Essential Digital Communications and Networking Gear for a Small Business

When establishing an office for a small business a key aspect of your planning should focus on the right communications gear. Few parts of your business will be as mission-critical as the right devices for maintaining close contact with customers, business associates, suppliers, and other vital links in your supply and distribution chain. By ensuring you have the right equipment in place from day one you can help avoid costly communications glitches down the road.

While web-based communication technology is arguably the single most important recent addition to the office equipment suite, earlier forms of outreach continue to play key roles. First and foremost is the phone system. Just about every office of any size will need a multi-line phone system including a personnel directory feature, individual voicemail accounts, and handsets equipped with hold, transfer, and quick dial rolodex functions.

A new type of phone service that could offer substantial savings over traditional telecom providers is VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol. VoIP phone systems route phone calls via the same Internet connections used for web browsing and email, and cost far less than other phone systems, particularly for businesses that make frequent long distance and overseas phone calls.

Another crucial but sometimes underestimated communication system is the fax. For many legally binding documents requiring signatures or other official authorization, faxing remains the fastest accepted form of transmission. In addition to stand-alone fax machines, there are now web-based fax services available that allow you to send and receive faxes through your email account. In fact, it's likely that in the future fax features will be increasingly bundled into email services and be considered an extension of email rather than a separate technology.

Selecting and Installing an Office Phone System

A key piece of any business's technology base is a dependable telephone system. Though phones are now complemented by Internet applications such as email and the World Wide Web, they still serve as a vital connection to customers, suppliers, and business associates for almost every business you can name. And with the growing confluence of web-based and telephone technologies, it has recently become possible to operate an office telephone network via the same Internet connection that handles web and email traffic.

Internet telephone systems are referred to as VoIP phone systems, which stands for "Voice over Internet Protocol". Instead of connecting to standard phone jacks used by conventional phone lines, VoIP phones send their signals through the same cables and routing systems used to transmit web and email data. In so doing they conveniently circumvent all the subscription fees assessed by telecom providers and thus are substantially more affordable than other telecom services. As a result, VoIP is now one of the fastest expanding sectors in the telecom industry, spearheaded by innovative services such as Skype.

In addition to Skype, other telecom vendors to consider when shopping for an office phone system include Avaya, Lucent, Panasonic, Mitel and Nortel. Important factors to keep in mind when procuring a telephone service include how many incoming lines and phone numbers will be needed, its voicemail functionality, its expansion readiness to provide additional lines down the road, and the types of wireless, mobile, or VoIP features your business will require.

Setting up a phone system can appear challenging, especially for a small business moving into its very first office space. The good news is it's easy to find telecom consultants and specialized online. Try a B-to-B networking service like BuyerZone, search professional networks like Linked In, or check listings on eBay for cheap phone system telephone package deals.