Re: Small office phone systems
There are quite a few choices on the market, so determining the feature set you are looking for is critical.
There are a couple different ways to set up VOIP. Some VOIP systems are set up just like traditional PBX systems, with the only difference being the connection from the server to the phones is IP. Traditional phone lines are still used for calls. This does give you the ability to locate a phone remotely over the internet, which can be advantageous.
But, for a small office with 4-5 phones, the cost of running and maintaining your server can be higher than you might want it to be. Another issue with VOIP is that it does add some latency to the phone call versus non IP systems. Better ones aren't too bad, but crappy ones can be unbearable.
Another option is a true VOIP hosted system. With these, you use a VOIP host, and the phones simply connect to the internet. No phone lines, no servers. For a small business, this can be a great solution. In my store, we just switched from a Fonality VOIP server to webfones.net. 10 phones costs us about $300/month, which is slightly more than we were paying for 6 phone lines. Our server with the old system had 6 lines and 10 phones. The new system can use all 10 lines independently. The yearly maintenance costs for the server, plus electricity to keep it running are easily offset by switching to the hosted system. Plus, I can just take the phone and plug it in ANYWHERE there is an internet connection and it works. Pretty convenient.
And then, we gained huge flexibility with call routing, etc. Call my extension, and it will ring my desk phone, and if I don't answer, I can have it ring my cell phone, and then my home phone, and then finally, it can ring the local pub, just in case I'm there. Great stuff!
