Are you with Telstra because they are the no.1 carrier, but hate the cost associated with them? 

Do you have an old phone system, looking to upgrade, but are concerned about the costs of leasing a new phone system? 

Are your costs just extraordinarily high and you are just wanting to know your real options? 

Are you sticking with Telstra, Optus or another large carrier just because you are sick of all the sales pitches of phone sales people? 

If this is your business, then you need our free advice here which should be of some assistance. 

Firstly, let's cover off some technology terminology, but I will keep it brief: 

PABX/Phone system - The physical device normally located on your business premises that provides a link for all your office phones and it is connected to the phone lines that enter the building.  Normally provides functions like voice mail. 

VOIP - Voice Over the Internet Protocol.... yes a little technical, but in short this is just about the primary method all large telco companies send their calls from one phone exchange to another.  This is a process of technology. 

IPTEL - Internet protocol (IP) Telephony.... yes again a little technical, but in short this is the solution mix of a variety of technologies, inlcuding VOIP.  There are varying grades of the technology in particular with VOIP. 

Contention Ratio - This is an industry term referring to how many customers will share the bandwidth of an xDSL broadband Internet service.  Let me explain it like this, just imagine a concrete pipe 1m high and you need to pass 500 litres through it, though only you have 500 litres.  It will pass quite quickly yes?  Correct.  Now imagine 80+ plus people all trying to pass their 500 litres at the same time?  It passes slower yes?  Correct.  The first option would have a contention ratio of 1:1, where as the second option would provide a contention ratio of 80:1.  There is much more to this technical aspect of broadband, so this is just a very simplified version. 

Alright enough of the terminology here, lets get straight to the point.  Traditionally if a business had say 8 staff, 2 warehouse and 6 admin/management staff.  Your business is in manufacturing and you make a fair amount of phone calls and receive a fair amount as well.  What normally happens is that you are with Telstra and you are "advised" that you have 4 lines into your business, Telstra call it ISDN2.  You keep missing calls so Telstra say hey get another lot of ISDN2 services.  This will mean you have 6 lines, with the extra cost associated.  Your phone system now needs an upgrade to accommodate the extra lines, but instead of just an upgrade, it is too old and you need a new one!  Hang on Telstra can provide this too, on a lease!  Great..... maybe not. 

If you are happy with Telstra and unable to consider alternative options, don't read further......

OK, so you are reading on.  The problem with this scenario is this, ISDN services by Telstra are being looked to be phased out.  There are high costs to install it and your phone system needs the exact capacity to handle it.  This is traditionally very expensive.  To get a new phone system and new lines as in example above we are talking about at least an $8K bill here, not cheap.  But hey it looks great financed over 5 years..... but then you pay like $12K..... not so great?  The real problem here is your business is responsible for the hardware, maintaining it through paying an outsourced business, the lines into the business are being provided with outdated technology.  If your phone system fails, everything falls over!  Ever heard of what happens to a business that has a fire onsite, everything burnt down?  They go under and the answer is simply put that they have no alternative way of managing communication with customers in such a disaster. 

So what are the options?  Before I discuss good solid options, let me discuss the lesser quality options to avoid firstly. 

VOIP technology solutions have been around for a while, however most business people have the impression that this technology is troublesome and not reliable.  You and many others would be correct in that some "flavours" of this technology are troublesome and not reliable, but people still use it.  A good example of this is Skype, not really a business tool, but damn cheap to make calls!  

To ensure any IPTEL solution utilising VOIP technology is sound there are 2 factors that are relevant to you, the Internet service itself in particular needs to have a business grade broadband solution with a contention ratio of better than 10:1 and the actual setup of VOIP type technologies that delivery the solution.  Key areas to avoid as a business is where the service is for free when using VOIP technology and secondly that for true business reliability of IPTEL, business grade DSL, ie contention ratio 1:1 is required. 

So OK what exactly is IPTEL?  Well just imagine never having to upgrade the physical phone system hardware again?  Imagine all updates to the latest technology is done by someone else?  Imagine services with the same reliability as before, but with more functionality for less cost?  Imagine missing a call on your landline at the office and receiving the voice message on your blackberry or smart phone?  Most importantly imagine the unfortunate event of fire destroying your business, though within 30 minutes of business operating hours be functioning, communicating to the world, staying alive in business all at a very low cost?  This is what IPTEL does for your business.  So why doesn't Telstra, or Optus, or in fact any major Telco offer this?  Well they do, to major corporates only and charge accordingly.  So why don't they offer this to small to medium business?  Can you imagine them reducing their profit margins to small and medium businesses across Australia by over 50%, I don't think so! 

So then the question is begged to be asked, where to from here, it sounds good, really good, but where do I start, how can I trust any IPTEL solution provider?  The simple answer is, Keep it Simpe IT.  We are industry informed, industry experienced to give you fair and open advice on what your options are.  We don't want to give you all the technical know how, rather work on your business principles and give you solid advice on what is workable for you and why.  Our focus, is to deliver to you complex communication problems very simply without stress.  If this is of interest to you, then contact us today to see where we can help.