Basic Tips For Understanding Business Telecom
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Al Haneson
Al Haneson has 20 years experience in the Green Industry. He is author of two informational lawn care sites, Dayton Lawn Service Guide and Detroit Lawn Service Guide By Al Haneson
Published on 24 April 2009
Here are some ideas to help you navigate the world of communications.
Small business voice, data and internet services, known as "business telecommunications" or "telecom" are one of your biggest spends in the budget. In addition, they can also be one of you biggest money wasters and time suckers if they are not properly configured for your business. Finding the right solution up front is the most important part of any business telecom plan.
So don't go hiring out the whole control of your business telecommunications. Instead, learn some of the basics here so you can better understand what is in front of you each month when that bill comes! Here are 3 of the most basic parts of any business telecom plan or solution.
1) The top of the list is the voice telephone service. It makes since that if customers can't contact you via phone, you will not long be in business. Depending on your usage and number of employees, you may be able to get by with traditional voice lins called "POTS" lines or Plain Old Telephone Service. However, if you are larger and need more features and benefits, you may utilize a T1 line for your voice services. T1 lines set up with Primary Rate Interface signaling can carry up to 23 voice conversations at once.
2) Next you need to find out how you best want to access the internet. It's obvious that in today's world you can't survive without internet and so this should be very important to you also. You can get DSL services or the efficiency and speed or a T1 line. T1 lines are more expandable and can be upgraded much more easily than DSL. This is the way to go for almost any small or medium sized business.
3) Lastly, you should check out the actual hardware that you will need to run all of this stuff. This includes switches and routers, as well as phones and a private branch exchange. This is also where most of your revenue expense will be incurred, so be prepared and don't cut any corners on this. The better you buy now, the better and easier it will be in the future to upgrade and stay on top of emerging technology.
The key is that with today's technologies, all three of these areas can and should be working together to make things easier on you and your employees. If you are patient and do your homework, you may be able to save hours and hours of payroll, or even let most of your people work from home with absolutely no drop in productivity.
Don't be afraid to employ a little advanced technology in your telecom decisions this year! Investing some time now to learn, will only save you money and hassles down the road.
So don't go hiring out the whole control of your business telecommunications. Instead, learn some of the basics here so you can better understand what is in front of you each month when that bill comes! Here are 3 of the most basic parts of any business telecom plan or solution.
1) The top of the list is the voice telephone service. It makes since that if customers can't contact you via phone, you will not long be in business. Depending on your usage and number of employees, you may be able to get by with traditional voice lins called "POTS" lines or Plain Old Telephone Service. However, if you are larger and need more features and benefits, you may utilize a T1 line for your voice services. T1 lines set up with Primary Rate Interface signaling can carry up to 23 voice conversations at once.
2) Next you need to find out how you best want to access the internet. It's obvious that in today's world you can't survive without internet and so this should be very important to you also. You can get DSL services or the efficiency and speed or a T1 line. T1 lines are more expandable and can be upgraded much more easily than DSL. This is the way to go for almost any small or medium sized business.
3) Lastly, you should check out the actual hardware that you will need to run all of this stuff. This includes switches and routers, as well as phones and a private branch exchange. This is also where most of your revenue expense will be incurred, so be prepared and don't cut any corners on this. The better you buy now, the better and easier it will be in the future to upgrade and stay on top of emerging technology.
The key is that with today's technologies, all three of these areas can and should be working together to make things easier on you and your employees. If you are patient and do your homework, you may be able to save hours and hours of payroll, or even let most of your people work from home with absolutely no drop in productivity.
Don't be afraid to employ a little advanced technology in your telecom decisions this year! Investing some time now to learn, will only save you money and hassles down the road.