Things To Consider For A Medium Business Phone System

Your business system provider should support the following sections if you want to set up a business telephone system for a Small to Medium Enterprise (SME), with 15 to 250 users.

Remote Workers/Home Workers

You can use an IP phone (either a software or hardphone) to connect to your company's telephone system while you're working from home or away. This will allow you to perform exactly the same way as if you were at work. You can also interact with the files and data as if your are still at work by setting up a VPN.

Line Rental and Call Costs

When setting up a small business telephone system, it is important to consider the long-term costs. You want to find a business phone company that offers low rental fees and high quality service. You don't want your business to be burdened with costly connectivity. You should always check what your business phone system provider can do and whether it meets all your current and future telecoms development needs.

Business Mobile Phones

Today's business world is dependent on mobile communications. They are an integral part of any business phone system. You should ensure that you choose a company with a wide range of mobile networks and handsets Business Phone Systems.

Business Broadband

When choosing an internet package to suit your business, speed and download limit are two of the most important factors. An unlimited download package is almost always the best choice unless your company uses the internet very little. A package offering speeds above 4MB is recommended as the average UK internet speed.

Mobility FMC - Fixed mobile Convergence

· FMC allows you to make calls using a mobile phone over your company's Wi-Fi network, or the GSM network. This is possible when you are away from the office, or any other Wi-Fi networks (home or major public areas).

· You can also dial in to the office FOC and dial out using one of your company's standard telephone lines at Landline rate rather than mobile contact rates. Dual mode (Smart Devices like PDA's), handsets offer significant savings for companies that pay for more than one mobile.

Multisite Site Locations

There are many advantages to networking your telephone system if you have more than one office.

These are the main benefits.

· FOC inter-site phone calls

· Shared and centralised operators

· Staff at various locations can access centralised and shared functionality such as extension status, calling transfer, calling divert, and call back. This works flawlessly, even though they are located in different places.

· Establishment of hunt groups at different locations

· DECT cordless roaming between locations

· Voice over IP (VOIP).

· This technology converts traditional speech into data packets, so that you can send the call either over your LAN (if you're at work) or any other IP connection such as an ADSL or company WAN.

· The call is converted to traditional speech once it reaches its destination.

The benefits of VOIP include:

· Voice and data can be carried over one network and one CAT5 socket at the office, saving additional resources that are required to run a voice network or a data network.

· Use IP connections to connect telephone systems together, such as company WANs or IP/VPN.

· This allows a home worker to keep in touch with the office while working remotely from another location via standard ADSL.

· You can connect your mobile phone to the phone system via Wi-Fi IP Connection.

· Voice Recording

· Recording telephone conversations can help with problem resolution, training, and customer service. This includes recording the ends of telephone calls for both incoming and outgoing calls.

Conversations are recorded to a storage media, which is often a hard disk on a local computer or network device. The key features include a quick search facility that allows you to locate recordings and play them back. Users can feel secure when calling. Information recorded can be used to train users as well as for dispute resolution. Some users do not require full-blown, sophisticated call recording systems. It is possible to archive calls for a specific period of time using more cost-effective systems.

Accessing your messages through a standard telephone allows you to listen to voicemails the usual, read e-mails text-to-speech and forward faxes to any nearby fax machine. It works by providing a server and software that are connected to your LAN. The software integrates seamlessly with your Exchange server. You can still listen to the messages stored on your voicemail server.