Changing Systems? Some Initial Considerations

Although Teleconvergence was founded in 1986, the founder has been advising businesses regarding telecommunications and other systems since he started his first consulting firm (at a very young age, he says) in the 1970's in New York City.

One of the many things we've seen over the years is that it's very easy to get impressed or even intimidated by modern telecom technology, such as IP-PBXs. To us, it's just another generation. They come and they go. A few things change, most don't. Which makes sense when you realize that most changes are vendor and technology-driven rather than being a result of user demand.

Here are three things to remember that will help keep you grounded as you go about evaluating your telecommunications system (or software or Software As A Service) alternatives:

Every telephone system has only three main functions: handling incoming calls, outgoing calls, and internal calls. Person A calling person B. That's it.
All the fancy features you've every heard of: call forwards, call holds, callbacks, call pickups, call returns, voice mail, and so on, exist for only one reason. When party A calls party B and party B is either on the phone, away from the phone, or just doesn't want to talk to party A, the only thing all these features accomplish is empowering telephone tag, nothing more. Doesn't sound quite as impressive that way, does it?
The rotary phone your grandmother or great-grandmother used to use still works today on the telephone network. Perhaps it can't perform fancy functions, but it can make a call and it can receive a call, and remember rule number 1: that's all a phone system really does, anyway. It's like a car. While you can always buy all sorts of fancy accessories, you're aware they're not necessary to get you from one place to another.

Some of the basic questions and issues you, as a businessperson considering changing or modifying your telecommunications or other business systems or software, should be thinking about are:

I know I've outgrown my system and I'm being told I have to change it completely Do I really have to ? Why? What are all my actual choices?
Even it my system is technologically obsolete by today's standards, do all of my employees absolutely need the latest technology? Can all of them even handle the latest technology?
If I want to continue using my existing system, at least in part (and I'm not saying I do), aren't there ways to accomplish it?
Can't I just add capacity and technology where it's appropriate without sacrificing anything in terms of the features I already know how to use?
Lots of companies outgrow systems and these days many of them go out of business before they do. Why can't I buy a used system? Why can't I keep part of my legacy system and add some used legacy parts, and upgrade only my really sophisticated users to IP-PBX features?
Why don't vendors willingly offer these mixed legacy options? And will my IT staff consider them, if they do? (Answer: Only if they're as comfortable with traditional telephony as they are with network-based IP telecommunications. And these days, most IT departments aren't.)

Teleconvergence, as you've doubtless read many times by now, doesn't favor any particular technology, vendor, or solution. But we don't automatically preclude or exclude them, either.

We understand traditional and IP-PBXs and hosted services. We also have a very, very specific way of looking at our clients' needs and their options. If you've not already read the article Selecting a System Backward please read it soon, followed by the remining content in the section The Teleconvergence Process.

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