What are your reasons for looking at a new phone system?
This is an important question that all businesses should ask themselves before purchasing any new kind of phone system. VoIP systems are all very similar and the only thing that separates one from another is how they are marketed. Besides the obvious reason that you need to make and receive calls, what other important functions, i.e., Auto-attendant, voicemail, Voicemail-to-email or find-me-follow me capability, do you need your system to have.
What type of phone system best fits your business?
Advances in IP communications have made it possible to have a fully functional phone system hosted by your service provider (known as Hosted VoIP) in addition to a premise based phone system.
If your phone system is going to be used by more 25 users then a premise based solution would probably be the best choice for your business. However, if there will be less than 25 users for your business phone system, then it would be wise to look at both hosted and premise based solutions to try and determine which one would be most cost effective for your business.
Will your phone system integrate with other business systems?
One of the benefits about choosing a VoIP telephone system is the ability for a VoIP phone system to integrate with other business systems like your CRM or ERP platform. Some systems offer API’s for integration with certain software, however other phone systems do not offer this capability. You need to know which business systems require integration with your new VoIP system before you make any decisions about which VoIP telephone system suits your business best as it can save a lot of wasted time.
Will you be deploying, maintaining and supporting the phone system yourself?
If you have your own IT Support in place then you will be able to maintain and deploy the system yourself but if you have no support network to help you with the system, then you should really look into the hosted VoIP solution as this way all of the technical support you might need will be covered.
Who will be you voice service provider?
With a VoIP telephone system you need to ensure your VoIP provider is compatible with your phone system. This should be established in advance of the purchase or it could lead to complications further on in the process.
Understand the functionality of the phone system
Once you have made the decision about which system is right for you, it is crucial that you understand how that system works. Some systems include huge numbers of features and you can be sure that you will not need them all. Look at services that offer modular applications so you can select only what is relevant to your business case.
What do your users want?
This might not seem like an important thing to consider but all employees have different needs that need to be met in order to ensure they are reaching their full potential within the role they are working in. Before purchasing a system you should speak to each of them to discuss their business needs and this way it will allow you to align their needs with the benefits of a particular VoIP system.
Understand the training needs
Some deployments are more complex than others and this can depend on just how many people you are providing the VoIP telephone system for. If you have a small number of staff it might not take long to get everyone up to speed but if however you are deploying a call centre then training requirements will be much higher and specific training should be given to ensure everyone knows just how the new system functions so it can be used effectively.
For more information and free expert advice about VOIP, please give us a call on 0800 50 533 53 or send us an enquiry online by clicking here. Alternatively you can download our telephone systems buyers guide as useful reference material or even run a quick quote to obtain a budget cost for a new telephone system in less than 60 seconds by clicking here.
