Business Phone & Comms Articles
Phone systems that live in software, and what changes when yours does.
Incoming calls still have to reach the right person. You have a published number, staff answering from the office and from home, and a reception path that currently sits on a box in a cupboard or a handful of mobiles. Analogue and ISDN lines carrying that traffic are being taken out of service. The company number has to move onto the internet, and the people answering it need that number when they are not at a desk.
Call quality then becomes a network question. Voice shares the same circuit as everything else, so congestion shows up on the call if the line is not set up for it. A contact centre platform is a different purchase from ordinary business calling. One is for a team that works from queues and recordings. The other is for everyone else taking a call from a supplier or a client.
3 articles in Unified Comms
Unified Comms: common questions
What is unified communications for a business?
Unified communications is the practice of running business calling from software rather than from a telephone exchange in the building. Messaging and meetings often already sit in Microsoft Teams. It's the company number that matters for most UK firms this size: it has to ring whoever is meant to answer, including people who are not at a desk. The live decision is whether those external telephone calls should sit in the same application as chat and video.
Does the PSTN switch-off mean I have to replace my phone system?
If inbound calls still arrive over analogue or ISDN lines, those circuits are being withdrawn. That doesn't force you to replace every handset on day one. You can change the lines underneath a system you already run, or move calling into hosted software in the same project. Leaving the copper in place and expecting the service to continue is not a plan. The work is a cutover that keeps the main number answering while the path underneath changes.
Can we keep our existing company numbers?
The published number and any direct-dial numbers can move if the current carrier releases them. The new provider requests the transfer, and the old service has to stay live until the number answers on the new path. Direct-dial extensions need to be listed on the order, or they stay with the old system.
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