Avoid the most common mistakes when buying telephony to the company

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new,” said Albert Einstein.

Wise words from the famed theoretical physicist—but when it comes to your company’s telephony, mistakes are best avoided. This time, Albert’s advice falls on deaf ears.

Are you about to review your telephony and PBX services? You’re in the right place. Below are the most common pitfalls to dodge. Read to the end so you don’t have to hear me say “I told you so” when things go sideways.

Common mistakes to avoid

1) An inadequate requirements spec

Your project is doomed without a solid, detailed requirements specification. One thing’s certain: your new provider can’t read minds. So, for goodness’ sake, write down the features you need. Put it in black and white and ask each vendor to explain exactly how those features work in their world.

2) Involving the wrong—or too few—people

No matter your company’s size, you need user buy-in. IT or a steering group can “accidentally” view everything through their own lens and forget the end users. Involve people from multiple departments from day one. Share the requirements spec—maybe you’ve missed something (even the best of us do).

3) Not thinking long-term

I’m guessing “procure telephony/PBX” isn’t your hobby. So choose with the future in mind and avoid doing this again any time soon (you can thank me later). Ensure your provider offers a scalable service you can grow with. Verify they have the competence to integrate a CRM later, for example. A classic question: “Do you have open APIs?” You want a service that keeps evolving. Pro tip: ask for release notes to see the pace of development.

4) Assuming support is a given

Free support should be written in the stars—but double-check anyway. Beyond that, make sure you and your colleagues can handle simple changes yourselves. Wouldn’t it be nice to rename users, add new ones, or remove old ones without contacting support? I’m waving the flag for self-administration—you should too.

5) Fixating on price

Price matters, of course. But don’t get tunnel vision—look at the whole picture. Your PBX might cost more than you think. If your new service bundles telephony, video, and chat in one app, you won’t need that old video-conferencing tool, etc. And don’t forget the time you’ll save handling tasks yourselves instead of sitting on hold forever.

Final words

I hope this made you a little wiser—that was the point. If not, feel free to email me your feedback here.

And guess what? We’ve put together an even more thorough buying guide with more questions and features we think are worth considering. You can find it here!

‍