Essential VOIP Buyers Guide for Beginners 2021
Businesses often realize the need to find a new phone system while managing or owning a pre-existing system or starting a new one.
Businesses often realize the need to find a new phone system while managing or owning a pre-existing system or starting a new one. As traditional on-premise phone systems are overpriced and outdated and analog phone lines are a thing of the past, businesses need a guide to follow.
Essential VOIP Buyers Guide for Beginners 2021
In this article, Rich Technology Group has provided five critical steps to consider when purchasing the first VOIP phone system solution.
1. Determine the Features Required
A business should first understand the services in the communication world required before thinking about the pricing. Understanding the features and capabilities required in a business phone system is essential. As not all the service providers are equal, identifying the wanted features to help businesses work smoothly will narrow down the list of service providers.
Rich Technology Group personally recommends businesses list down the must-have features and wish list features in two separate columns. The must-have column includes the basic to advanced features that a business should need to work smoothly, while the wish list features in the second column include those that a business requires but can potentially live without if they are not available or incur additional charges.
2. Determine the Budget and Pricing
Rich Technology Group has consulted hundreds of businesses looking for a new phone system. It is amazing that most of them do not allocate a specific predefined budget for the phone system. Considering this scenario, Rich Technology recommends businesses use the same approach to shop for other things. A business should consider a few questions like:
- How much can they spend on the phone system?
- Are they looking to save money?
- How much are they willing to spend at the very end to get what they want?
Remember to be realistic when investigating what things cost compared to what you are willing to spend.
3. Determine Usage Preference
It is essential to decide how you want your users to interact with the phone system. Decide between IP Phones and Mobile apps or a hybrid of both. So, the question to ask in this aspect is will the users work in an office or from a remote location?
Thus, in short, decide if actual IP Phone hardware is required or if the use of softphone technology such as mobile apps and desktop apps from a cell phone will work fine.
While this factor typically will not affect a business’s monthly cost, it will affect the upfront cost to adopt and deploy the new phone system if hardware such as desktop-style or conference room-style IP Phones is required.
The Essential VOIP Buyers Guide 2021 has everything you need to know when searching for a new business phone system!
4. Evaluate Customer Service and Support
Subpar customer service and technical support of the VOIP service provider have always been the number one reason for canceling services. Thus, a business must know the level of customer service or support they want.
Rich Technology Group recommends assessing the technical aptitude and willingness of the organization before signing any contracts to determine this aspect. This will help find the level of technical support a business may require to supplement the lack of time or technical knowledge about troubleshooting and resolving problems that may arise.
In short, know what level of support a VOIP service offers and how hard or easy it is to get in touch with them when urgent need of help is required from the service providers.
5. Set a Firm Installation Date
Setting a firm installation date means; the going live time; in which the phone system is installed in the phone system world. Some of the essential pre-requisites in this aspect include that the new phones have been tested and activated, incoming and outgoing calls can be received, IP phones are fully functional, the staff is trained to know exactly how to utilize the system in total capacity, and all existing phone numbers are active. Having a clear roadmap for this step will allow a business to create a solid plan of action within the time frame.
Conclusion
If you are not sure what features you need or what this type of phone service costs, we offer a free service at Rich Technology Group to help you figure all of this. We represent all the mainstream VOIP service providers, and our consulting services are free because the service providers pay us to refer them to new customers.
If you’d like our help to figure out which phone system solution best meets your needs and budget, always contact Rich Technology Group first before reaching out to the service providers directly ; so you can get access to our special pricing.
We represent all the major VOIP phone system service providers and internet providers and our consulting service is 100% free.
