Time Communications was founded back in 2001. In the 20+ years that I’ve been giving advice to organisations looking for help with their telecoms, the one re-occurring theme I’ve found, is that a huge percentage of people leave it far too late to plan a structured, well thought out plan to replace or upgrade their telephony.
When moving premises, I see some brilliant drawings of office seating layouts, new logo’s and branding along with signage layouts and even car park spaces laid out for maximum occupancy. But what often gets left far too late is the telecoms!
I’ve lost count of the times when someone will contact me along the lines of – “we’re moving office in about three to four weeks and we need to sort out our telephone system. We’ll need new numbers quickly because we need to print our new letterheads and business cards so how quickly can this be done?” and there starts another panic, rush job!
As a guide, I find that a client will often take around three to six weeks to select what product they want and who they’re going to buy it from. This of course can be completed much faster (in only a few days) but the average is what it is.
With Digital ISDN phone lines, it can typically take four to six weeks from the date of instruction through to ‘go live’ – again this may take a little less but we are talking weeks not days.
Voice over IP (VoIP) is now with us and these SiP lines offer many new advantages. The phone systems we offer are the Mitel MiVoice range and these are designed to work with Voice over IP; SiP and VoIP. These are the most up to date type of connection for phone calls and their flexibility means:
• We can get a new number in a couple of days
• We can get a number for anywhere in the country, it doesn’t matter what BT exchange the premises reside in
• We can have phone calls coming in on the new number, again in days
• The phone lines to support VoIP tend to take half the timescale of ISDN to be installed
• The monthly cost of VoIP lines are less than half the cost of ISDN lines
The telephony solution you choose to operate your organisation could be the ‘lifeblood’ of your business, so please don’t rush into deciding what to buy – take your time!
Take your time to choose the right supplier making sure that they are someone you can work with over many years. A telecoms professional will guide you through the maze of what is available now and they will also take into account how the growth of your company may alter your requirements in the years to come.
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