Phone Systems for Small Business - 8 Factors for Evaluating a IP Phone System

In a recent keynote address at IT Expo West, John Combs, Shoretel's CEO provided pertinent counsel to IT managers and others evaluating a voice over IP (VOIP) phone system. He used the MAC iPhone as an analogy, to demonstrate 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 today's predominant analog (TDM) systems. VOIP telephone systems can greatly increase user adaption rates, leading to improved productivity in an organization.

An IP phone system allows the collaborative and reach aspects of unified messaging technology. The VOIP telephone system generally provides features such as teleconferencing, unified messaging (voicemail into email), web collaboration, mobile integration (cell phones), presence (to locate employees quickly), instant messaging, video conferencing and application integration (customer relationship management, sales, accounting, etc.).

What differentiates one vendor's small business phone systems from the next? Mr. Combs suggests a a very structured evaluation process when upgrading to office telephone systems with VOIP for business. He proposed 8 evaluation criteria to be used by the evaluation team making the choice of a new VOIP business phone system:

Usability. There must be an onsite demonstration using the actual hardware to be deployed. Mr Combs highly recommends having two or more vendors demonstrate side-by-side, or on the other hand to install different prototypes at two different company locations and then exchange systems and locations to find out which one users preferred.

Reliability. What is the probable failure rate, based on actual fielded systems using Bellcore/Telecordia standards? Mr Combs pointed out that speculative laboratory estimates are not sufficient for confidence in deploying a new system. You don't want to the the "guinea pig" for a vendor's prototype or Beta testing.

Availability. Make certain understand the effect of downtime on the business based on the planned configuration. Count the points of failure exist in the vendor's configuration?

Scalability. Examine the anticipated cost should your company double in size.

Architecture. What methodology was used to design the system? Was it built ground-up vs. piecemeal from different merged business entities?

Total Cost of Ownership. In many cases initial costs (hardware, network and implementation) amount to only 20% of the overall system expense over the system's lifecycle. Operating costs (training, move/add/change, system management, network and utilities) can amount to 80% over the system lifetime. What is the case with the systems under consideration?

Vendor Financial Status. 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. Did they make a wise decision with this vendor? Do they know of other references? What is their actual cost experience vs. vendor estimates at the start? Is it easy for IT staff to support? What about any "raving fans?"

When evaluating new small business phone systems, most users choose a VOIP business phone system. The suggested evaluation criteria and above all the presence of "raving fans" for any VOIP business phone system are crucial in getting all the benefits of VOIP for business.