Moving your phone system is easier than you think.
Moving your business is a hassle. Forget about moving stuff like furniture, cubicles and filing cabinets, you can always hire a moving company for that. Moving your technology is the tricky part, and moving your phone system can be expensive and will most likely lead to a period where your company does not have phone service at all.
If you are like most businesses, you will probably want to take your existing phone system with you to your new office location. This means that you will have to break the system down and reassemble it at your new location. While your system is in transit, your company is without phone service. You will probably try and do this over the weekend so as to not be without phone service during normal business hours (assuming normal business hours does not include evenings and weekends).
If you are lucky and things go as planned, you can accomplish this move in a single weekend. Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned. Your company could be without phone service until your old system has been reinstalled in the new location.
Moving a Hosted PBX Costs Next to Nothing
Moving a Hosted VoIP phone system costs next to nothing. Depending on the size and complexity of your existing PBX phone system, the cost to move your system can easily run into the thousands of dollars. At a minimum, you are looking at a couple of grand to move even a small system.
There is an easier way to move a phone system. Sell your old system on eBay and use the proceeds to buy a Hosted VoIP phone system. Actually, you don’t buy a Hosted VoIP phone system, you pay for the service on a monthly basis. The only equipment you buy are the IP phone sets and a specialized VoIP router. That is why moving a Hosted VoIP phone system is a breeze.
If the proceeds from the sale of your old system are enough to pay for the components of a Hosted VoIP phone system, then you have actually come out ahead. How so? The reason you have come out ahead is that you have upgraded to state-of-the-art phone system without taking money out of your pocket. Remember, the only hardware required for a Hosted VoIP phone system are the IP Phone sets and a VoIP router. IP Phone sets range in price from $150.00 to $400.00. A VoIP router costs less than $1,000.00.
Install and Test Hosted VoIP Before Moving
Before moving to your new office location, you can install and test the Hosted VoIP System. (Moving office locations is confusing enough, moving and learning a new phone system is a nightmare.) The VoIP Provider can assign temporary numbers to your Hosted VoIP phone system so your employees can practice and test the new system. The new phone system will be completely independent of and will not affect your existing phone system.
Once you have tested the new phone system and your staff is comfortable using it, the VoIP Service Provider can port (transfer) your existing phone numbers from your old system to your new Hosted VoIP phone system. You are now using the new VoIP system at your old office location.
Why is it easy to move a Hosted VoIP Phone System
On the day of your move, all that has to be done to move a Hosted VoIP phone system is to unplug the IP Phone Sets and move them to their new locations. Most companies have their employees move their phones. If your employees are unable to move the phones, you can have your IT person pack up the phones. It is simply a matter of unplugging the phones from the from your network and unplugging from the electrical outlet.
The reinstallation of the phones at your new location is simply a matter of plugging in the phones at each employees work station. The only difficult part is that each employee must have the same phone on the new desk as they had on their old desk. As soon as the network in your new location is ready, your Hosted VoIP Phone system will function exactly as it did at your old office location.
Your Hosted VoIP Phone System Never Goes Down
After you have turned out the lights at your old office location and before you have installed your Hosted VoIP phone system at your new location, your phone system will continue to function. That’s right, during the time your phone system is in the box on the truck, it will continue to function. This is just one of the many benefits of a Hosted VoIP phone system.
Callers to your company will hear your company greeting, if a caller calls one of your employees, they will either be connected directly to that employees voice mail or, your employee could have set up call forwarding before they left and had all calls transferred to their cell phone. To the outside world, it appears as if nothing has changed.
If a caller has left a voice mail message, the system will convert that message into a .wav file and e-mail it to any e-mail account including a smart phone e-mail. If an employee does not have a smart phone, the system will send a text message notification that a voice mail has been received. The employee can dial into their voice mail account a listen to their voice mail messages. They can even forward those messages to other employees. This all takes place while you system is in transit.