Infographic: 6 Signs It Might Be Time to Upgrade Your Business Phone System

Infographic: 6 Signs It Might Be Time to Upgrade Your Business Phone System

Infographic: 6 Signs It Might Be Time to Upgrade Your Business Phone System

If the old business phone system still works, there is no urgent need for an upgrade. Or is it?

No business ever wants to find themselves unable to meet customer needs due to an outdated phone system. Even though your phone system is able to maintain basic functionality at the moment, there might be some signs informing that it is time for a major upgrade. While some businesses are hesitant to make a large investment in it, the business value of a phone system upgrade is greatly underestimated.

Cloud Pbx Singapore - 6 Signs Upgrade Phone System Blog 1

Keep an eye out for the following signs that it might be time to upgrade your business phone system.

1. Your phone system is becoming obsolete.

Technology in all industries becomes obsolete quickly. It could be a detriment to your business to operate a phone system that has been discontinued by the manufacturer. Germany, Australia, Italy, and countries around the globe are experiencing ISDN switch off and transformation from the traditional ISDN services to the IP-based one. A legacy phone system is now outdated for that it is relatively expensive to maintain, cannot deliver modern communication features, and relies on traditional phone lines. So, the longer you continue to invest in obsolete phone systems, the more expensive and challenging it will become to replace them. After upgrading, you may well be surprised to find out how much you could save.

2. Your business is missing out on the latest must-have features.

As the work environment evolves, phone system features are also evolving all the time. Instead of purchasing other solutions one after another to supplement your old phone system, an all-inclusive, all-in-one system is no doubt a more budget-friendly option. Businesses utilizing VoIP are increasingly relying on advanced functionality to conduct their day-to-day operations. Take a closer look at your current business phone system. Are you lacking features like auto-attendant, call recording, music on hold, call queue, and conference? If so, your phone system is probably outdated and in dire need of a revamp.

3. Your employees are chained to the desk to receive calls.

Roughly 85% of people whose calls are not answered will not call back. If you ever received complaints from customers who can’t easily contact you or miss calls because your employees are not at the desk to take them, it rings alarm bells that your phone system requires an upgrade. Instead of being chained to the office desk, your employees may spend a lot of time on sales visits, client meetings, and other business trips. They work remotely, from home, and on the go. If they can’t choose whether to use a desk phone, mobile phone, or desktop to take business calls or transfer calls to one another even if they aren’t in the office, the missed calls will remain a problem and eventually affect your productivity.

4. Your phone system cannot grow with your business.

Is your business experiencing rapid growth now? Has your call volume outpaced the capacity of your current phone system? If so, the ability to increase system capacity easily and cost-effectively becomes an important factor to consider when weighing whether to upgrade to a new phone system. Your business communications should not hold you back in terms of corporate expansion. Especially, for businesses that have aggressive growth targets over the next few years, if your phone system is unable to accommodate the addition of more users, an upgrade is inevitable.

5. You are struggling to manage different phone systems in multiple locations.

The capacity to handle multiple offices is crucial whether you already have an established secondary location or in case you plan to open one in the future. Different office phone systems in multiple locations present many challenges, such as complicated administration and maintenance. It’s also not a smart fiscal choice to cling to a traditional phone system when adding a new location. For multi-site businesses, the goal is to find a phone system that can unify the communications among all locations and employees, keep all your phone numbers and services under the same umbrella, and be administered from a single location.

6. Your phone system is vulnerable to a system outage.

It’s a necessity to have a thorough disaster recovery and contingency plan to keep the business going regardless of natural disasters and other unforeseen events. Modern phone systems provide system redundancy to make sure calls can be routed even if your phone system goes down so that your business will not go dark. Normally, on-premises solutions entail maintaining extra backup equipment for hot standby, while the cloud-based phone system is hosted off-site to keep your business communications up and running.


Considerations When Upgrading to New Phone Systems

1. Remaining your existing equipment.

Find a solution that allows you to leverage what you have been already using. A seamless migration solution means great cost savings and peace of mind.

2. Deployment options.

You are confronted with two options: on-premises VoIP phone system and cloud-based hosted phone system. There is no ultimate better choice between them. Think thoroughly about your present and future needs and opt for the one that best suits your business.

3. The time frame for the upgrade.

Before choosing a provider, you may need to consider the time frame for the installation and implementation of a new phone system. Are you in urgent need? Will it affect your daily operation?

4. Calculating the total cost of ownership of your options.

The TCO involves upfront costs that are associated with purchasing the phones, routers, and other non-recurring fees, installation costs, and ownership costs which include monthly fees, maintenance, and upgrades after the system is installed.

5. A future-proof phone system infrastructure.

Ideally, you need a business communications infrastructure with easy scaling, service and feature updates, and evolving technology, which adapts as your business changes.

6. System integration.

Being able to integrate your phone system with other business applications, especially the ones you are using now, should be a top priority.


If You’re Ready…

When ready for an upgrade, you might consider Yeastar PBX Phone System. Yeastar offers both on-premises (S-Series VoIP PBX) and cloud-based (Cloud PBX) solutions to satisfy different needs. Here are some key highlights for you to learn more about our solutions:

1. Unified Communications

Yeastar Linkus is a free UC softphone for Windows, Mac desktop, iPhone, and Android phones, enabling consistent real-time business communication across multiple devices. Besides a bunch of call handling features, it also offers features like presence, IM, and CRM integration to assist team collaboration.

2. Easy Expansion.

S-Series PBX provides supports up to 500 users and allows for future scaling with the unique modular design. Click here to match your needs with the right S-Series model. As for Cloud PBX, new users can be added at any time as needed. Most service providers charge on a simple per-user basis so that you only pay for what you need.

3. Multi-Site Solution

S-Series PBX’s inbuilt multi-site interconnect feature helps in networking your phone systems in different locations easily. No need to create trunks or call routes. Direct registration from branches to headquarter can be completed in a few clicks. Yeastar Cloud PBX also unifies the headquarter with remote offices into the same phone system, giving geographically dispersed employees the same features and continuity.

Related: 4 Available Options to Connect Remote and Branch Offices

4. 3rd Party Applications Integration

The functionality of the Yeastar PBX Phone System can be expanded even further by integrating it with 3rd party business applications. We offer complete solution for CRM, CTI, PMS and call center integration. You can even use the API to develop your own customization and craft an ideal solution.

See S-Series PBX live demo here or sign up for Yeastar Cloud PBX free trial here.

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User Login

Instantaneously receive user login credentials via email once the extension has been deployed by the adminstrator.

Log in conveniently via any web browser for access to the user portal.

Integrations

Integrate various CRM software for better customer service and satisfaction.

Enable transcription of audio messages into text with integration of third-party transcription service.

Enable API for integration with various third-party integrations for advanced performance such as call center and hotel reception services.

System

Provision email SMTP and template settings for event notifications to be sent out.

Manage storage allocation and duration of various types of data being stored on the PBX.

Determine the types of event notifications to be sent out, and the parties receiving them.

IVR

Add various audio voice prompts to be played according to different call scenarios.

Add voice prompts on multiple levels for more effecient and precise inbound call routing.

Voicemail

Customize default voicemail settings for each user extension.

Add various voicemail messages for allocation to different call scenarios and users.

Provision specific rules to how voicemail messages are played over the PBX system for better caller experience.

Reports and CDR

All call log activities are stored, with the option of having audio conversations recorded by default or for specific extensions.

Use intuitive visual call reports, to check various call statistics over extensions, trunks, queues, ring groups, and more.

Call reports can be viewed and downloaded directly from the PBX, or scheduled to be sent via email to respective parties.

Security

Restrict a general group or specific IP addresses to prevent unauthorized access to your PBX.

Limit the number of otbound calls users are allowed to make within a time period to protect against toll fraud.

Restrict certain country codes for outbound calls either company-wide or on certain extensions.

User Login

Determine extension ranges for different functions.

Define use of different voice prompts depending on call scenarios or intended function.

Provision basic and advanced SIP settings to be used on the PBX.

Recordings

Record all calls made on specified trunks, including inbound and outbound calls.

Recordings

Record all calls made on specified extensions, conferences, or call queues.

Paging and Intercom

Create different types of paging and intercom broadcast groups for selected extensions.

Set a time schedule to automatically start your broadcast.

Maintenance

Check for and download firmware upgrades to ensure that your PBX is always up-to-date.

Perform back-ups to prevent data and settings from getting lost.

Perform troubleshooting on your own to debug.

Conference

Pre-set conference settings and dial-in passwords for security, and allow internal users to send conference invites to external parties.

Speed Dial

Create multiple speed dial numbers to respective external numbers frequently used for outgoing calls.

Speed dial is activated when the set prefix (default or customized) is dialed.

Ring Group

Create multiple ring groups and determine custom ring strategies and failover settings for each.

Call Queue

Create different call queues with specific ring strategies and failover settings.

Static agents permanently answer calls in queue, while dynamic agents can log in and out. Allocate different extensions to each group.

Determine what actions are to be allowed for Mangers or Agents to manage on the Queue Panel.

Call Control

Have calls received on specific SIP trunks routed to designated extensions or destinations within the PBX.

Set-up dial patterns so that outbound calls are routed to their intended destinations.

Determine how calls are routed and received at different times of a day.

Contacts

Store, retrieve, and share company contact details easily on your PBX.

Organize company contacts into dedicated phonebooks and determine accessibility rights to extension groups for each.

Bulk import a list of contacts instead of having to key details in individually.

Role and Client Permission

Pre-defined user roles within the PBX are conveniently available for allocation, or create your own set of permissions.

Restrict users from viewing specific extensions, departments, or extension groups with Extension Visibility.

Allow or resrict specific users from managing or viewing certain company contacts

Auto Provision

Pre-defined setting parameters specific to respective IP phone models are conveniently available for easy set-up.

IP Phones can be quickly provisioned to your Yeastar PBX with just the pre-defined template and device MAC address.

Trunks

Register multiple SIP trunks on a single PBX as needed.

Different types of trunks can be created, Caller ID can be customized.

Extensions

View, deploy, add, and remove user extensions within your PBX system.

Configure default call and user settings for individual extensions.

Customize allocation of user extensions to specific ring groups.

Portal Login Page

Receive your administrator log-in credentials and set-up guide via email.

Log-in on any web-browser to get started with PBX set-up.

Installation Wizard will guide you through basic configurations.

User Login

Access all company contacts made available to you by the administrator.

Create your own personal contacts list for easy reference and dialing.

Bulk import contact details for convenient data entry.

User Login

Access and manage user settings for softphone application and voicemail.

Manage call routing and presence status for your individual extension.

Retrieve or download your personal call logs and recordings.

User Login

Receive your log-in credentials and set-up guide via email, sent by your admin.

Log-in on any web-browser to get started with PBX set-up.

Configure contacts and personal settings from the web portal.

Auto Provision

Add, remove, or modify IP phone settings from your web interface.

Upgrade IP phone firmware conveniently from your PBX.

Upload various default setting parameters specific to respective IP phone models for greater convenience during set-up.

Contacts

Store, retrieve, and share company contact details easily on your PBX.

Have detailed contact information for your vendors and clients conveniently stored .

Bulk add a list of contacts instead of having to key details in individually.

PBX Monitor

Monitor the status extensions, whether they aren idle, in use, or unavailable.

Know whether your SIP Trunk running properly, or experiencing problems.

Monitor the number of call conferences currently running on your PBX, and their individual durations.

Maintenance

Check for and download firmware upgrades to ensure that your PBX is always up-to-date.

Perform back-ups to prevent data and settings from getting lost.

Perform troubleshooting on your own to debug.

Call Detailed Report

All call log activities are stored, with the option of having audio conversations recorded by default or for specific extensions.

Filter by date, time, or extension number to retrieve specific call logs or recordings

Playback call recordings directly from the PBX or download to store externally.

Event Center

Determine what events and logs are to be recorded and/or have notifications sent.

Specify particular notifications to be sent to respective authorized personnel.

User Permission

Set up vaious groups of users for allocation to certain sets of access rules.

Determine what features a certain group of extensions can or cannot access.

Determine if users can access, play-back, or download call logs and recordings from the pbx.

Security

Restrict a general group or specific IP addresses to prevent unauthorized access to your PBX.

Determine specific the range of SIP ports for connection between your PBX and endpoints.

Restrict country codes for outbound calls either company-wide or on certain extensions.

Voice Prompt

Upload and designate customised audio recordings at multiple levels of a call journey.

Upload recorded music to fill the silence that would be heard by callers on hold.

Upload customised voice prompts to create a professional call experience.

General

Customize general call preferences either company-wide or for individual extensions.

Set-up feature dial codes for convenient user navigation to specific call features.

Determine how voicemails are retrieved, and also upload custom voicemail recordings.

Call Features

Add multiple automated responses to be played at different phases of a call journey.

Designate specific extensions to ring concurrently based on an external caller's dial pattern.

Customize messages and waiting times to keep external callers engaged when put on hold.

Call Control

Have calls received on specific SIP trunks routed to designated extensions within the PBX.

Set-up dial patterns so that outbound calls are routed to their intended destinations.

Determine how calls are routed and received at different times of a day.

Trunks

Register multiple SIP trunks on a single PBX as needed.

Provision SIP trunk settings and dedicate them to particular extensions.

Bulk add DDIs on each SIP trunk, for allocation to an individual or groups of extensions.

Extensions

View, deploy, add, and remove user extensions within your PBX system.

Allocate and deploy specific extension numbers to respective users via email.

Set-up default ring and presence status settings for individual users.

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Deal One View

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View cases created for a Deal in One View.

View cases created for a Deal in One View.

Deal One View

View cases created for a Deal in One View.

View cases created for a Deal in One View.

View cases created for a Deal in One View.