How to Buy a Phone System
Every business is different and has differing needs when looking to solve telecoms problems. Businesses often start out using a single mobile but then find it difficult to decide when and what is required; worried about making a wrong choice or committing to long and overly complicated contracts.
A good start is to set out a brief of what you are currently doing, stating what is right and wrong with the current solution. Look to understand if your business has mainly incoming calls, outgoing calls are both. This sounds a little obvious, but most businesses we work with will be either one or another; often requiring a different configuration.
Look at where staff are working from and will be working in future; giving considerations if they will be in one or more offices, at home, or moving between these, including when mobile.
Telecoms should also be considered when looking at IT changes and vice-versa; making changes to IT infrastructure can allow taking advantage of new technology, such as VoIP, which will allow improvements in communication and often make financial savings. Changing Telecoms, such as using a VoIP cloud phone service, can allow staff to work from home, affecting IT requirements. Consider how staff communicates, as with the recent lockdowns many are using services such as TEAMS; will there be a requirement going forward, and can the VoIP service link to this.
Lastly, rather than looking for solutions to fit your issues, pass your brief past a telecoms supplier, such as Numberite and allow us to offer solutions. We have seen most situations and if not relish the challenge to offer a solution. We have worked with clients using a single mobile to larger businesses with 100’s of extensions and plenty between; we have always managed to find a solution that fits in with the client’s requirements and finances.
One solution that fits in with a majority of issues is a VoIP system. Mainly due to the fact it is so configurable with many facets to the service, from auto-attendant (answering – “press 1..”), incoming call routing (timed and preferenced), hunting processes, and answering solutions.
Read on to see the elements involved in a VoIP solution.
CHOOSING VOIP
Choosing your new VoIP phone system is as simple as choosing or using your own phone number and the number of phones you require. From this, we can set up your new phone system fully configured and ready to go. Our services are all contract-free, so no long commitment to 5 years although if a customer prefers to be in a contract we can offer this for 24 months if over 10 handset and able to fix prices for this period.
We can either supply and install or just supply for DIY installation. The process for both is based on the following decisions :
1. Phone Number (s) – To receive calls you will require a phone number and this can be for any area in the UK. E.G. you can have a local number to you, i.e. if you are in Exeter you could use a 01392 number or it can be any area code, e.g. you can have an office in Exeter but are supplied a London 0207 number. The third option is to go national with an 0800 or 0330 number. Whatever you choose a number can be supplied for £8 per month, with no setup fee, although if you decide to bring your own number to our services there is an initial £30 porting fee, then £8 per month to hold the number.
2. Phone System – PBX – This is supplied per Extension – An extension will be required for each person within the system. This will link to desktop phones, walkabout, smartphone or Windows PC companion or Teams user, each extension being supplied at £8. So 4 staff will require 4 extensions. When you select 1 or more extensions, we supply you with a fully functional Hosted Phone System. Each extension can be configured to allow 3 devices, such as handsets or smartphones to make and take calls at different locations; although only one concurrent call can be made on each extension at a time. There is also a “Hot Desk Extension” where you can sit at any of your phones and login to be contactable at that phone.
Phone System Call Handling – Where calls are received within the system they are held within the cloud-based phone system (PBX) and then routed to the relevant handset or softphone. Calls can be answered by the now-familiar “Press 1..” (auto-attendant) or simply set to ring all phones, groups of phones or to hunt for someone to answer. During busy periods there are Queue options to hold calls and finally Voicemail to take un-answered calls. We can also forward calls out to call answering services or other external landlines or mobiles. As the PBX is web/cloud-based extensions can be anywhere where there is an internet connection. Calls made from staff members with extensions make free calls, so a staff member in Exeter, can call “Internally” to colleagues in Spain for free.
3. Phone Handsets – For each extension, you will require a phone handset, and these can either be a desk phone, walkabout, or a softphone or linked to your TEAMs system. A Softphone is software that runs on your Windows computer or smartphone and allows you to make and take calls. Desk and DECT phones range from £50 to £200 depending on the features you require. The smartphone app for Apple, Android, and Windows desk companion are supplied as part of the extension without a fee.
4. Call costs – You can either select to pay as you go or a call bundle. With P.A.Y.G, Calls to 01, 02, and 03 numbers are 2.5p per minute, calls to mobiles and 0845 are 5.5p per minute, plus a 3p connection fee per call. Most of Europe and the USA are 2p.5. If you have an 0800 number then there is a 5p per minute for the incoming part of the call.
We offer two types of call bundles, Site Bundles, and Extension Bundles which allow you to control your costs for the month. The bundles include a number of landline and mobile minutes included for each bundle.
Site Bundles start with the “600 Call Bundle” which includes 600 minutes to a landline or mobile number; ie a total of 600 minutes or 10 hours, for £15 per month. We can also offer 1,200 or 2,400 minutes for £27 or £48 respectively per month. These bundles include all calls to 01, 02, 03, 07 & 0800 calls. Calls over bundle will be either at our standard rate or an additional bundle depending on the amount. Bundles can be changed by the month if notified prior to the start of the month.
Extension bundles are supplied as “Unlimited landline/mobile minutes” supplied at £8 per extension but for all extensions. Therefore for 4 extensions, this would be £32 per month.
Outside any of the bundles would be calls to 0870, 090, 070 (follow me), 084x, satellite, international, enquiry numbers (118xxx), and any other non-geographic number. These are supplied at our standard rate.
We can either supply the system and phones set up for self-connection; our DIY option or can arrange for technicians to visit you to set up, configure and give training on the use of the system. In both cases, we supply feature and function sheets and web guides for using the system.