Anyone know anything about small business phone systems?

[CitizenBBN]

I need to change phones/systems. IMO it seems to come down to two paths:

1. VOIP. Newest, latest greatest. What I have now, but the phones aren't adequate.

Benefit is that it has lots of calling features and they will expand b/c they are just software. For example, you can text to my current service, including images. I'm getting more and more texts out of the blue to the office number, even though most don't have that feature, even VOIP.

Big problem: These systems are designed so each phone is its own "line". I have basically a warehouse/retail situation so I need all the phones to ring when the call comes in, the nearest person who can get it gets it. Old fashioned basic phone need. I have to get this feature.

Smaller problem: calls break up, not as reliable quality. I can up my bandwidth, that MAY fix it, but not sure.

My current provider has a solution to the 'big problem' but you can only use certain phones, they have to be set up a certain way, etc. If you do it then things like basic intercom become more complex as well. Basically that part of these systems seem over-engineered.

2. POTS - plain old telephone service. I can get this through cable company, go buy a used pile of basic office phones. I had a RCA executive series years ago, they all find each other automatically, all the phones ring when the call comes in. The cable service does basic call hunting etc. so you get call rollover to line 2 and 3 without a PBX or Key system.

Benefit is it's simple, and all the phones ring when the call comes in. I can get a pile of phones for $200 or so, easy wiring job, done.

PRoblem: features are fewer and are harder to get. Mostly no texting, which seems to be the wave of the future even for business systems.


So anyone have a system they like? VOIP or POTS? I can't find much good info on POTS type systems. I used the RCA one, it was fine, would just buy that I guess for lack of knowing a better one.

One other detail, somewhat separate, is finding handsets if possible. the old RCA system has some options, the VOIP options for these Polycoms seem more limited. We walk around a lot, handsets would be good.

Hope someone has a solution. I need to wrap this up one way or the other, but really I'm not in love with either solution.

[KentuckyWildcat]

Have VoIP at home and work. Only way to go IMO.

[CitizenBBN]

Have VoIP at home and work. Only way to go IMO.

for features no doubt, but where they aren't designed to let all the phones ring on a line it's a problem for our kind of setup.

[KentuckyWildcat]

How many lines do you have?

I am more familiar with Enterprise solutions but we can route calls to any line with essentially a "call center".

[CitizenBBN]

But can you route the same call simultaneously to multiple phones? That's my problem. In an office environment you may not want the phones to ring at every desk, but in a warehouse/retail situation you just need to grab the nearest phone.

Also, the pricing for VOIP is by line/station, whereas a POTS design you have 2-3 lines coming in and they are on all the phones, so you can have 10-12 phones but only pay for those 2-3 lines.

I really need about 3 lines max. I need about 8-10 phones for those lines unless we use some cordless handsets, then maybe 5-6 physical phones. But only 3 lines total, and that's the rub.

I prefer VOIP for features, like mine has fax on any line, can now text even images, which is really helpful for people sending us pics of things to evaluate, etc. I really want VOIP, but I'm fighting the structure of it for our business model. I can't see paying for 2x the lines I really need simultaneously just to get the extra phone stations.

I could have this done in POTS technology in no time, but I lose the cool features.

[CitizenBBN]

And I appreciate your input on this, I'm pretty tech savvy but I really haven't come up with a plan for this I like.

[PedroDaGr8]

By the way, if it helps in your searching, the technical term in VoIP for ringing all phones is "Ring Group". You basically set a group and when a call to the number comes in, the whole group rings. This is opposed to "Hunt Group" which is Ring Phone 1, followed by Phone 2, followed by Phone 3, etc. Having a term for this might help you in finding a provider that better meets your needs. While some providers have their own name for it (like Simultaneous Ring) this is the technical phrase.

As with many things, speaking of VoIP as one monolithic block is very difficult. There are various levels of VoIP in terms of features, performance, control and cost. The most basic format is a VoIP service that sets up everything for you. They host the software, connect to the POTS, maintain their network, decide what features are available, etc. You only have a piece of hardware that serves as an access node to their service and interfaces to your network. The other extreme is you host the VoIP server and all of the hardware, you simply connect to a VoIP service provider who serves as the connection to the POTS. In this scenario, you setup all the features, set the routing, setup the phones, etc. There also exist solutions pretty much everywhere in between those two extremes. From Cisco and Avaya based systems which are customizable to the extreme to open-source VoIP and PBX solutions like Asterisk to cloud-based methods (where you manage everything they provide the features) lfrom dozens of companies. Selecting the proper system for you is always the hard part, it is always a trade-off between cost, ease and features.

Also, with your calls breaking up, there are two things that can cause it: not enough bandwidth and/or too high of latency. Depending on where the fault lies, the solution can either be with you or with your ISP. Using QoS setting in your router to give VoIP top priority and everything else a step-down should prevent bottlenecks in your network from causing the issues with breaking up. If the problem is your ISP, hopefully it is a bandwidth issue and not a latency issue.

[CitizenBBN]

Thanks Pedro.

I'm hoping it's bandwidth too, that I can fix.

As for the call features, honestly I just don't want to take the time to do all the homework for this process. A pain and I don't have time.

I have Ringcentral now, I'm OK with it, and they have added that handy text feature, and they do have ring/call groups, but only for certain phones. I think I have some POlycom phones that will do it, but I'll have to program them and test, just have to find the time to see if it works. Not sure why only certain phones work for it, but maybe that's right. I don't care to learn any more about this than necessary, but I do need a good solution.

[KentuckyWildcat]

I can have 6 lines ring on every phone on campus if I wanted. Or users can log into our call center and all calls direct thru that. Probably similar to what Pedro is calling groups.

Note that we pay several thousand per month....but I would think those solutions are easily available in a small business as well. Cost of course as you have mentioned....

Skype and email integration is priceless for us. It always me to work on vacation lol