What phone system in your SME?

[roisin]

If you have 8-30 employees, what kind of phone system do you have?

Back in the day, loads of our business was done by phone. All day long there would be phones ringing and we used full functionality of a phone system - pick ups, transfers, etc.

Now, so much is done either by email, Zoom or Teams. In addition, about half the team have a company mobile on a basic contract. But we still have the expensive VOIP phone system with an account for each colleague and a handset on every desk, because occasionally they need the functionality.

It will depend very much on what you need the phone system to do. If you simply need the ability to make and take phone calls or if you also need a call routing/IVR function, voicemail, calls recorded, ability to transfer, single or multiple numbers etc

If all you need is for the ability for individuals to be able to take and make calls and they don't need to go through a single central telephone number then giving each person a work mobile would probably work out cheaper overall.

If you need a single centralised number with multiple users, queuing system and IVR then you'll need to go the VOIP route but you don't really need handsets, soft phone and headsets would be more flexible so calls can be answered via an installed soft phone agent on the PC/laptop. That way they can answer the calls from the office, home, wherever their computer is.

Thanks. We do have a central number, transfer calls, etc. But not very much (compared with ten years ago).
We are a fairly standard office, not a call centre or anything.
During lockdown, we didn't transfer calls much, but just took messages and gave out DDIs/encouraged their use. So I'm sure the 'phone system' functionality isn't absolutely essential, but it's certainly a nice to have.
I was wondering what others do.
If you don't have a "phone system" what do you do when on leave? Just put it to voicemail?

We have the traditional "two lines from one number for 15 people with a handset on each desk" set up, it is VOIP now. Some use it all day long for external calls, some use it for internal calls, we all use it to some extent. No one WFH or on the road so no need for mobiles and we don't really use Teams, zoom etc all that much either.

Voicemail or divert calls to a colleague when on leave.

We have no phones at all, all calls are prearranged and on zoom. We are not public facing though and have no wish for people to cold contact us by phone, we have an info email address if anyone really needs to.

We switched to a cloud call center setup last year and it’s been a lot smoother than our old landline-based system. Way easier to manage calls when people are working from different places, and the reporting features help us keep track of call volume and wait times. It’s also been handy for training since we can listen back to calls if needed without complicated setups.