Selecting the Right Small Business Phone System
by monatoc
Choosing a phone system is not usually the first thing on a new small business owner ‘s mind. Even after your office is established and operational, your small business’ phone system will likely function so smoothly that it will fade into the background.

But what do you do when you need to install a new small phone system or replace an existing phone system? Do you know the choices available to you and what every option means? Small business phone systems can seem confusing, but knowing the basics can help you buy the phone system that ‘s just right for your business.

The first thing to remember is that there are four basic types of commercial phone systems to choose from. The first, Private Branch Exchange (also known as PBX) systems, are known to most of us as the huge and confusing cabinets with dedicated operators. Luckily, there are smaller-scale PBX systems for your small business. Since many office workers are familiar with PBX systems, which are becoming more affordable every year, this is often the best choice for small businesses.

Another very popular option for small to mid-size businesses is the key system. This type of phone system consists of a key system unit that controls all of the other phones in the business. The KSU controls the features and functions of each phone, such as voicemail, and ensures that one line is never in use by more than one user at a time.

The key system allows in-system phones to dial each other directly via extension and lets the operator of the KSU supervise the operation of the entire system to ensure that all users’ needs are met. The key system is also very expandable with new software.

These two types of phone systems have become very similar as technology has progressed. Features that were once available only on PBX systems are now readily available on systems that are referred to as key systems. Phone systems that share features of PBX and key systems are often called hybrids and offer the most features with the most expandability.

For very small businesses of two to 10 employees, a KSU-less system may be the most appropriate choice. A KSU-less system features phones that each contain the KSU-type technology so that they can provide the functions and features that key systems provide, but without the central unit.

One of the largest benefits to the KSU-less system is that it is not permanently wired into the building like other types of phone systems. Since the technology is contained in the phones, there is no complicated equipment to move when your business moves to a new building.

A newer technology in the small business phone system realm is voice over internet protocol, or VoIP. VoIP phone systems send voice calls over a broadband connection rather than phone lines. VoIP technology can facilitate your small business phone needs for a much lower cost and higher quality than traditional phone systems.

The type of phone system that you choose for your small business depends on your needs and expectations. The easiest way to see if a small business phone system is appropriate for you is to try it out. Just picking up the phones and pressing buttons can give you a feel for how the system operates. Make sure that features are easy to access and understand.

Any time you purchase a new system for your small business phone needs, remember to think of how your business will grow in the future. Ask the installer to give you much more wiring than you need currently to avoid having to pay for pricey future rewiring.

Keep your staff in mind. If you have a large staff, a KSU-less system probably will not be adequate for your needs; you will need to invest in a PBX or hybrid. Luckily, the prices of these sophisticated phone systems are coming down every year. If you time your purchase to coincide with the end of the quarter (when sales reps are hungry for sales), you may be able to get a new small business phone system for much less than you expect. Having the right phone system for your small business can make a huge difference in the way that you and your staff interact with each other and with your customers.

About the Author

Copyright 2008. Chris Monato. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Copyright 2008. Chris Monato. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

For more information on finding the best small business phone system visit: http://smallbusinessphone.blogspot.com

Article Source: Content for Reprint

Major Advantages of Hosted PBX Systems
By John M Kinskey A

Choosing a hosted PBX service provides advantages in several areas where traditional PBX phone systems are weakest. Hosted PBX delivers PBX functionality as a service, available over telephone and/or the internet. The first hosted PBX was introduced in late 1997. Users contract for PBX services from a hosted PBX provider. Today, it is possible to get hosted PBX service with more features than were available from the first systems of this class, or to contract with companies that provide less functionality for more simple needs.

Now using a Hosted PBX Phone System you can have all of the features of the best telephone and voicemail systems, with no equipment to buy, maintain or outgrow. The hardest mainstream features to get in a hosted system are real Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) instead of simple hunt groups, flexible company directories, call transfers between extensions (or to an operator or an ACD queue), and real-time system monitoring. There are many other advanced functions that only a few providers have been able to make available. Web-based administration tools are the norm for hosted PBX services. Adding new users, changing extensions, and changing hunt groups or call queues is as easy as a point and click.

A Hosted PBX phone system can be configured to utilize your current voicemail, for example, transferring calls to your cell phone and letting the call roll into your cell phone voicemail if not answered. A hosted PBX usually can handle a higher number of calls. If the caller enters an extension they will be prompted to stay on the line while their call is transferred. If you answer you will have the opportunity to accept/reject the call. After accepting a call you can transfer the caller back to voice mail or to another extension. If the lines are busy or not answered the caller will hear the voice mail greeting for that extension and be able to leave a message. In addition, hardware PBX buyers are on usually a tight budget and buy small systems that can’t grow. But there is no capital outlay for hosted PBX services, and extensions can be changed as needs change. Hosted PBX customers pay only for what they need.

There are other advantages that a hosted system has. The most important is the ability to route calls to any phone, rather than just phones wired to the PBX inside the office. Other major advantages of hosted PBX include lower entry cost, support costs, greater ease of management, flexibility, and improved scalability. No longer will your traveling employees feel out of touch. The right hosted PBX service can make their cell phone into a seamless part of the company telecommunications infrastructure: calls to their extension will ring through to their cell, and they’ll be able to transfer and forward calls as usual.

AccessDirect – a leading service provider of Hosted PBX system will provide you with a Virtual Phone PBX system that is scalable, configurable and reliable.

AccessDirect is also a leading service provider of Voice Mail and Fax Mail services. We serve business customers of every shape and variety with a program tailored to their unique needs. Our Hosted PBX Phone System is a full-featured telephone system with an auto attendant to answer all calls and provides options to the caller including dial-by-extension, dial-by-name, call transfer with find me follow me call forwarding, voicemail, and much more.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_M_Kinskey_A
http://EzineArticles.com/?Major-Advantages-of-Hosted-PBX-Systems&id=954214

Some good advice to offer is to look at the number of phones, take a traffic study, see how your business uses the phones, find out what features they really need to communicate vs. nice to have features, whether you are willing to do in-house administration and ask yourself what are your plans for growth or relocation in the near future.

Do you need a someone who can install or maintain your current system? FIND THEM HERE

Packet 8 Broadband Phone Services Get unlimited local and long distance broadband phone service with residential plans as low as $19.99/month and business plan starting from $34.99. Extensive list of features includes number portability, great international plans, video plans and more…

By Yung K Kim 

Hosted PBX has been prevailing in market for quite some period, but only recently its clubbed with many new features. It has started attracting the business peoples of all levels regardless of their breadth and width. The earlier stage when this technology was launched it was considered as quiet a complicate process due to its capability of multi functionality. But now after visualizing its use and comparatively easy to manage technology, many professionals have started turning towards hosted PBX.

The benefits of hosted PBX are really tremendous when compared to its maintenance and easy handling. Hosted PBX is a visual phone, which comes with enormous features clubbed together in order to perform successful and non-tangible business. It has many superior and helpful features for businessmen like automatic voice call facility, call forwarding and diverting options, caller id tool, toll free enhancement, auto answer and divert, multiple voice mailboxes, complete overview of the system through a single window over web access and easy setting options.

Basically the most important benefit of hosted PBX is considered to be its no labor policy. There is no need of any receptionist to attend and transfer our calls, no separate customer care executive to attend to product feed back and no maintenance or repair work needed. Once installed, it can all be made into your own control which is quiet manageable and gives you the ease of knowing all the company happenings directly and genuinely.

Hosted PBX is definitely a centralized intelligence service, which allows your employees or consumers to be hooked up to you through the always-accessible option we provide them through it. Toll free number can be easily associated with the help of hosted PBX where our customer feed can increase to more than 30% than earlier. And 800 number services, apart from being a medium of getting feed back through customers also hikes the company’s or firm’s impression among public.

We can also organize our voice mail in such a way to direct the callers to different category of options and help them identify their purpose of call and post their queries, service requirement or comment under the relevant option. So that it is a better way for us to organize our calls and also makes us boosts the impression of the firm by exhibiting so many divisions in it.

The call forwarding option while pre-set helps us to be accessible where ever we are, which means a lot, for not missing any of our big business deals by assuring all time availability despite of the fact where ever we are. It is clubbed with several other such additional features like voice mail system, multiple voice mail options, out going voicemail messages and through setting up our call forwarding numbers along with message delivery.

With the possibility of web access all these process gets even more simpler through our ‘view and control’ over the entire summary of our incoming and out going communications in business including local, long-distance and broadband through a single window. And the setting for all branches of hosted PBX service is available in our fingertip. The applications are in short endless. Hence there lye our smartness in being aware of the benefit of hosted PBX and installing them at the earliest before our competitors do.

Yung Kim is editor of http://www.vodawi.com and is an expert in wireless, telecommunications, and networking.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Yung_K_Kim
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Real-Benefits-of-Hosted-PBX&id=612491

A traditional PBX system requires special wiring, training and lots of capital . In a few years, you may have to discard the PBX and get a bigger one. More capacity and different equipment equal more training and more expenses.With a Virtual PBX system can be easily scaled either way to provide you a PBX system that your business needs. VoIP technology now makes it possible to have a remotely hosted Virtual PBX system with no special telephone wiring at all. The phones connect to your existing data network and and uses your existing High Speed Internet service, either DSL or T1, and is just as easy if not easier than adding another computer to the existing data network. All you have to do is buy the phones (you need phones anyway) along with adaptors to connect them to your network and pay a small bundled rate for unlimited local and long distance service plus those special PBX features.Substituting the Virtual PBX / VOIP option with traditional phone service offers three potential advantages:

1) Costs can be substantially lower due to no charges for local service connections or long-distance calls.
2) Companies do not have to install and maintain a PBX (private branch exchange) system to provide individual phone lines for their employees.
3) Voice communications can be integrated with other existing or future data functions and can deliver advanced features than are not available with plain old telephone service (POTS).

Lower long-distance and local service expenses are the most obvious advantage for consumers and companies alike. What company or business would not want to cut costs while at the same time improving operational and functional capability. When a business moves to VOIP technologies and away from POTS they can sidestep the additional charges from the taxes on the traditional telephone service. This lack of taxation may change as the local, state, and federal governments realize that the untaxed status of VOIP could cause significant reductions in tax revenues that they received from traditional telephone service.

Hello Direct has been the leading developer and direct marketer of desktop telephony products since 1987. We have grown from a small handful of visionaries to a well recognized business-to-business leader in telecommunications solutions.

More significant cost reductions occur from the elimination of separate lines for voice and data. As an example, most medium sized businesses with 20 or more lines on a PBX lease a T1line for voice and a separate T1 for Internet access. With Virtual PBX / VOIP, one costly T1 lease can be eliminated. Smaller locations could continue to use the broadband Internet service they currently use, although cable Internet is not recommended, and eliminate most if not of their traditional phone service. Although cable Internet is a viable choice for residential services it has disadvantages for business use.

Unlike Virtual PBX, traditional PBX hardware can be very expensive and the requirement for on-site maintenance only adds to that expense. With a Virtual PBX you can have an individual phone line for each employee as well as features such as voice mail, conference calling, call forwarding, and many other features that are not included with traditional PBX. Using VOIP technology a company can have a Virtual PBX without all hardware and maintenance expenses.

Not only can a Virtual PBX reduce expenses for a business, but VOIP technology allows for more advanced features than even the most sophisticated traditional PBX. With VOIP technology a employees can access a web interface that allows them to call forward to any list of numbers offsite that they wish. This same access can allow for call screening that only allows or
blocks calls from specific numbers. Voice mail can be forward to email addresses, and both voice mail and faxes can be managed with a visual mailbox like one used for email.