Telecommunications are an important aspect of any business, even in the age of all this innovation in internet technology. It still remains an essential aspect of a company’s operations and is especially necessary for massively scaling your workforce. Fortunately, the best thing about business phone systems in 2024 is that many of these systems can be tailored to the needs of your business.
Before you sign up for that business phone system, it is important to understand the basic concepts involved in its design and implementation. The more complex the needs of the business, the more complex the phone system is likely to be.
In this article, we are going to try and shed some light on how such systems work so that you can better consider your options.
It begins with understanding what you need
It is important that the money you put into your business phone system provides exactly what you need. It would be a waste of funds to put money into features you are highly unlikely to use. That being said, your needs could be narrowed down to the following questions:
- Do you think your business needs actual telephones, as opposed to a virtual phone service that uses a mobile phone?
- Do you prefer the traditional landline service provided by a regional phone company, or would you be comfortable with a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system?
- If VoIP is the choice, would you want the system on-site at your business, or would you prefer your service provider to host it on the cloud?
It can be difficult to navigate these questions without an understanding, so we’ll go into some detail about what these all mean in the next section.
The virtual phone system
A virtual phone system connects calls to your business to your employees on their mobile or home phones. Similar to call-forwarding, calls are transferred to other phones you deem appropriate to receive calls about your business. These could be employee cell phones, home phones, or even on-site phones at your business.
These systems can come with a host of features, like automated receptionists, voice mail, call screening, toll-free calling, and online faxing.
One caveat is that such forwarded calls are charged to the recipient’s mobile or home phone network. You would either have to come up with a system wherein your employees are reimbursed, or provide them with their own phone networks.
The traditional phone system
Running a landline service for your business involves on-site PBX (private branch exchange) hardware if you want features like multiple extensions, call transferring, call directories, and so on. Sometimes, these systems are hybridized with VoIP systems so that it can connect to an enterprise’s data network.
While a landline is reliable, this option is slowly growing out of popular use. They are considered obsolete compared with the many other alternatives out there. However, the benefit of running them is that they do not need high-speed internet in order to be used.
VoIP
VoIP systems allow for the phone network to be fused with the internet connection that a company uses. In tandem with landlines, they are often used in large companies as they can afford the more complex and expensive PBX hardware. And the wonderful thing about them is that they offer all the features you could think of from a phone system while being easier to set up and operate.
Smaller businesses could benefit from this as well, as the hosted VoIP could meet all their needs, but this might leave them to the mercy of their internet connection. Larger operations might require on-site VoIP systems, which can be expensive to set up.
In conclusion
Whatever industry you cater to, and whatever product or service you might provide, it is important to invest in a business phone system that offers you all the features you need without being too much of a hassle to manage. Make sure to consider all your options to see if you are getting your money’s worth.
If you need a UK provider of business phone systems, give us at Teleproject UK a call. We have all the latest technologies to help your business find stability and success.
