There are few things one must consider before buying any PABX. There are many types, with various capacities, various feature availabilities are available to choose from. But these are the things one should ask himself when one decides to buy a PABX. Here are the four tips for buying a PABX for your office :-
PABX BUYING TIPS
1. Size of the PABX
Here the size of the PBX/PABX means number of trunk line and number of extension lines. Trunk lines are also known as CO(Call Office or Central Office) lines which is connection to PSTN ( Public Switched Telephone Network) for communicating with outside world.
The extension is number of extension lines to be installed in the office. Deciding requirement of number extension should depend on number of important posts which require constant telephone connectivity. In a office with maximum marketing activities may need more extension lines than a office with product development activities.
Trunk lines can be analog or digital. Number of lines ( ports) start with minimum 30 in a digital trunk. Analog trunks are normal PSTN connections.
One should also consider future growth of the organisation in term of headcount.
2. Future upgrades
Upgradability or expansion ability of the PBX should be an important factor to decide what PBX to buy. There are PBX models which can be upgraded to certain number of trunk lines or number of extensions. Also, cost of upgrade may vary from existing number of ports in trunk as well as in extensions.
So, one should consider up-gradation cost carefully.
3. Price
Price is very important factor to decide a PBX to buy. Specially in India which is a very price sensitive market. But one should not compromise quality of PBX system in order to choose a cheaper PBX. There are many auxiliary cost with PBX systems like wiring, power supply backup, battery, rack etc. PBX systems which are cheaper with same configuration, but may not perform well under load.
One should also consider maintenance cost of a PBX system before deciding one. Support is one feature, which should taken into consideration.
4. Features of PBX
This may be difficult to choose. Now a days PBX systems offer many features. Still, one must have the features listed below :-
a. Call transfer
b. Caller Id
c. Call Conferencing
d. Auto attendant
d. Call Forwarding
For advanced features like voicemail, CTI ( Computer Telephony Integration) may cost higher but may prove to be very useful in the long run.
These are few things one should consider. I may not have listed all points to consider, so I would like to welcome comments from readers pointing out points I may have missed out.
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