By Lisa Settle
A business phone system typically differs from a personal home phone system in several respects.
The importance of reliability
System failures are now relatively rare things - but they can still happen.
If your phone at home decides to suddenly stop working, you may suffer some inconvenience until it's sorted out - but you're perhaps unlikely to suffer serious consequences. In such circumstances you may be able to cope with just your mobile until the problem is resolved.
In a business environment though, a failure of that sort could be a major disaster.
The second your customers and clients can't reach you, then there's a big risk that they'll simply go elsewhere. That's not really a desirable situation, so you'll probably want your phones up and running 24/7.
That's why selecting equipment from a proven leading supplier may save you grief!
Added functions
Although today some people have fairly sophisticated technology setups at home, it's still perhaps the case that typically businesses will demand more of their phone systems that a home user.
A business phone system may need to be capable of supporting a wide range of business functions including directories, voice mail, call forwarding, conferencing, call logging and analysis plus data and text transmissions.
You may use some of these sorts of facilities at home but a business telecoms system has to be capable of doing this potentially for multiple parties at the same time and in volume.
Companies that are unable to exploit these sorts of business process and B2B capabilities may struggle to compete in the modern business environment.
Scalability
Although it's not exactly an elegant word, scalability is one of the most important concepts to keep in mind during the selection of a business phone system.
It doesn't matter whether or not you're a great forecaster or even psychic, you may find it quite difficult to say with certainty what your requirements of a phone system will be in, say, 12-24 months.
Therefore, a business needs to try to ensure that its phone system is as future-proof as possible and this is something that has only a limited application in home phone systems.
The good news is that modern small business telecoms systems from major suppliers are now typically modular with a range of plug-in options for expanding your system should your business change in the period ahead.
That may be just adding several more handsets, or perhaps significantly expanding your systems data-carrying capabilities. Whatever that need is, what you'll want is a fast and trauma-free upgrade path.
Home vs Business
So for all these reasons, plus others, selecting a small business phone system requires a different set of criteria than when doing the same for a domestic system. Taking some specialist advice might be a good idea.
Lisa Settle is a Director of Telcare ( http://www.telcare.co.uk ) a customer-focused telecoms provider that can take care of all your business telephony needs, from giving advice through to installation and ongoing care and maintenance.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Lisa_Settle/608639
A business phone system typically differs from a personal home phone system in several respects.
The importance of reliability
System failures are now relatively rare things - but they can still happen.
If your phone at home decides to suddenly stop working, you may suffer some inconvenience until it's sorted out - but you're perhaps unlikely to suffer serious consequences. In such circumstances you may be able to cope with just your mobile until the problem is resolved.
In a business environment though, a failure of that sort could be a major disaster.
The second your customers and clients can't reach you, then there's a big risk that they'll simply go elsewhere. That's not really a desirable situation, so you'll probably want your phones up and running 24/7.
That's why selecting equipment from a proven leading supplier may save you grief!
Added functions
Although today some people have fairly sophisticated technology setups at home, it's still perhaps the case that typically businesses will demand more of their phone systems that a home user.
A business phone system may need to be capable of supporting a wide range of business functions including directories, voice mail, call forwarding, conferencing, call logging and analysis plus data and text transmissions.
You may use some of these sorts of facilities at home but a business telecoms system has to be capable of doing this potentially for multiple parties at the same time and in volume.
Companies that are unable to exploit these sorts of business process and B2B capabilities may struggle to compete in the modern business environment.
Scalability
Although it's not exactly an elegant word, scalability is one of the most important concepts to keep in mind during the selection of a business phone system.
It doesn't matter whether or not you're a great forecaster or even psychic, you may find it quite difficult to say with certainty what your requirements of a phone system will be in, say, 12-24 months.
Therefore, a business needs to try to ensure that its phone system is as future-proof as possible and this is something that has only a limited application in home phone systems.
The good news is that modern small business telecoms systems from major suppliers are now typically modular with a range of plug-in options for expanding your system should your business change in the period ahead.
That may be just adding several more handsets, or perhaps significantly expanding your systems data-carrying capabilities. Whatever that need is, what you'll want is a fast and trauma-free upgrade path.
Home vs Business
So for all these reasons, plus others, selecting a small business phone system requires a different set of criteria than when doing the same for a domestic system. Taking some specialist advice might be a good idea.
Lisa Settle is a Director of Telcare ( http://www.telcare.co.uk ) a customer-focused telecoms provider that can take care of all your business telephony needs, from giving advice through to installation and ongoing care and maintenance.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Lisa_Settle/608639