6 Vital Questions To Ask Before You Buy A Phone System

This brief guide allows you to ask the 6 vital questions before you buy a phone system

Transcript

1. 6 Vital Questions To Ask Before You Buy A Phone System
2. About David David Hill is the founder and owner of Birchills Telecom. He is a passionate advocate for VoIP. Having made his name in construction he became so impressed by the power of hosted VoIP he started the company. That was nearly 6 years ago. He says “It’s all about keeping it simple. For small business the question to ask about VoIP is no longer “if or when”, but “who with?” AUTHOR PAGE: David Hill About Birchills Telecom More businesses than ever choose Birchills to provide their telephone system. •Free system including phones - no capital cost •Simplest VOIP - with all the killer business features including recording •No long term contracts •Keep your landline numbers and DDI's or choose new •Real time call cost control - watch calls as they happen •Low call costs, billed per second, no call set up charge
3. QUESTION 1: Who Are You Dealing With? Many sellers are sales organisations reselling products and services. Once a sale is made you will never see the rep again. You must be sure that your seller is capable of properly supporting your business once the sale is made. Make sure: • They are a well established business • That they are not just a web site or a reseller • They are experts on business phone systems • Their sales people are not commission driven • That you can try before you buy • That you understand their support – does it cost extra • That you take up references or talk to some customers
4. QUESTION 2: What If Your Needs Change? You need to choose a system that will allow you to add new features and expand or reduce your system at minimal additional cost. Are you going to be tied in for a long time? There are suppliers who will not tie you in at all. When designing your system we have seen many guides which ask you to predict how many new employees you will start over the next 5 years. It seems unreasonable to ask you to buy a system based on 5 years, far better to buy what you need now and then alter it when you need to—but at a reasonable cost.
5. QUESTION 3: Is The System An Open One? A truly open system is one that will work with the equipment you already own or plan to purchase later on, including phone headsets, or tabletop conferencing equipment. Make sure it: • Works with off-the-shelf telephones and runs on an industry standard operating system such as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) • Will work with any other phone equipment you purchase • Will work with another suppliers system if you ever decide to swap suppliers
6. QUESTION 4: Is It Easy To Maintain? Anyone who has ever owned a traditional PBX or legacy telephone system knows the incredible costs for maintenance, support, and upgrades. In fact, because all maintenance activities on these types of phone systems requires seller involvement at £100 or more per visit, lifetime maintenance costs on a legacy PBX typically run as high as 40% of the system cost. If you want to add, delete, or change a user’s extension, can you do it in house or do you need to call the seller, wait 2 days for the guy to come out, and pay £100? Make sure your system can easily be supported in-house by end-users and you’ll save a lot of time and money. Check out our answers Click here
7. QUESTION 5: Next Generation Features? While you might not think you want or need next generation features such as e-mail integration or call recording, the system you buy should allow you to implement these features very inexpensively (or free) some time in the future. Look for a system that has the following: • IVR (Auto attendant) • Voicemail • Time based rules • Automatic call distribution • Operator console • Call forwarding • DDI’s (numbers for all members of staff) • Real time cost reporting Check out our answers Click here
8. QUESTION 6: How Much Will It Cost? There are a lot of ways to hide charges that you didn’t expect so you need to cover all the bases and that involves a lot of direct questions. You need to know the capital costs, the recurring costs and the set up costs of every item that you plan to use. Beware sneaky add ons such as extra licence fees for each new feature or phone, maintenance charge and upgrade charges. Beware long term leases that you weren't expecting. When you look at call costs you need to look at call set up charges and the way that call charges are rounded.
9. CHOOSE WELL Thanks For Looking! Your communication system is your gateway to the world. Choosing wisely will save you many hours of grief later. Choosing wisely will enhance and improve your companies reputation for ever. Thanks for your time. Birchills Telecom Ltd, 200 Rookery Lane, Aldridge, Walsall WS9 8NP Tel 01922 21 33 33