Phone System Buyer's Check List 

All telephone systems require professional installation and maintenance. For legacy connections all outside telephone lines must connect to the KSU or PABX cabinet (chassis), as well as all internal extensions. For IP solutions the appropriate connections into your data network is necessary. Unfortunately, the network design for VoIP Phone systems, and the configuring and wiring for legacy phone systems can be nearly as costly as the phone system hardware.

Choose the right size of Telephone System

When buying a phone system, a primary concern is to make sure that the system is the right size for your office. Knowing your requirements in advance will help you negotiate with vendors. There are two main factors that will determine the size of the office phone system you need:

Lines or Trunks

lines indicate the total number of outside phone lines used by the company. Also known or commonly referred to as channels or trunks. Don't be confused they are the same thing!

Extensions

Extensions refer to every device within the company that needs to connect to the phone system. Most of the extensions will be for telephones.

Fax machines, credit card terminals, modems, and any other equipment that require a phone connection must also be connected through the phone system. This is a great way of saving money!

One way of indicating the size of a system is as a combination of lines and extensions.

For example, a 6 x 16 system accommodates up to 6 lines and 16 extensions. This approach is used predominantly on smaller key system products.

Alternatively most digital hybrid or PABX systems define size in terms of "ports," where a port refers to the maximum number of connections that can be made to the system. Ports include outside lines and inside extensions, as well as phone system accessories such as Voicemail or automated attendants.

Allow for Growth

Even if a telephone system can handle your current business phone traffic, you should be sure that it can also handle your future needs. The ideal system should be able to handle expansion in a very cost-effective manner. Most systems allow you to increase capacity by adding new cards that increase the total number of ports available while some smaller systems are expandable by simply adding another cabinet identical to the first.

For planning purposes, you should allow 5 to 10% for organic growth so inquire about how much it will cost to add at least 10% more capacity. You should also look at capacity increases of 20% and 30% to get an indication of the incremental costs involved as they will vary with different systems.

Here are the questions that are asked by telephone system experts:

1. How many users will there be?
2. Are there phones that do not have and single user. (example: lobby phones, hall phones, break room phones)
3. How many telephone lines (dial tones) do you need?
4. Do you need voicemail? (See the voice mail page for information about voicemail)
5. Will a receptionist handle your incoming calls, or do you need an automated attendant?
6. Do any of your workers need their own phone numbers that can be called directly? (Direct Dial)
7. How will you provide phone service and voice mail for your remote workers or telecommuters?
8. Do a group of your employees handle specific kinds of incoming calls?  For example, customer service or sales calls?  Do you want to measure their performance?
9. Is it important that your mobile employees receive their calls or messages right away?
10. How fast is your business growing?  What’s the trend over the last 5 years?
11. Do you have workers that need voice mail, but not an extension?
12. Do you need the ability to see if an employee is on a call?
13. Will your building wiring support the type of phones that you need?
14. Is incoming Caller ID information important to your business?

Download our Phone System BUYERS CHECKLIST - click here

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