Phone Systems Recommendations for Small Business

I’ve been researching on a customer’s phone system so we could add another line to ring certain extensions. After spending countless hours and the customer getting the number ported in, I have discovered that they no longer have an active/valid license for their phone system (Avaya) and licensing for this phone system is super expensive.

All their current phone lines are analog trunks and can be configured through a program on their server or through the web GUI.

This phone system is complicated to use, so I’m trying to find an alternative solution to get them to switch to make managing their phone system easier in the future.

What would you all recommend? I know Tom uses FreePBX, but I know they probably need unlimited calling per user/extension and call forwarding to cell phones for the police department and utilities department.

Take a look see at Grandstream Wille Howe’s systems of choice. Also if you are considering FreePBX contact Chris at http://crosstalksolutions.com both systems can work with analog lines.

We still really like FreePBX but it can be a bit complicated to initially configure but once set up is easy to maintain.

Our current phone system is a Toshiba CIX-100 that is no longer supported.

They recommended looking at Zullys https://www.zultys.com/ I have no experience with them or seen the product as of yet. The dealer wants me to stop by there office for a demo.

Analog systems are going away in favor of IP

Jerry

Agree, FreePBX is awesome.
Contact Chris from Crosstalk Solutions. Search for him on Google or check out his excellent YouTube Channel.

Being in the telecom space, the company I work for supplies voice over services for IVR and Message on Hold. I would highly recommend making the switch to VoIP. We dumped legacy copper 5 years ago and never looked back. Depending on the number of users, some require a minimum of 5 other do not. Companies that I would recommend Jive Communications and Zulty’s Communications. Both offer smart phone apps for find me follow me functionality, fax service, music/message on hold that requires no special hardware. Zulty’s offers integration with outlook so that when you schedule a conference call it places the appointment in the calendar. Jive in my opinion offers better call logs. You can right click a number in the call logs under the admin portal and BAN the number from calling you again. Jive allows access to the configurations for you to manipulate were Zultys does not. Zultys does all the configuration for you. Zultys has an American based support crew where Jive’s support is out of Central America. Call quality on both is crystal clear and each call only uses 96kb of data stream. You’ll get unlimited local and long distance and cheaper international rates than ATT or Sprint.