Building Reliable Communications For Small Offices
If your business has less than 10 employees who need computers, phones, and powered workstations, you have a unique opportunity to scale your costs with fine-turned savings. Low resource demand and fewer pieces of equipment to buy means you can spend more time figuring out the right way to set everything up, and your communications plan needs as much attention as it can get. Here are a few phone system and internet planning points to keep your business agile down to the very seat.
Understanding The New World Of Telephone Communications
The modern desk phone hasn't been completely replaced by the smartphone. Reception issues, low batteries, and the need to receive calls at the office while maintaining some sort of personal issues are all reasons to keep the device relevant, but a lot has changed.
You're no longer required to deal with single, expensive phone lines tied to copper networks. In fact, most phone systems aren't even on copper networks--and even copper networks are connected to newer Internet Protocol-based networks.
One important misconception to get rid of is the meaning of landline. Landline doesn't mean a copper line, although many customers get up in arms over perceived (and often wrong) safety concerns about losing their copper connections. A landline is literally a telephone or communications line that is buried underground or carried by service poles. Landline isn't going anywhere since wireless still has its issues and will always need a backup.
With the newer IP-based phones, businesses can create more phone lines with greater ease. It's cheaper to create a logical (as in digital or computer-based) phone number rather than assigning a copper switch connection, and you can even create internal phone numbers for calling specific desks by dialing short sets of numbers.
Managing An Internet Layout With IP-Based Phones
When setting up IP-based phones, there are multiple ways to get it done. You could lease the IP phone network from an existing company and connect via a business internet connection, or have a Voice over IP (VOIP) network configured internally.
If you have staff Information Technicians (IT) who know their way around networks, it's just an issue of configuration and maybe a new router. If not, internal VOIP configuration is very expensive.
For most businesses without VOIP-skilled technicians at their service, you'll need to make sure that your internet service plan is good enough for phone calls. VOIP technology is very efficient, but if your business often downloads huge files exceeding multiple gigabytes on an hour basis, a phone call can turn into a robot-like, warped speech session with a lot of lost information.
Finding the right balance of speed, consistency, and cost can be difficult. Contact a small business phone systems professional to discuss the technology available and different options to get the best performance out of phone systems and internet.
