How to Buy a Business Telephone System

Purchasing a business telephone system for your business may be one of the single most important and strategic decisions you will make. The handling of calls coming into and going out of your business can affect your company's bottom line in many ways.

Is your business a call center?

Is your business telemarketing?

These are just a couple of the situations that affect what type and size of a telephone system you need. At Direct Line Communications our trained engineering staff is available to help you make the proper decisions regarding the telephone system that best fits your company's needs.

There are a few things you should take into consideration before purchasing a new telephone system for your business.

1. Current size of your business and expected growth. (E.g., How many incoming lines and extensions? Are you less than 50 users? What is your projected growth in the future?)
2. Are you a customer service center? (E.g., Incoming or outgoing calls? How are calls answered? How many people answer or make calls?)
3. What special applications are needed? (E.g., ACD [Automatic Call Distribution], Voice Messaging,
   CTI [Computer Telephony Integration], IP)

The current size of your business will help to provide direction into what style of phone system you will choose. There are two main designs in today's market of business telephone systems, KSU (Key System Unit) and PBX (Phone Branch Exchange). Traditionally a KSU is designed for up to 40 users and a PBX is designed for greater then 40 users.

Also you will have to decide between Analog and Digital systems. Digital in the telephony world refers to the signaling used by the phone system to communicate to the phones on the system, but all standard POTS (plain old telephone service) lines are analog, so the phone system must convert the digital signal to analog to complete the call across those POTS lines. Where digital really comes into play is if you are using any digital lines (T-1, ISDN -PRI, BRI, DID, etc.) going into your phone system. If you want to send digital lines into a KSU you must convert them to analog in some manner (channel bank, router, etc.), while sacrificing functionality and adding cost and maintenance to the voice infrastructure.

The nature of your business will also play a tremendous role in the phone system you choose. If you are a call center (Technical service department, sales department, etc.) your have special needs to handle the high call volume associated with this type of business, most of the time this type of business has needs that exceed the phone systems stand alone capabilities and is implemented with one or more of the many special application programs available today, such as Automatic Call Distribution, Uniform Call Distribution or Computer Telephony Integration.

If you are a telemarketing firm you may find the need to use out dialing hardware or software to help increase the productivity of your telemarketing group.

These are some of the things that you need to consider when making the decision to purchase or lease a new phone system for your business. The goal of your purchase is to build quality and service into your phone system at a cost effective price while increasing your employees productivity for the continuing growth of your company in the future. Direct Line Communications can help.

Special Applications:

Voice Messaging. There are many types of voice messaging available from a basic voice mail system with individual mailboxes to an elaborate Unified Messaging system. Basic voice mail is where you have mailboxes that cover extensions when a certain individual is not available or is on his/her phone. In addition to basic voice mail coverage you may have an Auto Attendant that covers incoming calls automatically or used as a back up to an operator when he/she is busy handling other phone calls. Auto Attendant is also very useful as a night service after business hours. Today's Auto Attendants are very flexible in their ability to out dial a cell phone or pager for instant notification of a new message or emergency. Also most brands of voice mail have features such as holiday greetings and multiple lunch and night service greetings all administered and recorded by the end user.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR). Allows callers to respond vocally to prompts in the voice processing system to route the caller to the correct destination.

Unified Messaging (UFM). Allows outside agents to retrieve voice mail, e-mails and faxes from remote locations as if they were in the office. Also allows them to respond to these messages instantly creating a seamless communication pathway to outside salespeople, traveling executives or temporarily displaced employees, taking productivity to new levels with the ability to respond in a timely manner no matter where the person is.

Voice over IP (VOIP). Converting voice applications, which traditionally are circuit switching, over to packet switching technology so the voice stream can follow a data pathway instead of a traditional voice pathway (point to point T-1, ISDN Pri frame relay to internet cloud, etc.). More VOIP information.

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD). Routing, queuing and the ability to retrieve call statistics are a few of the most common features used in ACD programs to ensure timely and efficient call handling in a high call volume situation. Call centers generally use ACD for these purposes. Some times ACD is used in conjunction with voice mail or IVR (Interactive Voice Response) to make sure calls are routed to the proper call agents. Also the ACD can utilize Caller ID to create screen pop ups from an existing database to pull the customers information to the agents screen when they take the phone call.

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CompStar Technologies is a leading Indiana-based provider of networking, technology, and communications services. With offices in Mishawaka (serving South Bend, Elkhart, Warsaw, Michigan City, Fort Wayne, Niles, St. Joseph, and Benton Harbor, Michigan) and Indianapolis, CompStar provides network design / support, network security, wireless networking, business telephone systems, VoIP (voice over IP), and cctv / video surveillance systems. CompStar is the Technology Division of Direct Line Communications, headquartered in Mishawaka, Indiana.