8 Factors for Evaluating a IP Phone System
Shoretel's CEO, John Combs, presented a keynote address recently at IT Expo West, providing very relevant instruction to IT managers and business owners upgrading to a voice over IP (VOIP) phone system. He cited the MAC iPhone as an reference, to illustrate how quickly new technology can come to the fore in an industry. In the case of a VOIP business phone system, IP technology will soon dominate similarly over existing analog (TDM) systems. VOIP telephone systems can greatly increase user adaption rates, leading to improved productivity in a business.
An IP phone system allows the collaborative and reach aspects of unified messaging technology. The VOIP telephone system frequently includes features such as audio conferencing, unified messaging (voicemail to email), web collaboration, mobile integration (cell phones), presence (to locate employees quickly), instant messaging, video conferencing and business process integration (customer relationship management, sales, accounting, etc.).
What differentiates one vendor's small business phone systems from the next? Mr. Combs suggests a an exceptionally structured evaluation process when upgrading to office telephone systems with VOIP for business. He advises forming an evaluation team of key players and using 8 evaluation criteria for selecting new small business phone systems:
Usability. There must be an onsite demonstration using the actual hardware to be deployed. It is often advisable to have two or more vendor demonstrations side-by-side, or instead to deploy alternative prototypes at two different company locations and then swap systems and locations to see which one users preferred.
Reliability. What is the expected failure rate, based on actual deployed systems using Bellcore/Telecordia standards? Mr Combs pointed out that academic laboratory estimates are not sufficient for confidence in deploying a new system. In other words be very careful about deploying anything that is not field tested.
Availability. Make certain understand the effect of downtime on the business based on the planned configuration. How many points of failure are there in the vendor's configuration?
Scalability. Examine the anticipated cost should your organization double in size.
Architecture. What methodology was used to design the system? Was it built ground-up vs. piecemeal from a number of merged business entities?
Total Cost of Ownership. In many cases initial costs (hardware, network and implementation) come to only 20% of the aggregate system expenditure in the long term. Day-to-day costs (training, move/add/change, system management, network and utilities) can easily add up to 80% over the system lifetime. What is the case with the systems under consideration?
Vendor Financial Strength. Evaluate the vendor's balance sheet to get comfortable with the fact that they'll continue to be able to support your office telephone system.
Vendor References. Everyone on the team should contact their peers for information regarding the ip phone system vendors considered. Would they repurchase? Do they know of other references? How do actual costs compare to vendor estimates? Is the system a support nightmare? What about any "raving fans?"
When choosing to upgrade small business phone systems, most users choose a VOIP business phone system. The suggested evaluation criteria and especially the presence of "raving fans" for any VOIP business phone system are important to achieve all the benefits of VOIP for business.
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Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/technology-articles/phone-systems-for-small-business-8-factors-for-evaluating-a-ip-phone-system-1776723.html
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