As the head of a branch sales office for a regional VAR, your desktop workstation dials into the server at central headquarters every night to upload the record of the day’s sales and to download the latest information on product availability and pricing. Unfortunately, your office is in an area with bad phone line quality. Every now and then, you arrive to find that your machine failed to make the connection during the night.
What happens when you discover this? You know that you have to send that sales data and get the latest price list, or the business is going to lose money. Knowing that this is a common problem, you regularly come into the office an hour early to verify the previous night’s data transfer. When you find that it was unsuccessful, you activate the modem program yourself to try to make the connection. When it still doesn’t go through, you call technical support at the central office to make sure that the server is up and running.
Technical support says the server is fine, so you ask if it might be a problem with your modem. The technician walks you through the diagnostic software over the phone, which is awkward for both of you because you’re not a technical person and the technician is used to working with the machine hands-on. Finally, you determine that the modem isn’t the problem. The technician says that bad phone lines are probably to blame, and all you can do is keep trying. With frustration, you call the phone company and spend half an hour trying to talk to someone who understands your problem, but ultimately, they say there’s nothing they can do to improve your line quality.
At last you make the connection, but the line noise is still causing problems. Your 56K modem is only transmitting at 14.4K, and the files are downloading very slowly. Now the phones are beginning to ring. You hope that the inventory and price list will finish downloading before you finish the first sales call so that you won’t give anyone bad information. “There must be a better way than this,” you think. You could buy a better modem, but you’re not sure how to install and configure it, so someone from technical support would have to come out to your branch and take care of it. Between your time, technical support’s time, and possible lost sales, your modem is taking away profits from your business.
Now look at the scenario with the Courier 56K business modem to show you how the right modem can help your business operate more smoothly.
Saving time, saving money
First of all, with the Courier, the odds are that your overnight data call wouldn’t have failed to connect in the first place. The Courier’s connection reliability has been proven under the worst line conditions. Even if it failed to connect on the first try, the Courier’s carrier loss redial feature will automatically keep trying until a connection is made. Furthermore, even with a bad phone line, the Courier will give you the highest transmission rates of any modem on the market. So when you come into the office in the morning, you know you will find that your modem has done its job and has done it well.
If you do have to call technical support to check your modem, diagnosing and configuring the modem is a much easier task because of the Courier’s remote configuration capability. The technician can do the necessary management over the data line, leaving you to concentrate on your job. When it’s time to upgrade or reconfigure your modem, you don’t have to throw out the old modem or get a technician to travel out to your branch. With the Courier modem, you have a robust, reliable piece of business hardware.
Comparing the two situations, let’s look at all the ways the Courier worked to give you a business advantage:
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Made and maintained the connection automatically – there is no need to call technical support or the phone company.
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Remotely configurable – technical support can diagnose and fix your configuration problems without an on-site visit.
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Best transmission speed – there is no need to wait for slow downloads.
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Flash ROM upgradeable – instead of getting rid of the old modem with every technology advance and buying a new one, the Courier can be upgraded using software available from USR.
By investing in the Courier, you have increased your confidence, eliminated a great deal of non-productive time, and made your business operate more efficiently. This is just one example of how the Courier can add increased value to your business.