Below is a check list for when you are selecting a new phone and voice mail system and supplier:

1. Try to estimate how much your company will grow in next three to five years. Look at how many lines and extensions you have at moment and decide how many your company may require in future.

2. Contact potential suppliers, and arrange an appointment with them for a full demonstration. A number of these can be sourced off internet or through your local business pages. This will also give them a good opportunity to have a look at you and evaluate your potential requirements. Remember to ask them about their experience and if necessary ask for referrals. You could even ask to see a system they have recently installed.

3. Make sure you decide on a rough budget for your proposed new telephone and voice mail system. Ask around other businesses of similar size, what they have invested in their systems.

4. When potential suppliers provide you with a quote for your new phone system, go through them carefully, ensuring they include all of requirements your business will need. These may include extras like; Voice mail, additional handsets, call handling software, automated attendants, service level agreements (SLA’s) and any other additional features.

5. Once you have decided on one or two suppliers, it is time to get them back round. Remember, they want your business. Bearing in mind budget you decided earlier, make your decision based upon not only price, but which supplier you think can provide your company with best service before, during and after installation of your new phone and voice mail system. Any good potential supplier will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about phone system they intend to supply and install for you.

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Jason

3. Adequate memory. Most voice mail systems have an adequate amount of memory, usually more than you will ever need. When selecting an appropriate voice mail system it is important that you enquire about systems memory capacity, because some suppliers now provide relatively inexpensive voice mail systems that do not have a hard disk for message storage. All messages and greetings are stored on chips, which seriously affects amount of memory available. These small inexpensive voice mail systems are only really suitable to companies or offices with only two or three phone extensions and not recommended for a growing company requiring a fully featured voice mail system.

4. Expansion and how much it will cost. When choosing a voice mail system, you need to make sure that any quotes gathered from systems suppliers include a cost for expansion. If you decide upon a voice mail system that is only sufficient for your current requirements, then consider what will happen if and when your office/company expands, and need for more voice mail capacity outstrips that of your current system. You will also need to ask any prospective supplier how long they will honour their quotation for expansion of your voice mail system.

5. Remote maintenance costs. Before purchasing a suitable voice mail system from any supplier, you need to find out what their costs are for remote maintenance. All voice mail systems will at some time require a little care and feeding, which more often than not can only be provided by system supplier.

6. Voice mail system training. It is important that all users attend training sessions of any new voice mail system. Though voice mail systems are not usually difficult to use, some staff may require one to one or even extra tuition. When evaluating training cost section of any proposed voice mail system suppliers quotation, it is important to ascertain that a low price does not mean a low standard of system training.

7. Additional training. It is advisable that you acquire a cost for any future additional training sessions that may be required from time to time, as staff come and go and for re-training of existing staff.

8. Should I purchase a larger voice mail system? There are two main questions you need to ask yourself in order to determine whether or not you should purchase a larger voice mail system.

Thanks for reading my article

Jason