Gregg and Star2Star Communications

Star2Star manufactures the system hardware, provides the telephone service, and they monitor and manage all aspects of the system, network and call quality.

This all-in-one approach, available only from Star2Star, delivers a perfect blend of system features, call quality, reliability and savings. Take, for example, StarBackup, their exclusive six-way backup feature that includes triple redundant internet connections, redundant phone carriers, analog line switchover, automatic call-forwarding if office power is lost, data center bypass and redundant self-swapping switching equipment at the data center.

The result? Star2Star Communications is the only Internet phone solution vendor able to guarantee 99.9% reliability. 

What Makes Star2star Different?

Up until now, there have been three ways to implement VoIP for small and medium businesses:

• Traditional Phone Service and Third Party PBX
• PBX Manufacturer with Third Party Phone Service
• Hosted PBX with VoIP Phone Service

What’s Different About Star2Star?

VoIP is all about standards. So how can one VoIP system be very different from the others?  The Star2Star system is built using industry-standard components and protocols, and is fully standards compliant. But Star2Star employs an advanced system architecture that provides users with an end-to-end, fully managed and monitored system. 

For more information on Star2Star:

Star2Star Operations Center and Reliable 24/7 Monitoring Data Center:

Star2Star is the only Internet Phone Service Provider with fully integrated, end-to-end monitoring and management of your critical business telecommunications needs. Others may claim to provide "Business Grade Internet Phone Service" but none can provide the quality and reliability of Star2Star because none have gone to the lengths we have to assure that your critical business calls will get through.

The E Solutions Corporation's Data Center houses the core telecommunication infrastructure for Star2Star Communications and is located on the 16th floor of the Colonial Bank Building in downtown Tampa. This building has become one of the nation's most active carrier neutral communications facilities, housing more than a dozen major communications companies and having multiple redundant fiber loops connecting the entire region to the Internet backbone.

The E Solutions Corporation's Data Center utilizes state-of-the-art surveillance, including monitored cameras throughout its facilities. In addition to secured access to the elevators and the lobby on the 16th floor, all doors within the Data Center require pass cards and, in critical locations, pin codes. The facility is engineered and constructed to withstand any likely man made or natural disaster

Dramatic Savings:  

Cut your phone bill to about half.

Their integrated architecture enables the typical Star2Star customer to reduce their phone bill up to 50%.
Star2Star’s customers save money thanks to:

• Unlimited Domestic Calling
• Unlimited office-to-office calling
• Reduced International Rates

Most customers save money on their monthly phone bills, even when you factor the cost of the phone system lease into the calculation!

Most of Star2Star’s competitors' products are designed to be more expensive than traditional telephone service. This is due in large part to their having to pay license fees and royalties that allow them to use other companies' technology. At Star2Star, they own their superior technology and don't have to pay anyone to use it. The result: You get better phone service with better features at a better price.

If your business has multiple locations, you'll save even more money thanks to a unique Star2Star feature called line pooling.

In the telephone world, a "line" is a circuit that is delivered to a customer. The circuits connect a customer's PBX system to a telephone company switch. If a customer will potentially need to handle 100 calls at any given time, then they'll need 100 circuits. 

Star2Star phone lines aren't "lines" at all, although they call them that because that's what customers call them. Star2Star’s VoIP "lines" are virtual circuits between a client's hosted PBX and our call center. With Star2Star, clients order as many lines as they expect to need on a peak basis — for all of their business locations, combined. They can even add extra circuits "on the fly" to handle seasonal or unexpected traffic increases.

For example, a large national retail chain recently converted to Star2Star. They have nearly 10,000 stores, and each store had a phone line. After the switch, they have 3,000 Star2Star lines. Star2Star ported over all of their phone numbers, so each store retained its existing local number for incoming calls. Their savings? In the millions of dollars per year. And they now have a far better, more integrated phone system than before.

Exact system pricing is complicated and depends on a wide range of variables. Gregg Communications has access to an online quote calculator, which allows us to provide you with an accurate quote based on a brief on-site interview. The first thing we will need is your existing phone bill. So dig out the bill and call Gregg Communications. You can then take a long look at your phone bill - it might be the last one you ever see.

Ready to get started?
Contact us today to see how Gregg can help you with your Star2Star communication needs.

Star2Star Customer Success Stories

POWER

As the new owner of a small chain of Murphy Bed stores, one of the first tasks for Pat Doyle was to make the operations more efficient and cost effective.

A major deliverable in meeting this goal was to streamline office communications. Pat turned to Star2Star for a phone system that would accomplish this while also saving him money, and increase reliability by using a high speed Internet connection to eliminate his local and long distance phone companies.

Specifically, Pat had 3 stores and one warehouse which only had one phone. This setup made it quite difficult for the staff to communicate between locations. After spending just a few minutes per extension in the Star2Star Setup Wizard, Pat was able to create a virtual phone system. Now, not only would communications be much easier for his staff but customer relations would be greatly improved. With the Star2Star System a call can be answered by another store when the sales people are unavailable to pick up the phone. Pat's warehouse doesn't even need a phone system of its own because it is a remote extension to the main store. With Star2Star Pat's staff can now transfer calls from store to store via local extensions. 

When customers reach a rep's voicemail they can dial 0 to speak to a predetermined "operator" or 1 to be transferred to any number the rep programmed (cell, home, branch office, etc). The automated attendant picks up after-hours and allows people to still reach individuals or get driving directions. The system even comes with a free professional voice-over recording of the main menu greeting and an after hours greeting.

"The Star2Star complete end-to-end phone system has powerful features that help us do business better. From the easy installation process that just took a few hours to the actual daily usage of the phone system, we have found that Star2Star consistently delivers on their promise to provide next generation capabilities and reliable connections at unprecedented savings."

RELIABILITY

When Hurricane Ike veered north and struck Cincinnati, most businesses were unprepared. After all, Cincinnati doesn't normally experience hurricanes. But hurricane Ike tore through six states before slamming Cincinnati with winds up to 84 miles per hour. Thousands of large trees — unaccustomed to hurricane-strength winds - snapped like twigs. When it was over, nearly a million homes and businesses were without power. The damage in Ohio alone was estimated to be about $550 Million, including thousands of broken windows. This created a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity for Gilkey Windows.

With power and Internet down, Star2Star's business continuity features allowed Gilkey to answer the phone and take orders. Gilkey's technical staff moved the Cincinnati office's StarBox to the cafeteria at another Gilkey location. As power came back on in Cincinnati, the calls (and orders) started coming in. Thanks to their Star2Star system, Gilkey was able to operate while their competitors using legacy phone service were down. Gilkey won tons of new business and turned seeming disaster into a huge success.

"Until we discovered Star2Star we couldn't find a service provider that offered personalized 24-hour monitoring of our business phone system. Within a few months of using the Star2Star Phone System lightning struck our building and we got to see firsthand that Star2Star can deliver on what they promise. The monitoring response team arrived quickly and the disaster recovery plan activated without a hitch so we still had a working phone system.

Our failover plan was to reroute inbound calls through the fax line by forwarding our number and have the phone system automatically reroute outbound calls. On the other side, my traditional carrier for Internet access took days to restore my Internet connection. A business communication system is obviously a crucial factor to any company and with Star2Star we are completely confident that our phone system will be working even when disaster strikes."

SAVINGS

Billhorn Converters has been manufacturing, processing, and distributing paper products since 1990. Over the years, the company has grown and expanded into six locations in three states. Unfortunately, their communications costs were growing faster than the business.

Billhorn's existing phone system didn't have voice mail or multi-party conferencing, so the company purchased those services on a pay-as-you-go basis. Each of the company's six locations had its own phone lines and numbers, but there was no easy way to transfer calls from one office to another.

More importantly, calls between business locations were placed as ordinary 10-digit toll calls. This had the dual side effects of increasing telephone costs while discouraging inter-office communications. Incoming calls to each location came to the receptionist's desk, so after hours calls went unanswered.

After consulting with their local Star2Star Dealer, Billhorn management decided to replace their existing phone systems with Star2Star. The effect on Billhorn's business operations was immediate and far-reaching:

• Inter-office calls — which had previously been dialed as long-distance calls – are now free calls. Every extension in Billhorn's facilities is just five digits away from any other. Billhorn employees can call each other as often and for as long as they like without regard to cost.
• Telephone conferences — previously a pay-as-you-go service — are now widely used, improving communications and increasing collaboration.
• Key employees are reachable any time using Star2Star's find me/ ollow me call routing — even if they are out of the office and on their cell phones.
• Incoming calls at any location can be transferred to any extension, so customers don't have to hang up and dial a different number.
• After-hours calls are automatically sent to a ring group that rings at the other Billhorn locations. Incoming calls to the main office (in the Eastern time zone) can be answered by a receptionist in Louisiana or Washington state up to three hours after the close of business on the East coast.
• All employees now have access to state of the art, unlimited voice mail with the option to send new voicemails to their e-mail inboxes.

Despite the huge improvement in their telephone service, Billhorn is saving over $700 per month in telephone charges.

"We operate much more as a close-knit unit now. We can answer incoming calls across all three time zones with no additional personnel, and our customers really like being able to reach us almost any time."

  – George Harmon, Controller
Billhorn Converters

 

Ready to get started?
Contact us today to see how Gregg can help you with your Star2Star communication needs.