Choosing the phone system that accommodates your business needs today, while considering your short-term goals, and not forgetting the long-term requirements of your Company……….. A difficult choice ?

The diverse choice of communications hardware available to the end user today can be somewhat confusing. To the uninitiated the thought of holding numerous meetings with slick consultants trying to get them to sign on the dotted line is extremely daunting.

Your system of choice is dependant on your business needs, and the right choice can help you improve your efficiency, cut your costs and grow your business. The difficulty is in finding the right company to give you good, solid advice on what is available, rather than selling you a system because it’s the only manufacturer they deal with.

There are numerous manufacturers in the telecommunications market including those in the Panasonic phone systems range, which can be an affordable option for a start up business utilising five to ten telephones, and travel through the ranges from Aastra, Alcatel, Cisco, Inter-Tel, and Mitel phone systems. Dependant on if your business has an inbound call centre which deals with order processing, you run a helpdesk facility, you work in a call centre environment or simply want to make and receive calls, each of these manufacturers can offer your company different technology skill sets to suit your business requirements.

Any reseller worthy of his manufacturer’s logo can sell your company the hardware to get a telephone system up and running for you. The difficulty is in finding one that cares about your business and how you work, rather than selling you the latest key phone systems because they then hit their sales target! A consultant only focused on Mitel telephone sales, is not working in your best interests, they need to be able to review your business process, how you work and what you need to improve upon, before they even consider their product of choice. It’s about your business and not the key phone systems they are able to sell you.

Remember, your choice is important, you will probably be working with this company throughout the lifetime of your telephone system, that could be as much as seven years.

Telecoms provider Actimax Plc has over 30 years experience in the communications industry and provide hardware from five of the worlds leading manufacturers. Actimax have no vested interested in convincing you to buy a particular product, whether that be Panasonic telephone systems or a Mitel phone system. The experience of the Actimax team comes in knowing how to improve your business process and with a string of over 40 awards in the past 7 years they must be getting something right for their customers.

The advent of Voice over IP systems may eventually make the traditional key phone systems a thing of the past, but with new technology moving at a rapid rate there are many companies wishing to sit on the fence and make a financial investment into the likes of Panasonic phone systems which will probably last them the next three years, before technology moves on so much they will certainly be left behind. The important thing to remember when signing that sales order is to ensure the product you purchase is scaleable and future proofed.

 

Key points to consider when investing in new technology

• Review your business processes.
• What are you hoping to achieve with your change of system?
• Meet with several suppliers.
• How many products do they sell?
• Do they have a Customer Care policy?
• Always take customer references, either give them a call or pay them a visit.