Taking the lowest figures you will end up spending $128.8 for a 3 channel VOIP trunk. And this works out to minimum $43 per line. Compare this with your friendly neighbourhood landline provider with the features that both offer and then make an informed decision.

And talking about features…what features do you really need for any business multiline? If you are going to invest in a business pbx system, then all you need is Caller ID display and Voicemail service. Thats all!

Don’t buy VOIP just because of the hype. Remember, when you buy VOIP, you are also relying on the broadband service provider. Whereas, in case of landlines, there is a direct copper wire circuit connecting you directly and exclusively to the telephone company’s switching network.

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I can endure with the little cubical. I can survive with the lack of biological light (although I feel like a cave troll). I can even do without the cafeteria, H2O chiller, and the deep brown Almighty. What I genuinely miss is my old phone.

You see, my previous telephone was indeed, not an “antiquated” phone. It was a multi-line wangling, LCD displaying, caller IDing devil that afforded more selections than a wet behind the ears automobile salesman. My “newfound” phone possesses none of those creature comforts. There’s no transfer or hold button, no screen to reveal who is calling, no headset and no electronic contacts directory. Long story short, the only deviation between this phone and a Garfield phone you might buy at Spencer’s Gifts is that this phone isn’t moulded like an animated cartoon cat. Heck this job would be much easier and the days so much more tillable if only we had a proper business office phone system in place. The existing system is so sickly automated that just a really microscopic percentage of the phone calls I draw are really intended for me. Besides, I get numerous netmails a day inquiring how come I have not reverted phone calls in regard to messages I never received.

I infer the moth-eaten addage that “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone” really applies in this case.

Since I descended hither, I’ve actively lobbied to have the doddering office phone system supplanted, but to no avail. I believe I may be the sole one here who knows what he’s lacking. Oh well…I’m certain I’m not the lone one out there who has felt this. Perchance you as well have lost a beloved phone in a career move. I feel for you. I’d pass on my number so we could comiserate, but you’d in all likelihood never reach me in any case.

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There is no difference.

If the first line is busy it rings the second and so on. In a hunt group, each line has its own individual phone number and all lines are manually programmed to forward a call to the next line when busy.

Its like programming your home line to forward to your cell phone, but you are only forwarding calls only when your home line is busy. That means you can get two calls answered when someone calls your home phone.

And you can continue this by forwarding your cellphone to your office phone, when busy. So now you can get three calls getting answered when someone calls your home phone number.

Of course, this is just to explain how hunting works, and if you try this on with your home phone line it may or may not work depending upon your home telephone service provider.

In case of business lines in a hunt group, this is exactly what happens. You get a bunch of lines all having their individual phone number and programming to forward when busy.

The problem with this is that when you call out, the outgoing call display will show the caller ID of the line you are calling out on.

So unless you use your first line or your pilot line to call out, called parties will not see your main number on thier call display. In effect you will actually be seen as having lots of phone lines each with different numbers. This may not be what you want.

Think about when you want to downsize the number of lines, or move offices..there are a bunch of numbers you will have to deal with, that all your customers have been dialling in on.

( Yes, often customers tend to save the numbers that show up on call display and use that to reach you.)

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So who are these three musketeers? Lets find out and get a better understanding.If you are already using a basic plain vanilla phone system then you will have at some point wished that your phone system would be more professional sounding.

“We don’t have a professional recording answering our calls, no music playing when we hold the line and ask callers to wait in queue.”

“Our phone system just rings all the phones till we pick up and thats it!! Nothing else.”

Well your system has neither MOH, nor AA nor OGM. You may need at least one or all of them.

You need to know what each of these muskateers do, in order to separate your wants from your needs!

Just like any other White Box sold to you, there are options and add-ons which cost extra.

A plain vanilla phone system will merely work to switch all your multi-lines to each phone in your office so that you answer calls coming in on any line, and make calls from any free line.

Introducing our first musketeer:

MOH

MOH or Music On Hold, as the term indicates is any music source that is connected to the PBX so that it plays music when the caller is kept on hold.

Most PBX systems do have a Headphone/Bix port allow a radio, stereo or MP3 or CD player to be connected and feed continuous music or audio.

Depending on the location of your PBX system, a radio may not be a great choice if the reception is no good. There will be noise and static and you will need to keep fine tuning and changing the position of the antenna.

A stereo/mp3/cd player provides clearer audio and is generally a better choice. Ensure that the CD/ MP3 is in repeat mode for continuous playback.

But beware… it is illegal to play pre-recorded music, and radio due to copyright laws. And you may be liable depending on how much you are worth to a prospective plaintiff !!

There are commercial MOH devices made for professional PBX use. An example would be the On-Hold Plus, and my all time favorite is the OHP7000. It has licensed pre-recorded audio which sounds really professional and they offer to add your company name for free.

There are professional firms that will record customised on hold music for you. And update it every week or month with all your specials!!

So the MOH is just that , it is audio that will continuously play when your callers are kept on hold. They are not in a queue, please note, they are simply on hold and you will have to get back to them.

Our second musketeer…

AA - Auto Attendant

Most phone systems have an add-on module which may be installed in the PBX control unit , or connected separately. This add-on is commonly known as the Voice Processing System or Voicemail System.

The Voice Processsing System provides AA Greetings, Custom Menus to route calls to different extensions or departments, and individual mailboxes for each user.

All your company greetings, custom menus, mailbox greetings, voicemails are stored in this system.

For example : ” Thank you for calling Metro Communications, if you know the extension number of the person you would like to reach, please enter it at any time. For Sales press 2. For Service press3. For our Company Information press 8. For our Staff Directory press 9. Press 0 or stay on the line for immediate assistance.”

When callers press 8 or 9 they will be routed to another greeting that plays the relevant information.

AA simply means Automatic Reception i.e. No Live Operator. All calls are answered by the AA Greetings and based on the menu, calls can be routed effectively without the need for a live operator.

Now please note that your Music On hold device is not doing AA. Sometimes MOH is a professional customised recording, and may have a same voice over, but that does not mean that the AA device works as the MOH device.

You will need both these muskateers to have a good professional phone system that handles calls and puts callers on hold professionally.

The third musketeer : OGM

OGM or Out Going Message

OGMs are recorded on another option card, that is needed to setup a call queue for a group of phones. So if you are not completely satisfied with the MOH and the AA upgrades, and you still need to avoid putting callers on hold manually, then you should consider throwing in another hardware upgrade which has call queuing functionality.

This is how it will work…

Calls get answered by the AA, and gets transferred to your customer service department. Now if all your agents in the group are busy, then the caller hears the OGM 1 message ” please hold , all our agents are currently busy attending other customers, you may wish to stay on the line or press 1 to leave a message”,

followed by the MOH or music-on-hold, for a specified time interval

after which you will hear another OGM 2 message ” thank you for your patience, your call is really very important to us. Please stay on the line ”

follow by the MOH , then again OGM1. This sequence can be made to continue till an agent is available and you will be put through to that agent.

A MOH with a customised marketing message, and the AA are all you need.

In fact, Clients often realize that what they want is maybe just the MOH, they dont need the AA or the Call Queuing OGM card. And if they see the light, then that is money saved!

Unfortunately, some misled customers do end up buying the complete bundle without being explained what is what ! And learn this the hard way.

Fortunately, most IP PBX phone systems have all these three hardware components already included at no extra charge. Now that’s value !!

Thats the story of the three telecom musketeers !!

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With the introduction of VOIP or IP Phone Systems, this old-technology question is becoming all the more relevant in your final decision to purchase the right phone system today.I have cut and pasted the following text from a google search, just to show you a classic example of a technically correct explanation for this question that would not only be technical jargon to you, but also throw up a bunch of new questions.

“”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"
A key system has telephones with multiple buttons that permit the user to directly select the telephone company’s central office phone lines. A key telephone system (KTS) is not a switch.
A private branch exchange (PBX) allows several trunks (outside lines) from the central office to be shared and the switching for selecting these lines is within the PBX. A PBX is sometimes referred to as a phone switch.
Key systems are usually found in small companies where few features are required. A PBX is usually found in larger companies that need more capabilities.

“”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"
Was I right?

Now your questions would be :

Questions???

- What is a switch? What is central office?- I didn’t quite understand why PBX is a phone switch and the KTS is not a switch?
- Why do I care? All I want is one phone on my desk for all my lines.

- It is great to get lots of features, but I still don’t know what I need and what I don’t.

- I am a small business, so do I have to look out for a Key Telephone System?
- Is the PBX Phone system not for me?
- Is the PBX more expensive?
- Well I don”t want to be stuck with something that is having few features, so what do I do?
- What are the features that a Key Telephone System has and the PBX doesn’t?

- I do know somebody who has a business phone system and he says its a PBX… he has a staff of six!! And I am confused !! Did he get cheated? or Did he pay too much for something he didn’t need??
- Gosh, I can understand that there are different makes and models, but now I have to deal with different architectures in phone systems???
- Help !!

Ok. Here is our version of the explanation…

And this is really the most important thing you will ever need to know in today’s market, where there are hundreds of new phone systems with VOIP technology, IP PBX Systems, IP Phone Systems that are competing with the Panasonic, Nortel, Avaya, NEC, Samsung types.

Just recently during a sales meeting, a prospective client was all in favour of the new VOIP PBX, but it was this KEY difference, (no pun intended!!) that made them reject the VOIP PBX and choose the Traditional Key Telephone System from a well established manufacturer.
What was this “key “difference?

Key System Functionality is seen when each business phone or extension connected to your business phone system is able to have a button ( called Line or CO Button) dedicated for each Phone Line that you have for calling out i.e. the local telephone company or CO lines.

When you press this Line Button on your phone, you are actually connected to one of the CO Lines from your phone company.

Lets say you have subscribed for 4 business telephone lines from your local phone company then you will have Line 1, Line 2, Line 3 and Line 4 Buttons on your business phone.

You are able to pick and choose what ever line you want to dial out. Also if one of the lines is faulty you will actually hear a crackling or if it is dead then you will hear nothing except a slight hiss. In short you are able to SEE all your lines coming into the office.

You are also able to see the status when someone in the office is using any of the CO Lines, because the corresponding Line Button will be lit up RED or have a Black Triangle against it ( this feature is available in all business phone systems with slight variations.) If you press this Lit up Line Button, it will beep at you and if you have a display , it will show you the current status as LINE BUSY.

Based on my experience in the practical world, KEY Telephone Systems HAVE All and more features than PBX phone systems.

In fact this very feature of Having Line Buttons or Line Presence is a HUGE factor for most small businesses who usually have about 3 to 8 CO Lines and about 3 to 25 phones.

And what is a PBX Telephone System?
In fact, the PBX Telephone System, in the practical sense, does not have the Line Presence feature or CO Line Button feature at all !!!

Which makes the PBX System a bit inferior when compared to a Key Telephone System. Doesn’t it? Well, take my word..this is true. Key Telephone Systems have all the features you will possibly need, whether you are a big business or a small business.

It is true, though, that if you are a very very large business , like Microsoft, or GE or AT&T etc. i.e if you need lots and lots of CO Lines than the number of buttons on your business phone, then you would go for a pure PBX Telephone System.

(That doesn’t mean you cannot use a Key Telephone System for large organizations…Key Telephone Systems can be SETUP as PBX systems, but PBX systems CANNOT be setup as Key Telephone Systems. )

How do you setup a Key Telephone System as a PBX ?

Very simple. Just remove all Line Buttons from your Key Telephone, and use “9″ on your dial pad to get the first available line to dial out. Thats the exact difference between an IP PBX and the Traditional Phone System. You will not be able to put a line on hold at one phone, and take it on another phone. Simply because you do not have individual line buttons on an IP PBX Phone.

A PBX or Private Branch Exchange, is a business phone system that doesn’t need the ability to have Line Presence on all its business phones or extensions. Now there are technical differences in how they work, as a switch, etc etc. but when it comes to your understanding,that is the KEY feature.

Both phone systems have the ability to handle multiple lines, multiple conversations, auto-attendant, voice mail boxes, for a wide range of office sizes.

The critical point is that most of the IP PBX Systems or IP Phone Systems or VOIP Phone Systems DO NOT have the Line Presence feature.

And if you think thats important to you, just like our last client did, then please don’t opt for the IP PBX System! VOIP PBX or IP PBX may not be for everybody.

But if you do need some great features, unlimited voicemail ports, voice-mail to email, unlimited extension capabilty, menu driven web interface for programming, call centre features, off-site remote extension included in the base price, then this is the system for you.

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The sophisticated business phone system that your clients can experience when they call “your business phone line”. The days of answering your business phone system line, by running down to the basement are over.

Let the auto attendant do the job.

Technology has made it possible for you to run your small home business with a more professional face….your new phone system !!

I will talk more about simple and reliable business phone systems this in my next post…

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Which is great. Because an IP PBX offers lots more features and full scalability at the same entry level price for a similarly configured key or traditional phone system. The key words are “same entry level price”. Yes, I don’t think IP PBX Phone systems are cheaper than key / traditional phone systems.

In fact in certain popular models they are often expensive if you are buying upto 10 extensions or phones.

Anyways, coming back to my original point….if you do hook up your landlines to the IP PBX Analog Gateway, you have the reliablility and quality of a regular phone line with the feature set of an IP PBX serving you.

But if you use the * features on the lines such as, voicemail, blocking caller ID, call forwarding, last number called etc which are features provided by the phone company…don’t be surprised if you are not able to use any of them.

Which kinda sucks if you have a good reason to use them.

Another reason why you would want to consider a traditional phone system like the Panasonic, Nortel, Avaya, Samsung, NEC, Toshiba key telephone systems.

Believe it or not, the key telephone system gives you the same dial tone that you would hear if you were using a regular home phone connected to your landline. During the wet season, you would actually hear a crackle or static if the connection is faulty, or dead air if the line is actually dead from the phone company.

Also you will be able to use all the ” * ” features provided on the line for voicemail, caller id block, call waiting, last number redial etc.

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The question posed to me was : ” I have just discovered this new phone system software called the Asterisk, I have all analog phones and would like to know how I can connect these phones to the Asterisk. What are the building blocks? “Asterisk is a software application, that can be installed on a regular PC and it can work as your telephone switch by managing phone calls and providing business phone features.

You need to install freely available add-on cards, for phone lines and phone extensions.

You need to be well versed with computer hardware and operating systems like Linux etc., although there are some new flavours of the software to build Asterisk Based phone systems that can be setup by novices.

To setup an Asterisk Phone System, you need a PC, the Asterisk Phone Software, FXO cards for connecting your regular or land-line phone line / phone service, FXS cards to provide connections to your analog phones. You may choose to have VOIP Lines, if you want phone service from an IP Phone line provider. In that case don’t install the FXO card. These are the key components to build your own phone system. Good luck.

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“No. I dont want to try that.” - this is common reaction when I  come across the dial-by-name directory feature in business pbx systems.Most people hate it anyways, for a long list of reasons which I won’t bother listing. But one of the latest reasons to drop this feature, completely, is the popularity of smart phones.

Ever seen the keyboard layout of a smart phone? Try dialing in to a friend’s pbx / phone system and entering the four letters of your friend’s first or last name. Go on …. try it !! And you will know why.

A lot of new pbx system users like all the goodies that come with the installation of a brand spanking new pbx system and want to try out all the “cool” features. And for such eager-beavers, my advice is to stay away from the dial-by-name directory unless you want irate customers complaining about your lousy phone system and hurt your ego.

“So whats the alternative , wise guy?” - you may ask.

Here’s my suggestion.

Most phone systems have the ability to record multi-level auto-attendant greetings, so you may want to setup and announce an option, in your main welcome greeting, that allows callers to press 9 to reach a company directory.

You can record another sub greeting that lists out all names and extension numbers of the staff in the office. And this greeting should be played when callers press 9 Callers will then hear this sub greeting that they can dial and reach the person immediately.

If you cannot record multi-level greetings, then simply announce the extension directory at the end of your welcome greeting.

Like this… “Thank you for calling XYX company, if you know the extension number of the person you are trying to reach please enter it at any time…or stand by for our complete staff directory,..for xxx dial 221, for yyy dial 222…”

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The truth is that an IP PBX, by virtue of the technology that has created it, has the ability to instantly connect to various VOIP service providers who are able to give you dial tone or phone line via your existing broadband internet connection. No expensive upgrades required. Just connect your IP PBX phone system to the internet and setup your internet phone line or VOIP Line.

And depending on what deals your VOIP phone telephone line company has to offer, you can get free unlimited calling to some countries or absolutely free calling to any place in the world !!

Technical terms explained :
pbx - private branch eXchange
epabx - electronic private automated branch eXchange
ip - internet protocol
voip - voice over internet protocol

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