connecting and trading, increase it wherever possible, get creative together and leverage the virtual/cloud space for everything that we need it to be worth.

Mark Shraga
Managing Director
New Star Networks Limited

As the world battles COVID-19 it’s important to remember that we are in this together (even though we have to stay apart physically, for now).

The good news is that with NSN your team can seamlessly work from anywhere!

With our powerful system your staff can:

Plug their IP desk phones into any modem that has network connectivity or work from a laptop via our browser phone
Make and receive calls from their extensions using their mobile phones. This can be done via our innovative mobile app (available for Android and iOS) which essentially allows staff to put their desk phones in their pockets.
Phone colleagues on their extensions free of charge and transfer calls between other staff members.
Forward extensions to mobile phones at the click of a button.
Use our Agent Workspace to login remotely allowing for time and attendance to be monitored.
Reroute calls from our system to other numbers.

There is a lot that New Star Networks can do to help you and your team navigate through these trying times.

Please contact us for any further information or advice with regards to remote working.

sales@nsn.co.za

Call

087 135 9703

As Technological changes arrive, we can sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed and opt to cling to what we know, often putting off facing the challenges of adapting to new systems and the ways they can impact on our working culture.

But these changes are not a new thing. In fact, the way we work has changed drastically even since the 1960’s when most businesses were dependent on the public telephone company to connect their inter-office calls. Calling your co-worker back then was no different than calling a neighbor both in terms of costs and having no idea why they don’t answer their phone (many businesses even today still have this problem!).

Today, the open office defines the modern workspace – meant for in-person collaboration and communication. The key enablers of the open office and on-the-go work style are the incredible changes in our industry. The shift to mobility and cloud communications has changed how the modern workforce communicates within its own business environment. We can now be in touch at the click of a button in the full knowledge of when people are available to take our call, feeling like we are all in easy reach of each other… wherever we are in the world!

As the world rapidly transitions from on-premises technology to the Cloud (hosted/off site technology), we talk a lot about how the cloud shifts expenses from Capex to Opex. We discover not only how it can save money, but how speedy and how innovative it is. Furthermore, we can see the profound impact that cloud technology is having on group working communications and heightened productivity!

Over the years we have identified some key trends that will transform the way people communicate and collaborate in the next decade:

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[accordion-item title=”The Cloud Replaces PBX”]

The tyranny of the PBX is being overturned! But what does this even mean?
Until very recently, the desk phone was stuck in the 1990s, subservient to the archaic call platform. Replacing that antique call control system has paved the way for a ‘Collaboration’ platform, born in the Cloud, designed to enable increased connection between co-workers and their clients.

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[accordion-item title=”Greater Intelligence”]

Rich media with more intelligence is coming into our offices, conference rooms, meeting spaces – offering more collaboration opportunities than with a voice-only solution. Now you have voice, video, and content sharing with an incredible and growing array of features.

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[accordion-item title=”Disruption of the Vertical “Stack””]

Systems that were vertically integrated are being disrupted. We are breaking down silos and the call control no longer dictates or limits what your endpoints (headsets, video and audio conferencing solutions, desk phones) can do!

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[accordion-item title=”Democratized Communications”]

The user has all the control. Software in the cloud and software on smart devices offers a variety of experiences. This empowers businesses more than ever to choose a solution that works best for them. We have entered the era of democratized communications where users select the experience that works bests for their needs and preferences.

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HOW CAN NSN HELP YOU UPGRADE THE WAY YOU WORK?

New Star Networks is a revolutionary telecommunications provider servicing the South African B2B environment with a core focus on business connectivity and hosted voice solutions.
We are known worldwide for our unique approach to identifying the core challenges businesses encounter with communications in an ever-evolving technological landscape. We solve problems using custom solutions such as hosted telephone PABX systems, cloud systems & security, hosted exchange, data connectivity, broadband and IT services in order to fulfil our promise of “Connecting You Now Now”.
NSN caters to Cloud, Fixed line, Mobile, Data and Broadband customers across all industries and business types – providing crucial components that enable an efficient and effective workforce regardless of geographical location.