Cheaper phone system
Discussion
Just wondering if the PH massive has any advice on phone systems.
We've been using a company called Daisy Communications for a fairly tortuous 5 years
Brief scenario - we have two small office locations with separate main numbers. 4 handsets at one location and 3 handsets in the other (Yealink T42G). The sum total of what we want to do if be able to switch calls between each other. A useful feature is that if the calls ring out at one place, it rings in the other, and we can switch calls between the two locations.
For this fairly humble service we're paying £275 a month, which just seems a lot.
Is there a cheaper way to do this? Some cloud based service - just plug the phones into "the internet" and away we go?
We've been using a company called Daisy Communications for a fairly tortuous 5 years
Brief scenario - we have two small office locations with separate main numbers. 4 handsets at one location and 3 handsets in the other (Yealink T42G). The sum total of what we want to do if be able to switch calls between each other. A useful feature is that if the calls ring out at one place, it rings in the other, and we can switch calls between the two locations.
For this fairly humble service we're paying £275 a month, which just seems a lot.
Is there a cheaper way to do this? Some cloud based service - just plug the phones into "the internet" and away we go?
Thanks - seems good
Just been googling and it seems that them and a few other companies offer the cloud only service
These guys are offering £10 a month per user, inc 5000 minutes per user, and we can use our existing Yealink handsets. Would take out bill from £275 a month to £70, which would be nice.
https://telephonesystems.cloud/
Just been googling and it seems that them and a few other companies offer the cloud only service
These guys are offering £10 a month per user, inc 5000 minutes per user, and we can use our existing Yealink handsets. Would take out bill from £275 a month to £70, which would be nice.
https://telephonesystems.cloud/
A Cloud phone system is certainly the way to go.
We have all of our customers on our cloud voip platform and it's been very useful for lockdown / working from home. A few years ago when some customers still had onsite PBX would be struggling now.
Do your homework on the offerings and check the minimum contract length. Happy to help if you need any advice, feel free to pm me.
Andy
We have all of our customers on our cloud voip platform and it's been very useful for lockdown / working from home. A few years ago when some customers still had onsite PBX would be struggling now.
Do your homework on the offerings and check the minimum contract length. Happy to help if you need any advice, feel free to pm me.
Andy
andyb28 said:
A Cloud phone system is certainly the way to go.
We have all of our customers on our cloud voip platform and it's been very useful for lockdown / working from home. A few years ago when some customers still had onsite PBX would be struggling now.
Do your homework on the offerings and check the minimum contract length. Happy to help if you need any advice, feel free to pm me.
Andy
Thanks Andy - appreciate the advice. Now I just need to do that homework!We have all of our customers on our cloud voip platform and it's been very useful for lockdown / working from home. A few years ago when some customers still had onsite PBX would be struggling now.
Do your homework on the offerings and check the minimum contract length. Happy to help if you need any advice, feel free to pm me.
Andy
Junior Bianno said:
Just wondering if the PH massive has any advice on phone systems.
We've been using a company called Daisy Communications for a fairly tortuous 5 years
Brief scenario - we have two small office locations with separate main numbers. 4 handsets at one location and 3 handsets in the other (Yealink T42G). The sum total of what we want to do if be able to switch calls between each other. A useful feature is that if the calls ring out at one place, it rings in the other, and we can switch calls between the two locations.
For this fairly humble service we're paying £275 a month, which just seems a lot.
Is there a cheaper way to do this? Some cloud based service - just plug the phones into "the internet" and away we go?
Daisy are awful, 5 years wow!We've been using a company called Daisy Communications for a fairly tortuous 5 years
Brief scenario - we have two small office locations with separate main numbers. 4 handsets at one location and 3 handsets in the other (Yealink T42G). The sum total of what we want to do if be able to switch calls between each other. A useful feature is that if the calls ring out at one place, it rings in the other, and we can switch calls between the two locations.
For this fairly humble service we're paying £275 a month, which just seems a lot.
Is there a cheaper way to do this? Some cloud based service - just plug the phones into "the internet" and away we go?
Are you still on traditional phone lines or on VoIP with Daisy?
VoIP is great but you need to have a reliable internet connection with enough bandwidth to run calls unhindered. I would also suggest you look at solutions that offer softphone clients as well as desk phones, so you can take and make calls from laptops/iphones etc. There are loads of companies selling cloud services, just be careful about minimum terms, extras, exit fees, and porting costs (should you decide to move again). Also dont be taken in by free minute bundles if there are strings attached, VoIP calls are peanuts, you can pay as low as 0.005p per minute, so having a load of free minutes in a bundle can be an expensive way to live even though it may appear to be good value at first.
For basic requirements like that you should be paying around £10-£15 per user per month with all your calls included.
If you don't want to spend a lot of time investigating different solutions just find a Gamma Horizon reseller you're happy with and buy the most basic licence. You can always upgrade to add additional features later on.
Avoid any supplier who tells you you can't or shouldn't run voice and data on the same broadband connection. They are either too lazy to do a proper analysis of the customers requirements and their environment and make an informed decision, or too dumb to configure a solution that would allow voice and data to work reliably together. 4 users at a site does not justify paying for an additional connection - unless that connection can only deliver very low bandwidth due to the line length for example. A decent router or firewall with QoS or traffic management will ensure voice quality.
Gamma offer their own Assured Broadband service for use with Horizon that includes a Cisco router configured to prioritise voice traffic to guarantee call quality if that's really important.
If you don't want to spend a lot of time investigating different solutions just find a Gamma Horizon reseller you're happy with and buy the most basic licence. You can always upgrade to add additional features later on.
Avoid any supplier who tells you you can't or shouldn't run voice and data on the same broadband connection. They are either too lazy to do a proper analysis of the customers requirements and their environment and make an informed decision, or too dumb to configure a solution that would allow voice and data to work reliably together. 4 users at a site does not justify paying for an additional connection - unless that connection can only deliver very low bandwidth due to the line length for example. A decent router or firewall with QoS or traffic management will ensure voice quality.
Gamma offer their own Assured Broadband service for use with Horizon that includes a Cisco router configured to prioritise voice traffic to guarantee call quality if that's really important.
Thanks for all the responses - much appreciated!
We had signed up to a 5 year contract with Daisy. I don't know what I was thinking. I seem to recall it was it was good saving over our old PBX, and the VOIP system seemed very shiny. Anyway - they are a nightmare. All sorts of issues over the years - mostly system quality and customer service related.
We have 350Mb Virgin fibre at each location so assuming that will be more than enough for our basic requirements.
Still doing my research, but Daisy are being arsey about us cancelling (surprise, surprise). Seem to think we need to give 90 days notice although I can't find that in the contract. The main issue for us is to get the phone numbers ported across to a new supplier.
We had signed up to a 5 year contract with Daisy. I don't know what I was thinking. I seem to recall it was it was good saving over our old PBX, and the VOIP system seemed very shiny. Anyway - they are a nightmare. All sorts of issues over the years - mostly system quality and customer service related.
We have 350Mb Virgin fibre at each location so assuming that will be more than enough for our basic requirements.
Still doing my research, but Daisy are being arsey about us cancelling (surprise, surprise). Seem to think we need to give 90 days notice although I can't find that in the contract. The main issue for us is to get the phone numbers ported across to a new supplier.
Junior Bianno said:
Thanks for all the responses - much appreciated!
We had signed up to a 5 year contract with Daisy. I don't know what I was thinking. I seem to recall it was it was good saving over our old PBX, and the VOIP system seemed very shiny. Anyway - they are a nightmare. All sorts of issues over the years - mostly system quality and customer service related.
We have 350Mb Virgin fibre at each location so assuming that will be more than enough for our basic requirements.
Still doing my research, but Daisy are being arsey about us cancelling (surprise, surprise). Seem to think we need to give 90 days notice although I can't find that in the contract. The main issue for us is to get the phone numbers ported across to a new supplier.
The way to manage a port is to initially set up a geographical number for where your sites are on a new SIP trunk for inbound and outbound, with your new system running, then have the original numbers diverted to the new numbers. Then initiate the port request. Your customers will see a different inbound number to them from you until the port is complete, and you will have a small amount of call charges between the divert, but that is the least disruptive way to do it.We had signed up to a 5 year contract with Daisy. I don't know what I was thinking. I seem to recall it was it was good saving over our old PBX, and the VOIP system seemed very shiny. Anyway - they are a nightmare. All sorts of issues over the years - mostly system quality and customer service related.
We have 350Mb Virgin fibre at each location so assuming that will be more than enough for our basic requirements.
Still doing my research, but Daisy are being arsey about us cancelling (surprise, surprise). Seem to think we need to give 90 days notice although I can't find that in the contract. The main issue for us is to get the phone numbers ported across to a new supplier.
We use Xinix, hosted PBX service, consultants in 4 countries working from home. Plenty of minutes (international and domestic) pay around £70 a month. Had a few issues but their tech support is excellent.
Avoid any VoIP provider with the words Audit, Telecoms and Bureau in their name. (Dreadful company to deal with and laughably unfair terms)
Avoid any VoIP provider with the words Audit, Telecoms and Bureau in their name. (Dreadful company to deal with and laughably unfair terms)
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