Phone Systems: Constituent Requirements
Regardless of location or size, telecommunications are the lifeblood of every business, so selecting a new or replacement phone system is a task that requires more than cursory consideration. The needs of all constituents must be evaluated.
•Customers--need phone systems that enable them to locate any employee with a single call and easily to reach a live operator if needed
•Employees--need phone systems that are both easy to use and feature rich, allowing them to take care of many tasks with a single device and a low investment in training, Employees need to be able to reach customers and their related data easily.
•IT staff--need phone systems that are easy to install, maintain, expand or contract, and track
•Operations--need best value for equipment and service and must have flexible contract terms
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Phone Systems: PBX and Beyond
Almost all business phone systems offer auto attendant and voice mail along with voice conferencing, call parking, transferring, and forwarding. Phone systems that enhance productivity include the ability to interface with customer relationship management (CRM) programs and with other back-end systems that offer call center management functionality, trouble ticket generation and tracking, and email or video conferencing. Current PBX systems support a mix of hand and head sets, and stationary and mobile phones.
Phone Systems: the Latest Innovation: VoIP
The telecommunications industry has delivered tremendous innovation in the last decade, and competition remains strong, benefiting consumers with more powerful services, better quality connections, and less expensive equipment than ever. One of the biggest innovations is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP telephone systems are especially attractive to companies with a high volume of phone traffic or with frequent connections to offices outside their base area code, and in particular with international connections. When both ends of a voice call are connected through the Internet, there is no connection charge, so phone bills are significantly reduced.
However, VoIP is not free. There is still IP PBX equipment, and installation and maintenance that must be paid for in order to have a useful system. The VoIP systems referred to in this article are not the same as a home-based service where a headset is plugged directly in to a computer and users dial each other directly. Business VoIP systems are robust both in terms of connection quality and features. They function like traditional PBX systems in their ability to process calls and integrate data.
Phone Systems: VoIP On-site or Hosted
When businesses decide to implement VoIP, a decision specific to these systems must be made: whether to use a hosting service or to locate the phone server at the business physical address. The obvious reason to consider using a hosted phone service is that the installation, maintenance and upgrades are handled by a third party, reducing the need for office real estate and perhaps even personnel. The downside to hosting is that clients are limited to the services offered by the vendor they select.
There are hundreds of vendors of both new and used tradition and VoIP phone systems. Often the best way to get the big picture is to use a business-to-business shopping site on the Web to request information or even price quotes. This is a quick way of gathering lots of information just by filling out a single form. From there, the path to a new phone system becomes much easier to navigate.
Source
VoIP News