So, you want to know why you need to know this information?

Well, we have consulted with hundreds of businesses to understand their main criteria when comparing Telephone Systems. We’ve tried our best to describe why we believe each point is valid.

• Provider – Some customers prefer brands with higher brand equity, market share or placement in industry reports such as Gartner. Why it matters? Well, maybe you trust bigger brands more than you do smaller ones.
• Packages and Call Rates – When it comes to the costs for a a Hosted PBX service there are typically two elements – fixed and variable. The fixed costs relate to any subscription fees which would be payable irrespective of whether a call is made. This could be for Extensions, as well as add-on functionality such as Call Recording, Call Centre, etc and may be charged per user or in budles.  On the variable side, namely the call usage and associated rates, you should consider the cost you will be liable to pay to call another party. 
• Setup Fee – It is important to ask your provider what it is going to cost to subscribe to their service. That may be fees relating to service activation, installation, training, hardware required, and more.
• Keep your number – If you intend on moving your Telephone service over to another provider, the last thing you may want to do is change all your Telephone numbers. You need to monitor the regulation as some numbers cannot be ported between providers. At the time of writing this content, you are only allowed to port geographic numbers, such as 011-012, etc. Numbers you cannot port include non-geographic numbers such as 087, 0800, 086, etc. If your provider says that they can port these numbers, be sure to ask and get in writing that you will not incur any additional costs in running that service, for example, additional call forwarding fees.
• Supported Handsets – Most Hosted PBX providers offer solutions which support VoIP phones from a range of different manufacturers. In fact, this can be a very good thing for customers, as it allows them to retain their handsets and use them with different providers. While it may theoretically be possible to integrate any “SIP” VoIP phone onto a “SIP” platform, the key is that the integration is tested and verified, which means that both your handset manufacturer and the Hosted PBX provider have an agreement to support and troubleshoot any issues. Engage with your Provider and make sure that you’re choosing the best handset for your requirement.
• Applications – Basic telephony functionality is still commonly found in the market. However, if you’re business wants a bit more from the system to support a customer service desk or remote workforce, it would be good to understand what Applications the Provider supports and can offer to support your business requirement.
• Contract Term – Get to know how long you are committed for, and what your notice period would be – check your contract terms and conditions and be 100% sure of the automatic contract renewal terms of cancellation fees. Is the service linked to the devices, do they have different cancellation terms, etc.
• Use your own Internet? – Sure, VoIP requires Internet, but if the Provider for your VoIP is not the same as your Internet, you may sit with a fair bit of risk when there are issues. Resolving issues will require both parties to work together to iron out where the issues are. We’re sure you can imagine how this process typically goes… If you have one provider, the benefit is that the provider can monitor and manage the full connection from end-to-end, and also to a large degree guarantee the call quality, which is very important to any business.
• SLA and Support – You need to have this discussion with your chosen Hosted PBX provider. Is there an SLA? Will that give you a guaranteed support response? Does it include all the fees, including callouts? Will they carry spare stock and what will you be expected to pay? Is this only a break-fix agreement, or does the SLA also include general system administration and service changes, too? All of these are valuable questions you need to ask and keep record of.