Business Phone Service.
Unlike old business phone systems that ran on traditional landlines, today's
systems have moved to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. VoIP
systems are Internet-based and run on the same connections companies use to get
online.
Phone systems are available
as on-premises and cloud-hosted solutions. With on-premises systems, your IT
staff needs to install and maintain the private branch exchange (PBX)
equipment. Conversely, cloud-hosted solutions require very little IT resources since
all of the PBX equipment is housed and maintained by the phone system provider.
With the cloud-hosted option, IT teams focus more of their attention on
managing the system's features, rather than the infrastructure.
Today's systems are
compatible with mobile phones and tablets and integrate with popular business
solutions such as Outlook and Salesforce. Pricing is based on the number of
users and usually don't require long-term contracts. Most systems are
compatible with newer IP phones, however businesses that prefer to use analog
phones they already have in place can purchase an adaptor to connect them to
the online phone system.
How We Evaluated Business
VoIP Services
Tom's IT Pro is owned by a
larger media company called Purch, which is home to several different
properties, including Business.com and Business News Daily. As a
company we often share data and research, which is true of business phone
systems and services. While each site writes in its own style, we each have our
own audiences, by which the data must be interpreted. Between Tom's IT Pro's
sister sites, we have access to data on 60 well-known VoIP services.
Our sister sites evaluated,
among other things, administrative features, unified communication features,
service plan options, integration features, mobile tools and ease-of-use. We
dug through the shared research and conducted our own into IT-specific areas,
such as hosting platforms, number of phones supported, training, compatibility,
uptime and security. Using all of this information, we narrowed the choice to
four services suitable for small-to-medium businesses.
Buying Considerations
Few large companies these
days cling to the traditional landline. In fact, the market for VoIP is
expected to grow nearly 10 percent over the next four years, which roughly
matches the decline of the landline, according to Statista. VoIP services
coupled with Unified Communications (UCassS) are affordable and provide other
helpful business services, such as online fax, conferencing and instant
messaging. Meanwhile, traditional phone systems are costly to maintain and do
not include additional business services that your company may need.
IT considerations before
purchase:
On-premises, cloud, or hybrid hosting options
Cost of lease versus purchase versus adding analog adaptors
to already owned phones
Bandwidth requirements per phone and other internet needs
Hosting Options
A huge factor when choosing
a phone system for your business is deciding how you want the PBX equipment,
which is what's needed to run the system, hosted. Some phone system
providers
offer on-premises or cloud based systems, while others offer both
options.
With the on-premises
systems the PBX equipment is installed inside your business. Your IT team is responsible
for securing it, keeping it up and running and upgrading it when necessary.
Hosting on-premises gives businesses the ability to keep a few traditional
landlines working alongside SIP-trunked VoIP lines.
With the cloud-hosted
solution, the phone system provider houses and maintains all of the PBX
equipment. These systems require far fewer IT resources. There is no
hardware, except for the phones, to maintain and all of the upgrades are taken
care of by the phone system providers. Businesses using these systems are best
served by installing backup equipment that can reroute calls during power or
internet outages. With these systems, new users and features can be added via
an online portal. Cloud-based options also easily support multiple locations.
Nearly all of the providers
we examined had an uptime of at least 99.990 percent. That means their systems
are down for just a handful of minutes each year.
Some phone system providers
also offer a hybrid hosting option. The hybrid option can be used as an
intermediary step toward evolving to a virtual PBX. Hybrid systems combine
traditional on-premises PBX equipment businesses already had with VoIP service.
Desktop Phones
Most business phone
services are compatible with a variety of IP phones and offer adapters so
analog phones can connect to their systems. So it's likely that you can
continue using the phones your company already owns.
IP phones come in a variety
of styles. There are traditional corded options, as well as cordless phones and
conference room phones. The phones can range anywhere from $50 to $1,000 each.
In addition to buying the phones outright, some phone system providers offer
the option to rent phones for a monthly fee.
The per-phone analog
adaptor can cost as much as $60, and a traditional fax-machine adaptor can cost
between $100 and $150.
The benefit of buying IP
phones from your phone system provider is that they come completely configured
and are immediately ready to be used once they are plugged in. If you buy
phones from an outside source, your IT team will need to configure the phones
on their own to work with the system you are using.
If you can afford it, it
makes sense to upgrade your phones. If you cannot afford new phones, carefully
consider how much the workaround will cost the company in the long term.
Bandwidth
Consult your business's
internet service about obtaining the bandwidth required to support a new phone
service. The phones of most of the services we considered required just short
of 100 Kbps per phone call for the best quality. You'll also want to estimate
internet needs for other equipment, such as computers, servers and
Wi-Fi-connected devices.
You should expect any
up-to-date business phone service to provide the following features:
Remote management, Hosted PBX services (virtual private
branch exchange hosted online and managed by the service), Call
reports, Online faxing, Auto-receptionist, Phone
menus, Unlimited calling (often free within the U.S. and Canada, with
minute allotments for international), Single sign-on compatibility, Voicemail, Voicemail-to-email, On
hold music, Mobile phone compatibility, Short or no-contract
subscriptions, Conference calling, Instant
messaging, Paging, "Presence" indicators (shows users other
person's phone status such as active or away), Video conferencing (often
HD), Phone number porting, Business SMS