Phone System Solutions Still Important for Small Businesses

A Customer Center entry from April 23, 2007
by Mae Kowalke - TMCnet Associate Editor for Channels

Although the Internet has transformed the business landscape, allowing even small companies to compete on a global scale, there’s still no replacement for a phone system. Just as for large corporations, each small business relies on a phone system to communicate with customers.

The phone system also serves as a way for everyone working at the small business to stay connected. While e-mail might work sometimes, at other times only voice conversation using the phone system will do. This is true both for employees of the company and for its customers—both make use of the phone system on a regular basis.

Many customers like to comparison shop online, but when it comes time to buy they want to speak to someone on the phone—requiring, of course, that the company they’re considering buying from has a phone system installed. In such scenarios, the phone system truly can make a sale that otherwise would have evaporated.

Small businesses today have more choices than ever when it comes to the phone system solutions they choose. At the heart of every phone system is a PBX. Today small businesses can get advanced features, or just the features they need, with an IP-PBX phone system.

A phone system that uses an IP PBX is completely or mostly software-base (except the desk phones, of course). This type of phone system uses Internet Protocol (IP) technology to send voice signal and offer affordable, advanced functions. Because software is easier and cheaper to update than hardware, this type of phone system is very affordable.

More and more small businesses looking to keep pace with the expectations of their customers are looking to upgrade or replace their phone system with an IP PBX. Newer phone system solutions allow small businesses to obtain features they couldn’t have afforded in the past.

The features built into today’s phone system solutions enable small business owners and employees to work more efficiently, whether they’re in the office or on the road meeting with clients. Many small businesses are discovering that the phone system can be more useful, and more adaptable, than they imagined. New technology has put a new face on the phone system without detracting from its primary purpose: to facilitate voice calls.

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Mae Kowalke previously wrote for Cleveland Magazine in Ohio and The Burlington Free Press in Vermont. To see more of her articles please visit Mae Kowalke’s columnist page.

— April 23, 2007