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Let’s face it, choosing the right telephone system can be very hard, confusing, and one potentially expensive mistake… but we’re here to help! The truth is, the best system ‘for you’ is going to be based upon a couple different things.

This guide has been intentionally devoid of any specific marketing for the express purpose of sharing with others! We’ve also made it available in two flavors: ‘Professional‘ & ‘Comical Mode’, both containing the same content. Link to us today!

Open Architecture
Building a Better System for You!

The advantage of an open architecture is assurance of continual product enhancement without fear of obselescense, and the ability to easily modify the application to fit your company’s needs. Unlike proprietary products that have a small handful of developers, open source software is market-driven and has literally hundreds. If you can think of a feature or application that would be beneficial for you, there is a strong likelihood others have the same thought.

The benefit of open hardware standards is the complete lack of any special components. Instead, the hardware utilized tends to be far less complex, significantly cheaper, and much more reliable. If something were to fail, no proprietary hardware needs to be ordered and waited on, as only standard components are used.

Brand Recognition
Get the brands you want without being trapped!

Brand Selection

Decisions based on brand-name recognition tend to be based upon a specific advantage/ability unique to that brand, or by a perceived value (usually in a specific industry).

• all brands and manufacturers are not created equally
• there is no single best telephone/etc
• different manufacturers have different strengths & weaknesses
• the recommendation always depends on the needs/application

Therefore, when selecting a specific brand, make sure it is the best for your application based upon the value it provides in fulfilling your needs and desires.

Financial & Feature Pitfalls

You can have the benefit of your chosen brand without all of the exorbitant high costs and inferior feature-set by simply changing the system. It is no secret that well-known brand manufacturers will supplement their already higher premiums through licenses, client seats, and required maintenance contracts… BUT, those costs are controlled in the system. Just because the system costs more does not mean you get more features and abilities either! You typically get a very minimal feature set unless you’re willing to pay even more for additional packages. You simply do not need to pay more money for less features.

Picking the best for you!

The great advantage to being ‘manufacturer agnostic’ aka ‘best-of-breed’ is that you are able to literally use the best of everything for your specific application. It simply makes the most sense to pick the best telephone for your application, using the best system with the most features you will appreciate, and to do so in a prudent or economical manner.

Ease of Use
Because it really matters!

What good would the world’s best system be if it weren’t equally easy to use? The truth is that ease of use is a balancing act. You would never want to sacrifice usability in favor of a features set that is simply too complicated to use effectively. Nor would you ever want to sacrifice your features and abilities for a system so simple and easy to use that it did absolutely nothing! You need to decide: does the system have the features you need, and is the system ‘thought out’ and built intuitively?

It all comes down to a few simple questions:

• Learnability – How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time?
• Efficiency – Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?
• Memorability – When users return after a period of not using it, how easily can they re-establish proficiency?
• Errors – How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?
• Satisfaction – How pleasant is it to use the system?

Features & Abilities
Having a useful purpose, and not technology for technology-sake!

Marketing materials are loaded with elegant descriptions of the latest whiz-bang features, but what does that mean to you? In practical terms, these abilities need to have a very tangible reason for their existence, or they become just another new fad in the latest trend. Instead, distinguish among the many new features for what is truly remarkable, unbelievably helpful, and what will really make a difference in your day!

Great purchasing decisions are based upon selecting real solutions which give ‘value’ to your specific application. While knowing how many lines and telephones you need is important, don’t fall into the trap of simply counting as you never quite know what you’re going to get.

Financial
Understanding expenses and where savings are found

Identifying where to save your money!

By far the single greatest cost will forever and always be the recurring expenses! Your monthly bills are cumulative and far exceed any single purchases you may make. Your recurring expenses are dominated by 1.) the carrier aka line costs, and 2.) required maintenance contracts.

The advent of Internet Telephone Service Providers (ITSP’s) and SIP Trunking has made an enormous impact at lowering your overhead through significantly reduced rates and the opportunity for multiple carriers, offering both redundancy and least cost routing. Furthermore, open architecture platforms do not lock you into mandated support contracts, and offers you the choice to pay only for the level of support you are comfortable with.

Choosing where to spend your money!

If you are going to be ‘stuck’ with your telephones for quite a long time, it would be wise to spend a little bit extra on the things you really would appreciate (e.g. color, gigabit, wireless). While the impact may be seen when multiplied across many endpoints, the difference is relatively small in comparison to the overall purchase. Similarly, certain technologies may offer very specific abilities that would provide tremendous cost savings by reducing recurring expenses over the long term (e.g. multi-site applications, cellular gateways, least cost routing, automatic failover, etc).

Support
Reassurance that help is always there when you need it!

No matter how great or small the problem, if you just ‘want it to work’, or if you want to understand an issue to resolve yourself; you need that reassurance that help is always there when you need it. Just be sure to choose a system that is also supported affordably based upon your needs, whether on a case-by-case basis or under contract (no need to be raped when you’re already under the gun).

One of the great advantages to a system being geographically independent and web administerable, is that support is only a click away! It doesn’t matter where you, your system, or support are located when your system can be securely managed remotely in an instant. Other times, trained technicians are needed onsite to perform work or solve physical issues, and having a network of experts to draw on is very beneficial indeed.

The purpose of this is to help you know what questions to ask, what to look for, and to develop your thought processes in making a better and more educated purchasing decision, whatever that may be. Therefore, we intentionally made this entire help section unspecific to any brand or manufacturer (including our own), and instead want to impart some very basic principles in selecting your next telephone system.

• Clarify Your Goals – What benefits are you trying to realize and take advantage of?
• Gather Information – What options are available to you AND meet or exceed your goals?
• Make Your Decision – Based upon clear principles with a realistic view!

This guide has been intentionally devoid of any specific marketing for the express purpose of sharing with others! We’ve also made it available in two flavors: ‘Professional‘ & ‘Comical Mode’, both containing the same content. Link to us today!