Updating the telephone system

We were interested to see a report recently on the reasons why a US City Council had decided to upgrade its telephone system. Our interest arose not from any connection with the area but because the problems encountered by Willits City Council are typical of those experienced by organisations with outdated telephone systems.

A report from Wefinda in October 2010 revealed that setting up good communication systems was the number one priority for new businesses; coming in well ahead of location, brand or even website. The trouble is that for many businesses, once communications have been established they then cease to exist as far as development and planning are concerned.

For Willits City Council the prime drivers alongside frustration arising from using an outmoded system included:

 * Lack of replacement parts with little expertise available to fix breakdowns
 * Insufficient scalability with police officers having to swap handsets around desks on a daily basis
 * Lack of notification of voice mail messages leading to employees having to check for voicemails on a regular basis, thereby wasting valuable time
 * Difficulty in forwarding and transfering calls

In choosing a replacement, in common with many businesses nowadays the Council have turned to an internet based telephone system. This will not only remove the need for specialised replacement parts, it also allows them to integrate their entire system, making call transferring a simple process. One example cited was the ability for out of hours water and sewage emergency calls to be automatically forwarded to the police dispatcher.

The report from The Willets News doesn’t specify all the features of the new system chosen by the Council but we suspect that these might have included the ability to record and store calls as well as an integration of the system into local disaster planning. With internet telephony systems being extremely cost effective, features such as managing calls based on the caller’s own number, automatic call queuing and transfer, number switching and the provision of information lines become affordable for most organisations and businesses.

Whilst the prime driver for switching to internet telephony may be frustration at the restrictions of an outmoded system; once the decision to switch is made businesses are usually surprised at the cost savings available. Internet telephony is usually far cheaper than normal telephone calls and with the added functionality that a virtual switchboard brings it is often possible to cut wasted staff time and streamline marketing efforts.

The Willits system is due to be installed shortly and we are sure that, like many other converts before them, they will soon be singing the praises of their new internet telephone system.