Moving your Business Phones
This year has been the perfect catalyst for office relocations. Many companies have perhaps only just decided to return back to the office whilst they wrestle with cost–cutting and uncertainty. Hot desking and flexi working might be more appealing to you than ever, but will your existing office technology support it?
“What are you going to do with the telephone system?”
One of the biggest challenges is to make a smooth transition to your new way of working so that business can continue to run. With a mobile workforce and client base it is more important than ever to make sure your customers can easily call you and that your staff can effortlessly talk with one another.
This can be more challenging when some employees are in the office, some are working from home and others are at other remote locations. Nevertheless, there are ways to help your business talk in a way that is faster, more effective, and more affordable.
- Decide early. Don’t wait until you move to your new office before you transition your phone system. Porting numbers can take weeks. It is best to get this organised in advance. You can build the new platform and have everything ready before your staff move–in, which can take a lot of stress out of the situation. The sooner you can connect to your office telephone system, the faster you will be able to continue with business as normal. Traditional systems can take a while to get connected. A hosted platform such as Voicelinx ensures that you do not have to rely on connectivity at one single location and is quick to set up. Nevertheless, it is always best to get your new system arranged with plenty of lead time as you may end up forwarding your numbers as they port.
- Don’t tie yourself to the serviced office system. Serviced offices will usually offer telephone systems as a service to their tenants, but they will also charge a large premium. If clients want to leave the office and take the telephone number with, many offices are either unable to offer you the number as it’s within a sequential range that they own, or they will charge you an exorbitant premium. A better solution is a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) system with a third-party telecom provider, where you own the phone numbers, and they can be taken with you to any new locations. This way if you move office, you can keep the number that all your clients know, and you won’t even need to reprint your business cards with new numbers (though you might need to change the address!)
- Do you need to buy everyone handsets? Businesses often make the mistake of spending more than they need to at the beginning of a telecoms contract rather than waiting to find out what is needed and spend accordingly. Handsets costs can vary widely between £40 and more than £300, but a system like Voicelinx has a ‘softphone’ app which means that your staff have the option to use their business number directly from their mobile phone or computer. Although you can have a traditional functioning desk phone, it is no longer essential.
Voicelinx is designed to be flexible and grow with your company, whether your teams are working in multiple offices, at their own homes, in other countries or even in a remote offshore office.
It is perhaps only natural that business owners might wait to see what their new office will look like and how it is set up before they organise their new phone system.
However, whilst there might be uncertainty over some physical aspects of your new office the telecommunication requirement is already know. In this case the old adage “failing to plan is planning to fail” rings true.
By leaving the phone system to the last minute, business owners will certainly disrupt business continuity and cost themselves in both lost revenue and working time. The important thing is to act once you know you are potentially going to move to keep everything running smoothly in any eventuality.
