Moving office with VoIP takes a great amount of planning and resources but it’s always best to get everything sorted and in place before you relocate.
If you have given yourself enough time to plan the move properly then this gives you plenty of time to reassess your telecommunications set up including the phone system and the type of phone lines you are using.
Telephone systems and lines should be a top priority when you move and because of this we’ve put together a list of things you need to consider before you move to your new site.
- Keeping the same telephone system
If you are moving your current telephone system with you to your new site, then you might want to keep the same type of telephone lines you currently have in order to save on the cost that associated when you upgrade your telephone system.
Another good point to remember if you are keeping the same telephone system, is that it can take several hours before the system is up and running so you need to prepare when the best time would be for this to happen.
- Installing a new telephone system at your new site
If you are installing a new telephone system then there are a number of things you might want to consider before making a decision.
Many businesses when trying to decide on a new telephone system for their office, often end up duplicating the old one as they feel that as the old one has served them well, why take the risk of a new one.
Well as with all technology things are changing constantly and telephony in particular has changed considerably in the last five years. The new systems now offer many more opportunities to improve communications and productivity greatly within business and so you need to really think about which one would work best for you in your organisation.
- Types of telephone lines available for businesses
There are three main types of telephone line you can consider. There is little difference between the call tariffs and call rental per line charges, but there is a big difference in terms of functionality and reliability. It is most likely that you will need to use at least two of the line types for your business requirements and we have summarised the key points for consideration below.
PSTN telephone lines…
Analogue (PSTN) lines are the standard telephone line and connect to a standard telephone handset or a phone system with analogue line ports. You will need a PSTN line to support any of the following devices or services:
- Fax machine connection
- Intruder or fire alarm systems
- Emergency lift telephones
- Analogue dial up modems
- Remote access for maintenance support
- Franking machines.
With a PSTN line it is only possible to have a single telephone number per line. This could be restrictive if you were wanting multiple incoming call numbers for departments, or want individual direct dial numbers to increase the efficiency of your incoming call handling.
ISDN telephone lines…
ISDN lines offer the very highest level of resilience and quality available for connection to the telephone network.
Moving to ISDN lines provides a number of benefits but the two main ones that drive most businesses is the ability to transfer incoming calls back out from your site to any external telephone number, and the ability to have additional numbering options for incoming calls known as DDI (direct dialling inwards) ranges.
There are two types of ISDN line available:
ISDN2
If your business needs between 2 and 8 voice lines, then ISDN2 is what you need. ISDN2 is installed in pairs of channels so you can only operate with an even number of individual line rentals. They are powered from the local exchange with no power connection “on premises” required to operate them.
ISDN30…
This option is available if you have a requirement for 8 telephone lines or more. ISDN30 lines are presented on a single connection which can be upgraded to provide up to 30 telephone lines without the need for any additional cabling or engineering site visits.
ISDN30 connections can also be used with a digital switch or phone systems to manage your calls more effectively.
ISDN30 lines require power to be provided locally “on premises”.
VOIP… aka SIP Trunks…..
A VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service connection enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls by sending voice data in packets using IP as opposed to the telephone network.
One advantage of VoIP is that you can also choose to have any UK STD code as your incoming number irrespective of your geographic location. This can prove very useful for some businesses when relocating “out of area” as you can take your fixed line telephone with you anywhere.
Whilst it’s not ideal to use Broadband Internet access for SIP lines, if you do opt to use this type of connectivity then we would strongly recommend you have a separate broadband service for your phones to the one you use for your data.
The voice quality of speech via SIP trunks is very slightly lower than with ISDN lines and is a similar quality to a UK mobile telephone call. The quality of service level is also slightly lower if you do choose to use a basic broadband connection for your Internet access method because the response options to faults are traditionally slower with Internet providers than with telephone line providers.
We hope the above information is useful to you, if you would like help understanding your best options then please contact us on 0800 50 533 50, alternatively you can visit our Moving Office services page for more information and even run a quick quote to obtain a budget cost for a new telephone system in less than 60 seconds.
