Landline Phones for Small Business

 

Our business is to keep your business connected.

A telephone system for small business or home will incorporate multi line phones, VoIP technology and many user friendly features to increase efficiency and productivity. The right business phone system can allow small businesses and startups the same communication capabilities as larger, more established organisations.

Small Business Phone System Providers

One of the biggest choices you have to make when deciding on the right phone system for your small business is the provider you choose for your solutions.

In the UK, businesses have the choice of a number of leading suppliers from the telecoms industry and each has their benefits and advantages as well as features that may suit certain types of organisations.

 

What Small Business Phone System do you Require?

Before entering into purchasing a small business telephone system, there are a number of factors you need to consider:

• How many lines do you need?
• How many extensions are required?
• What features would you like on your system?
• How many line provider sockets do you need?
• Can your telephone system expand with growth?

It is important to examine each of these questions carefully because the phone system you choose for your small business is important for a number of reasons. Communication is key to the success of any organisation regardless of the sector you operate within and a modern phone system will ensure as a small business or startup you can compete with larger, established enterprises.
As well as reviewing phone systems that can help the performance and productivity of your small business immediately you also need to future proof your choice by ensuring the telephone system you choose fits with the growth strategy for organisation.

Other Considerations

• Will you require call forwarding to mobile phones, and their integration into your system?
• Will you require call redirection to staff members who work from home?
• Do you wish to have a data network installed, which is able to use wireless technology?
• Is there a need for your business to be able to integrate the phone system with the IT used?
• Will you need to be able to identify customer details and dial numbers from a computer, called Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)?

Some small businesses do not need these extras, although depending on the industry a company operates within some firms may find them essential.

Once you have answered these questions you can start to look at which system is suitable for your needs.

 

Choosing the Right Phone System for Your Business

What is considered a ‘good phone system’ can vary depending on the number of extensions and features needed. In addition, advances in mobile technology are changing the ways in which many people do business.

Hosted cloud-based PBX systems mean that businesses can move away from traditional in-house telephone lines, and communicate better than ever from just their smartphones – an ideal solution for businesses wanting to lower communication costs while still benefiting from advanced features such as call recording and personalised on-hold music or marketing messages.

 

1) Traditional Systems (PBX)

If you are thinking of buying a traditional phone system, you will need to think about buying a phone for each employee. If you have a small business with a handful of employees, then there is no reason why you can’t just buy the same setup that you would use at home.

If you have lots of extensions for your employees, then you will need to look at a PBX or Private Branch Exchange, which will co-ordinate all incoming and outgoing calls, help to make transfers and manage voicemail on different extensions.

A PBX used to be a wall-mounted box that each phone line plugged into, but nowadays, these can be virtual as well, offering the same functionality as traditional hardware.

 

2) VoIP for Small Businesses

A VoIP system works by transmitting the phone audio over the Internet, so it is important to make sure that your VoIP phones don’t use the same connection for the Internet otherwise if multiple people are online at once, this can caused garbled or dropped calls.

The number of lines you would need is based on how many people you expect to be using the system at the same time.

For example, a two person organisation will be likely to only need two lines, a 10 person organisation will generally need five to seven lines, and a 100 person organisation could only need up to 20 lines.

 

Finding the Right Match

Keeping your small office as efficient and productive as possible is one of the biggest challenges that startups and small organisations face and putting the right communications process in place early can mean saving money, time and space further down the line.

To choose the right system for your business, it’s best to mix and match from the different options open to you. So before making a decision, speak to our experts and explore the different options you can opt for.