TWL Office Telephone Systems - voice and data services - VOIP - MPLS ∓ Data Networks - maintenance Packages - Wales, Cardiff, Newport

When buying a new phone system, most people are under the assumption that prices are relatively low and its a very easy process to understand and implement.

Doing so is much harder than it looks—just like buying a photocopy machine.

Most of us, if we’ve worked in companies are used to having a phone magically appear on our desks. 

But if we’re suddenly in a group of, say, five or ten, someone has to buy the phone system and this is where you need to get the right help from the very start.

There are a few basic strategies that small businesses can use for phones these days:

(1) You can use their existing cell/mobile/home phones,

(2) You can use Internet lines through outfits like Vonage, Skype, and Google Voice,

(3) You can buy a Voice over Internet Protocol (”VoIP”) “box” through companies

(4) You can buy a box that works with copper lines through Mitel, Toshiba, and the like.

One of the biggest problems is simply understanding the difference among these approaches. Another understands the differences between a) the manufacturers of these systems and b) the vendors who actually sell / install them.

Option 4 is taken in a vast majority of cases for domestic businesses as it’s simply the most reliable for your business. 

Here are the issues with the first three alternatives:

1) It’s tempting for small businesses and start ups etc to use personal phones as their main business lines as well. Don’t do that if you can avoid it as if you don’t believe us think about how often your business phone number will be handed out, added to directories, and marketed in dozens of places, and then this does not get updated once the original numbers change.

Once you start using personal numbers for business, it’ll be hard to stop. That’s one reason to get an 800 number if you’re facing customers: it will be portable wherever you might move. If you use personal numbers, potential customers will also realise that you’re primarily using mobile phones, and you could look unprofessional. Also, do you really want to take problem phone calls from clients at 3:00 A.M. or over zealous sales people?

2) Consumer VoIP outfits like Vonage, Skype, and Google Voice have several problems of their own. Customer service is often none existent. Skype is okay for international calls, but doesn’t transfer calls from receptionist areas to back areas easily, doesn’t have professional voicemail. Google Voice requires existing phone lines. All of these problems can be overcome, but if the overriding goal is never to have to think about your phone system, then this isn’t the way to go.

3) You plug existing landlines in or set them up boxes with Internet access. These telephone systems are slightly less expensive than normal phone systems, but its harder to find vendors for this, and you don’t want to have the same points of failure for Internet access and phones. In other words, even if a power outage takes down Internet service, you still have an option, since phone systems using POTS lines like Toshiba and Mitel will still give a dial tone at the point where the POTS lines go into the  box.

Business Phone systems have a dizzying array of features and perhaps the hardest part of dealing with business phones involves finding out who sells them: the big manufacturers are Avaya, Nortel, Panasonic, Toshiba, and Mitel and here at TWL we deal exclusively with Toshiba and Mitel.

Some manufacturers have several vendors in your area so we’ve created a TWL Telephone System checklist of key things you need to know like:

* How many lines you want.
* How many handsets you need.
* How far you might need your system to expand—will you need four lines, or forty?
* How many voicemail boxes do you need?
* The number of technicians and/or service people the telephone system re-seller has, along with their location.
* The cost of a 36 month lease, a 60 month lease, and whether it’s a regular lease
* The bottom line cost of outright purchasing a system.
* Installation fees.
* The warranty.
* Timing—when can it be installed and rigorously tested?

Once you start asking these questions, you’ll be inundated with information and quotes that are hard to compare and TWL Voice and Data recommend using a spreadsheet to compare quotes in.

As lots of this quote stage will be carried out by phone it will probably take at least a full days work just to get proper bids, and understand the different telephone systems that you’re looking at.

If you’ve read this, however, you at least have a place to start and know a few of the questions you’ll want to ask.  Like a car, you will live with your small business phone system for years, so take the time to get it right.

TWL Voice and Data will help you avoid making some costly mistakes and a worst give you a quote to use in the competitive tender process.

Story By: Editor

Date : 09-02-2010