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As a small biz owner - what are the top things I should care about before purchasing a phone system?
approximately 25 employees.
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5 Answers
Good question. These days, there's a lot of noise in the phone system market created by vendors who are trying to "de-commodify" what has become a commodity market. I would think about a few things:
1. Features - Today's phone systems come with a lot of features that you can put into the bells and whistles category. When you strip these out, there are only a handful of features that really matter. Aside from being able to make and receive calls, here are a few core features to look for: voicemail, ability to put a call on hold, auto-attendant, conferencing, some form of directory, and the ability to transfer a call. And don't forget about the phones - most of your employees will care more about the phones than the phone system itself.
2. Price - There are some great deals on phone systems out there as the vendors have to compete on price these days. But make sure you understand the all in price, including phones, support, and any services required. Phones can be expensive and implementation services can get you too.
3. Administration/Management - Some phone systems are still remarkably hard to administer. Remember that most users will only interact with the phone (as opposed to the phone system), but your IT person will spend a fair amount of time on MAC (moves, add, changes) related stuff. Make sure IT is bought into the system you purchase.
4. The Vendor - When your phone system fails, you are out of business so make sure your vendor is willing to stand behind the system, will be in business for many years to come, and has world class support. It's a critical system that is often taken for granted, but by no means should be.
Hi Laura:
The above comments by Jake are very important. Some other things to think about are:
1. Are your employees frequently out of the office - either sales or customer service? If this is the case, a system that offers unified messaging with find-me/follow-me features, the ability to change your presence status (out of the office-unavailable, in a meeting-unavailable, etc.), the ability to see the status of other employees from a Blackberry or Iphone type phone app. can be very important and help your staff be more productive. A unified messaging system can also send voicemail messages to email. This allows you to see your voicemail messages in a list so that you can prioritize which ones you listen to first.
2. If you are considering a VoIP system, then considerations should be carefully looked at on your existing computer network. IP phones are connected directly to switches connected to your LAN. These switches should be "power over ethernet". If not, each IP phone will have to be connected to an electrical outlet with an adaptor. Router and switch equipment need to be capable of prioritizing voice traffic over data so that your call quality is good.
3. There are hybrid systems that can give you the best of both worlds - digital (TDM) and IP depending on your exiting LAN network and needs. I have many customers using a hybrid system where their office phones are digital but they have IP phones for home workers or remote offices.
I hope this information is helpful.
Great question. A business phone system is one of the most important purchases your business can make. You want to go into it thinking: “Which telephone system is the easiest way for me to reach customers, clients and partners, and which system is the easiest way for them to reach me?”
Factors you should be considering include:
-Capacity - you need to get enough capacity for your current needs while planning for growth.
-Compatibility – you want to make sure a new system will be compatible with other equipment you already own.
-Features- make sure you have all the essentials such as, voicemail, messaging on-hold, headsets and conferencing equipment.
When buying an office phone system, a primary concern is to make sure that the system is the right size for your firm. Knowing your requirements in advance and understanding the size constraints will help you negotiate with vendors.
Here are a few more phone system buying tips: www.buyerzone.com/telecom-equipment/business-phone-systems/bg-business-phone-...
Lauren,
I would echo everything that Jake mentioned. The only things that I would add are (1) try and find a vendor that can uncover all of your needs and put together a detailed scope of work for you. And, (2) make sure you pick a quality vendor that will not only implement the system correctly, but will train your employees and administrators correctly. I have seen some really good quality phone systems installed correctly, yet the employees were left without the knowledge. It leads to a lot of frustration and makes the new system and the vendor look bad. Not only that, it can take a toll on your customer service. That's usually not something that small businesses can really afford. (3) Make sure you understand the ongoing maintenance and software support costs. They can be quite steep on some systems.
The only other thing that I would add is that you might want to consider a hosted telephony platform that you wouldn't have to worry about managing or upgrading. There can be a very compelling business case for hosted telephony in the SMB space depending on your needs.
Best of luck to you.
In my view, never invest in a phone system. The costs of communication on your mobile is becoming cheap, which makes the purpose of a desk-top phone redundant.
Skype/GTalk & others have brought in the much-needed solutions to get away from the traditional phone systems.
These vendors have also launched their PBX solutions, which runs out of your desktop (there are others as well), which seamlessly leverages the power of UC (Unified communications) hence my suggestion is to evaluate these vendors than the traditional box pushers.
We're a 40+ man team across 5 locations (3 in India and 2 globally), yet to invest in one phone equipment. We've conf-calls running internally for hours over the last two years, executed thru Skype, you can imagine the costs saved herein.
whilst all the above said, it depends on your business needs as well, hence it might be prudent to consider the views of others herein, before you decide you way ahead.
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