The technology of telephony is always changing. So when deciding on your phone system, always keep in mind that today’s latest tech will almost certainly be outdated in just a few short years. That said, there’s no denying that right now there is a big shift taking place. Because traditional analogue and ISDN services are being phased out. Now making way for new IP Telephony such as VoIP (Voice Over Internet).

These new systems offer many more opportunities to greatly improve communications and productivity within your business. Indeed one of the greatest advantages of a VoIP phone system is its scalability. VoIP technology makes it easy for businesses to add, remove, or change extensions. Therefore, making expansions simple and completely seamless. When you are setting up a new office you want a phone system that’s going to grow with your business… Simply put, a VoIP phone system does just that.

When installing a telephone system for the first time when you are setting up a new office, there are three main types of telephone line you can consider:

PSTN telephone lines… This is the most basic type of telephone line available. You will need a PSTN line to support any of the following devices or services:

• Fax machine connection

• Intruder or fire alarm systems

• Emergency lift telephones

• Analogue dial-up modems

• Remote access for maintenance support

• Franking machines.

With a PSTN line, it is only possible to have a single telephone number per line. This can be restrictive if you are planning to have many incoming call numbers for departments. Or want individual direct dial numbers to increase the efficiency of your incoming call handling.

VOIP… A VOIP service connection allows you to make and receive telephone calls via the internet as opposed to the telephone network. It offers a very high degree of flexibility on numbering options. You can choose to have any UK STD code as your incoming number irrespective of your geographic location. This can prove very useful for some businesses when relocating “out of area”. Because you can take your fixed-line telephone with you anywhere.

The voice quality of speech via SIP trunks is very slightly lower than with ISDN lines and is a similar quality to a UK mobile telephone call. The quality of service level is also slightly lower. Because response time to faults is slower with internet providers than with phone line providers. That said, the cost savings involved with VoIP telephone lines are noticeable. For instance, no line rental, cheaper calls including international calls, and free calls between your organisation’s offices. Thus making VoIP appealing to most businesses.

It is also worth keeping in mind BT’s intention to switch off the PSTN and ISDN networks by 2025. Businesses will need to migrate to a single IP core network. This will ultimately will replace all legacy networks and platforms. Thinking about migrating sooner rather than later? This could be very beneficial to your business, and it’s a good time to move on to new tech whilst setting up a new office.

Once you have decided who is going where in your new office. It is essential to ensure that each position has a socket available to connect a telephone or computer. Also any other equipment, such as printers scanners, and label machines. If you’re setting up a previously used office, you may be able to make use of pre-existing cabling and this could save you money.

It is important to understand if any pre-existing telephone cabling can support your telephones. Thus, you may wish to consider extending or replacing any pre-existing cabling system. Using a newer flexible cat5 or cat6 structured network cabling system. Of course only if this is not present already.

Once you have a basic floor plan detailing the required connections, we will then arrange for the free on-site survey. Then, give you a detailed account of what you need to do next, if anything, whilst you are setting up a new office network.

Following a free site survey, we can provide you with feedback on the required cabling work. Including how much this will cost and how long it will take to complete the job. Providing useful budget details to build into your set-up costs. We can even consider your electrical provision at the same time as part of this process.

No one likes to pay out on maintenance service cover for their telephone systems. Since for many people, it’s a service they never see the benefits of. However, if you’re unfortunate enough to experience problems with your telephone system or network. Then having a maintenance support contract with a telecom provider you can trust, could be the lifeline you need to return to normal business in quick time.

A telephone system maintenance contract from Tech Advance ensures you will have a qualified engineer working on your problem within four working hours. Importantly, with all parts and labour costs covered. We use a network of qualified and experienced telecom engineers across the UK. This means we can respond fast, and provide your business with a reliable service at very competitive rates. Support contracts are available on all manufacturer’s products. Including BT-supplied Nortel (Norstar) systems. To find out more about this service you can visit our System Maintenance & Repairs page. 

As a rule, we would recommend considering your options for phone lines and internet connectivity at least eight weeks before you plan to start working in the office. This way we can make all the relevant checks, explain options and provide costs. Therefore making decisions on which services to order and managing them in a timely way. It also gives us time to handle all required surveys well in advance. So we can push back any delivery dates we may need to fit with your start dates.

It’s not uncommon for expected installation dates to run past their standard recommended lead times for telephone lines. Especially if any unforeseen snags appear, such as needing extra equipment in the local exchange. Or, the telephone network requires more cabling, or your required extra cabling for your new site.

Every business wants fast broadband. We actually have the skills and knowledge available to us to determine what is available in terms of speed and providers at every location. For example, a location that has fibre broadband offers very fast speeds without the need for dedicated circuits. So speak with us when you are considering setting up a new office. We can provide you with this information, even before you decide on a location for your new business.

Therefore just provide us with the full postal address for your new site. Then, we can carry out checks in the local exchange to establish which internet service providers can provide service to your new site. Including which of these offers the fastest, most cost-effective, and most reliable service available.

You can visit our internet services page for more details.

Cost is a concern in any business decision. So when you’re setting up a new office, what you spend can greatly impact the profitability of your business.

We understand how important cutting costs can be for a business. Especially in today’s economic climate, when many companies are just trying to stay afloat. That’s why we’ve put together a few pointers for you to consider before setting up a new office.

• Consider your one-off installation and set-up charges for the new site systems and services. Make savings by securing lower costs on contract terms from your providers.
• Try to reduce the number of different suppliers you use. If we handle many of your services, not only will you save money and time you would spend managing different suppliers, but also save on each product or service. Because by placing more business with fewer suppliers, you will obtain a lower buy price.
• Evaluate your current operating costs for services such as telephone lines, calls, and internet access. Indeed we can offer this for free to benchmark these against many alternative providers. Also, often produces operating cost savings in the region of 25% to 50%

Consider new technologies and systems that can provide cost-efficiency benefits. Such as access control for staff access to the site, remote worker systems, or voice messages.

0800 numbers have always been free to call from any UK landline and are now included in UK mobile phone bundles. They are nationally recognised as being freephone numbers. Also, act as a great way to encourage sales inquiries. They can be quite expensive though as the number owner gets charged for the incoming call. So they are often used for marketing campaigns, where extra costs are considered a marketing investment.

Geographic numbers, also referred to as UK virtual numbers or 01/02 numbers, are the most familiar among consumers. They are also believed to be the cheapest to call. They allow any business regardless of location to apply local area numbers to generate more calls. This means you can base your business in one city, but your customers think they are dialling an area code for somewhere else.

The benefit of this is that you can have a prestigious telephone address for your business. Whilst running your business somewhere else entirely. Additionally, geographic numbers are portable, so it also means that if you move offices in the future, your phone number goes along with you.

In fact, these numbers are universally understood and should be your first choice for a normal business number.

Tech Advance knows how important inbound calls are to your business. With our intelligent telephone numbers and routing service, we guarantee you have access to all available standard UK local numbers beginning 01 or 02. So with around 650 area codes across the UK to choose from, that’s a lot of scope for your business.

It is also possible nowadays to configure any of the above types of inbound telephone numbers to ring in the way you choose. So you can enjoy the technology in the network or the cloud, without spending thousands on an expensive on-site phone system.

With our intelligent routing platforms, you can enable features like automated answering with greetings, and queue announcements. Also, the press 1 for “sales” and 2 for “service” type systems. You can even make your calls ring different locations at the same time or in order. This includes mobile numbers and landline numbers. Which can prove critical if you have a mobile or distributed workforce.