By Steve Mike Levy
When looking at business phone systems, few look at the scalability of the system and whether it will meet their future needs. As a business grows, there will be a need to add additional extensions as well as phone lines coming in to adequately support the daily call volume. Buying a phone system today that won't support the business tomorrow will only lead to more expense later on down the line.
This is why it is essential that the phone system that you purchase today be able to accommodate any potential growth that you anticipate in the next 5 to 7 years. Often, the cost of telephony equipment is at its least expensive with the purchase of a brand-new system. This is because many phone system vendors offer lower introductory prices to entice business owners to purchase their equipment. Once the contract is signed, regular prices will generally apply. Because of this, it makes sense to take advantage of the lower prices when initially purchasing a business phone system. There will be more money paid out in the beginning, but this will offer greater savings in the long term.
When speaking about scalability, it's important to estimate how many extensions you're going to need in the future. This is particularly important for smaller businesses where the owner might be tempted to buy a smaller system with a limited number of users. If the particular system purchased can only accommodate up to 20 users, clearly it won't be able to handle any reasonable business expansion. To gain true value, always add an extra number of extensions to accommodate this future growth. Even if you decide not to purchase licensing for extra extensions, you must ensure that the system can be upgraded in the future.
Another consideration with business phone systems is the number of phone lines coming in. Smaller systems typically have single lines that come in to a trunk group. This trunk group would allow one call per line and depending on the number of calls you anticipate processing each day, you would be limited to the number of single lines coming in to the phone system. Ask your vendor about the ability of the business phone system to interface with T-1 circuits. T-1 circuits are more expensive than an individual single-line, however they can accommodate up to 23 calls at the same time. If the phone system purchased cannot accommodate T-1's, then you are limited to multiple single lines. Depending on the number of single lines needed, the cost of individual lines could be more than one T-1.
For VoIP traffic, you'll need to make sure that both your network and PBX can handle the expected call volume. There are special considerations for VoIP beyond the telephony aspect. The network will also need to be scaled out in the event of future growth and your current network configuration and utilization should be taken in to account anytime you anticipate a greater need for network bandwidth. Nothing will kill voice quality more than contention for bandwidth on the network and it's imperative that a network assessment be completed prior to VoIP's implementation.
Playing announcements that callers will hear gives the business a professional image and allows the customer to choose where they want to be routed. Since most announcements consist of a wave file, you need to be sure that the phone system has enough storage space to accommodate the number of wave files needed for your business. In more complex routing, callers will often hear multiple announcements with different purposes. As an example, you might have a main greeting, a greeting that callers hear when they are on hold, and a greeting that they hear when they call after hours. If each of these greetings is different for different departments, depending on the number of departments you could easily use all of the available space. As your business grows, you can anticipate adding different departments where more announcements space might be needed.
Like needed space for announcements, the space for voicemails should be able to meet the needs of the business without the danger of running out of available space. Although this rarely happens, there are situations where even smaller companies receive a lot of voicemails in any one given day. This can quickly take up a lot of hard drive space so the space allotted for voicemails needs to be adequate for today's volume as well as any anticipated volume in the future. This is yet another reason why careful planning is needed when deciding on an appropriate business phone system.
While shopping for a business phone system, you must consider your future business needs to make an appropriate choice that won't cost too much money later. With a scalable phone system, you're insuring that current as well as future needs are being met at the lowest possible cost.
I suggest you take the time to visit the website of Steve Mike levy at http://www.BusinessPhoneSystemsfinder.com and learn more about the changing world of Business Phone Systems.
If you're looking to purchase an Office Phone System you may also receive access to instant price quotes at: http://BusinessPhoneSystemsfinder.com/voip_systems_business_office.php
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Steve_Mike_Levy/1117836
When looking at business phone systems, few look at the scalability of the system and whether it will meet their future needs. As a business grows, there will be a need to add additional extensions as well as phone lines coming in to adequately support the daily call volume. Buying a phone system today that won't support the business tomorrow will only lead to more expense later on down the line.
This is why it is essential that the phone system that you purchase today be able to accommodate any potential growth that you anticipate in the next 5 to 7 years. Often, the cost of telephony equipment is at its least expensive with the purchase of a brand-new system. This is because many phone system vendors offer lower introductory prices to entice business owners to purchase their equipment. Once the contract is signed, regular prices will generally apply. Because of this, it makes sense to take advantage of the lower prices when initially purchasing a business phone system. There will be more money paid out in the beginning, but this will offer greater savings in the long term.
When speaking about scalability, it's important to estimate how many extensions you're going to need in the future. This is particularly important for smaller businesses where the owner might be tempted to buy a smaller system with a limited number of users. If the particular system purchased can only accommodate up to 20 users, clearly it won't be able to handle any reasonable business expansion. To gain true value, always add an extra number of extensions to accommodate this future growth. Even if you decide not to purchase licensing for extra extensions, you must ensure that the system can be upgraded in the future.
Another consideration with business phone systems is the number of phone lines coming in. Smaller systems typically have single lines that come in to a trunk group. This trunk group would allow one call per line and depending on the number of calls you anticipate processing each day, you would be limited to the number of single lines coming in to the phone system. Ask your vendor about the ability of the business phone system to interface with T-1 circuits. T-1 circuits are more expensive than an individual single-line, however they can accommodate up to 23 calls at the same time. If the phone system purchased cannot accommodate T-1's, then you are limited to multiple single lines. Depending on the number of single lines needed, the cost of individual lines could be more than one T-1.
For VoIP traffic, you'll need to make sure that both your network and PBX can handle the expected call volume. There are special considerations for VoIP beyond the telephony aspect. The network will also need to be scaled out in the event of future growth and your current network configuration and utilization should be taken in to account anytime you anticipate a greater need for network bandwidth. Nothing will kill voice quality more than contention for bandwidth on the network and it's imperative that a network assessment be completed prior to VoIP's implementation.
Playing announcements that callers will hear gives the business a professional image and allows the customer to choose where they want to be routed. Since most announcements consist of a wave file, you need to be sure that the phone system has enough storage space to accommodate the number of wave files needed for your business. In more complex routing, callers will often hear multiple announcements with different purposes. As an example, you might have a main greeting, a greeting that callers hear when they are on hold, and a greeting that they hear when they call after hours. If each of these greetings is different for different departments, depending on the number of departments you could easily use all of the available space. As your business grows, you can anticipate adding different departments where more announcements space might be needed.
Like needed space for announcements, the space for voicemails should be able to meet the needs of the business without the danger of running out of available space. Although this rarely happens, there are situations where even smaller companies receive a lot of voicemails in any one given day. This can quickly take up a lot of hard drive space so the space allotted for voicemails needs to be adequate for today's volume as well as any anticipated volume in the future. This is yet another reason why careful planning is needed when deciding on an appropriate business phone system.
While shopping for a business phone system, you must consider your future business needs to make an appropriate choice that won't cost too much money later. With a scalable phone system, you're insuring that current as well as future needs are being met at the lowest possible cost.
I suggest you take the time to visit the website of Steve Mike levy at http://www.BusinessPhoneSystemsfinder.com and learn more about the changing world of Business Phone Systems.
If you're looking to purchase an Office Phone System you may also receive access to instant price quotes at: http://BusinessPhoneSystemsfinder.com/voip_systems_business_office.php
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Steve_Mike_Levy/1117836