How to choose the right telephony hardware for your business in South Africa
You’ve decided to upgrade your telephone system - great! But your existing hardware may be due for an upgrade too.
There are many reasons for this, maybe your phones are old and not supported any longer, or maybe you want to install a VoIP system and your phones aren’t IP ready.
Either way, this blog should help you to choose the right hardware for your business requirements.
There are many different makes and models that you can look at for your business, all with different functionality. Things to consider when looking include:
What’s your budget?
Putting a budget in place will help you decide what hardware to get. You may want to have a telephone with all bells and whistles but not have the budget for it, so setting a budget out first will help show you what you can afford. The best way to come up with a realistic budget is to do your research, have an idea of what the average prices are for your needs.
How many phones are needed?
You’ll need to know how many phones you’ll need to get. Are you going to expand in the near future? Do you need a mixture of softphones as well as hard phones?
What functionality do you need?
Do you need different functionality for different departments? For example, do you have reception where calls are transferred manually? This may mean you need a BLF (busy lamp field) where lights on the handset will let you know if a user is on another call. You may not need this functionality for all of the users in the business.
Are your phones locked to the network of the company you’re buying them from?
Some companies lock their hardware to their system, meaning that if you decided to change provider, you’d need to pay a release fee to your existing telephony provider. If you purchase hardware from IP Telecom, the handsets are not locked to our network, they’re yours to use if you decide to move away from us in future.
What’s the warranty and support given?
An important thing to consider is what type of warranty (if any) that you get with your new phones, as well as what support is offered to you throughout your contract. All of our hardware comes with a 12 month warranty, and if any updates are made to the systems that’s covered as part of our ongoing service.
What accessories do I need?
Not only do you have a choice of handsets, you can also get accessories to make things easier for you. IP Telecom have side carts, powerpacks and headsets that can be used along with the telephones you get. You can also use the headsets with the app!
Finally, have a chat with your sales representative who will be able to help you to analyse your needs and help you with all of your hardware requirements.
For any assistance on any of these topics, feel free to email sales@iptelecom.co.za or call us on 21 300 8232. Written by Emer Farrell, Sales and Marketing Specialist for IP Telecom.