Simple tips for choosing the best IP PBX System for businesses in Kenya
Choosing the best IP PBX system for your business in Kenya can be a challenging task. Usually, affordability and reliability feature at the top of the list of factors to be considered when thinking of a new PBX phone system. What with different telephony solutions and vendors. The same criteria apply for the best VoIP service provider in Kenya
Indeed, a PBX phone system is longer just a tool for ordinary functions like making and receiving phone calls. Modern phone systems are tools for productivity. They bring efficiency in resource allocation and utilization. For this reason, getting the best IP PBX system installation will help you grow your business by providing you with innovative productivity-enhancing features.
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You can actually use IP Telephony to cut telephone expenses by more than half. More importantly, keep track of monthly communication costs and only budget for the usable capacity. Moreover, the VoIP PBX phone systems will help you to unlock your company’s business potential by leveraging on the unified communication platform.
PBX solutions can be used to not only meet everyday communication needs but also create a platform for corporate collaborations. That is why it is advisable to choose the best telephony solution. For when you choose to work with the best IP PBX system, you get the best value for money.
Some of the business-enhancing features include call recording, call forwarding, automated attendant extensions, call reports, mobility extensions, conferencing, and ring group to mention a few.
The following are some of the factors to be considered before deciding on the best PBX telephone system installation:
PBX Call handling capability
Different PBX phone systems have different call handling capabilities. There is a PBX that can only handle 10 concurrent calls. Likewise, there are PBX telephone systems that can handle as many as 50 concurrent calls.
What is more, there is a business phone system that can accommodate a maximum of two GSM gateways while bigger capacity ones have extra slots to take in as many as 10. Therefore, knowing beforehand the area for deployment will enable you to project caller capacity requirements to be met.
That is why the deployment environment will determine the projected call handling requirements. By way of example, the call handling capacity suitable for a contact call center operation will be totally different from the call handling capacity for an ordinary office workplace.
Number of extensions required
The estimated number of extensions required will dictate how big the PBX business phone system will be. As it is, most telephony equipment is designed based on the size of the company and the number of extension users. Thus, there are PBX telephone systems for small businesses and medium-sized enterprises. Likewise, there are PBX phone systems for large corporate organizations.
Therefore, stating clearly the projected number of office telephone extensions required can help in creating a budget for the ideal telephony system. Hence, if the company is a small business, there will be no need to install a big capacity PBX telephone system. On the other hand, if the company is a big and expanding enterprise there will be no need to purchase a small PBX and then spend extra finance to upgrade it.
The Value-added features offered by the Telephony system
Value addition varies from one telephony vendor to another. Value-added telephony features normally include an interactive voice response system (IVR), softphones. And the call center software. For example, by using softphones, users can transform their smartphones, laptops, and desktop computers into telephone extensions.
A softphone is a software application that enables office telephone extension users to enjoy unified communication capability even when outside the office network. The softphone apps work best when the telephony setup has a VoIP PBX phone system.
Scalability of the Telephony System
Businesses do grow over a period of time, so should the calling capacity. The best PBX phone system should allow for easy growth. Hence, scalability is the ability to grow and accommodate new workplace demands. So before the PBX telephone system is installed, you should ask certain pertinent questions. Firstly, how is easy is it to add new telephone extensions? Secondly, what does it involve when in order to add another line for outgoing calls? Lastly, is any cost involved apart from purchasing the additional IP phones?
Answering these questions correctly will help you determine if the telephone system can be scaled without much of a hassle.
The Vendor Support
In as much as telephony systems are reliable devices after sales and support still remain a critical factor in PBX installation. The best PBX phone system should allow for both on-site and off-site support. Timely support ensures that communication at work is never interrupted.
In fact, there should be inbuilt methods for spotting system errors and rectifying them before they escalate. A good telephony system does not just breakdown without a warning. And most business phone systems will send a notification to the system administrator of an issue that requires urgent attention.
The total cost of ownership
Cost implications for installations any solution determines the direction project discussions take. The cost of acquiring the PBX phone system should be reasonable to the client. Then again, there are various packages for meeting different needs. For example, a telephony package for a company that needs 20 office extensions and two lines will be cheaper than the package for a company that needs 50 telephone extensions.
So capturing the right call requirements, the number of extensions needed, and the gateway. You will likely save a lot in terms of installation costs when the exact need is stated before the telephony proposal is prepared. Nonetheless, some of the best IP PBX systems tend to be reasonably priced and quite affordable to acquire.
The mode of setup
There are two main methods for PBX installation. One, there is a cloud PBX system. Two, there is the appliance-based setup or the on-premise PBX telephone system. As the name suggests, the appliance-based setup involves purchasing a physical PBX appliance. Upon full configuration, the appliance is deployed in the server room and connected to the local area network the same way a managed network switch can be deployed.
see; structured cabling company
As for the cloud PBX, this basically involves subscribing to a cloud solution. For this setup, there is no physical appliance. However, PBX configuration happens from the administrator account hosted in the cloud. Even so, the cloud-based PBX phone system usually attracts an annual subscription from the vendor. What is more, the best IP PBX system can be purchased as an appliance and as a software subscription.
Call Recording and Call Reports
Have access to detailed yet easy-to-read call detail reports. Unlike the summarized call log list, the call report captures the Caller ID, time of the call, and duration of the calls among others. The call reports can be used to track telephone costs. Also to budget for annual or monthly communication expenses. Pull out a detailed report per office telephone extension and also a company-wide call report.
See also; inbound IVR system
Furthermore, the call recording feature has been used to monitor and improve customer interaction standards. This is a critical tool particularly for the contact call center system and customer interfacing departments.
Businesses no longer use telephone systems to make internal calls, dial outgoing calls, and to receive incoming calls. The IP telephony technology has ensured that the telephone infrastructure delivers more than just the mundane. That is how unified communications solutions came to enable voice calls, video conferencing, mobility, and instant chat and messaging from one platform.
More importantly, the business of communication has become more about collaboration. It is about professionals collaborating with other professionals. Colleagues at work being able to reach each other with a click of a button. And also with clients and suppliers. All these back and forth communications being relayed through desktop phones, mobile phone apps, and computers.
Unified Communication PBX
Unified communications PBX systems have been enriched with productivity-boosting features such as extension mobility. Hence, you can reach the office extension user even when not physically present at the desk. Another important PBX feature is the remote extensions feature. Thus a telephone extension at the head office can reach another extension at a remote office and vice versa.
Integration with other applications being another important feature. The phone system should allow integration with applications such as the CRM, Skype, and even outlook email service. This can be a critical feature, especially for those retail businesses. Virtually all businesses in one way or the other would like to consolidate all information about interaction with clients. And integrations presents a less expensive window to harvest this information for future interactions.
In summary, many factors will come into when choosing the best IP PBX system for business. For example, what is the best PBX phone system for a small business? Here, a phone system with a less advanced call handling capability will do. This is due to fewer telephone extensions required and an even lesser requirement for concurrent calls.
On the other hand, as an organization grows its communications needs start becoming complex. Therefore, an advanced phone system will complex call handling capability will be required. This is because there will be a need for many telephone extensions and the ability to handle simultaneous calls without dropping.
Contact us today for specialist advice on the best IP PBX system in Kenya.
