Small Business Phone Systems
You’re the CEO, secretary, resident psychologist and sometimes maid all rolled into one. Or maybe you’re the sales professional, marketing girl and computer guy just trying to keep your head above water.
Regardless of who you are there is one thing that small businesses employees are known for: wearing multiple hats.
But what does wearing multiple hats have to do with small business phone systems? Surprisingly a lot.
You see your phone system is every bit as important as the one that big enterprise is using. But you’ve only got a fraction of the resources. Leaving you with lots of wants and not enough time (or budget).
It doesn’t have to be like this for you. There are small business phone systems on the market today that will give you every bit of functionality the big guys have. Best of all they’re both easy and affordable.
Great right? Not exactly.
Like you there are lots of different things small business phone systems can do…and that’s after you figure out which one is right for you. This often results in confusion, frustration and lots of time wasted.
Since it’s likely you might run into this let’s spend a moment to look into the different types of small business phone systems.
Small business phone systems come in many forms
Your small business is unique. So is every other small business.
Vendors know this, so they’ve created a ton of different options when it comes to small business phone systems. Your choices include:
- Key system - A key system is a basic PBX system where call management and call functionality is handled by the desktop telephone. It’s a simple and basic system that leverages POTS line for voice calling.
- PBX system - A PBX system is a on-premise PBX that manages your small business’s call control, functionality and connection to the PSTN (via POTS lines). This is the small business phone system that most are familiar with.
- Hosted PBX - A hosted PBX is a phone system for small business where a third party service provider houses, maintains and delivers your phone system functionality via the Internet or virtually (called a Virtual PBX). Hosted PBX systems can utilize PSTN, VoIP and even cellular lines for calling.
- VoIP phone system - The newest of all phone systems, a VoIP phone system utilizes IP technology to leverage your existing data network and Internet connection to send and receive phone calls. VoIP phone systems allow your small business to utilize both VoIP calling and PSTN calling.
You can get more specific information about each of the types of small business phone systems throughout this site.
Which phone system is right for your small business
Without knowing your specific situation and needs it’s tough to say for sure. That doesn’t you can’t find out which small business phone systems are a fit.
The first step in figuring that best phone system for your situation is to answer the following questions:
- Why are you looking for a new phone system?
- What are the major features or benefits you need?
- What do your users want?
- Will this system still work for me 1, 3, 5+ years down the road?
- What level of additional usage can it handle?
- How many concurrent calls do you anticipate you or your business will make at any given time?
- Do you have the time and or resources to install, support and maintain the phone system yourself?
- Have you (or anyone on staff) ever installed a phone system?
- Do you (or anyone on staff) have a moderate comfort level with telephony, Linux and traditional telecommunications?
- Are there are any licensing and or monthly support fees?
- Does your vendor offer installation, support and ongoing maintenance?
- What is the total cost of ownership?
- Can this system integrate with other business systems?
- Is your system of choice interoperable with your voice service provider?
- Did you get multiple phone system quotes?
- What is your Return on Investment (ROI)?
- Are there any warranties or service level agreements (SLA’s) that come with the phone system?
Obviously you will have more questions then this. If the additional phone system information found on this site does not help contact a phone system reseller for more information.