Choosing the right phone system is one of the most important decisions you will make for your business. But, where do you start? Here are five focus points to help you decide.

  1. Determine your needs
    • Do you need a new phone system?
      It could be you are starting fresh and need new phones and lines hooked up.
    • Are you replacing an existing system?
      You have had the system for a while now but it is no longer right for your needs.
    • Are you expanding an existing system?
      The current system is great and very scalable, so it’s time to integrate the latest technology.
  2. Choose between Traditional private automatic branch exchange (PABX) or hosted voice over internet protocol (VoIP) systems
    Both can be the right solution for you depending on your particular business needs.

If you go with a PBX or VoIP system, don’t forget the other entirely. Keep in mind that you should periodically assess your business’ phone system and observe changing behaviours and patterns that might well result in re-evaluating your phone strategy.

Benefits of a traditional PABX system include outstanding sound quality and clarity, complete local management and robust phone packages that are tailored to your business needs. Arrow’s AVAYA or NEC phone systems are perfect examples of excellent PABX options.

Hosted VoIP, on the other hand, can be more cost friendly, as it uses your internet connection to place and receive calls. Quality can only be determined by your bandwidth, but for many businesses, VoIP has proven to be a steadfast method to keep local and international calling costs at a favourably low rate.

  1. Consider flexibility and future scalability
    It’s important to assess your company’s future. We all want our business to grow. If you forecast growth within the next 12 months, hosted VoIP can be a great solution. It has plenty of flexibility with a short turnaround time, making it a good choice for a growing business. Traditional PABX scalability can often take more high-end planning and implementation.
  2. Choose a secure business phone system
    Telecommunication systems can come with network security and safety risks. Choosing a safe, secure system is vital to your company. We always suggest choosing a phone system that provides secure communications and has tools built in to protect from toll fraud, hacking and interception.
    Systems that have voicemail password functionality, user account settings, administration, certificates and other network protection features are what we suggest.
  3. Is your company’s infrastructure ready for the next step?
    Whether you go the hosted or traditional route, both require the correct infrastructure to be put in place by your licensed voice data specialist or electrician. Common issues can be additional cabling and communication room additions. Without the correct cabling and termination, issues can arise in quality across the service.
    Keep these five focus points in mind when deciding on what’s next for your business!