What Kind of Office Phone Systems Does a Small Business Need?

Modern day office phone systems are allowing options and convenience like never before. The systems now have more effective tools to talk with customers and clients.

This led to video and online meetings that changed business forever. When it comes to office phone systems companies, have more choices than ever before. Whether you want VoIP, on premises, cloud-hosted, virtual system or the traditional landline. With this incredible collection, find the ideal phone system for your business can be a chore.

Where Do I Start With Office Phone Systems?

The first thing you should ask yourself is what kind of connection do you want?

Virtual, landline or VoIP and where you wanted that system hosted. On the premises of your company office or in the cloud?

You have to consider features for your company phone systems, mobility access, customer service and overall cost. With so much to think about, how do you narrow down your choices?

Other than highlighting how different systems operate, we’ll also tackle the pros and cons as well as the cost of the company phones systems. We’ll even talk about the how each system fits various business needs.

So without further ado, here are the options for you to choose from that’ll help you identify the specific features and benefits you’re looking for your business telephone system.

System Choosing

We’ll start with the most traditional phone systems option, the landline.

Landline

For many years the landline was the best thing for any business telephone systems company to use. It would connect to the major network and work with the company’s copper wiring.

These phone systems were but expensive to maintain and were challenging to install. Other than the copper wiring, landlines also need a costly PBX or private branch exchange. The PBX allowed calls to switch between business and the telephone network.

This also allows features such as conference calling, automated attendants, voicemail to work.

Nowadays, the traditional type of landline is no longer in service. Telephone companies such as Gamma Telecom aren’t making new systems or more updates.

Tracking down IT professionals with the skills necessary to keep the systems working

Companies are now focusing more on other phone technologies.

VoIP

Most business telephone systems are VoIP at this point. Instead of going over copper wiring like landlines, VoIP runs on the next best thing the internet. Often that same internet connection is the one the employees also use to browse the web.

Using an existing data saves you the cost of installing and taking care of phone lines in your office or stores. VoIP systems also are versatile and work with PBX equipment. Thes phone system allows businesses to get a lot of features that would cost too much on their own.

Features like conference calling, call recording, automated attendants etc.

VoIP also works well with computers, allowing employee sent voicemails to their email and make calls.

When applying it for the first time, people didn’t know about them. There was noticeable static on many of the phones calls, and some experienced dropped calls. Nowadays the technology has improved, and the quality of the calls is so unnoticeable that no one can tell the difference between a landline and a VoIP anymore.

The only businesses that can use this kind of telephone system are businesses in regions where a high-speed wireless connection is unavailable.

Another thing VoIP has on landlines is it can be hosted on the company property or in the cloud, where landlines have to have a physical location.

Physical Location

Just like landline systems, on-premise VoIP phone systems come with all the PBX equipment ready to go and stored at the location at each business. This option allows you to be complete control of your system. You can install to your exact needs and don’t have to rely on anyone to keep it going.

The downside is since its located at your office; an IT staff is required to make all the upgrades and repairs. The VoIP system also has to be installed professionally.

Security is also a factor with on-premise VoIP. Physical locations don’t have the same security measures as cloud hosted solutions and all the data stays within your business telephone systems. If privacy is a big deal for your company, experts advice that keeping your VoIP on-premise is your best bet.

Firewalls can be built and configured to the exact desires to protect your phone systems. Other types of businesses well-suited for on-premise VoIP are large corporations that can pay the installation costs and want more customization.

Cloud

Modern day office phone systems are allowing options and convenience like never before. The systems now have more effective tools to talk with customers and clients. This led to video and online meetings that changed business forever.

Small businesses also have a fondness for cloud-hosted phone systems. This type of phone systems, the equipment is taken care of and stored in the cloud by the provider of your phone system. The only thing the business needs are the phones.

Plug and play is an excellent way to describe cloud systems.

Once you receive your phones and activate your service, the ethernet cable can be plugged in, and calls are ready received and made.The negatives to cloud-hosted solutions are that businesses have to rely solely on phone system providers to keep their service in tip-top shape.

To make sure that happens, many of the phone systems have several redundancies built into them. Including multiple data centers so that if one falls apart, the data can be moved to another facility to ensure the service continues to run.

Smalls businesses are usually the ones that get the most out of cloud-based because of their small cost and regular monthly charges that work with a budget. They also don’t require a professional IT expert to keep them working.

Wrapping it Up

Modern day office phone systems are allowing options and convenience like never before. The systems now have more effective tools to talk with customers and clients.

This led to video and online meetings that changed business forever.

For more information on business telephone systems and the best VoIP options for you, check out this article and our website.