Is your business telephone system obsolete and in need of an upgrade? Are you currently shopping for a business telephone system, but are unsure of which one to choose? Well, before you start looking at buying a telephone system, you should consider the following:
- Does your office need a business telephone system with physical phones, or could your business use a virtual phone system which utilizes mobile phones?
- If you can’t get by with mobile phones and need an actual, physical phone, you will have to choose a landline telephone service provided by a local or regional phone company. You can also choose a telephone system that runs over the internet, which is known as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).
- If you choose a VoIP business telephone system, you have to determine if you want to house the system at your business location (self-hosted) or if you want is hosted in the cloud (cloud-based).
Once you have figured out the above considerations, you can start shopping for your perfect business telephone system. But if you are still unsure, keep reading to learn about the various types of business telephone systems that you can choose from, including a virtual phone service and a hosted service. Read on to learn the benefits of the following phone systems:
- Virtual Phone Service
- Landlines
- VoIP
- Self-hosted VoIP
- Cloud-based VoIP
Virtual Phone Service
A virtual business telephone system works by connecting a business phone line to remote workers. These remote workers can use either a home phone or their mobile phone. These systems also act as an extensive call-forwarding solution, allowing customer calls to be transferred to each employees designated phone–even if the client calls the main business number! In addition to this great feature, these systems include features, such as automated receptionists, voicemail, call screening and online faxing.
Pros: having a virtual phone service allows businesses who are either constantly on the move, or have remote employees working from different locations, the opportunity to work together seamlessly. This service also allows the business to present a professional face for an affordable price. In addition, remote workers have access to a variety of features of the phone system that their cellphone or home phones don’t offer.
Cons: the downside to this system is that remote workers do not have a full fledged phone system. These calls are still being processed on the workers home or mobile network, so the employees are being charged for the call on the virtual system and using up mobile/home phone minutes.
This type of phone system is best for businesses who have a workforce that is comprised of solely remote workers or a sole proprietor business.
Landlines
A landline is the most traditional business telephone system that you are probably the most familiar with. This type of system is usually supported by a local or regional phone company. In order to run a landline service, you will need an on-premises PBX hardware. This hardware allows you to create multiple extensions and allow for the phone system to have various feature, such as call forwarding, transferring and call directories.
Pros: landlines are reliable and are a trusted solution that many companies are comfortable using.
Cons: these systems are costly and require a lot of maintenance, which is resulting in businesses moving away from these type of systems and moving to VoIP.
This type of phone system is best for large corporations that have a budget to pay for the maintenance and an in-house IT staff to maintain it on a regular basis.
VoIP Business Telephone System
Rather than using the traditional phone system that uses copper wire, like landlines, VoIP phone systems utilize the same internet connection that your business is already using to access the web. VoIP systems allow businesses to have access to features that only larger corporations had access to, such as automated attendants, call queues and computer integration that allows voicemails to be sent to an employees email inbox. Another great feature of the VoIP system is that it allows remote workers to have access to a business phone system from their smartphone.
Pros: VoIP provides you with a sophisticated phone system that can easily be set up and configured. This type of system is also considerably cheaper than landlines.
Cons: the downside to this system is that it is reliant on your internet connection. Therefore, if your internet connection goes down…so does your phone system.
This type of phone system is best for businesses who want a sophisticated business phone system at an affordable price and would want their remote workers to have access to the system. The VoIP business phone system is also a good choice when a business has reliable internet, such as fiber. This type of system may not be recommended for a business that is using copper, for example.
Self-hosted VoIP Business Telephone System
A self-hosted (premise-based) system means that a company pays for and owns their own equipment, specifically the PBX hardware that is necessary to keep the phone systems running. A PBX, or private branch exchange, system is the hardware that allows circuit switching within a business’s phone system.
Pros: with a self-hosted system, you are always in control of your system. You only have to rely on yourself to ensure that your system is always up and running and configured to your liking.
Cons: the downside to this system is that it requires more of an up-front cost because you have to buy all of the equipment. In addition to the cost, you would also have to have someone on-staff who is knowledgeable and capable of servicing and maintaining the system.
This type of phone system is best for businesses who don’t feel comfortable using the cloud and would like to have total control over their system and have access to the equipment at all times.
Cloud-based VoIP Business Telephone System
With the cloud-based VoIP system, there is not hardware worry about, which means that maintenance is not necessary. The service provider is the one in charge of the technology. Another advantage to going to the cloud is that the cloud offers your business the opportunity to grow. As your business grows, you can easily add new lines. Business usually pay a monthly fee for the service, or sometimes on a per user basis.
Pros: no hardware and no maintenance is required; your service provider handles all of this for you.
Cons: the downside of a cloud-based business telephone system is that you are not in control of the hardware and if the system goes down, you are reliant on the service provider to fix the problem.
This type of phone system is best for growing businesses who are on a fixed budget and don’t have a dedicated IT staff to operate/maintain PBX hardware.
Now that you have decided which business telephone system is best for your business, all that is left to do is choose which provider is best for you. Luckily, Teltek can help you with that, as well. We broker over 120 different carriers and can assist you in choosing the best one. We have established close relationships with the carriers, which enables us to offer you discounts and promotional pricing. Check out our website to learn more about our carrier services or call us at 1.866.9.TELTEK. We look forward to serving you!
Teltek is a Certified Avaya Business Partner, NEC Dealer, Zultys, and Microsoft Partner with two locations in the Baltimore Metropolitan area. We specialize in providing one call technology support for small to mid-sized businesses and nonprofits in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia and Pennsylvania.