Member Article

Will a phone system benefit my business?

While there are an increasing number of options when it comes to communicating with clients, customers and employees, a phone call is often the best way to get your message across. Despite the proliferation of email, text messaging and social media as forms of communication, the telephone remains a mainstay for the vast majority of small businesses. Since so much of a business’s success depends on how it presents itself, all businesses can benefit from some sort of business phone solution.

Traditional Phone System

With a traditional business phone system you will either have individual phone lines or a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) system. The PBX system is what brings functionality like call transfer, intercom, call queuing, group ringing, phone directory etc. to a traditional phone system.

If you want the additional features mentioned above and depending on how sophisticated you want the solution to be, then the PBX system hardware can run into a five-figure sum.

VoIP

There are two primary costs with VoIP, the ongoing cost of the service itself, and the one-time cost of the equipment. There are normally no additional hardware or maintenance costs.

Most VoIP providers price their service on a rental basis, based on the number of lines you use. With this you get a wide range of features, generally including free local and national calls, the ability to transfer and queue calls, have calls ring multiple lines simultaneously, and an auto-attendant phone directory. The main variable cost is international calls.

Business PBX and VoIP Systems generally provide the following:

• Voicemail

• Call Forwarding And Internal Transferring

• Conference Calling

• Office Intercom

In this modern age of technology, phone systems have a plethora of features available for businesses, including:

Mobility: (Great for sales people and traveling professionals) The ability to use your smartphone as an extension of the office phone system, including the ability to have business calls automatically directed to your cell phone and make outbound calls from your smartphone as your office number.

Portability: The ability to use any computer or office phone, as your personal extension.

Flexibility: The ability to redesign your phone system (how calls are routed and handled) on the fly by simply logging into your VoIP provider’s dashboard.

Practicality: Having voicemails sent to your email as text messages, find me/follow-me which rings your mobile and home phones as well, video calling, integration with third party applications like CRM, and an e-fax.

If you want some advice on how to find a perfect phone system solution for your business, call Agile Group today on 0871 700 2228, and one of our dedicated experts will discuss your options.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Elvis .