Buying a new business phone system is one of the most important purchases any business will ever make. The selection of a phone system can either bring a business closer to its customers and clients or, cause confusion and chaos amongst all that use or interact with it.

It is therefore essential that you choose the right phone system for your business needs. The telephone is quite often the fastest and easiest way to reach customers and clients. It should also be the fastest and easiest way for them to reach you. It should be flexible enough to be able to cover all of your company’s needs and handle all calls appropriately. The last thing any business wants is for its important business callers and customers to be routed incorrectly, disconnected, or faced with a long list of confusing automated options.

There are lots of factors that need to be taken into consideration when choosing a new business telephone system. Below are a few of the main ones:

1. You need enough capacity to fulfil your current business needs.

2. Assess your potential future growth and select a compatible phone system accordingly.

3. Ensure compatibility with any equipment you already own (headsets, handsets, conferencing equipment, cabling etc).

4. What features does your business phone system need to incorporate?

Fulfilling all the factors above and any more you can think of can be an expensive challenge for any business.

Here are four critical attributes you should look for in a provider:

1. Business Hosted PBX Should be Their Core Business - Many Hosted PBX providers sell to both the residential market and the business market. Many of today’s Hosted PBX providers offer both residential and business service. It is no secret that some companies are losing large sums of money in that market. If you want to see for yourself, then take a look at the annual reports of a few public companies providing residential VOIP service.

2. Experience and Track Record - Let’s face it, for most companies VoIP is a relatively new technology. Every day new companies emerge with announcements that they have decided to offer Hosted PBX service. It takes time and hands-on experience to perfect solid, quality-assured business processes for VOIP Hosted PBX engineering, installation, software management, traffic management, network management, and trouble-shooting. At the same time that these processes are being perfected, technical resources must also acquire the skills and experience to deliver quality service to the business market.

3. Network Management - A recent survey conducted by Emprix revealed that more than one third of all VoIP service providers are unable to recognize they have a service quality problem until a customer complaint is received. Before selecting a provider for your VoIP Hosted PBX service make sure they are equipped with the proper Network Management System (NMS) for their VoIP deployments, one that allows their Network Operations and Field Technicians to identify and troubleshoot problems without relying upon a complaint from you to trigger an action on their part. Your Hosted PBX provider should have the capability to proactively monitor detailed call quality statistics including MOS, jitter, latency, and other measurements. State-of-the-Art network monitoring systems have advanced diagnostics linked to an online knowledgebase that automatically provide network technicians with troubleshooting tips. This capability dramatically reduces the effort and time required to identify the root cause of poor quality calls, and more importantly it reduces the time that your business is affected by the trouble.

4. End-to-End Service Responsibility - When considering a company to be your Hosted PBX provider, ask them one simple question: “Where exactly does your service responsibility begin and end?” Most Hosted PBX providers will tell you they provide end-to-end service, but what they really mean is that their responsibility ends at the demarcation point of your building where their service terminates and your inside wiring takes over.

If you select a VOIP Hosted PBX provider with those four key attributes, your business risk will be minimized and you can sleep much easier at night.