Finally upgraded the phone system in the office.?ÿ We had been using an Ooma Telo device that essentially takes a LAN internet connection and converts it to an analog phone line.?ÿ Then we had a 5 phone wireless home phone system from Costco behind that.?ÿ We sprinkled the 5 phones out as evenly as we could throughout the office and whoever was closest to a phone and available to answer would when calls came in then they would just yell at whoever the call was for and they would pick up whatever phone was closest to them.?ÿ It worked but wasn't great especially as our staff grew.?ÿ Then with COVID it sucked not only because sharing phones isn't cool anymore but there was only just the one voicemail which rarely got checked.?ÿ?ÿ
So, I installed a Grandstream IPPBX system.?ÿ I ported my business number out from Ooma to a SIP trunk provider and now we have a fully functional office phone system with an auto attendant and a phone and extension for every desk with individual voicemail boxes and voicemail to email and a whole host of other functions.?ÿ The PBX server was very reasonably priced at $270 and the basic phones were $40 per.?ÿ After running some conservative estimates I'll save about $220 per year with the new system over the old which will pay off the new system in a little under 4 years and that's including having bought 6 extra phones anticipating continued growth.?ÿ The system and phones can run OpenVPN so even if we go into another quarantine?ÿ situation everyone can grab their laptop and phone and plug them in at home and not really skip a beat.?ÿ We have several out of state employees that worked remote even before the pandemic so now they can have an office line if they want and for our field people there is a soft phone app they can use on their cell if they prefer not to give out their personal number.?ÿ I'm pretty happy with the decision and the system.?ÿ It did suck a couple days of my life getting it all configured and setup but I think it will be worth it in the end.?ÿ Call cost for the first 2 weeks has been a whopping $0.83 including taxes. ??¯ ?ÿ
