Choosing a Business Phone

If you are in the market for a business phone, your basic choices are a traditional, landline phone – available in corded, and cordless, versions – a VoIP phone, or a mobile phone.

Despite deregulation of the telephone industry in the United Kingdom, as long ago as 1984, British Telecom remains the largest landline network provider – although there are numerous alternatives, including AT&T, NTL, etc. – while mobile phone packages for business are provided, primarily, by 3, O2, Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile; VoIP is available from specialist providers such as Skype, or Vonage.

Business Phone Features, Benefits & Considerations

Landline phones are available in a wide range of styles and colours – and, of course, functionality, which typically dictates the price – to suit any business environment, and budget. Many landline phones, nowadays, incorporate all the important call handling functions – hold, transfer, speed dial, etc. – with a colour, LCD screen, which can be used to view telephone directory, caller display (if applicable) details, etc. and to configure phone features. Hands-free, or speakerphone, operation can free your hands for other tasks, and for mobility around your office – typically within 100 ft of a base station – a cordless phone is always a possibility.

Cordless phones operate via radio waves, which are beamed back and forth between the base station and handset, or headset. Using a headset – which can typically be connected to a cordless phone handset via a standard headphone jack, or paired, wirelessly, with the base station, itself – can provide staff in call centres, or other business environments with an emphasis on customer service, with the ultimate in comfort and flexibility.

If some, or all, or your workforce spends significant periods of time on the road, or anywhere away from the traditional office environment, it may well be that you are looking for a mobile phone solution. Mobile phones are typically supplied as part of a package, which includes phones, line rental and, typically, a number of inclusive, free call minutes and text messages per month. The cost of phones, themselves, is often heavily subsidised, or reduced to zero, as part of such packages.

Do bear in mind, however, that travelling businesspeople typically require access to large volumes of contact information – which may be held in Microsoft Outlook, for example – so the ability to download, and store, such information may be a necessity. The battery life – or lack of it – is a recurrent problem for business mobile phone users, so try to find mobile phones that utilise the latest Li-Ion battery technology; these are not only lighter than their NiMH predecessors, but offer up to 40% more energy on a single charge.

Despite the recent emergence of VoIP as a reliable, and cost-effective, telephony solution, the technology, itself, has been in existence for over 30 years; the availability of broadband Internet at affordable prices, and enhanced data transfer speeds, have brought it to prominence once again. A VoIP phone looks, and operates, like a standard phone, but communicates with a broadband router, or similar device – via an Ethernet connection, or wirelessly – such that voice calls can be made, and received, over the Internet, rather than the standard telephone system.

Other possibilities include a VoIP adaptor, which allows a standard, touch-tone phone handset to access a VoIP network, or a software program, or “softphone” – Skype, for example – that allows VoIP calls to be made from a computer. VoIP requires a broadband Internet connection, and hence electricity; this may, therefore, increase your electricity consumption, and leave you vulnerable in the event of a mains power failure. If you are considering VoIP for your business, you should also think about retaining a landline connection, for use in emergencies.

The latest technology, features and functionality are all very well, but will not increase the productivity – or, indeed, the staff morale – of a business, if they are awkward, or confusing, to use. Functions such as transferring calls – that is, placing a caller on hold, dialling another extension, informing the recipient that he, or she, has a call, and transferring the call – are likely to be repeated time after time, and so should be straightforward to achieve. Business phones that display instructions on their screens, while a call is in progress, can be useful, as can those with programmable buttons for frequently dialled numbers, or customisable features.

Choose a Business Phone

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