The difficulty of replacing your business phone system can vary based on several factors. This is a discussion on the FAQ’s and how to make it less scary. First, we understand that you are used to the way your office phone system works and the thought of changing your business phone system can be a bit scary. However, the thought of not replacing a legacy system should be even more concerning.
We have collected some frequently asked concerns over the years and would like to demonstrate how the proper level of planning and preparation can avoid most, if not all, concerns and issues during the transition.
Upgrading your business phone system is not just an option; it’s an essential step toward operational efficiency. Failing hardware may also indicate it’s time to replace your business phone system. Since nobody wants to be stuck with an outdated phone system, let’s think through this like we would do if you were our customer.
GenXtra Communications, we’re here to help.
7 FAQ’s about Replacing a Business Phone System
- System Complexity: Our customers that have moved from a traditional landline phone system to a cloud-based VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) business phone system initially thought that the transition might have involved more complexity than it actually did. Our customers soon discovered that our cloud-based systems offer significantly more features, but did not require the complex infrastructure changes that they had originally imagined.
- Size of the Organization: The size of a business organization can sometimes impact the difficulty of the transition. However, everything is documented, everything is explained, and nothing happens without customer knowledge and approval. Everyone knows exactly what is going to happen and when. While it is true that smaller businesses found it easier (generally due to less documentation needed) to switch phone systems, even our larger enterprise customers with more extensive infrastructure and communication needs were very happy about how seamless the transition actually was.
- Technical Expertise: This is one of the first thoughts for our smaller customers. Once they figured out that there is no need to panic, nor any need for them to learn all the significant technology and terms, their concerns slowly faded. We have had customers with an internal IT team and/or external consultants that assisted us and ultimately, their help simply sped up the transition. We are in no hurry and our goal is to do things right from the start. We are also very transparent and welcome your IT team to be involved. If you do not have any help, it’s OK too.
- Planning and Preparation: Some of our customers thought it was going to consume entirely too much time to make the switch. While thorough planning is crucial, we are going to try and move at your pace. What our customers ended up figuring out is that we ended up knowing enough about them to help plan for future needs and other items besides just their business phone system. This eliminated the need for our customers to tell their story over and over again to various vendors. We became part of their team. The more detailed and thought-out we are at first, the smoother any transition is likely to be.
- Vendor Support: For our business customers, we addressed this concern by demonstrating how support departments and engineers are available from the providers themselves, and that they are in fact, their allies. Yes, we know the horror stories about what happens post sale with some providers. It’s simple, we just don’t work with those types of vendors. The level of support provided by us and our alliance partners has significantly streamlined and eased the difficulty of the transition. A provider must demonstrate good customer support, training resources, and clear documentation for us to even consider them as an option to present to you.
- Employee Training: We understand that your employees are familiar with the current office phone system. You may initially be concerned about your team adapting to the changes. We also understand that many of your office staff wish that they had more features and capabilities. We also understand that a lot of your employees won’t say this out loud, nor in your presence. Providing adequate training for the new system is essential. We work with providers that have scheduled weekly training sessions. Our solution partners have “customer success teams” to ensure your employees are trained. We also factor for employee turn over and eliminate you having to train your employees yourself. We have had new hires up and running the same day that they started.
- Testing: Once everything is ready to go, it’s pretty exciting! However, you should not just flip a switch and change things over. We often conduct thorough pre-tests of the new phone system before full implementation. During this pre-test stage, your current office phone system is still running just like it always did before. This pre-test helps to identify and address any remaining issues before the full activation. This avoids any major impact on day-to-day operations.
While changing a business phone system can sometimes present challenges, many organizations successfully make the transition daily. Now that you know that this can be done easily and safely, let’s remind you of why you wanted to replace your business phone system in the first place.
7 Reasons To Replace Your Office Phone System
- Improved Features and Functionality: Upgrading your business phone system often means gaining access to new and improved features. This often results in better call management, enhanced voicemail systems, advanced call forwarding/routing, video conferencing, and more. More importantly, it improves the customer experience and your business brand.
- Increased Productivity: A more advanced business phone system significantly contributes to increased productivity. In addition, deploy all of your office system features to remote work environments as well. That is actually one of our favorite topics. Try doing that with a legacy system! Increase productivity with features like voicemail-to-email, call recording, integrated messaging, analytics and reporting and so much more to streamline the communication processes within your organization.
- Cost Changes: Depending on the new business phone system and it’s structure, you may experience significant reductions in costs. Correct, all of this could actually be cheaper than you are paying today. If you are a replacing a legacy phone system, say hello to a reduction in electricity costs too! Increased efficiency and productivity also have significant savings too. If you are still paying for USA and International calls, please just contact us immediately.
- Downtime: A legacy business phone system system is dependent on so many things running at your office. Not only is it expensive to run, when it goes down, it all goes down. Imagine if the power went out right now, what happens to your business? With our solutions, your auto-attendants, fail over call settings, voicemail, and more will still be working. Each employee now gets their calls routed to their mobile phone for example. Find another location with internet access and your video conferencing system is still working without the need to download anything. We will also present you with RF, wireless and other fail over solutions for a redundancy plan. Our goal is to minimize disruptions to business operations.
- Integration Challenges: A legacy business phone system simply has limitations. A modern business phone system needs to integrate with other business systems (such as CRM software, helpdesk tools, etc.), we will work with you on these challenges to ensure a seamless integration.
- Customer Impact: While your customers may be accustomed to your old business phone system, it can be true that a change may initially cause confusion for them. With enhanced features and capabilities they will figure out quickly that you care about the customer experience and have modernized your business environment. A Contact Center Business Phone System can allow your customers to communicate seamlessly with you in the ways that they want to. Be it via web chat, facebook, SMS/MMS, and more. All in a centralized hub that makes things incredibly easy for your employees to manage.
- Security Considerations: A legacy system has to constantly be patched and updated. That’s why you see the phone system guy in the area often. The hackers and bad guys are just getting more savvy, and more desperate. It is extremely important to consider the security implications if you do not upgrade to a modern business phone system. We recommend a business phone system that is “managed for you” (without additional costs) and have robust security features to protect against potential threats.
If you’re uncertain about anything that we have discussed, be it the technical aspects, the capabilities, the costs, or any concern, consider seeking assistance from us, the professionals, to ensure a smooth transition. Book an appointment with us our request a quote to learn more.
