If you’ve set up a series of phone system for your business to utilize, you probably expect those systems to “just work” – like clockwork. Therefore, it can understandably come as quite a shock when there’s an abrupt, unexpected outage and you’re fumbling for a fix.
That’s why you might want to assess your infrastructure now, before a costly problem has a chance to emerge.
Here are some questions that could help you to discern whether a change is necessary.
What
Phone Hardware Does Your Firm Use – or Need?
Perhaps you have an office-bound system and
then a separate system linking together your staffer’s smartphones and tablets,
allowing for efficient, on-the-go working. In fact, mobile devices can do so
much these days that you might be happy with a virtual phone service relying
just on those devices.
Even if you lack desk telephones but need
them, Business News Daily points out that
you could get them with a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system that is
internet-ready.
What
Communication Methods Does Your Business Use?
This isn’t just a matter of asking yourself
whether your staffers use desk-based or mobile handsets. You should also know,
for example, where you use them.
Writing
for bytestart.co.uk, telecoms
specialist Dave Millett recalls once coming across a company with a business
broadband package which covered the head office but not the two regional offices.
Millett also implies that, as the average
businessperson uses much less than 2GB of monthly data, you should be wary of
shelling out for more data than you really need.
How
Much Would You Lose if the System Went Down?
Something else you should be careful not to do is choose a business broadband package simply on price. A decent internet network can’t be run on a shoestring, so it’s no accident that suppliers offering especially inexpensive broadband tend to attract the most complaints.
Millett highlights one case of a pub
choosing cheaper broadband that, subsequently, went down and took days to
recover. As the pub relied on online-linked card machines, it missed out on
revenue totalling £6,000.
If Your
Internet is Lost, How Quickly Could Your Firm Recover?
Ideally, you wouldn’t want to be left in
the lurch for days, but you could be if you ill-advisedly sourced your current
system from a cheap provider. If you were supplied the router for free, for
example, that router could lack security sufficiently guarding against hacking.
Ask your current provider how many outages
its network has suffered over the past year and, on average, how long a
customer needs to wait for faults to be fixed.
What
is Your Current Contract Like?
If your current deal obviously comes short
in certain areas, you might want to consider switching to a new provider. Netmatters notes that, though VoIP
systems tend to require new hardware, getting your hands on that could help to
iron out compatibility creases for your company. Business phone systems by Gamma, meanwhile,
can easily be scaled up as your firm’s requirements grow.
