How to choose the best business phone system.
What is a business phone system? What is VoIP? Why does your small business need a VoIP phone system?
Keep communicating & collaborating.
The pace of change in the global workforce continues to increase, but the need for real-time communication and collaboration remains constant. Choosing the best business phone system for your business starts with understanding your needs now and thinking about what they may be in the future.
With over 16 years’ experience in deploying phone systems, we at Unifi Communications are here to guide you through the process. Whether you’re exploring new ways to connect your employees and customers or getting ready to move to a VoIP phone system, your business is safe in our hands.
What is a small business phone system, and what is VoIP?.
When you think “business phone system,” what do you see in your mind? A lot of wires and a receiver? Accidentally dialling the wrong extension? This sums up how many small business leaders feel: It’s way too complicated and we don’t have time for all of this.
For a long time, on-premises phone systems that took days to install and deploy were the only option. That’s why VoIP technology is so important to consider as you search for the best phone system for your small business. But what is VoIP?
It’s much simpler than it sounds. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, and instead of using a phone line it uses your network connection to the internet to make and receive phone calls. It allows you to connect to customers and coworkers through virtually any device, from smartphones to laptops to desktop computers.
So, imagine the on-premises features you expect, accessible and available on one platform—no matter where you are working. Cloud-based VoIP brings all the cost and scalability benefits often associated with the cloud.
But there’s a whole lot more to consider when you’re choosing a small business phone system. Let’s get to the why.
Why does your small business need a VoIP phone system?.
There are a few reasons why small business’ would benefit from the power of a VoIP phone system;
- You want to ensure their growing team can stay connected in the easiest, most secure way possible.
- You never want to miss a call.
- You want to reduce operational costs.
- You want the productivity and customer experience improvements enabled by features such as visual voicemail, merging, call waiting, etc.
A Gallup poll from May 2021 found that half of all employees still work at least part of the time remotely, and when you pair that with our hybrid work research—which found that this trend will likely continue to grow and that only 9% of the global workforce will return to the office full-time—it’s clear that communication from any device and location is no longer a “nice to have” for any businesses. It’s a necessity.
To stay competitive, you need a simple way to connect employees who work in the office and from home
What should a small business phone system look like?
Finding the right small business phone system isn’t as daunting as it might seem. You need to know what kind of budget you’re working with, and you need to make sure you’re getting the most comprehensive solution for your company.
When it comes to your budget, we can only share our plans and pricing and let you do the rest. Whether you opt for a Call plan or go with the Webex Suite—where you get Meetings and Messaging along with Calling—you’ll get the enterprise-grade features you need, without the enterprise-grade cost. Contact us to find out more details on our competitive pricing plans.
The top five features you want in a business phone system are:
- A dedicated business phone number that can be reached anywhere, with numbers for every user in your company.
- Enterprise-grade performance: intelligent routing with a complete phone menu and extensions, plus call hold and resume, call transfer, call waiting, and a complete voicemail system—visual or non-visual.
- The ability to move calls from your laptop to your phone or to elevate a 1:1 telephone call to a conference call or full-featured video meeting. All with a single click.
- Features that eliminate distractions, like background noise removal, speech enhancement, and custom backgrounds.
- Integration into a full collaboration platform with meetings and messaging solutions included.
What are the advantages of VoIP for a small business phone system?
Ok, so the features seem powerful. But what does it all mean—how does this kind of business phone system help?
VoIP phone systems for small businesses help distributed teams communicate more effectively. But moving to a VoIP phone system that includes video conferencing, messaging, and content sharing also helps remote and hybrid teams collaborate more efficiently. You’ll make workflows smoother by enabling real-time collaboration (think of sharing features like digital whiteboarding) and eliminating those headache-inducing, 50-thread emails (thanks to messaging features like spaces and teams).
With a phone system that includes collaboration software, your business’s everyday communication will get that much simpler. And if you’re worried about maintaining current workflows, that’s a good concern to have! The solution you choose should integrate with various platforms you’re using for sales, marketing, content management, and HR—everything from Google Workspace and Miro to Salesforce and Office 365.
And last but not least, a cloud-hosted VoIP phone system should give you the security, privacy and compliance that meets your needs. Unifi’s solution is delivered by the Cisco Webex cloud platform from Cisco’s geo-redundant data centres, so there is no single point of failure. You can count on the power combination of secure calling with encryption and carrier-grade cloud infrastructure to ensure the safety of you and your customers’ data. Click here to find out how Webex incorporates all these features and more for your team.
If you don’t have a current on-premises system and are not a Webex user, we can guide you through the process. From setting up a multi-line phone system to deployment and migration, simply contact us today & our friendly team can walk you through everything you need to find the solution that fits your needs.
