Cloudya is a telephone system that is reliable, independent, and easy to use. Learn more about what Claudya is by watching the following video. https://bit.ly/Cloudyavid

There are over 150 functions with Cloudya. These include:

Cloud telephone system - Source based call forwarding - Virtual fax machine - National and international numbers

Call management - Call queueing - Call routing - Voicemail - IVR - CLIP - CLIR

Device integration - Zero touch provisioning- Phone menus

Modern app suite - One-number concept - Native smartphone integration - Moderated audio conferences

Telecommunication applications - CTI

Additional software - Operator panel 

With Cloudya you can also choose to communicate through any device. Whether it be your mobile phone, desk phone, PC, or laptop... the choice is up to you. 

You can use Cloudya in many different ways. These include:

Conferences

• Manage your conferences 
• Use authentication (hosts and attendees)
• Invite, mute, and remove participants 

Incoming calls

• Answer and decline calls
• Deflect calls to voicemail
• Forward calls

Outgoing calls 

• Make calls
• Transfer calls
• Three-way calls

Call history 

• Add numbers to phone book
• Add numbers to function keys
• See received, missed, incoming, and outgoing calls

Voicemail

• Listen to voicemails in app
• Forward voicemails to email
• Store up to 100 voicemails

Advantages of using a cloud telephone system

Cloudya uses the internet to make and recieve calls meaning you can use its features wherever you have access to the internet. The system used is flexible, scalable and simple to use. Cloudya does not require long-term contracts and has a low set up cost.

The technology behind Cloudya

The technologys is Hosted PBX or IP Centrex. It is operating in highly secure external data centres, rather than being installed locally, reached by Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)  via the Internet.This makes relocations and expansions simple as you are saved the cost and space of an on-site telephone system and harware can be used with other VoIP systems.

Contact us on 08442492864 or  for any enquiries.

The Creative Telecoms Team

London will gain 10 million more landline phone numbers later this year, as Ofcom introduces a new ‘(020) 4’ range to keep the capital connected.

As more new homes and offices are built in London, there is a growing demand for new phone numbers. The capital, which has the 020 dialing code, currently has 30 million phone numbers allocated across the existing (020) 3, 7 and 8 ranges.

Ofcom allocates numbers for phone companies to provide services to their customers. But fewer than a million of these are left to be handed out, and these will be used up within a year as we distribute 30,000 London numbers each week.

People in the UK still spend 44 billion minutes making landline calls every year. And while usage is declining, most home broadband connections rely on a landline which needs a number. So, Ofcom is introducing a new number range for London to meet demand.

Liz Greenberg - The Head of Numbering at Ofcom said - 

"We’re seeing a growing need for 020 numbers, as London expands and new homes and offices are built. These 10 million new numbers will allow us to meet demand and help keep the capital connected."

History of London numbers

London's area code has changed several times over the years.

In 1958 the city was allocated the single code 01, which remained until 1990 when it was replaced by two codes - 071 for inner London numbers, and 081 for outer London. Five years later, all UK area codes gained a  '1' after the '0' to make it clear it was a landline number, and the capital's codes changed to 0171 and 0181.

In 2000, the UK's phone numbers were reorganized through the 'Big Number Change'. London was given a single area code once again - 020 - and the inner and outer London divider was removed.

But five years later, Ofcom research uncovered a widespread misconception among Londoners that the city still had two area codes - 0207 and 0208. Only 13% of people, without prompting, correctly identified 020 as being London's single area code.

The Creative Telecoms Team

Ofcom has decided to cap the wholesale cost of connecting 070 calls, to help protect callers from fraud and unexpected call costs.

070 numbers are designed to be used as a ‘follow me’ service, where calls are diverted from one number to another, so the person being called can keep their own number private. For example, classified adverts often use these numbers instead of someone’s private number. Small businesses and sole traders also use them to make it easy to manage calls.

But 070 numbers are often mistaken for mobile numbers (which always begin with ‘07’), even though they are more expensive to call. Phone providers currently charge between 45p and £1.10 per minute for calls to 070 numbers. This can result in ‘bill shock’ for consumers, who may be unaware of the cost of the call. There were 2.6 million calls to 070 numbers last year.

We’re concerned that these numbers have sometimes been used to defraud people. We have uncovered evidence of scams, such as missed calls and fake job adverts, that take advantage of consumers’ lack of awareness of these high prices. An estimated minimum of 20% of 070 calls involve some form of fraudulent activity.

So, we are imposing new rules to cap the wholesale cost of calling 070 numbers. This is the price that any company controlling an 070 number can charge the caller’s phone company for connecting the call. At the moment, this can be as much as 39p per minute.

The new 070 wholesale price cap will match the cap for calls to mobile numbers – currently around 0.5 pence per minute. This will remove the incentive for scams by significantly cutting the money that can be made from using these numbers.

This should also clear the way for phone companies to include 070 numbers in free minute allowances, as they currently do for calls to mobiles.

Jonathan Oxley, Ofcom’s Competition Group Director, said: “Millions of calls are made to 070 numbers, but many people aren’t aware of the high costs of calling them. This can lead to people receiving much higher bills than expected.

“So, we’re slashing the wholesale cost of connecting 070 numbers. There’s no reason why phone companies shouldn’t pass this saving on to their customers as soon as possible.”

Before the new price cap is introduced, providers who offer 070 number services may need to change the way they run their businesses, to comply with the new rules. This may include changing their billing systems and contacting their customers, or even moving to a different number range. So, there will be a 12-month period to allow them to make these changes before the new price cap comes into effect.

If any companies do move to other number ranges, it will be to ranges that our research suggests are more familiar to consumers, and people would have a better idea of the likely cost of calling them.

The Creative Telecoms Team

Creative Telecoms' Cellular Ethernet is quick and easy to deploy and a secure alternative to wired connectivity, with coverage across the whole of the UK. Prices starting at £80 per month for 15Gb usage and speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps download and 5.76 Mbps upload, Creative Telecoms can provide your business with fast and reliable network in no time at all. 

Cellular Ethernet is not just a mobile internet solution. All traffic is delivered privately back to Creative Telecoms network, via discrete interconnects, this mean the traffic does not traverse the public Internet, and removes the need for VPN’s, providing a highly secure solution for businesses across a range of industries.

Ideal for both remote or temporary sites, areas requiring rapid deployment, as well as a failover service, it can support single or multiple services, such as Internet Access, SIP or MPLS. Available as a layer 2 or layer 3 service making it extremely flexible when it comes to deployment models.

Cellular Ethernet uses a network independent coverage solution to deliver connectivity via 3 of the UK’s largest mobile networks. This ensures the best possible coverage without the need to redeploy or reconfigure the router.

The service is continuously checking these networks, and when it sees a significant drop in signal and performance from the primary network, it will connect to the next strongest connection. This reduces both the sales and support overheads, if there is a mobile signal at a location, Cellular Ethernet will deliver connectivity. Depending on the deployment model, the service is based on either fixed or usage based commercial model.

Fast Data Delivery   

• Short term solution for a rapid deployment need or temporary connectivity solution
• Cover unexpected delays where a fixed delivery date changes

Back Up Service

• Diverse technology for business continuity
• Insurance policy for the primary Ethernet connectivity

Ethernet ‘Not Spots’

• Installation of a 4G service where there is no cost effective fibre coverage

Cellular Ethernet is available in four variants:

Cellular Ethernet - To be used as a locations primary connectivity, it is available on a 12 or 36-month contract with various data usage packages.

Pre-Ethernet - This product is designed to bridge the gap before a Fibre based connectivity solution is installed. Delivered as a rolling monthly contract, it is also available with various data usage packages 15, 30, 50, 100 or 125Gb.

Failover - Cellular Ethernet can be used as a backup solution to Wired connectivity. As the service is deployed as a failover solution, used only on rare occasions, it is delivered as a fixed monthly rental, with a fair usage policy rather than usage based

Adv Cellular Ethernet - This product is a mixture of Pre-Ethernet and Failover, the CPE will be configured as a primary circuit allowing you a rapid deployment solution. The service is then modified to a failover service once the primary connectivity has been successfully installed.

What are the benefits of Cellular Ethernet?

• Deploy a connectivity solution nationwide in as little as 5 working days
• Fixed IP Addressing enables the configuration of seamless failover from fibre
• Multiple services make this solution ideal for an MPLS failover
• Vertical applications across Retail, Construction & Logistics
• Network independent coverage insulating from mobile network outages
• Deliver single or multiple services over the connection such as Internet and MPLS

Enquire now by emailing  or call us on 0844 249 2864

The Creative Telecoms Team

When it comes to gender equality in the tech industry, the            numbers undoubtedly won’t surprise you. Only 17% of venture-      backed companies are founded by women, and women make up just 7% of partners at 100 of the top venture capitalist firms. While 60% of women feel they aren’t taken seriously in tech. Although many attempts are being made to encourage women into tech, we are still far from gender parity in the industry.

Do women in technology get the respect they deserve?

Regardless of numerous companies determined to improve diversity, inclusion and equality measures in the workplace, the software company ‘Ivanti’ believes the answer is still “No.”

A company known for uniting IT and security within the digital workforce, Ivanti conducted a survey called the “Ivanti Women in Tech Survey 2018“. This survey looked at over 500 women currently working in the technology sector from around the globe, with insights from Ireland, the UK, and the US. During this study, Ivanti asked women about their experiences with gender disparity in the workforce, and the results weren’t good.

Even in todays society, women in tech space will struggle with problems such as having their suggestions dismissed. Women are forced to constantly battle for a chance to prove themselves alongside their male counterparts.

However, the good news is that there are opportunities for the women who do make their way into the tech environment. Sally Bogg, who is the Head of User Services for Leeds Beckett University, spoke at a customer event for Ivanti, talking about how varied and exciting a career in technology can be.

Ivanti’s Women in Tech Survey is part of a growing initiative by the company which launched in Summer 2017. The campaign is intended to support women within the tech industry who want to share their ideas with like-minded peers and support the growth of equality in the sector. Ivanti also supports STEM solutions, and regularly publishes online resources for women in tech.

The Creative Telecoms Team

1. Too much information

As the starting point for your customers, your IVR should provide your caller with the information or solution they require, quickly. The human memory can often run out of the capacity to listen after more than 5 options (Customer Think) which is why providing unnecessary ones will only confuse the caller and leave them frustrated.

Your customers are looking for an immediate response and will likely abandon their call if they don’t get one. Is your IVR customer-centric and user-friendly?

2. Limited hours

IVRs are designed to assist operational efficiency and service. The everyday consumer now expects to access information via the internet 24/7 and they are gradually expecting the same of businesses too (Customer Think). Not providing an out-of-hours service misses this opportunity. Fill the void that is missing outside of the typical 9-5 by providing a basic self-serve option for more routine queries with the option for a call back.

3. No self-service option

In the case of payments, collections or balance enquiries the absence of personalised systems can often lead to frustrations in the way a customer’s call is handled. Is it time to upgrade your existing IVR system? Can your current system pull through personalised information to enable them to be redirected to a more applicable set of options?

Automating and implementing a self-service Interactive Voice solution should enable the customer to get the information and response they require in an effortless manner without the need for agent contact.  

4. Avoiding dynamic menus

Ensure that your menus are designed with the customer’s time in mind. Providing every caller with identical menu sets that ignores the previous engagements of the customer is frustrating. Improve your caller experiences by delivering more personal options based on previous interactions, routing the call appropriately.

5. No call-back option

The most important aspect of an IVR is to never waste a customer’s time. While an IVR cannot resolve every customer query it can offer a solution to get them solved quicker. This is when placing them in a virtual queue is not the solution. Always provide the option to request a call-back or speak with an agent. Where this is not an option for your business, consider our Voice Call-back solution.

For further information call us on – 0844 249 2864 or email us at   ; We look forward to hearing from you!

The Creative Telecoms Team

Telecoms offering for the month – January 2019

 Happy New Year from Creative Telecoms!

 Quote this offer between now and your next bill and enjoy a 10% discount off your first month’s bill when you take any of the services below! 

With the start of the new year you may be considering starting afresh in a new workspace and here is how Creative Telecoms can get you up to speed with the most modern business telecoms available on the market;

•  Entice prospective customers with a freephone number.  All our numbers come with full statistical reel-time reporting, so you can track your call flow or if you have multiple numbers for advertising purposes you can see where you’re receiving the most traffic and therefore benefit from more targeted marketing. 

• Manage call flow with an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) service. In addition to giving your business a national image, our nongeographic numbers come with the bonus of being able to have an IVR service built onto the back of them. Allowing for calls to be routed to the right departments or to your call handlers. IVR isn’t just limited to call routing we can also build to accommodate the functionality of handling payments, preforming surveys, the list is endless! 

• Stay ahead of the game with the fastest broadband available. As businesses develop it becomes more and more imperative that there is fast and reliable broadband. We can deliver anything from low usage ADSL to lightning fast Fibre Optic broadband with the flexibility to adapt alongside your business, a short installation time, and to top it all off at a low cost! 

• Make use of Europe’s most advanced phone system.  With a new broadband connection, why not make use of a VoIP phone system? Having the ability to have a single DDI connected with multiple devices is perfect for the modern workforce so that a call is never missed!

This has all the functionality of a conventional wall mounted phone switch but none of the ongoing maintenance costs and inevitable redundancy that follows. If you sign up to a 3 year deal, you will receive top of the range Panasonic handsets at no extra cost! 

If any of this is of interest to you then contact us on the details below for a free consultation and we can start planning to bring your telecoms into 2018 together! 

For further information contact us on – 0844 249 2864 or email Steve Forkin at  ; We look forward to hearing from you! 

The Creative Telecoms Team

PCI-DSS COMPLIANT OMNI-CHANNEL PAYMENT SERVICES

Exceed your customer expectations with the next generation of PCI payment/IVR services

All Creative Telecoms services work seamlessly together, providing a unique omni-channel one stop shop for payment solutions – from agent assisted payments (AAP), online payment portals (OPP), telephone payment lines, outbound SMS, click-to-pay web links and much more.

Delivered by our PCI-DSS compliant platform that is recommended by international payment gateways and PCI QSAs alike, all payment methods can be securely tokenised so no matter which way your customers choose to pay, you can offer a user-friendly, first class experience.

This leads to fewer abandoned transactions, less time chasing payments and no costly, time consuming integration/API of multiple systems from different providers. 

Reporting on multiple payment services via a single platform is simple, Creative Telecoms provide a dedicated real-time dashboard with options to integrate with your existing systems for greater automation.  Work with Creative Telecoms as a single, trusted provider to help you achieve your business goals.

One sample of the various ways Omni-Channel Payment Services works:

Your customer makes a payment through your branded online payment portal and ticks the option to save their card for future use. When making their next payment they choose to pay by phone via an automated telephone IVR. Once the platform confirms their identity, the customer can easily & quickly use the saved details from the previous online payment.

AGENT ASSISTED PAYMENTS

Creative Telecoms secure, DTMF suppressed card payments solution that keeps Contact Centre agents/sales staff connected to their customers

Help de-scope your entire office and network environments by ensuring the card data never reaches your systems. The Creative Telecoms platform secures both your inbound and outbound call traffic so you can focus on what matters in your business.

• Creative Telecoms provides a seamless customer experience – The agent stays on the phone during the entire payment process.
• All credit cards can be securely tokenised for faster payments
• DTMFs masked so the entire call can be recorded (FCA compatible)
• Helpful dashboard prompts for the agent
• Continuous Payment Authority (CPA) available for recurring& flexible payment plans
• Range of integration options available, from completely standalone to full API & SOAP
• Compatible with all telephony systems
• Web browser-based solution with no on-site installation

PAYMENT IVR

Fully-automated payment collection system, available 24/7 Branded to suit your operations, the IVR payment is fully automated and ready to take payments 24/7 365 days a year.  Utilising Creative telecoms secure, robust, PCI-DSS Level 1 certified payment platform which operates in secure data centres. 

• 94% cheaper than collecting a payment with an agent
• No text to speech recordings – Personalised prompts recorded from a professional voice artist
• Customised IVR options & flow to match your customer journey Built-in fraud detector - An automatic link can be sent to high risk customers as a second layer of protection Payment receipt sent to customer via SMS and email Real time transaction updates with a self-service dashboard or
• integrated with your existing systems Use an existing payment telephone number, or we can provide
• a new one

WEB PAYMENTS

Fully branded PCI-DSS Level 1 secure online payment portal E-commerce transactions grow year on year but securing your website to take payments is often prohibitively expensive.  Key IVR can provide the solution, from inventive payment pages through to full applications.  You can significantly reduce your requirements under PCI compliance as all credit and debit card processing is performed by our PCI-DSS Level 1 certified payment platform Accessible 24/7/365 on any smartphones, tablets, laptops or desktop PCs Consistent design with your website brand for seamless customer experience Secured in our PCI compliant environment, removing the risk from your organisation Uses 3D Secure to reduce fraudulent transactions and the risk of chargebacks

A range of integration options to work with your existing systems

MOBILE PAYMENT APP

Top-up gas & electric smart meters on the move – fully branded & integrated to suit your customers

Improve customer conversion and convenience with a fully branded PCI compliant mobile app for easy smart meter top-ups, available on Apple iPhones and Android smartphones.  Fully branded to match the look of your organisation Secured in our PCI-DSS Level 1 certified environment Save and tokenise cards for convenient future payments Display top-up history across multiple smart meters

Integration options to suit a wide range of CRM and invoicing systems Easy to pay via credit or debit card through the app Regularly maintained by our talented in-house team Available on Android and iOS

OUTBOUND VOICE, SMS & EMAIL

Save time and money with automated voice, SMS & email messaging campaigns Our Outbound solution is an effective, cost efficient way of reaching a large audience of customers or prospects, quicker than agents calling each contact. The platform can deliver thousands of messages every hour, saving valuable time, increasing customer engagement and payment conversion. Messages sent across SMS, email or voice Manage your campaigns with a user-intuitive self-service portal Reach a larger audience and save call agent time compared to traditional outbound methods

Schedule outbound campaign activity to match agent availability to answer inbound responses Automatically schedule resends of voice messages at different times based on no-answer, engaged or voicemail detection Automatically leave voicemails with the recipient on your behalf Bulk upload data by Excel CSV or an API integration

CLICK-TO-PAY

Increase your payment conversion over SMS, email and web-chat Produce a personalised SMS or email with a unique URL link for each recipient. This launches a 3D Secure payment web page with customer information pre-filled as required, allowing them to confirm payment details and complete the transaction.  Personalised message with a URL link to a fully-branded pre-filled payment portal

Substantially reduces the steps needed to make payment Combine with our Outbound Voice & SMS service for mass send with maximum outreach Works on all web browsing devices - smartphones,

tablets, laptops or desktop PCs  Bulk upload data by CSV Excel or API integration Ideal for debt collection & payment at-the-door scenarios

ABOUT US

Creative Telecoms Ltd is a privately-owned business offering automated payment services in the UK and internationally across Europe and the United States in association with our partners.

We are a customer-service focused organisation, taking care to manage and meet our client’s expectations. Hosted in industry leading data centres and processing over £1bn per annum, the state-of-the-art payment suite is robust, reliable and secure – certified PCI-DSS v3.2 Level 1

Compliant by our QSA Nettitude.  Available in 14 languages across 11 currencies, our solutions are recommended by the Chartered Institute of Credit Management, worldwide payment gateways and PCI-DSS QSAs.  The services are also registered with Visa Europe as a QSA assessed service and adhere to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

WHAT IS PCI-DSS?

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) is a set of security standards designed to ensure that all companies that accept, process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI-SSC) was formed by Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB and Discover to manage the ongoing evolution of the

Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards.  To be compliant today your payment service provider needs to adhere to version 3.2 of the PCI standard, which was introduced in April 2016.

Creative Telecoms payments services are PCI-DSS v3.2 Level 1 compliant, the highest level of certification for PCI payments.

Dear Partner & Perspective Clients

As we are sure you are aware, the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”) will become effective on the 25th May 2018.

One of the requirements of the GDPR is that contracts between suppliers and customers under which the supplier processes personal data on behalf of the customer contains certain rights and obligations of the parties in relation to such processing, as well as a description of the processing conducted by the supplier.

To comply with such requirement, Creative Telecoms is hereby modifying the contract with you by replacing any prior standard provisions related to data protection on your agreement with Creative Telecoms with the attached GDPR compliant data protection clause.  If your agreement with Creative Telecoms does not contain any relevant data protection clause, then the attached clause will be deemed a new clause under such agreement. Note that, unless we hear from you otherwise within the next 5 working days, this modification/addition shall be deemed accepted, and will be effective as of the 25th May 2018.

If Creative Telecoms has recently agreed a separate GDPR compliant data protection addendum or contract modification with you, then this email and its contents are not applicable to you.

Data Protection Clause

[X] DATA PROTECTION

• For the purposes of this clause:

© Creative Telecoms 2018. All rights reserved. 

PCI-DSS Secure Payment Systems - Automated or With Live Agent

Solutions you can count on

We offer the complete solution for online and over the phone trading. We help enable you to obtain a merchant ID and provide you with our fully PCI Compliant payment gateway.

Becoming PCI DSS compliant is necessary for any business, and rightly so; however implementation is an expensive time consuming, and ever evolving process that often involves invasive processes, interrogative procedures, system upgrades and tedious checkups. For most businesses, PCI DSS Compliance problems range from operational difficulties of clean room environments, to the technical difficulties of data encryption, deletion and storage management.

How can Creative Telecoms help my company become PCI DSS compliant?

At Creative Telecoms we understand that becoming PCI DSS Compliant can be a headache, and often feels like just another hassle you don’t have time for. With Creative Telecoms you can remove the stress caused by PCI DSS requirements by letting us take care of it for you. There are a number of benefits to being PCI DSS compliant:

Decreased risk of security breaches
PCI compliance isn’t just about satisfying a list of guidelines — it’s a very real and proven way to protect you and your customers’ data from outside attacks. In fact, a recent Verizon study found that compliant businesses are 50% more likely to successfully withstand a breach.

Peace of mind for you and your clients
With breaches much less likely to happen, you’ll have one less thing to worry about in the daily course of running your business. You’ll appreciate this peace of mind, and over time, your customers will, too (see the next benefit below).

Boost in customer confidence
Your customers may not currently understand every detail about what it means to be compliant, but their awareness about the issue is growing. Every day, more and more of your customers are growing savvy about how their data is protected when they use their credit cards. It’s only a matter of time before customers see PCI compliance as a sign that your business follows best practices. That feeling of security will directly increase buyers’ confidence, and make them more likely to choose you over a non-compliant competitor.

Avoid costly fines
PCI compliance dramatically lowers your likelihood of getting breached, but it doesn’t completely eliminate the possibility. If you are breached, fines can grow as high as £500,000 per incident. Companies who are PCI compliant significantly reduce their risk of a breach, and therefore, their likelihood of receiving a fine. If a company is breached, regardless of their state of compliance, they must immediately inform customers and their processor of the data breach in writing. The processor or bank will initiate an audit on that company to see if the merchant was in fact PCI DSS compliant at the time of the breach.

Relatively quick & easy
This is one benefit that comes from what PCI compliance doesn’t do: with the right partner, you won’t have to make any substantial changes or disruptions to your business while attaining compliance. The process may seem complicated (and in many ways, it is), but a good compliance partner will shield you from the complexities and make it seem simple.

With Creative Telecoms’s hosted PCI DSS Solutions you can carry on your business without having to take on the day to day element of becoming PCI DSS compliant.

Our solutions, such as our agent assisted automation and secure payment processing can be easily integrated into any business model, leaving you with the most secure and up to date software and systems that will quickly help your company become fully compliant and leave your customers feeling secure and confident to use your services time and time again.

PCI credit card processing solutions such as agent assisted automation allow your operator to collect credit card information without ever seeing or hearing it. Once the system has been easily integrated‚ it reduces the need for a vast number of PCI DSS requirements and expensive fraud prevention because sensitive card data is no longer processed within your network.

How does Creative Telecoms’s PCI credit card processing solution work?

1, Customer asked to enter card details
2, At the point that the customer is ready to make a transaction they will be asked by your operator to enter their card details using their telephone keypad.
3, Progress is shown
4, When your customer enters the credit card number, expiry date and security code‚ asterisks are all that appears on your operators screen to show the progress of the caller’s keypad entry.
5, DTMF is not transmitted
6, DTMF is not transmitted through to the operator at any point‚ which means that any recording systems will not be able to pick up any DTMF signals of your customer sensitive card information.
7, Creative Telecoms’s hosted network instantly encrypts received data
8, Our hosted network instantly encrypts the received data, and securely transmits the payment to your chosen payment provider. The system doesn’t retain any sensitive credit card data within the network.
9, What are the benefits of PCI Credit Card Processing?
10, Decreased risk of security breaches
11, Peace of mind for you and your customers
12, Boost in customer confidence
13, Avoid costly fines
14, Relatively quick and easy

Should you choose Not to be compliant

If I’m not compliant, what may happen to me and my business?

You may be liable for non-compliance fines if you do not work towards compliance with your acquirer and ultimately your acquirer may be forced to terminate your relationship, which will prevent you from accepting payments by card.

Your customer’s data may be at risk of compromise and subject to fraudulent use. Fraudsters target the weak links in the payment chain to steal payment data (card numbers and card security codes) and customer’s personal information (names, addresses, phone numbers, email, date of birth etc.) for the purpose of committing fraud.

If your environment is identified as a common point of purchase (CPP) for fraud.

(If you are suspected to have suffered a data compromise), you will be required to engage with a PCI Forensic Investigator (PFI) to establish the source of the breach to ensure any compliance gaps are closed. The cost of a forensic investigation can run into thousands of pounds you will be liable for these costs if evidence of a compromise is established.

There are considerable Card Scheme fines associated with non-compliance following a data compromise; these can range from ten to hundreds of thousands of pounds. Many non-compliant merchants have ceased trading because the fines could not be accommodated. The fines are passed from the Card Scheme to the acquirer and then onto the merchant. Reputational damage is also a consideration if you are compromised and lose card data. Because it may lead to loss of customer confidence which could seriously impact their willingness to continue to do business with you.
If you have any questions regarding PCI DSS, please contact your acquirer bank.

Creative Telecoms are pleased to announce that our inbound PCI-DSS product range now covers the majority of western Europe, countries including the countries listed below.

The Creative Telecoms PCI-DSS offereing in the most advanced currently on the market, it can be used with a call agent or can programed to automaticaly take payments via an IVR system all via your chosen payment gateway.

As each of the PIC-DSS systems we bring live are spicific to the individual customer we alsoways recomend that you speak to us with you exact requirement so we can build a bespoke plan for your business.

Austria - Belgium - France - Germany - Holland - Italy - Spain - Sweden - Switzerland - Ireland - Portugal

Should you require PCI-DSS for any countries which are not mentioned here please contact the office as we are currently bringing on the rest of the World. 

Please email  or call 0800 109 1002 from outside the UK + 44 (0) 207 129 8880

We look forward to hearing from you.

Telecoms offering for the month – January 2018.

 Happy New Year from Creative Telecoms!

Quote this offer between now and your next bill and enjoy a 10% discount off your first month’s bill when you take any of the services below! 

With the start of the new year you may be considering starting afresh in a new workspace and here is how Creative Telecoms can get you up to speed with the most modern business telecoms available on the market;

•  Entice prospective customers with a freephone number.  All our numbers come with full statistical reel-time reporting, so you can track your call flow or if you have multiple numbers for advertising purposes you can see where you’re receiving the most traffic and therefore benefit from more targeted marketing. 

• Manage call flow with an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) service. In addition to giving your business a national image, our nongeographic numbers come with the bonus of being able to have an IVR service built onto the back of them. Allowing for calls to be routed to the right departments or to your call handlers. IVR isn’t just limited to call routing we can also build to accommodate the functionality of handling payments, preforming surveys, the list is endless! 

• Stay ahead of the game with the fastest broadband available. As businesses develop it becomes more and more imperative that there is fast and reliable broadband. We can deliver anything from low usage ADSL to lightning fast Fibre Optic broadband with the flexibility to adapt alongside your business, a short installation time, and to top it all off at a low cost! 

• Make use of Europe’s most advanced phone system.  With a new broadband connection, why not make use of a VoIP phone system? Having the ability to have a single DDI connected with multiple devices is perfect for the modern workforce so that a call is never missed!

This has all the functionality of a conventional wall mounted phone switch but none of the ongoing maintenance costs and inevitable redundancy that follows. If you sign up to a 3 year deal, you will receive top of the range Panasonic handsets at no extra cost! 

If any of this is of interest to you then contact us on the details below for a free consultation and we can start planning to bring your telecoms into 2018 together! 

For further information contact us on – 0844 249 2864 or email Matt Whiting at  ; We look forward to hearing from you! 

The Creative Telecoms Team

You’ve got a great team in place creating great content for social media. You’ve got a healthy number of followers and the number is going up. But when it comes to engagement, it seems your message is falling on deaf ears. In this article, we look at how you use SMSmessaging to drive customers to your social media with a joined up approach.

Social media – a noisy space
On the whole, social media remains an incredibly powerful and growing force in the world of both personal and business communication. Few businesses can get away without having a presence on social media, whilst for many, it is now their number one marketing channel. Each platform such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram has its own specific format, and each of these brings with it platform-specific advantages. Facebook, for example, is more friendly where lengthier copy is required, whilst the short, sharp SMS-like approach of Twitter encourages businesses to focus on getting a succinct message across. Instagram, like Pinterest, is image based and great for marketing from a visual perspective.
One thing all social media platforms have in common is powerful customer profiling and segmentation possibilities, allowing marketing campaigns to be highly targeted. The downside, however, is that anybody who is anybody in marketing has now learnt how to take full advantage of this, meaning that users are constantly blasted with content, often to the point that they switch off. The net result – your voice becomes drowned out in a sea of noise, and engagement figures start to sink, even when the content truly is great.

So how can you engineer a turnaround on this and draw customers back into your social media, with a view to increasing conversions? SMS messaging offers a simple answer.

Why SMS messaging still matters
Since it’s inception in the 1980’s, SMS messaging has always retained a very personal touch. Perhaps it’s because as humans we identify with the possession of a mobile phone as an object, or maybe it is simply that having one’s own telephone number gives a sense of uniqueness. There is also the argument that because a mobile phone is held in the hand, we experience the bond of touch far more strongly than with other technological devices such as laptop computers.
Why does this matter? Because the result is that almost all SMS messages are read; the majority instantly. Think about the last time you received an SMS alert on your phone – you almost certainly read the message, and probably within about three minutes of being aware. If you didn’t, the chances are that this was due to more pressing matters of urgency or other external factors and not a lack of inquisitiveness on your part.

Compare this to your email inbox or social media accounts. We would hazard a guess that even if you don’t use automated filtering to decide which messages you care about seeing at a given time, you perform a raft of mental filters every time you log in – some of them subconscious: Disregard messages or posts containing ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ in the subject line, ignore content with the words ‘X’, ‘Y’ or ‘Z’ in the sender address. Filter only for notifications that appear to be related to this or that… Few people would agree that they view, read and digest every single piece of information that comes their way. Far more would confess to quite the opposite.

There are of course techniques for improving the response rate – using personalised greetings and tones, adding carefully selected images for visual impact and such like. But as we’ve already discussed, if everybody is doing this the end result is no better.

When it comes to SMS messages, the evidence suggests that we don’t employ the same type of filtering (unless it’s Mother-in-Law, perhaps). As individuals, we are far more selective about who we choose to share our mobile number with and why we do so. This means that we work under the assumption that anybody who chooses to send an SMS message is considered to be a pre-screened, existing contact. As a consequence, we are already satisfied that the information we receive by SMS is likely to be relevant and to our interest. In essence, we feel that we have performed the filtering process at the time of handing over our number.

How to tie SMS messaging and Social Media together
Let’s look at two examples of how you might tie SMS messaging and Social Media together.
Our first example is based on an event. For example, you are the organiser of a wedding show and have a reasonably large following on your various social media channels. So far, the reach on your campaign has been respectable, but you’ve had little feedback as to whether or not people are planning to attend. You’ve decided that Facebook Events is a great way to build and monitor interest.
In order to encourage more people to respond, you might run an SMS campaign that looks a little like this:
Ella, we’d love to see you at the A1Brides Wedding Fayre! Confirm your attendance on FB to enter our draw! More at facebook.com/A1Brides
The message is personal, it makes the recipient feel that they matter, and the CTA and link to social media are simple and clear.
With this approach, timing is of the essence. Ideally, at the time that any messages are sent out, the relevant content on the Facebook page should be the first thing people land on so that no searching is required.

The second example is a voucher promotion on Instagram. The idea behind the promotion is not unlike that adopted recently by big names including Jeep and EDF energy – encouraging users to submit their own selfies to boost engagement. User participation will be incentivised by a money-off offer such as discount vouchers.
For this campaign, the SMS message might read:
“Claire, there’s still time to enter the SupremeSkin Selfie competition on IG & win big! Upload your selfie now at instagram.com/SupremeSkin”

As in the previous example, the message is personal to the recipient and has a clear and provocative CTA that is linked directly to the social media campaign. The wording also creates a sense of urgency.
The beauty of both these approaches is that even if the customer has completely missed the update on social media, they now have a chance to participate. Provided that there is a genuine and relevant campaign underlying it, then it is likely that the customer will be glad to have received the message and perceive in much the same way as a gesture from a friend. This not only drives engagement but even more importantly fosters brand loyalty.
Creative Telecoms are one of UK’s leading business SMS platform, offering some of the UK’s lowest priced SMS bundles, a versatile range of sending options and a fully supported API integration. On top of this, we are famous for our exceptional 24-hour customer service. We pride ourselves in ensuring that all of our customers get to talk to a fellow human, no matter what.

If you are not sure how your business can make the most of SMS messaging, call us now on 0844 249 2864 and we’ll be happy to put you in touch with the right person.

NHS paralyzed by computer virus (Friday 12 April 2017)

Have you taken precautions for your business? Can you afford to lose all of your data?

If not PLEASE read on

Creative Telecoms latest product for clients Backup as a Service (BaaS) is a managed product that allows customers to automate the backup of the data stored on their servers onto a secure and highly resilient storage facility within the Amazon Web Services cloud infrastructure.

The service consists of two elements: a user agent that is installed on the customer's servers and a portal from which users can configure the service to suit their needs. The service performs automated differential backup and restore functions including block-level de-duplication, compression, and encryption.

For those that are weary of cloud based services, all of the infrastructure is in the UK and not stored abroad and for added security the data is also backed up and replicated in 3 other locations with within the UK – No resource will be allowed to be duplicated or moved outside of these areas.

Pricing for this service is as follows:

Monthly Per GB 29p

Set Up Per Server £57.50

For existing clients looking to use this product we will offer a 10% reduction on set up costs if you reference this message. A small price to pay for peace of mind.

If you have any questions or would like further information please get in touch by calling 0844 249 2864 or email

Back in 2014, Ofcom announced their decision to withdraw the 0500 Freephone number range from use, and the day of their demise is now nearly upon us.

0500 was one of the traditional two Freephone prefixes alongside 0800, and was created in 1982. But new 0500 numbers stopped being allocated twenty years ago in favour of a gradual focus on its better known 0800 counterpart.

Ofcom has now taken the decision to withdraw all remaining 0500 numbers given the low consumer awareness and the long-term decline of its use by service providers.

0500 numbers will stop working on June 3rd, and Creative Telecoms Business customers currently using the 0500 prefix have three options:

Switch to 08085: Ofcom has issued the Freephone number “08085” as a replacement for 0500 numbers, and is followed by the last 6 digits of the existing 0500 number. There would be no changes to the current call charge rates.
Choose an alternative: we provide both 0800 Freephone and 03 prefixes which are amongst the most popular customer contact numbers in the UK and are widely recognised.
Let it be retired: Organisations that have 0500 numbers but no longer use them can choose to do nothing and the number will be automatically be retired with the Ofcom withdrawal on the 3rd June.
We can also set up a redirection service on existing 0500 numbers, so that your customers know when the number will stop working and what the replacement number is. This service will function on the existing 0500 number, until the 3rd June 2017 switch off.

Any Partners needing to migrate their 0500 numbers should contact Creative Telecoms, to discuss taking an alternative number range such as 03, please contact your Account Manager.

Forget the hassle of setting up a new employee's workspace and the extra cables and wiring you need to connect their new extension on your telephone system. Forget how expensive it is to forward calls from an office extension to an employee's mobile phone or home office, with charges payable on every single call. Forget the expensive long-term maintenance contracts and the additional costs when you want to upgrade your telephone system with the latest features. You can also forget about all the effort it takes to move your telephone system to new offices.

Your telephone system does not need to physically be in your office. Your rolling monthly contract can be terminated with just one month's notice. And thanks to VoIP technology (Voice over IP, Internet telephony) you can also safely dispense with special telephone lines. With NFON you rent a telephone system that is tailored to your needs. You decide how many extensions you need and what features you want to use - in addition to the 150 functions that are available to you right from the very first extension.

Upgrade to a VoIP and a telephone system that makes you geographically independent, both in terms of administration and use. You can use your office number from anywhere - even on your smartphone.

See Also VoIP Systems

 So if your business is  considering  upgrading to VoIP,  everything you need  is right here from as  little as £10.99 per  seat/license, up to 4  connections (Mobile,  Laptop, Desk Top,  and Handset) so you  never miss another  call.  All the above  plus a FREE  Panasonic Desk  Handset and free  minutes to UK  Landlines & mobiles.  With more features and benefits that any other VoIP system available in the UK.