Business Phone System:
To discover the most vital features of any business phone system, rate your own company on these four factors:
-Efficiency
-International reach
-Work space flexibility
-Disaster planning
Key 1: How Efficient Is Your Team?
Whether your home office is bursting at the seams or the queue lines at your world headquarters are burning through customer relationships, an upgraded business phone system can improve your bottom line. Phone system experts recommend looking at phone features that can streamline communication between employees and customers, as well as between your team members.
For instance, integrating faxes into your business phone system plan can improve security and efficiency. A virtual attendant to help route calls can help your support staff spend more time on important tasks. And an easy method to forward or transfer calls reduces dropped connections with customers.
Key 2: Expanding Overseas?
In his book, The 4-Hour Work Week, author and entrepreneur Timothy Ferriss recommends offshore knowledge workers as a crucial resource for growing businesses. Meanwhile, call centers and technical support hubs have blossomed throughout North America as companies at-tempt to improve customer service. Whether your new hires live in Boise or Bangalore, virtual PBX systems and inexpensive VoIP telephone routing can connect them seamlessly with your company’s clients.
If your business already maintains a presence in more than one country, you can reduce your expenses by reviewing business phone systems with inexpensive international calling. Remember that price isn’t always the only factor in evaluating your system, however. A cheap phone line does your company no good if the quality is poor or if your phone line’s latency is high.
Key 3: Using Flexible Office Space?
A growing number of companies allow employees to assign themselves work space as they arrive each day, instead of maintaining the same office or cubicle. This practice of “hotdesking” allows companies to use their corporate real estate efficiently, especially in conjunction with mobile or seasonal sales professionals. Unfortunately, older phone systems can rarely keep up with an executive who might be located in a different workspace--or even a different building--from day to day. By carrying a small phone or a decoder “dongle,” team members can simply “plug in” and conduct business from any work space.
Alternatively, virtual PBX systems now work together with VoIP “softphones” that can be accessed through an employee’s portable computer. Using this technology, a key team member on a wireless hotspot in a coffee shop sounds as close as the account executive in the corner office. If a laptop is lost or stolen, a new softphone can be installed in minutes on a replacement machine. In both cases, unified messaging applications, like those offered by ShoreTel, keep a team member’s important communication organized in a single inbox.
Key 4: Prepared for Anything?
When an aging steam pipe burst near New York’s Grand Central Station, business owners had no idea that haz-ardous materials would keep them out of their stores and offices for close to a week. Centralized phone lines and contact records forced many companies and service businesses to rely on their Web sites and on media reports to help them let customers know why the phones weren’t being answered.
If your customers count on you to always be there when they call, you should make sure your business phone system offers remote access and administration. “Disaster-proof” virtual PBX systems run on hardware at secure data centers, usually located miles away from your company headquarters. Building these features into your business phone system budget can help save your customer relationships during a crisis.
Business Phone System Case Study: Intel
To put these ideas to the test, Intel commissioned a study of one of its own business units. Wanting to see how companies could benefit from varying combinations of business phone systems, the study managers provided an assortment of tools to participants while measuring their productivity and their overall earnings for the company.
In addition to the expected benefits of improved customer communication, Intel measured some surprising bonuses. Compared to traditional PBX systems, a virtual PBX system requires less physical space and less air conditioning, reducing both real estate and utility costs. Integrated audio conferencing systems reduced the costs of relying on outside services, while increasing internal collaboration.
