First posted The Street.
1. Junction Networks in Newton, Pa.
Rising gas prices has caused more than a few employees to work from home at least part of the week to cut down on commuting expenses. That's where Junction Networks comes in.
The Newton, Pa.-based company provides Voice over Internet Protocol platforms to small and medium-sized businesses. One of the more well-known names in the VoIP space is Vonage (VG - Get Report), which provides telephony services primarily to residential customers, but also to small businesses.
"We're looking to have 100% growth in just the next seven months, and everything that we've seen says that that is attainable," says Mike Oeth, CEO of Junction Networks. "The economy could be better, but I think that's actually driving [small businesses] to at least consider VoIP."
Junction Networks' primary product is onSIP, a subscription-based service that can host a small business' entire communications platform. Employees can make outbound calls through their desk phone, home phone or mobile phone and the outgoing number will be the same business number. Incoming calls get routed to one number, but to a phone the owner selects.
The system "brings all these sophisticated phone features and makes them available to small and medium-sized businesses, allows them to look larger and be just as effective if they're in one office or spread out all over the place," Oeth says.
Implementing a VoIP communications system allows small businesses to be more flexible in who they hire, Oeth says.
"We've just seen a big increase in people looking to work from home," Oeth says. "Gas prices are definitely a part of it, prices in childcare and day care, after-school care -- those prices have gone up."
The company's revenue has doubled on both a year-to-date and month-over-month basis compared with last year, he notes. "We're shooting to double the number of active phones by the end of this year" to 20,000 from about 11,000 currently," Oeth says.
"The only thing the small business needs is a phone and an Internet connection. It can sit on a desk, be an app on an iPhone or some software on their laptop," Oeth says. "There is no maintenance. There is no extra IT required. It also allows them to work from home just as easily and just as efficiently as if they were in the office."