Business Telephone Systems

Flexible Phone Systems: On-Premise & Cloud-Based Solutions

Telephone systems used to be an entirely separate entity to regular I.T. systems, but the level of integration has increased significantly in the last few years. Now the same cabling systems can be shared, a voicemail to email feature alerts you to a new voicemail even when away from your office and enables you to listen to it as well.

The world of telephony and I.T. has definitely come together. It makes sense for the same company to support both your I.T. and your telephone systems.

The other big change is the variety of telephone connections now available. For years the regular choice has been ISDN. Now we have a low cost alternative: SIP trunks.

SIP trunks are taking over from ISDN. (SIP is an acronym for Session Initiation Protocol, but there is no need to understand it – just think of it as a different way of connecting telephone calls). SIP trunks provide the same call quality as ISDN but at a much reduced price.

An additional benefit is that numbers from any area code can be applied to your SIP trunks. You could have an office in Portsmouth, but advertise both Portsmouth and Southampton phone lines. This also means that if you ever relocate, you can take your number with you.

The issue that can complicate it is the “pipes” that SIP trunks run over. SIP traffic itself which carries speech needs, like your other internet traffic, a physical connection capable of carrying it.

This could be your normal broadband connection, but in reality this would give inconsistent quality as it would have to compete with other users such as web browsers, email and file downloads. The solution is to use is voice-approved DSL, EFM or GEA.

See the Technology for Business > Internet Connection for an explanation of these terms, suffice to say here that we highly recommend the use of SIP for cheaper phone bills but make sure the connections which carry it are up to the job. This is where we can help in designing the system most appropriate to your needs and budget.

We can provide and support both “on-premise” telephone systems and cloud hosted in the Chichester, Portsmouth and general Hampshire area – get in touch today!