The Best Telephone Systems for Your Business
Whether you’ve been in business for many years, or are just starting up, finding the right business telephone system is integral to your success.
Telecommunications technology is one area that has really improved in recent years. The invention of time and labour saving devices such as VoIP, Least Cost Routing and Computer Integrated Telephony has made picking up the telephone a completely new experience. Is your business being left behind in the telecoms revolution?
First to be considered in any modern office is VoIP. Skype is the most well-known VOIP application. Currently, there are just over 405 million Skype accounts. Skype’s technology means that you can chat, send video and IM around the world for free, or for a small cost. Around the world, around 8% of all communication is undertaken by Skype’s technology, making it without a doubt, the most important piece of telecoms software to keep your eye on.
Least Cost Routing is a process that analyses every single outbound call that your business makes and decides on the cheapest option for it. Therefore, least cost routing (or LCR for short) can be the one single thing that you implement in your office that will save you the most money over the course of the year.
Next to be considered is Computer Integrated Telephony. CTI allows computers and phones to interact. This allows them to handle voice and data traffic at the same time. CTI systems can control phone calls, email and fax communications simultaneously and effortlessly. Many of the most used contact management programs, like Goldmine, Act! and Microsoft CRM can all be seamlessly integrated with CTI business telephone systems.
The telephone system that you decide upon is crucial to the running of your your business. When choosing, ask yourself these two questions:
- Firstly, will it be able to handle expansion in the future as your business grows?
- And secondly, is it capable of cutting the cost of your outbound calls using Low Cost Routing techniques?
If you really want the best of the best, there are only three contenders. Siemens (the Siemens HiPath was voted ‘Best Buy’ in ‘What? To Buy for Business’), Mitel and LG Nortel.
Your sucess depends on your choice of telephone system - do whatever it takes.
Tags: business telephone systems, computer integrated telephony, cti, lcr, least cost routing, low cost routing, seimens, siemens, skype, viop, voip
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