|
Basic Telephone System Features |
|
|
 | Business telephone systems can be equipped with literally hundreds of features
for purposes such as switching calls and directing traffic. Market research indicates
that most companies will only use 5 to 10 percent of their telephone
features. Instead of comparing system features on a one-to-one basis, you
should examine how your phone system will be used in your organisation. To avoid wasting time trawling through the hundreds of features available, limit your
search and evaluation to only those options that will improve efficiency and
work-flow for your business. |
All systems have the absolute core features of
call hold, transfer, pickup and paging through the phone or external
speakers. However, the user boundaries for these features does vary from
system to system so when you have narrowed your selection to two or
three vendors, make sure you have a live demonstration of the operation
of these and other features you require.

| Buyers Guide Tip: Bring a Heavy User Bring along a heavy telephone
user from the office to demonstrations and vendor visits when researching, as they can often highlight poor user
functionality that is evident on some telephone systems. |
Some of the other features that are standard in many systems and can be of great value to many organisations include:
ConferencingConferencing holds obvious benefits for many businesses, can minimise travel times
for meetings and are invaluable to international businesses. Features do vary widely, and it's important to consider how often your staff
need to make conference calls, as well as how many different people need to
call in. If the conferencing features you need aren't readily
available in a system, there are other options for conducting teleconferences that
you can purchase separately. Ask your dealer.
Direct InDialThe majority
of business calls a company will take are from people it deal with regularly. InDial uses
ISDN technology to allow individual staff to have their own dedicated
number so that these calls can be made direct to their extension
without having to go via reception - saving valuable time as well as energy. In conjunction with
voice mail, in dial provides significant benefits to many businesses.
Least Cost Routing (LCR)This
feature automatically selects the most cost effective outside line for
any number dialed from your office. For instance to minimize your phone
bill, you may have all your long distance calls with Optus, all calls
to mobiles with Primus and international calls with another network
provider. LCR will automatically pick the correct (lowest cost) carrier
for each call type.
|
Auto-attendant
An
auto-attendant is the recorded message that answers your phones and
instructs callers how to reach the person or department they are
looking for. If you have a high volume of calls or provide after hours
support, this may be important - or you may value having a real person
answer every call. If auto-attendant is relevant to your business, look
closely at your needs as functionality varies significantly between
products. |  |
Music-on-holdMusic-on-hold is fairly
self-explanatory - in most systems you have internal music source(s) or
simply plug in a source of music to your system. Find out more in our
Message On Hold Buyer's Guide.
Night/Holiday ServiceThis feature
automatically assigns a different ringing plan for after hours,
weekends or holidays. This allows for options such as directing calls
to a courtesy message that your business only operates during business
hours. Alternatively, if you provide 24x7 support, calls can be automatically
screened and directed to service technicians as required.
Ring GroupsMany
organisations have a single number for groups such as accounts, sales or
service. This feature allows calls to these organisational groups to be
set up with different ring options for the phones within a group. For
instance, all phones could ring or one phone could ring 3 times and if
it is not answered the next nominated phone in the group could ring and
so on.
Tracking Calls (SMDR)SMDR or Station Message Detail
Recorder can provide details of all telephone calls, both internally and
externally, made from every phone connected to the system. When used
with Call Accounting software, It provides a tool to analyse the
calling patterns within your company to identify operational
inefficiencies and to reduce overall call costs.
Toll Barring/Class of ServiceWith
this feature it is possible to limit access to international, long distance or
mobile calls to staff who require such access as part of their jobs. If
class of service is important, have a good understanding of what your
requirements are as some products provide more sophisticated
implementations than others.
Speed Dial DirectoryAll systems
have the capability to store hundreds of frequently used numbers. Most
products allow you to associate an alphanumeric name with the number so
you can easily find using dial by name directory service. With caller
ID, some telephone systems can display the name of the calling party if
their number is in the speed dial directory. A feature to look for is
whether the phone system allows you to import your phone directory from
applications like Excel as this can save a lot of time in both set up
and management of your speed dial numbers.
Next Page: More Basic Telephone Handset Features >>
|