Buyer: Be Aware

“We recommend a site survey or analysis,” says Agar.  “We come in, inventory the current phone system—software level, available ports, and so on—and complete an analysis of the customer’s current local, long distance, and data/Internet bill to determine if there is better pricing and or products available.”

Also, try not to get swept up in the hype of a new technology, but don’t dismiss it out of hand, either.

“If your business goals are to simply make a certain number of outbound calls to the outside world and receive a certain number of inbound calls, then any current phone system in good working order will likely do the trick,” says Tim Devine, president and COO of CP Telecom in Minneapolis. But, Devine points out, that might not be enough for businesses that “are looking for productivity gains, cost reduction, increased mobility, and generally speaking, flexible collaboration tools.”

Internet Calling

Of course, the talk of the town in telecom over the past few years has been VOIP. For those not familiar with the buzzword, VOIP allows users to make telephone calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of via a regular analog phone line. Some love VOIP because it tends to cost less than traditional phone service (up to 40 percent less, according to a recent Qwest survey of business VOIP users), especially when it comes to long-distance calls. Plus, it’s convenient, efficient, and poised to be the wave of telephony’s future.

But it’s also a work in progress. Skeptics point out that some VOIP services don’t work during power outages, or when an Internet connection is down. And while regulatory ins and outs are being established, a few VOIP services can’t even connect with 911. Furthermore, some simply aren’t disenchanted enough with their traditional phone service to make the switch.

“VOIP has affected three entire industries: telecommunications on both the hardware and carrier sides, and data networking,” Devine says. “Large companies are connecting remote offices all over the world using their private wide-area networks. VOIP comes in all shapes and sizes and has applications for all types of end users. Some of these applications are acceptable for corporate use and some are designed for consumer use. Either way, it’s changing the way we all do things.”