CallFire

Inc. Magazine Unveils 29th Annual List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies—the Inc. 500, 2010.

Inc. magazine yesterday ranked CallFire NO. 285 on its 29th annual Inc. 500, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy—America’s independent-minded entrepreneurs. Companies such as Microsoft, Zappos, Intuit, GoDaddy, Zipcar, Clif Bar, American Apparel, Oracle, and many other well-known names gained early exposure as members of the Inc. 500.

CallFire came in as the #2 cloud computing service and #18 overall company in the Los Angeles region. Within the telecommunications industry, CallFire ranked #15 among companies like ClearAccess and Xirrus. Dinesh Ravishanker, CEO of CallFire, attributes the strong growth to “economic circumstances requiring SMBs to leverage cost & time saving technologies like CallFire.” He adds that “CallFire also released our Phone Tree product (a powerful inbound and oubound IVR utility) which has been adopted by thousands of businesses which drove 20-30% of our revenue growth in less than a year.”

The 2010 Inc. 500, unveiled in the September issue of Inc. magazine, is a group of companies that are smaller but much faster-growing than last year’s crop. Aggregate revenue is $11.3 billion—down from last year’s $18.4 billion—but median three-year growth is 1,231 percent, substantially up from last year’s 880.5 percent. The companies on this year’s list employ more than 45,000 people.

The Hottest Regions for Fast-Growing Companies

California continues to rule the roost by number of companies on the Inc. 500, with 92, up from 84 last year and 78 in 2008. The Golden State is followed by Texas (52), Virginia (46), New York (36), and Florida (29). These five states place in the same order as last year, and each of them has more companies on the 500 than last year. They now account for more than half of the companies on the list.

Ranking Methodology

The 2010 Inc. 500 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2006 to 2009. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by June 30, 2006. Additionally, they had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2009. The minimum revenue required for 2006 is $80,000; the minimum for 2009 is $2 million.

Meet our executives at the Inc. 500 Award Ceremony and Conference

TJ Thinakaran, COO of CallFire, will be joined by Ravishanker when they visit Washington, DC. September 30th – October 2 for the Inc. 500 Award Ceremony and Conference. The event will bring together current Inc. 500|5000 honorees and alumni to recognize the achievements of fellow entrepreneurs and their contributions to the global economy.

This post was written by Matthew Lasar and originally featured on ArsTechnica.

Not long ago I was out of town, sitting in an unfamiliar neighborhood cafe and talking with a buddy on my mobile phone. Quick as a text message, the proprietor rushed in and pointed to a sign over the door forbidding such activities in her establishment. I obediently nodded, said my goodbyes, and shut the device down.

I then spent the next fifteen minutes listening to a couple at the adjacent table have a loud argument, about which the owner said nothing. Still, I try to be accommodating in these situations. It makes no sense to argue with folks about this stuff. Once people get it in their heads that checking tomorrow’s weather on your iPhone or Android device at the table is rude, it just is—until the day that it isn’t any more. But since everybody’s debating the appropriateness of cell phones and laptops in restaurants and cafes, it’s worth remembering that our attitudes towards communications gadgets change constantly. One way to get a sense of that is to read Claude S. Fischer’s wonderful tome, America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940.

The Telephone Pledge

From the late-19th through the early 20th-century, the telephone was the communications tool of the well-off and the middle class, Fischer notes. “Besides those with business reasons, it was the social elite who subscribed in 1900,” his survey of three northern California towns concluded. Doctors, lawyers, local storekeepers—these represented the Bell System’s core market. They were often the only people who could afford to lease the service. When blue collar households had to decide between a phone or a Model-T Ford, they often chose the latter. Although innovations like party lines and rural co-ops gradually expanded telephony to rural and urban working class consumers, by the early 1930s much of this progress was undone by the Depression. Between 1930 and 1933, over 2.5 million Americans dropped telephone service. The nationwide subscription rate fell by ten percent, to less than a third of the total  household market. Within this context, AT&T publicists took pains to portray the telephone as a respectable, middle class gadget, to be used politely and responsibly. Bell Telephone franchise ads constantly railed against rude or argumentative behavior over the receiver, as in a 1910 notice with the headline “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the Telephone.” “The marvelous growth of the Bell System has made use of the telephone universal and misuse a matter of public concern,” the ad warned. Some local phone companies even pushed for, and won, city laws making profanity in phone conversation a finable or jailable offense.

AT&T went so far as to send out a card titled “The Telephone Pledge.” “I believe in the Golden Rule and will try to be as Courteous and Considerate over the Telephone as if Face to Face,” it required consumers to declare.

Continue to read the full post from ArsTechnica here.

Want DIDs in the Las Vegas area? CallFire’s pleased to announce new DIDs available in the Las Vegas, NV area. In addition to party-town Nevada, we have additional numbers available in the Northern California and Utah areas. Just login into your CallFire account, from the campaigns menu choose “create Inbound campaign” and follow the prompts to see the list of available DIDs.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 6, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — 8×8, Inc. (Nasdaq:EGHT), provider of Internet Protocol (IP) communications solutions for business and residential users, today announced it is providing voice trunking services to cloud telephony solution provider CallFire. CallFire began offering its hosted power-dialing services to small business, call center and enterprise customers over 8×8’s established VoIP network last week.

The agreement between the two companies links 8×8’s enterprise-class SIP trunking service together with CallFire’s cloud telephony platform, currently in use by over 14,000 businesses.

“CallFire and 8×8 are collaborating in order to stay at the forefront of innovation in cloud telephony services,” said CallFire CEO & Co-founder Dinesh Ravishanker. “8×8 has become a critical component of our relentless commitment to increasing voice quality for our customers. We are pleased to say that 8×8’s service quality has been exceptional. Our solutions are not only complementary, but together create a best-of-class service for SMBs and the enterprise.”

Initially a customer of CallFire, 8×8 noted that CallFire’s voice quality could benefit from 8×8’s superior VoIP network. By powering a substantial portion of CallFire’s underlying VoIP network, 8×8 was able to combine its enterprise quality VoIP with CallFire’s innovative Hosted Power Dialing platform, and now uses CallFire’s broadcast services exclusively in its call centers.

“We experienced the features and benefits of the CallFire solution firsthand in our own outbound call center and can attest to the simplicity, affordability and effectiveness of this valuable sales, marketing and customer service tool,” said 8×8 Chairman & CEO Bryan Martin. “8×8 is very pleased to bring a better business voice network to CallFire to provide reliable, high quality digital voice service for CallFire’s cloud telephony solutions. In addition to being a valuable partner, CallFire is also now a valuable customer.”

About 8×8, Inc.

8×8, Inc. (Nasdaq:EGHT) offers voice, video and mobile communications solutions for business and residential customers. These solutions leverage existing broadband Internet connections and cellular networks to deliver advanced features and digital quality phone service at a fraction of the cost of legacy, copper wire alternatives. Businesses of any size, configuration or geographic location can benefit from the cost, performance and operational advantages of VoIP technology. All 8×8 communications solutions carry little or no upfront investment, no maintenance or upgrade fees and no change in user behavior. For additional information, visit www.8×8.com.

About CallFire:

CallFire is an industry leader in cloud telephony services that makes using VoIP simple. CallFire specializes in providing high-availability systems, beautiful user interfaces, furious developer support, and unparalleled customer care. Our products include hosted power dialing for agents, voice broadcast, toll free numbers, call tracking analytics and voice APIs. Our tools help developers, carriers & publishers build useful telephony applications. CallFire is located in Downtown Los Angeles and is comprised of a friendly group of intellectuals with aspirations to revolutionize how companies do business.

CONTACT: 8x8, Inc.
         Joan Citelli
         (408) 687-4320
         jcitelli@8x8.com

         CallFire.com
         Rebecca Siegel
         (213) 221-2218
         becky@callfire.com

[originally published by globenewswire.com]

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What’s all the Homesourcing buzz about?  Isn’t that what CallFire has been doing for years?

Homesourcing is a hot buzzword that is strongly associated with the growing Virtual Call Center market.  In short, homesourcers will hire, or move existing agents, to their homes.  This allows agents to work from the comfort of home while allowing administrators the ability to monitor and control an agent’s call volume.

We hope CallFire had something to do with this growing trend.   And most importantly, CallFire is a green solution for call centers with too many commuters.

CallFire’s Homesourcing features
* Support 1 to 500 agents, with NO hardware or software.
* Set up your Virtual Call Center and begin dialing in minutes!
* Prices start at only 3.5 cents per minute, per line.
* Use your agent’s home internet connection, PC & telephone.!
* Easy to use interfaces make tracking statistics quick and simple.
* Monitor agent productivity and listen to calls remotely.

Free “DIY Homesourcing Webinar” signup: https://www.callfire.com/dialer/usersignup.do
Learn More: http://www.callfire.com/dialer/cm/info/products_and_services.html
To speak with a CallFire representative, please call 877.897.FIRE

Let me highlight a hidden feature of CallFire: Sound Files Conversion!

CallFire supports many sound files. You can upload MP3 and varying formats of WAV. The preferred format is still WAV at 16bit 8khz mono. But if you send us an MP3 or a different format of WAV, we’ll convert it automatically.

When you are at the sound page, simply upload your file and we’ll process it for you. We hope this is another valuable feature that makes your campaign faster!

In order to use CallFire legally, some customers (specifically, opt-in telemarketers) may need to obtain a SAN (Subscription Account Number) from the Federal Trade Commission. Here’s how.

TO REGISTER FOR A SUBSCRIPTION ACCOUNT NUMBER (SAN):

1. Click here:  https://telemarketing.donotcall.gov/profile/create.aspx
2. Complete all information with RED asterisks *.
3. Click – Organization Function- must check TM/SP (TM/telemarketer) with Independent Access
4. Click on “Submit” box at bottom of page.
5. Click on “Create Profile” box at bottom of page.
6. Click on “Certify” box at bottom of page.
7. PRINT THIS PAGE OF I.D.’s AND PASSWORDS FOR YOUR RECORDS.
8. Click on “Subscribe and Pay” box (you only need to pay if you select more than 5 area codes to prospect in)
9. Enter your 5 free selected area codes in which you will be prospecting
10. PRINT THIS PAGE OF SAN AND AREA CODES!

For help selecting appropriate area codes to dial, please refer to: http://www.nanpa.com.
Happy dialing!  ~DR

Most CallFire.com users are not required to access the National Do Not Call Registry, and thus may access CallFire.com as an Exempt Organization, if one or more of the following is true:

1. Your organization is not subject to either the FTC’s or the FCC’s jurisdiction. For example, a non-profit charitable organization may be an Exempt Organization, assuming, of course, that it is truly a non-profit. Entities that have been granted tax exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code are not necessarily Exempt Organizations for purposes of the National Do Not Call Registry. See, e.g., FTC v. National Consumer Council, Inc., and FTC v. Debt Management Foundation Services, Inc. There, the FTC successfully challenged the status of a purported nonprofit organization whose role in fact was simply to generate leads for other firms which then charged consumers thousands of dollars in fees for their services.
2. Your organization does not engage in any “telemarketing” or “telephone solicitation” activities, as defined by the FTC and FCC, respectively. For example, survey calls and political polling calls are not covered by the definition of “telemarketing” or “telephone solicitations.” An organization that places ONLY these types of calls may be an Exempt Organization.
3. Your organization qualifies for one or more of the specific exemptions contained in the FTC’s and FCC’s rules, such as:
   a. you only call to solicit charitable contributions; or
   b. you only call consumers with whom you have an established business relationship; or
   c. you only call consumers from whom you have received written permission to call; or
   d. you only make business-to-business calls.

If you are a for-profit telemarketer, you are NOT an Exempt Organization.

Whether your organization is exempt is a decision that requires an understanding of the FTC’s and FCC’s requirements, as well as your specific business practices. Therefore, whether you should subscribe as an Exempt Organization is a decision you must make. In making this decision, you may wish to consult with an attorney.

You may wish to consider the following materials when deciding whether to subscribe to the National Do Not Call Registry as an Exempt Organization:

• The FTC Act at 15 U.S.C. §§ 41-58 and related case law.
• The Communications Act at 47 U.S.C. §§ 151-757 and related case law.
• The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) at 47 USC §227 and related case law.
• The Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud Abuse Prevention Act at 15 U.S.C. §§ 6101-6108.
• The Do Not Call Implementation Act at P.L.108-10, 117 Stat. 557, and related case law.
• The Telemarketing Sales Rule at 16 C.F.R. § 310 and related Agency statements and case law.
• The FCC’s rules implementing the TCPA at 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200 and related Agency statements.

Press-1 campaigns have been around for a while. Why would our Press-1 campaigns be any different? Because we add a Voice 2.0 twist, of course.

Earlier this year, CallFire released its Voice Broadcast user interface for small to medium enterprises. CallFire is the fastest, easiest way to price-effectively create Press 1 outbound campaigns. CallFire empowers small businesses (previously unable to deploy telephony applications due to expense constraints) to now easily connect warm leads to a sales force, LIVE.

Use CallFire.com today to easily create Press 1 campaigns using our Press 1 API, please visit: http://www.callfire.com/dialer/cm/info/voice_broadcast_api.html. To try out a Press-1 campaign for your business, sign up here.

Cheers, DR