Busicom Communications Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know what telephone system to choose?

Different phone systems have different strengths, weaknesses, features and costs. The right solution is the one that compliments your specific needs and budget best. This is where our team’s phone system knowledge and experience makes a huge difference.

What is Voice Mail?

At its most basic level, voice mail is essentially a phone answering system that can take messages for any number of people. Unlike an answering machine that stores messages on a single cassette tape, voice mail systems store messages on a computer disk in "mailboxes." Each staff person is assigned a mailbox where only his/her messages are stored. This mailbox has a password so that only the assigned staff person can retrieve his or her messages. In addition, these systems allow the individual staff person to create his/her own greeting so that callers can receive specific information such as daily schedule, that the person is on vacation, or who else to call for more information.

Voice mail systems can allow an organization to have an "unattended" main line. This means rather than having a receptionist answer the phone, the voice mail system answers the phone, provides a common greeting and then guides the caller to the appropriate staff person. This feature is known as the voice mail's "auto-attendant."

At its most advanced levels, the voice mail can unify voice, fax, and e-mail messages into a single screen of a user's personal computer. This feature is known as "unified messaging." Voice mail can also interact with a caller's voice, recognizing the spoken response and act according (e.g. transfer a call to a specific staff person). This feature is known as "interactive voice response."

What Do I Need to Consider When Cabling for a Phone System?

A phone system is comprised of phones (handsets), a phone closet (switch), and the wires that connect the phones to the closet. Unless the cabling already exists in your office, you will need to have it installed as part of your phone system purchase.

The cost of this task is largely labor which is affected largely by how difficult it is to install the phone cables. The more distance to cover, the more floors to interconnect, or the more walls to drill through will all increase the cabling cost. One way to economize is to have a single vendor install both voice and data cables so that he/she lays cable once to satisfy both needs.

Another way to control costs is to install more phone and data jacks than you currently need. In other words, instead of one phone and one data jack per desk location, consider two of each. If staff or equipment needs to expand, you only need to plug in a new phone or computer rather than pay a cabler to add more cables and connections. The cost of multiple cabling jobs far exceeds the cost of extra jacks in a single cabling job.

How big should my system be?

When buying a office phone system, a primary concern is to make sure that the system is the right size for your needs. Knowing your requirements in advance and understanding the size constraints of a system will help you.

There are two main factors that will determine the size of the system you need:

Lines. Also called trunks, lines indicate the total number of outside phone lines used by the company.
Extensions. Extensions are needed for every device within the company that connects to the phone system. Most of the extensions will be for telephones. However, fax machines, eftpos terminals, modems, and any other equipment that requires a phone connection must also be tallied.

What features do I need?

Office telephone systems can be equipped with literally hundreds of features for switching calls and directing traffic. Dealers estimate, however, that most companies use only 10 percent of their telephone features. Instead of comparing features on a one-to-one basis, you should examine how your phone system is used. Limit your feature search and evaluation to only those options that will improve the workflow in the office.

Some of the most popular features that are standard in many office telephone systems include:

An auto-attendant is the recorded message that answers your phones and instructs callers how to reach the person or department they are looking for. If you have a high volume of calls, this may be important – or you may value having a real person answer every call.
Conferencing features vary widely. Consider how often your staff needs to make conference calls, and how many different people need to call in. If the conferencing features you need aren’t readily available, there are other options for conducting teleconferences that you can purchase separately.
Music-on-hold is fairly self-explanatory – in most systems you simply plug in a source of music.
You can help callers find the people they need with dial by name, dial by extension, or dial from directory services.
Phone sets themselves have more standard features, as well. Display phones have a small screen that shows information such as the name and extension of an internal caller, the duration of call, and in some cases, caller ID. Speaker phones are familiar fixtures in many conference rooms, but are also now standard on most new hand sets. Speaker phones can be half-duplex, which means that only one person on the call can be heard at a time, or full-duplex, which lets both parties talk simultaneously, like a regular phone. Some phones also have a ‘listen only’ mode for speaker phone, which is useful for monitoring a conference call or while on hold.
With more feature-rich office telephone systems, voicemail is sometimes included as part of the package. However, it's a fairly expensive option if not included.

Although having the right features is important, even more critical is making sure they are easy to access. Because most employees devote very little time to learning how to use a phone system, you should make sure that using the most common functions is extremely simple and intuitive.