| Moving to an IP PBX phone system can be a great | | | | but it also affords the greatest amount of control over |
| decision that can save money, offer easier | | | | features and deployment. |
| administration, and give you access to many high-end | | | | Step Three: Your RFP |
| features at little or no incremental cost. But before | | | | If you are a small business with only five or ten phone |
| making the switch, it's important to find a good IP PBX | | | | lines, you may think you don't need a formal Request |
| phone system vendor that can help you with your | | | | for Proposal, but it will help to illustrate to potential |
| decision-making process, make the installation | | | | vendors exactly what they need to provide for you, |
| transparent, and provide training to your users. | | | | and what your expectations are. |
| Step One: Your Needs Analysis | | | | Step Four: Create a short list |
| Different vendors may have different specialties. While | | | | Take some time to review the web sites of system |
| some focus more on enterprise installations, others | | | | vendors, and have a look at any existing review sites |
| may be more focused on small businesses, and so it is | | | | on the Web. Compile a list of vendors that are likely to |
| important to determine precisely what you're looking | | | | have the products and service to meet your needs. |
| for before you start looking for a vendor. This requires | | | | Step Five: Evaluate the offerings |
| first, determining how many phone lines you need, how | | | | When you evaluate your list of vendors, there are |
| many users you are likely to have in the foreseeable | | | | several things to keep in mind besides the feature set. |
| future, and what your peak usage is. To determine | | | | The feature set itself is important, but it is not |
| peak usage, track how many users are on the phone | | | | everything-and the phone with the most features |
| at any given time throughout the day. This will be | | | | doesn't always win the competition. All those bells and |
| important later in determining whether you have | | | | whistles are impressive, but your decision should be |
| adequate bandwidth to support your IP PBX. | | | | based on the features that you need now, or will need |
| Step Two: Hosted, Software, or Hardware? | | | | in the foreseeable future. In addition, your decision |
| You don't need to make the decision between hosted | | | | should take into account scalability and the ability to |
| or on-premises, or virtual or hardware right away, but | | | | upgrade to a higher-end system should the need arise. |
| it's important to at least know the relative advantages | | | | Don't forget about the IP phones! |
| of each. A hosted system does not reside on-site, and | | | | Besides the IP PBX, you will need IP phones as well, |
| does not require on-site maintenance, and it may be | | | | and it will be most convenient if you can obtain these |
| very good for smaller installations. An on-premises | | | | from the same vendor that is providing you with and |
| software-based IP PBX is a type of "virtual" IP PBX, | | | | installing your IP PBX. Many IP phones do come with |
| offering the advantage of on-premises control and | | | | high-end, special features, and when selecting an IP |
| less cost than a hardware-based PBX. Lastly, the | | | | PBX, one must also make sure to have IP phones that |
| hardware IP PBX may require the most maintenance, | | | | are able to handle the features offered by the PBX. |