What To Look For In Business Phone Systems

The speed of business is equal only to the speed of your communications network. It is for this exact reason that most companies do not skimp on this particular infrastructure. What signals enter those wires and equipment within your enterprise contains various possibilities and opportunities for growth.

How do you exactly make use of business phone systems? What kind of details do you need to know when setting up such a network in your office? To answer these questions, you will need to perform an assessment to see the needs of your company.

• Investment Range

Of course, the first consideration would be the budget for this particular investment. The investment for communications will dictate how many phones you are going to have; whether you’ll be using the traditional telephone company or Telco; or you’ll be using your own private branch exchange and even if you’ll opt for the Voice over IP Services being peddled by various Internet Service Providers.

• Number of Personnel

The number of persons you want in the loop and easily within a few digits’€™ reach in your company is also a factor in choosing what specific package you’ll acquire. Voice over IP providers have packages for small to medium business which can connect an office composed of ten people or one that houses a hundred employees.

• Hosted PBX or In-house Private Branch Exchange

Do you need a receptionist to receive your calls but cannot hire one yourself on a full-time basis? Would you rather keep things within the company and get your own operator? If you cannot afford a receptionist, getting a Hosted PBX service can be a lot more cost-effective. Your calls will go through an outside contact center which will pass on your messages, connect callers to the right people or even troubleshoot specific issues for you. If money’s no object, then investing in your own PBX would offer you a lot more control in your interactions.

Traditional Telephone Service vs. VoIP

Now that the Internet has become ubiquitous to daily life and to business, much of its underpinning technology has passed on to various devices like television. There is even an app that tells you how many eggs there are in your refrigerator! The Internet is even upgrading telephony through VoIP. Because VoIP sidesteps through the various toll fees within and outside the country, service providers can offer cost-effective packages. The only disadvantage VoIP has against traditional phone services is that when the Internet goes down in your area, so does your ability to communicate.

Again, check how much the company is willing to spend on equipment and how many of the workers will have their own lines. You also need to pay attention to the question of using VoIP or the services of your plain old telephone service. There is also the matter of who will be fronting on your telephone lines: is it a receptionist from an outside call center or an operator or just the secretary or intern? Aside from taking these things into account, you might have to also check your expansion plans.

Certain systems might not be easily scaled up, analog based phone systems require more equipment and possibly more downtime as they need techs to come in and make changes to outside infrastructure. Another advantage VoIP has over the traditional systems is that the former can easily be ramped up with only minimal costs in terms of time and finances.

After assessing these needs, you can begin shopping around the various telephone service providers in order to check what fits the bill and what will speed your operations considerably.