subject: Points to Ponder while planning a business phone system for your organization [print this page] Points to Ponder while planning a business phone system for your organization
Business phones have varied features and the sheer number of the brands, models, features that you can have will leave you confused. Every salesperson will be pitching high for selling their own brands, not telling their limitations. Even if they would be comparing their stock with that of the competitors, much of what they say would be focused on how their stocks score over the one of their competitors. Keeping what they say or what you read about the business phone systems in the reviews at the back of your mind, it is important to assess the phone features on the basis of what are your minimum and maximum requirements.
Some of the important elements requiring attention are:
1. Nature and scale of business: The nature of the work of organization will determine what are the exact telephonic requirements of that organization? For a business which requires frequently international calling, an IP phone is the best one to use because it will significantly reduce the bills of the telephone.
For an organization which has its presence in multiple locations, it may be very time consuming and expensive to commute to and from one location to another. The matters which can be sorted out over the phone, shall be solved using the call conferencing feature of the IP phone. So, people from a number of different branch locations can actually discuss the things and share their ideas and opinions through the call conferencing. So, if you are multi-location business, opt for a business phone having this feature.
The size of the business also has a role to play in the determination of the number of extensions required. For a large organization, an IP PBX system would be required to manage a good volume of calls. This system interpolates the public switched telephone network and is designed to deliver voice or video over the networks. In an IP PBX business phone, most of the functions are provided in the software itself whereas some others like the conferencing facility; VOIP, etc can be added easily as well.
2. Used or the new systems: If you what you need, the next step is to find if you can get a good deal over the used phone system or you have to buy a new one. This will primarily depend on your budget and also on the availability of a good performing used phone. Normally, small companies do prefer trying out the used phone system markets first since new phones are prohibitively expensive for them. Often, a decision might have to be taken for having enhanced feature used business phone or a limited feature new system.
3. From where to get these systems ? If you are going for old systems, then the reseller shall be able to provide guarantees on vital functions and after sales service support. Similarly, for buying the new systems, you might have to select between the dealer of these products and the company owned shops.
Since telephonic communications are critical for effective and efficient management of the businesses, a centralized phone system becomes indispensable.
