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Which Phone System for 7 people?

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My small business (7 employees) is moving to a new office and I need a recommendation on what phone system to get.

We currently have 3 phone lines in our current office (Standard phone lines) and an NEC IPK II phone system with voicemail, conferencing, etc. It is our phone system to keep, sell, move, etc, if we want.

The building we are moving to has an old Toshiba Strata DK 40i. It does not currently have a voicemail card. The phones/ terminals are incredibly outdated-looking and dirty. I’d prefer to get rid of this system, but it’s in place and working (minus lack of voicemail). It is also tied in to the call box on the front and rear doors, so that’s a nice little feature.

Now, as far as what type of phone lines we are going to have when we move, we will have (3) standard lines and (1) phone line provided through our cable internet provider.

Will the existing Toshiba system handle this? Should we use our NEC IPK II system and have it installed at the new office? Should we get a new system altogether?

We want something that is user-configurable by us. I can remember the nightmare trying to get the NEC set up. It’s hard to find a tech who is experienced with it, and they had to use Putty and some other program to configure voicemail and extensions. It’s a pain to add extensions and voicemails, and I really hate hiring expensive phone techs when I need to simply add a voicemail or extension.

I hate spending thousands of dollars on a PHONE system for 7 people… it’s insane!

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Topic

Hmmm…

In reply to Which Phone System for 7 people?

It’s going to be very difficult to get reliable information from a good telephony tech when you come right out and bash the profession right out of the box.

“…I really hate hiring expensive phone techs when I need to simply add a voicemail or extension.”

We all hate paying other people to do things for us, but if we could all do everything, then there would be no need for specialties.

That being said – you only have 7 phones. As long as you are not hoping to do anything crazy with your system, pretty much any one will do for you – it’s all a matter of preference. The most important factor is having a technician that you trust to work on the system for you. Many companies will offer some kind of basic administrative training to complete the tasks you are talking about. We charge admin training by the hour, then have you sign a waiver that if you mess up the system, fixing it isn’t free.

Thanks!

In reply to Which Phone System for 7 people?

Thanks for the advice, and especially for the moral lecture! I did not realize that my dislike for EXPENSIVE phone techs to add a simple voicemail box was considered bashing an entire profession. I do appreciate you putting me into my place. I always thought the two parents I had growing up weren’t enough. I might keep you on retainer! 🙂

And after reading your post, I have realized you gave me absolutely ZERO advice.

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