Business Phone System Buyer s Guide

Business Phone System Buyer s Guide

Types of Systems Available There are three primary types of of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems on the market today: KSU-Less, KSU and PBX. Generally, the more users and/or more features you want, the farther you ll move down the list below. KSU-Less A KSU (Key Systems Unit)-Less system is a simple, lightweight multi-line phone system where all the intelligence of the phone system the features and functions are contained in the desktop handsets themselves. In other words, there is no central telephone server in your office or home. Designed for residential, home office, small office and small business, these systems are easily expandable and typically support up to 16 handsets. Advantages Inexpensive: $100 to $200 per handset Simple installation, set-up and add/move/ change when you need to add phones or move to a new location No maintenance fees Basic features are standard multiple telephone lines, hold, intercom, transfer, speakerphone, caller-id, call transfer, voice paging and more Disadvantages Little to no support from the manufacturer Some features, such as not allowing someone else pick up the line you are on when you are on a call, are not available As the more full-featured PBX and IP-PBX systems come down in price, KSU-Less systems are being phased out KSU-Less systems are being phased out, and at this time, are really only suitable for SOHO or residential use. KSU One simple way to know you are using a KSU (Key Systems Unit)-based system is that when you want to make a call, you choose the telephone line you wish to talk on. You are actually keying (pressing the key or button) for that line every time you want to make a call. In contrast, PBX systems (see below) Business Phone System Buyer s Guide Consumer Business Products 2012 2

automatically select the outgoing line. Physically, KSUs have a central control unit that manages all the phone extensions on the system. Less expensive than PBX solutions, KSUs offer almost PBX-like functionality at a lower cost. In fact, some KSU systems are actually PBXs with certain features turned off. If you are looking for a system with five to 40 extensions, and you want to save some money over a PBX, the KSU option is one to look at. Advantages More features than KSU-Less systems; most notable is that engaged lines cannot be interrupted by other extensions Less expensive than a full-fledged PBX system Some PBX-based systems have upgrade paths to being a real PBX system Disadvantages Not a full-featured PBX The central computer is a black-box that can require specific expertise to manage Not that much less expensive than a fullfledged PBX KSU systems are good for very small offices where cost is a large factor. While they have decent features, KSU systems have limitations that reduce the professionalism of your office. PBX (Private Branch Exchange) PBX systems have been available and have evolved and improved for decades. You can trace PBX services all the way back to the operator switchboards that used to be in large offices. Originally analog based, PBXs evolved to be digital, and in the 1990s, started to incorporate Internet technology (often called packet switched and Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP). Using Internet technology to transport calls has many technical advantages, but remember that it significantly cuts costs and increases the flexibility of your phone system. How does VoIP achieve these benefits? It uses the power of the Internet inside your company to route calls on your existing LAN and broadband connections resulting in intra-company calls being free (the exception being your Internet bandwidth costs). Phone system flexibility is improved because you can manage all of the phones in your system (yes, even the ones in Business Phone System Buyer s Guide Consumer Business Products 2012 3

that remote office) from secure web pages. Finally, the advent of VoIP is important because it allowed manufacturers to significantly reduce costs while increasing features and system flexibility. In fact, if your company is using a PBX now, switching to an IP-PBX will save your company money. Hosted vs. On-Premise IP-PBX Systems Today, there are two types of IP-PBX systems, On-premise IP-PBX and Hosted IP-PBX. They offer similar core services for call management, but there are differences between the two that boil down to a few areas: On-Premise IP-PBX Initial cost: higher than Hosted IP-PBX Ongoing cost: lower than Hosted IP-PBX Set-up: slower to install Maintenance: annual fees to PBX supplier and on-site physical maintenance of servers Choose and pay for the features you want For calls out to other phones, standard long-distance tolls apply Hosted IP-PBX Initial cost: lower than On-Premise IP-PBX Ongoing cost: can be higher than On-Premise IP-PBX Set-up: faster to install Features: must use the features that your hosting provider has installed Maintenance: included in monthly service fees Calls between offices on the IP-PBX are free For calls out to other phones, standard long-distance tolls apply For a long time, it was assumed that IP-PBXs were only good for smaller installations. Now, with hosted providers able to manage thousands of users, this is not true. If you want to dig deeper into the history and features offered by IP-PBX systems, a great place to start is: http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/private_branch_exchange Calls between offices on the IP-PBX are free Business Phone System Buyer s Guide Consumer Business Products 2012 4

You must take great care to understand your company s needs today and for the foreseeable life of your telephone equipment. The Importance of SIP (or how do I call for pizza?) Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is how your IP-PBX connects to regular phone lines. This will happen when you call outside of your IP-PBX phone network, such as if your office calls the local pizza place to order lunch, or to make local or long-distance calls or even calls for emergency 911 services. To order a pizza, your Internet-based, packet switched IP-PBX phone system needs to connect with an old-fashioned Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) circuit switched phone that is outside of your phone system. In simple terms, the two phone systems are incompatible, and SIP fixes the incompatibility by making a bridge between the two styles of telephone systems. The SIP Bridge can be provided by your Hosted IP-PBX provider or you can buy these services from an SIP Trunking Vendor who will connect your IP-PBX via the Internet to their offices and then on to the old PSTN phone system. To make calls outside of your IP-PBX, you need to connect via an SIP Trunk bridge to the regular (PSTN) phone system. This connection can be provided by your IP-PBX hosting provider or a dedicated SIP Trunk service vendor. You will want to carefully assess Hosted and On-Premise PBX solutions depending on the features you require, your budget and number of users. Your Organization s Network Systems Migrating to VoIP will at the least require your organization to review its networking system s Local Area Networks (LANs) within a location and Wide Area Networks (WANs) between locations to determine if they can support the data delivery quality VoIP requires and the additional bandwidth it VoIP is going to consume. Additionally your tech team will need to ensure that your networks have some level of redundancy built in, are secure and support a networking standard called H.293. Business Phone System Buyer s Guide Consumer Business Products 2012 5

Experts must determine that your organization s data networks have enough capacity, are secure enough and configured properly for VoIP telephony to operate effectively. Questions To Ask Your Reseller What should you ask the phone system resellers you are talking to? Here is a list of what you should think about: Will the reseller s employees or a subcontractor install the phone system? Have they installed phone systems for businesses like mine? (if so, ask for a few references) What service level agreements does your reseller offer? Does their pricing include training and all fees, including taxes and maintenance? Will we be able to do basic moves, adds, changes without calling the reseller? If not, what are the costs? How easy is it to expand this phone system? What s the maximum number of users it can support? Can we use other brands of phones with this system? If we want to add additional phone system features later, is that possible? At what cost? How many of this brand/model of phone system have you sold and installed? Are those customers happy with them? Can we talk with them? Plan your questions ahead of time to ensure that you ask every vendor the same questions so you can compare them equally. Questions Your Reseller Will Need Answered How many employees at your company? What locations will be on this IP-PBX phone system? Are there remote users who will be using your phone system and are not on your corporate network? Details on the Internet broadband services Business Phone System Buyer s Guide Consumer Business Products 2012 6

you have at each location the IP-PBX phones will be installed and should include: Current bandwidth purchased, current loading on that bandwidth, and service guarantees Details on your current phone system and should include: Number and location of handsets, number of phone lines, features in use, and special items such as conference calling needs or the call center How much of your company is upgrading to the new IP-PBX? Are some locations not upgrading? Statistics on current calling patterns: copies of the last few months phone bills, inbound/outbound ratios, statistics on internal, local, long-distance and international call volumes Your budget for a phone system purchase, maintenance and call tolls Phone Lines Per Employee Determining the number of phone lines required per employee is a complex question and at the same time been both easier and more difficult to answer in the age of VoIP phones. For VoIP phone systems, you need to consider the number of users, internal, local, long distance and international calling volumes and patterns and the features that will be implemented on the system. Items that will increase bandwidth needs include more users and significant internal conference calling. Items that will increase SIP Trunk requirements include high levels of local and long distance calling. VoIP has different requirements than older phone systems. Your VoIP phone vendor will work with you to size both your bandwidth and SIP Trunk needs. Plan your answers ahead of time so that every vendor has the same information and you can receive comparable quotes. Business Phone System Buyer s Guide Consumer Business Products 2012 7