Useful Tips to Select Right Phone Service for Your Needs

There is no denying that the telecommunication sector has taken giant strides in recent times and a host of different phone systems are today available for a business house. Thus, selecting the right phone system for your business can be a daunting task.

The business models have also drastically changed and today businesses need undisrupted communication facilities to access phone services - wherever they are or whenever the need arises.

Fixed line analogue systems are the traditional phone system that has been in use for a long time till the telecom explosion took place. With the emergence of new technologies and sophisticated phone systems, conventional systems are becoming steadily outdated.

Most businesses now agree that VoIP offers economical call rates as voice and data are transmitted over the Internet. With the introduction of VoIP technology, an entire array of time and cost-saving features has suddenly become available for business enterprises. Most of the features help business organizations to enhance the efficiency of their communication system, improve customer service and increase overall productivity.

Plenty of options are available today, including PBX systems, VoIP systems and virtual PBX networks.

Fixed line analogue/VoIP hybrid solution - This system entails an ISDN service for incoming calls and VoIP for outgoing calls. A hybrid solution aims at providing cheaper calls and a savings in phone bills. But the technology is complex for a user who is not familiar with VoIP. This hybrid system has thus become unpopular and you seldom find a business house opting for this system.

Internet PBX Premise-based - This VoIP phone system is internally managed and maintained by the user. Of course, this system offers rich features and useful functionality unlike the fixed line analogue systems. An IPBX is a complex piece of equipment and requires constant monitoring and maintenance by a VoIP specialist whom the user has to employ.

Hosted VoIP - This system provides all the advanced features and the chief advantage is the entire hardware is kept and maintained by a service provider. This means you need not make any upfront investment in equipment and bother about its subsequent maintenance.  Geography is also not an issue with a hosted PBX system as all offices and even remote locations can be connected via the same phone network. This means that calls can be transferred between offices and the organization receives just a single phone bill for the total phone usage.

The important thing to bear in mind is that your phone system is critically important for your business. Buy features that your business will find useful and do not over buy features you will never use. Make sure the phone system is scalable for you to expand the PBX to meet your future growth.

Think of the various probabilities - Do you need individual extensions with voicemail for each employee? Do you want some kind of mobile solution for employees to carry with them while on the road? How many employees you may additionally recruit in the next three years? Do you want calls routed to people in remote locations? Ponder over these important factors before you begin shopping for a phone system for your business.

With so many systems currently available, take your time when drawing up a shortlist of vendors, equipment and service providers to ensure you get the best system at the right price.